Bring back Books: Good Books are Like Good Tea, Let Them Steep

Dearest Readers,

A good book is like good tea, it needs to steep. A novel that makes you think and reanalyze your take on life can’t be put down and forgotten at the drop of a hat. It sticks with you. For me, I go into what I call a ‘post-reading induced coma.’Note: This blog post will be half philosophical half suggestions. I just wanted to say that from the outset, so you know not all of this will be super deepness. End note.

After I finish a book, all I can do is think about it for the next few hours. Forget homework, attending meetings, or any sort of general obligations (hahaa joke…I do everything I need to…except my homework that is). I have to focus on the book after I finish. I feel like it rolls around in my brain. I keep rehashing various scenes and thinking through different characters. I just finished The Help by Kathryn Stocketty (amazing and recommended to me by my mother) and I can’t stop thinking about the book’s moral implications on my life.

(I know, I know I’m a nerd, obvi). But the weirdest post-book-Adorkable-Phonomenon of all, and I don’t know if this is just me, is I start to think in the narration of the author. For example, I think in the author’s short sentences, I depict scenes around me as they would by using certain choice adjectives or an accent or a rambling manner. I think in their voice. (If you do this please comment on this post, so I know I am not the only freak out there.) All in all, readers, we should all be concerned that I am very much on the brink of losing both my identity and apparently my own speech patterns. But in all seriousness, a good book becomes a part of you in some way, shape or form. It gets under your skin and inside your brain wiring.

I love books, in case you haven’t gathered, and I think one of the greatest struggles of our fast-moving collegiate, and in general, world is our inability to sit down, read, and let the book steep. I dedicate this post to the written word. Remember when you read a book for fun? (If you were like me that is) When the smell of an old book could make you smile, the sound of the cover cracking led to a rush of excitement in your stomach, and you could sit down and read for hours with your mind lost in a fantastical world so much greater than yourself. Read for pleasure again. Make time. We learn so much from books.

In order to stick with this theme of book appreciation, I decided to present 5 of my all time favorite books that I would suggest to the universe and I don’t think are always at the top of everyone’s list. (I didn’t include Harry Potter or the obvious choices like 1984 or The Great Gatsby, but we all know they are up there.) The ironic part about me including my book recommendations is two fold: I am down right awful at taking other people’s book suggestions, so if you don’t ever look at these books again except on this screen, I won’t be offended. Second, most of these books I had to read for school, which goes against my whole premise that we should read for fun…sigh…aw well. (As a note: if you love any of these books please comment on the end of this post, and if you have any book suggestions for my summer reading list please leave a comment…I can’t say I’ll read it, but I will give it a valiant effort!)

Books I love, for your reading pleasure:

In Cold Blood By Truman Capote. This might be the best book I’ve ever read. It’s kind of journalistic non-fiction work (I know that right there sounds thrilling), about two men who killed an entire family for, essentially, $50. The book comes directly from Capote’s interviews with the two men, and he makes them into surprisingly sympathetic characters by combining their backgrounds and personal history with the crime. Capote is the author of Breakfast at Tiffanys…in case you were wondering.East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Yes he wrote Grapes of Wrath, no this book is not that painfully long (though I myself was a grapes fan). The book is expertly crafted as the story of essentially two twin brothers trying to break free of the Cain Able trap. Hard to explain. Just read it.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. This book depicts an old man recalling his time in the circus, but it’s actually realistic and kind of a disturbing yet enjoyable plot line. I think Oprah loved it at some point….I can’t decide if that makes me like the book more or less. Watership Down by Richard Adams. Let me start out with this: I hate animal books. But this animal book, about a colony of rabbits of all things, creates such a realistic sub world, it bridges on science fiction.

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. This is the social activist choice. It’s the biography of Paul Farmer who started Partner’s in Health in Haiti to provide free health care to those who need it. It’s the true story of one man saving the world one person at a time.

I hope you find at least one of these suggestions moderately enjoyable. (I thought about adding my favorite childhood books: 21 Balloons and the Westing Game, but decided against it, so I put them in these parenthesis in case you want a blast from an adorkable past.)

Lesson to be Learned: Reading is good. You relax, you learn, and you escape for a few minutes. Read what you want, and don’t feel guilty about pleasure reads too (I went through my romantic chick lit stage…who am I kidding? I still am). All reading is good reading, and it just seems so much more constructive then television.

So crack open a book, smell the delicious pages of text and lap it up.

Bookwormily Yours,

Adorkable

ps. for the first time in a while these pictures aren't mine :(, but it's because they are books I don't have with me so all the pictures should be credited to other bloggers. and my title isn't a song...don't be too sad some rules are made to be broken.

The Energy Never Dies (Does your life energize you?)

Dearest Readers,
“Would this be something, that would energize you?” This week, the leader of the community service group I am a part of sent me an email asking me to work on a project this quarter with that question attached. What a cool concept, I thought to myself. Does the thought of this project actually energize me? Now maybe the energize stood out because I have been running on low levels of sleep and high levels of coffee this week and being energized sounds just yummy, but what an interesting way to pinpoint a common problem we all face.
For those of us who take on way too much than we can realistically handle (I know nothing about this *sarcastic wink*), this is a great question to help us prioritize. I, like many others here at OU, want to join just about everything, but what is it that actually energizes me. If it came down to me having a spare hour, would I want to spend it doing [insert task here]? Maybe so, but it is at least important to consider.
This question can also be expanded to our future careers. We are all trying to make money in this freakishly sad economic climate, but does the thought of our future career energize us? Our future lives should not be something we are resigned to, they should be something we are passionate about living! (I know gaggable, but I thought that sentence was cute even if it was a hallmark moment.) For someone who wants to be a journalist, the professionals tell me I won’t sleep at night, I’ll make no money, and I will work crazy hours, but if I love it, I should do it. To be frank (but my name’s not frank … oh lame sleep deprived jokes … bear with me people), not very reassuring. But the thought of staying up perfecting an article or calling obscure source #5, in a twisted way, excites me. Every time I leave an interview or see my byline in the paper, I get that ridiculous warm happy feeling in the pit of my stomach (you know the one, silly readers…the one that makes you feel satisfied with life for that little moment), and that to me is an impetus for my career decision. The thought of being a journalist energizes me.
Lesson to be Learned: We do so much for our resumes, for our parents, for our schools, for our future employers, that we have be reminded that what it really comes down to is our passions. Does what you do energize you? If it doesn’t, can you live with that?
Passionately yours,
Adorkable

ps. the picture is another adorkable original :)

Do What You Want! (Take Classes for Pleasure )

Dearest Readers,
Next year, I am actually going to try to study what I want to study. I’m not advocating abandoning all required classes, but seriously, why not take the classes I actually want to take?? Crazy concept I know. As the father of one of my close friends from home (who I will call Broadway Bound Bombshell…the friend not her dad, that would be weird) always says “college is the one time you have to be selfish.”
How did I come to this conclusion you might ask ... oh clever reader … well last weekend I attended the Society of Professional Journalist’s Conference (SPJ) in Cleveland, where we were able to chat with everyone from Social Media Experts to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette Editor, and the editor (who will in fact be doing the hiring...just in case you were unaware) continually stressed the need for students to have a solid base education. The editor of the Post Gazette coined the phrase “I want my journalists educated not trained.” I had never thought this way before. Now, I am not sure I whole-heartedly agree with his perspective here, because I am currently taking Online Journalism … which is apparently a no no … but I do think his point has validation. You can’t write about what you don’t know, and those hiring journalists, as well as those hiring in all other professions, are looking for people with specialties. And let’s be real, in this economy the more obscure your specialty, the better. Not to mention, if the editor is telling me to take econ classes not journalism classes, but I got my internship based on my journalism classes … no one employer is looking for the same thing, so you have to be yourself and take who wants you. Besides, do you really want to get hired at a place that likes that you took all the classes you hated? I bet you’ll love working there (insert sarcastic tone here).
I was further influenced by the visit of Ana Marie Cox who was the keynote speaker of a symposium at OU, who literally emphasized that you should keep wasting your time doing what you do, because that is what you love and that is what will really get you hired. She messed around on the Internet back in its beginning stages, which landed her a job at an online blog and now she is an editor at GQ, by making witty sex jokes and political criticisms. (two things that she ‘wasted’ her time doing … sounds like we could be friends.)
I think I have been too caught up in ‘what does my employer want me to have learned’ mentality. (because if I don’t get a job I’ll die poor and alone in a dark alley!!) Instead I should be thinking, what do I want to actually study. Do I have to take a language if I don’t like it at all (I know…so sue me)? No! Can I take a minor in maybe Psychology or English, because I actually think these topics sound interesting? Yes … mayhaps so! Can I take random classes like classical mythology or non-european history for nothing besides my personal enjoyment? Okay I concede. Ideally, yes, but realistically, at least I will try.
Lesson to be learned: College is about you. We get caught up in the bad economy and the horror of unemployment, and we forget that this is our ONE chance at college. (well unless you flunk out, so you could always go that route!) If we don’t enjoy at least some of our classes, what is the point? We went through the SATs and all the high school classes where we had limited options to get to this opportunity. Take the darn class!
Encouragingly yours,
Adorkable

