What I Read: The Opposite of Loneliness

3/5 pineapples

Marina Keegan intrigued me.

From the start, I noticed her in a bright yellow coat looking at me every time my friends and I found ourselves in Barnes & Noble (which is often). Finally, I opened the cover. When I found out she died just after her college graduation, I set the book back on the shelf and walked away.

At some point, Marina ended up on my Goodreads “to-read” list but I didn’t think much of it until this semester. The semester of three classes, free time, and low motivation meant reading more. I gravitated towards nonfiction and short essays, easy to pick up after longer periods of time. Marina caught my eye once again. This time I obliged.

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On Location | Indiana State Library

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been researching and editing a history paper about Indiana Quakers and slavery I wrote last semester for an upcoming competition. My research led me to the Indiana State Library last Thursday, where I sat down with a letter from Levi Coffin and every Indiana Yearly Meeting Minutes record I could ever want. For three and a half hours I sat in a hard-backed wooden chair and poured over those minutes, thinking about the people who created them 180 years ago. A man across the aisle from me looked at several large maps intently, and stacks of other documents waited in the wings inside climate controlled rooms and drawers.

It’s a beautiful thing, hundreds of documents waiting to be read by some twenty-first century person who prefers paper to pixels.

The Bookish Side of Valentine’s

Full disclaimer: I don’t get Valentine’s Day. I don’t see the reason for a day devoted to expressing your love for someone/some people, when you should be doing that every day.

Yet I have a tradition with my family where we have a Valentine’s dinner every year, and even when I’m at college we find a way to make it work. I love sitting down at a fancy meal with my parents and sister, with candles and candy as our centerpiece, and switching up our daily dinners. Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be about romantic love; it can by family and friend love too.

To support expressing that kind of love, I’ve complied a list of books I feel do a good job of celebrating family and friend bonds. Good Valentine’s reads that explore friendship and family, and leave you feeling good!

What I’m Reading Spring Semester 2015

Welcome to the semi-annual school book list extravaganza!

Okay, so it’s not that exciting. But I’m proud to say that this semester I have the extremely reasonable number of 11 books for the next three and a half months. MUCH better than 31. It helps that I only have three courses this semester (I’m trying to make my blog like a fourth class, but so far I’m rather failing at that…) and that only one is an English class.

Liberal arts for the win my friend.

What I Read: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore

4/5 pineapples

Oh, blogger’s block.

I was pumped at the beginning of this year about my blogging. I would do it more and consistently. I would have exciting new posts that would attract the attention of all my readers. I would find a style that worked for me. I would create a space that was a hobby, not a chore.

But the best laid plans…

I tried to post, I really did. But every time I started something, I didn’t like it. It never had the tone or content I wanted or that I felt was worth publishing. So I was silent.

Until now.

Last Books of 2014 | The NINTH Day of Blogmas!

On the ninth day of Blogmas, Leeann’s blog gave to me…six final to-reads

My Goodreads goal is 45 books and I’m still six short, meaning Christmas is going to involve lots of reading. So I thought I would share with you those six books I must read in an incredibly short amount of time.

(Or I will have to accept failure, something I am not apt to do).

So here it is, the six books I will (attempt) to read in the remaining days of 2014: