Me, Myself, and Irene (and Sophie)

Sophie's Choice is going to give me an aneurism (which is a difficult word to spell, so thank you, Spell-Check).  I am STILL reading that book, and it's continued to be a difficult read.  It's frustrating because I'm normally a fast reader -- I was blessed with the ability to read a book quickly and retain pretty much everything I've needed for classes, essays, or simple memory.  That's right, Harry Potter 7 in 3.5 hours.

Sophie's Choice, however, has taken me quite some time, and it isn't that I'm lacking in effort.  I've been logging hours and pages into it, but for some reason, it's just not happening.  It's an interesting book, albeit a depressing one, but it's KILLING me.  And it's really bumming me out, so to alleviate my pain, I decided to break for a bit and read another book.  This isn't something that is annoying or difficult for me; being an English major teaches you to multitask novels.  One semester could carry multiple literature courses, so you get pretty good at balancing it out.  I decided to read Uglies as my self-esteem booster because it was a YA book (that's young adult, for those of you not in the know).

YA books are solid choices for a situation like this; if it's award winning or on several book lists -- Uglies is a summer reading for some school district around here, and it's on several ALA and YALSA lists -- it's generally going to be a good read, both topic and style wise.  Uglies was no different. Obviously, there's a message in the plot -- Uglies is about a future 'utopian' society that turns people 'pretty' at 16 with cosmetic surgery so no one can be judged on looks, but some people disagree with this and run away to another society.  Blah blah blah, moral is that you can be beautiful and awesome without looking 'pretty' but it was actually a really engaging book.  The best part? I read the entire thing in one day; part of it sitting on the couch at home, and the other part at work on a boring, rainy night with no real traffic in town.

Then it was back to Sophie's Choice.  The past few days have been hurricane central.  The storm hit Saturday and knocked out the power until this afternoon.  I planned on reading, because there wasn't much else to do, but honestly, reading by flashlight isn't fun after the age of 8 when you were supposed to be sleeping but you were reading under your covers instead.  Unless that was just weird, nerdy, 8 year old Leah... it hurts my eyes, and reading by candle light is even worse.  I thought I'd make good headway into the second half of the book, but instead I played cards and took walks.  I read about half a chapter yesterday, and I'm still not sure what Sophie has to choose.  You'd think by now I'd have an idea, but I'm still stuck.

I refuse to give up, though.  I WILL finish the book if it kills me... and it'll be done before it has to be back at the library by the 7th of September.  I've already renewed it once, and I do not want to be the person renewing books for a third time.  I'm sure there's a big wait for Sophie's Choice, and I don't want to ruin anyone else's good time.  I also have Bastard out of Carolina out right now, so if I need another break from Lady Sophie, I may pick that up.

Bathtub Reading > Bathtub Gin

Honestly, have you ever had bathtub gin? I haven't, but I imagine it's not so great.  The idea of it actually makes me quite uncomfortable.  Bathtub reading, on the other hand, is one of my favorite ways to relax.  How many of us take a bath to actually get clean after the age of 6?  A shower is much easier.  After a bath, I generally turn the shower on to wash my hair and my body; at most, I'll use a bath to shave my legs, but to actually clean myself? No, thank you, but I think I'm good.

I like to use time in the bathtub to relax; some bubble bath, hot water, maybe a face mask to help with the insane break-outs I've been experiencing (adult acne is no myth -- and my stress levels over trying to find a job and pay for school and look for a place to live aren't helping, I'm sure), but my favorite bath-time activity has always been reading a book.  Sure, it's dangerous, but when I'm in the tub, it's generally because I want to relax and reading is -- depending on how hectic my life is -- a relaxing activity.  Reading in water is a relaxing activity, and I really wish they made (you heard it here first) waterproof e-reader covers, so I could lay on a raft in the ocean or pool and read a book.  The tub is nice, but being outside in the sun would make it so much better.

Side-note: I googled 'waterproof kindle covers' and found many.  

I guess I'm not all that original... and if you're looking for a gift to give me

(ANTHONY) that's something to look into.  I'm just saying...

This is the bathtub where I do my reading... the yellow color is not at ALL relaxing!

I find that the places I enjoy reading most are pretty standard; laying in bed before going to sleep, in a comfortable chair, on the beach, in the tub, really anywhere I can get comfortable for a lengthy period of time.  I also like to read during certain activities; traveling, especially in a car (I'm lucky I can read for a while without feeling car-sick), eating.  I also admit -- sorry, any family member reading... and sorry, boyfriend... and sorry, Fernando, who thinks girls don't poop or sweat -- that I'm guilty of reading in the bathroom.

Now before anyone gets grossed out or upset that they just read the above statement, let's think this through; how many people keep magazines/books/newspapers in the bathroom right next to the toilet?  Isn't that encouragement?  How many jokes do people make about doing 'quality reading' time in the bathroom?  As a society, it's almost a joke, but it's turning into something different.  Sure, bathroom reading is still acceptable, but now it's more about cell phones.  Honestly.  People bring a cell phone in the bathroom; just a few weeks ago I went to dinner with a friend (hi, Colleen) and inside the bathroom stall was an ad with a website link and a scan-box.  I honestly don't know what those things are called -- I'm obviously not up on my tech terms -- but it was clearly expecting people to be sitting on the toilet with phone in hand. What an interesting shift!

I'm still reading Sophie's Choice.  It's been slow so far, and it's not because I'm uninterested in the book.  The plot is interesting, but the style is just not for me.  I barely got through one chapter in the tub the other day, and last night only read about 25 pages.  I find it difficult to become engrossed in the story.  I'm not sure what it is about his style that makes it tricky, but it's not a book I can sit and read for hours and hours.  It's due back to the library on Wednesday, and I haven't even touched the other 3 books I checked out, so renewal is on my horizon.  I'm almost ashamed at how slow the process is going.

Once Sophie's Choice is finished, I'm going to watch the movie (my mother loves it) and then move on to Uglies, which is a Young Adult novel.  That should move quickly, and I'll feel a little better about my life.