ps. i took the picture again which is why this post is delayed...it's hard to find time to take the picture i want to these days!
pps. new things! first off i'm adding what the post is about in the title because I'm forgetting everything I've already written about (I know so many posts like almost 20 haha) and please add comments about education for you. Disagree if you wish, I'm just trying to add this new thing called 'interactivity' (kind of a social media buzz word) so please comment away!

You Can Always Look at the Negative, But You Should Always Live in the Positive

Dearest Readers,
Live in the mundane.
I know, so original isn’t it?! But seriously, consider it. Imagine if we all actually learned to appreciate the mundane. To embrace it.
For those of you who have spoken to me lately, you may have noticed that I have been in a bit of a funk. Readjusting to the new quarter, I have had trouble. I am a girl who likes to stay busy, and before classes start up I hate to feel I am just twiddling my thumbs. I have to be productive or I label it as ‘wasting my time.’ Maybe this is just my freaky nature or maybe it stems from the hyperactive culture of the high school I attended (see old blog post about not being able to take breaks…it kind of relates). The moral of the story is, I keep thinking that I am supposed to be embarking on the best four years of my life, and I am not taking advantage of everything. If I miss one opportunity, I’m out for the count!!! I don’t allow myself the chance to appreciate just being here.
Now consider this: most of you who read this are in college (I think). How many people actually get to go to college in their lifetime? What a privilege! The weather in Athens is gorgeous, the trees are blooming, people are coming out of hibernation to frolick amongst the greens. How lucky are we to live in a time where we can enjoy that? (Our country is not war torn internally, no one is forcing us to become cannibals, etc.) We are so incredibly lucky to just be where we are. To live. It’s that simple.
Now this post is not to say don’t take chances or ever live on the edge. One blog I read today really exemplified the importance of the taking risk mentality and how exiting it can be. But that doesn’t mean that every minute of your life has to be spent taking chances, doing everything that is great a wonderful. Because let’s be real, most of life is made up of how to kill the hour between classes, what to do this Friday, and what television series we will follow this season.
Lesson to be learned: We shouldn’t guilt-trip ourselves into always being productive. Don’t lose ambition, but take time to appreciate all that is gorgeous about the mundane: laughing with friends, walking to class in the sun, reading for pleasure. I know this sounds very kumbaya lets hold hands around the campfire, but hey, I’d rather be the one holding hands and singing than sitting sullenly on the log. (I feel this is a poor analogy….eh…you get the picture, you’re smart people.)
Life is what it is. So you can like it or you can hate it. It’s not really what you do, it’s your attitude. Live passionately.
Deep Thinkingly Yours,
Adorkable

ps. i actually took the picture for this blog post ... i am trying to learn how to use a camera ... like a real one. all the others come from websites that use the creative commons license.

Information Overload, Situation Lost Control

Dearest Readers,
My name is adorkable, and I am a news junkie. But even I, an admitted addict, can’t keep up with the constant stream of news that’s thrown at me from all directions. Follow us on twitter, find us on facebook, get our text updates, let us stalk you while you’re sleeping and infiltrate your dreams. Woooooah. Here’s the problem in the age of more more more … we have too many choices and no one distilling it for us. We have too little time to filter and too much information.
The strange thing is, I am a journalist, you would think that I of all people would want the news to flourish with all its beautiful powers. However, I too, wish I could find someone to say here are the top 5 news stories of the day from a myriad of news sources, covering a litany of topics. (please take a moment to be impressed by my vocabulary…moving on) Even I feel overwhelmed by journalism, and I’m a journalist! The real issue is we’re getting an information overload from the information super highway.
As you’re handy dandy helper, I can tell you what I have found that helps out at least moderately:
• Watch the BBC’s one minute world news report – (If you click the link it is right at the top of the news page on sort of the rightish side) The top stories of the day literally in a minute. For those of you who are unfamiliar, BBC, a UK based journalistic source, it is hailed for its international coverage. Rating: 9 out of 10.
• Create a Google Reader - For the best explanation of a google reader click here. My explanation would be, all you do is use your e-mail to set up your own aggregator...it doesn't even have to be a gmail account. An aggregator collects news from all over the web and delivers it to you (How kind of it)…so basically you pick your top news sites (for me BBC, New York Times, and the Christian Science Monitor) and every day it gives me the headlines and a one sentence description of each story. Problem: It doesn’t prioritize the stories, so basically you scroll through a gajillion headlines and don’t know which is most important. Tip: look at the stories “liked” by other people. Rating: 7 out of 10.
• Sign up for text updates from one news source – Text updates allow you to get only the big stories. The problem is that the news source decides the stories. Mine come from the NYTimes, which is great except that I don’t really want to hear about the DOW or all that business mumbo-jumbo, but the texts do help when there is a huge event or natural disaster. Rating: 8 out of 10.
The problem with even my above helpful hints, is that all of them are what the news source thinks we want to hear. What I think news sources need to do is allow the readers to check boxes of what they want updates on: politics, economics, sports, etc, and deliver these to you the reader. News sources need to learn to filter.
Lesson to be learned: It is possible to find the top news stories of the day, but sometimes it’s as simple as picking up a newspaper. Because sometimes the internet is just too much … and my brain starts to hurt.
Overloadly yours,
Adorkable

Relax, Take it Easy

Dearest Readers,
In the midst of this end of the quarter palooza, the students of Ohio University are losing their minds. When any college’s semester/quarter/quadrangle’s is coming to a close, all students start to take the plunge off the deep end. The worst part is, however, you feel guilty for giving yourself a break.
When I am super stressed over [fill in the blank 250 million point project due tomorrow], everyone recommends I take a breather. Take a breather?! If I take a breather now I will get behind in XYZ, then I will fail all my classes, have no career, and end up living cold and alone in a dark alley. Seriously though, melodramatics aside, we don’t allow ourselves a chance to breath, because we are constantly worried about the next thing.
Growing up in the generation of immediate access to everything from news to entertainment, we think in drastically different terms then our predecessors. Everything has to be done now.
The consequence of thinking we can’t give ourselves a break is we don’t actually take productive breaks. We think okay two minute break, let’s go on facebook…and we end up trapped there like computer zombies for the next two hour….whoops….c’mon, we’ve all done it. That time you could have spent actually doing what you wanted to do: calling a friend from home, exercising, knitting, whatever suits your fancy, was instead spent stalking people you barely know. Thus, you feel guiltier for wasting even more time, so you focus harder, and the soul-crushing cycle continues.
So now that I have spent most of this post expressing the problem, you as a responsible reader are probably expecting me to offer up some semblance of a solution. Oh clever reader, you really give me too much credit. All I can say is, I am still struggling to find the solution myself.
I am visiting home this weekend, and I find myself feeling guilty for not doing homework. This is the first time I’ve seen my family in eight weeks, and I can’t stop reading court cases to spend time with them?
Lesson to be learned: College is the time to find the balance. I don’t want us to be the generation of workaholics, so we need to use our breaks wisely. Howabout instead of two hours of work then “five” minutes of facebook, we actually give ourselves an hour to exercise or call a friend. Let’s do something crazy here and actually aim for sanity!
As for me, I’m off to an evening with the family and I will (try) not let myself feel guilty for enjoying it. Tra la la!
Blissfully yours,
Adorkable

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Dearest Readers,
From my perch on the seventh floor of Alden library, Athens looks like the quintessential winter wonderland. Snow piles delicately on tree branches, which stand in stark contrast to the blue sky. Snowflakes land on eye lashes and hats and shoulders (like dandruff only cooler).
Yet the students complain of the following: ‘It’s slushy,’ ‘It’s cold,’ ‘I can’t feel my [insert limb here].’ Granted, I have had those days. I have woken up on the wrong side of the bed and the early morning walk is frigid and unpleasant, but seriously kids this is gorgeous and wintery and FABULOUS!!!
Think of it this way: When you were younger, snow was the equivalent of kraft macaroni and cheese (aka the best thing ever). You would run about, fall over, make snow angels, create forts, have snow ball fights, build snowmen, careen on your sled, and return to your home numb all over, cheeks a fabulous shade of tomato red, exhausted and utterly satisfied. Now come on college kids, we all know that we are still just as immature as our younger selves (we prove that on a daily basis), so what happened to this love for the snow?
I know we have school work and homework and blah blah blah blah blah. Part of college is learning to live better: to balance the work with the social, the homework with the fun. It’s sounds horrendously cliché, but what happened to living in and for the moment?
Lesson to be learned: Give yourself an hour to romp in the snow, because wailing someone with a huge snowball and watching it slide painfully down the inside of their jacket is just as satisfying as ever. I promise.
Blizzardly yours,
Adorkable

Waiting on the World to Change

Dearest Readers,
As you all know, unless you have been living under a rock for the past 3 weeks, a shattering earthquake hit Haiti that landed a 7.0 on the Richter Scale. The quake left thousands who were already impoverished homeless and left many more searching for family and friends in the aftermath. The travesty led to one amazing result: immediate world-wide attention. Red Cross, the Marines, and the pocketbooks of America jumped in to save the day. While this result was overwhelmingly amazing, I feel that we as Americans are overlooking one small problem: Why did it take an earthquake for us to help save Haiti?
In my Anthropology class last quarter, we read "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder (who is a man in case you wondering...it threw me off too). The book is essentially a biography of Paul Farmer a man who has been working in Haiti for over 20 years. His organization Partners In Health opened and operates a free health care clinic to prevent the spread of tuberculosis and other curable diseases in Haiti. Paul Farmer's concept boils down to this: if we have a cure, why should anyone, anywhere have to die from this disease? Everyone deserves Free Health Care in the eyes of Paul Farmer. He opened his clinic, Zanmi Lasante, in Haiti an hour north of Port-au-Prince (the main site of the recent quake), which aids everyone regardless of their monetary situation. Not to mention, Farmer is hiring Haitians and training them to work in the clinic, thus he provides both job opportunities and health care in tandem. Partners in Health has expanded to include new countries like Peru and new problems like the AIDS epidemic. But this little rant on my love for Paul Farmer and Kidder's book (which you should all go buy right now...DO IT!) is merely a digression from my overall message. It took a massive earthquake for us to give Haiti the attention that it has deserved for the past 20 years. Granted, there are a lot of problems in the world, and there is no way to solve them all. However, should it take thousands of homeless people's pictures plastered on television for us to donate money, should it take a genocide in Sudan for us to finally help?
Though the world's problems seem insurmountable, especially to an 18-year-old with a college budget, Paul Farmer's message is that all people can change the world (gaggable and cliche...I know, but isn't it precious?). Dedicate yourself to one cause and pursue it. Giving money to the red cross is great (heck I did it), but there are millions of organizations that could put our $10 college donations to better use.
Lesson to be learned: Read the news, talk to professors, and read up on the problems of the world to find the cause of your choice. Sometimes I feel like I can do so little to help the world, but if all I can right now is be aware, sometimes that is enough. Because when the Haiti quake hit, I knew exactly where my money should go.
Peace and Love,
Adorkable

How to Save a Life

Dearest Readers,
Unfortunately, it's true that you never really know how you will act in an emergency situation, until an emergency situation. I would like to believe that I would rip off my top layer of clothing to reveal my alter-ego superwoman outfit, and with one fell swoop, I would save the day. I realize this is impractical, but seriously, I'd settle for catwoman.
During my 8 am Journalism Class many students stumble in half-conscious with a cup of coffee a mile high. Most arrive 5 to 10 minutes late. Grumbling. My teacher, I won't name out of respect, is an elderly but vivacious woman. It seemed to be an ordinary day, but this is about the time when the danger music would begin to play ominously in the background.
During the middle of our lesson, my teacher began struggling to form words. She's older, however, so this isn't extremely unusual. She seemed to regain her train of thought, but as we moved on to our next assignment, she put her head down on her desk. Someone asked if she was okay, and she began trying to tell us she was going to have to excuse class due to physical ailments. Before she could finish, she closed her eyes and had to grab the chalkboard for stability. *MOMENT OF PANIC*
It was pretty amazing to watch the class jump into action. Three students near her rushed to her side, while another student and I ran into the hall. Racing down the steps, my heart was pounding and all could think was HOLY [INSERT EXPLETIVE HERE].
I could barely form words myself when I talked to the secretary who instructed another to call 9-1-1. We raced upstairs, and found my teacher trying to give us our homework assignment with a facial expression I can only describe as barely masking fear. She was determined to tell the students not to worry about her. Class was dismissed.
Don't worry, dear readers, she had what they say is a minor stroke, but she is okay and recovering. She is no longer teaching my class, and she is living with her daughter now trying to find the cause to prevent future problems.
My class had actually helped save a life and had not panicked in a moment of crisis.
Lesson to be learned here: You can't always be superwoman, but you can still help save the day.
Forever Yours,
Adorkable