Scrapbook '09 updated.

Among all the sucky books I've read this year, this was the most disappointing. Great concept, but I have a feeling most of the authors accepted to submit a story just to make the editor of the book happy, and they didn't really wanna write them. OR they don't really have any good embarrassing stories to tell, which I don't believe can be true.

P.S. Mursday post here.

Added to Scrapbook '09.

I believe that for someone my age, I've read my fair share of teen fiction and watched my fair share of young adult aimed TV shows and movies. While I enjoy most of them, I can't relate to them too much because things were quite different when I was their age. This book was different, though, because even though it was set in Chicago and in the suburbs, everything I remembered and struggled with coming of age in the 90's was in there. Because of that, it was very very close to my heart.

( Possible spoilers )

This was the first book I've read by Kuehnert, and I cannot wait to read her first one, I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone. That's a coming-of-age tale as well, so I think I'll have to read something else in between.

( 365.13 )

I'm all upset about not making it to the show, so I ended up putting on Placebo, replaying the shows I've been to and pigging out on a pack of chips. And I don't even regret it because it felt fucking good, so did thepriestkitten's texts.


I've finally finished watching this. The only time I had was when I went to bed, and I always ended up passing out. Not tonight, though. I enjoyed it quite a lot, probably because I love Jane Austen. The cast was pretty amazing, too except for Anne Hathaway as Jane. She's always bored me, and I hated her portraying a brilliant writer. Oh, and, James McAvoy still doesn't do anything for me, but I won't deny that he's good at what he does.

Then, I've finished reading Augusten Burroughs's DRY-- I only had the last 50 pages to read, and it took me a god damn week to do that, which is rather depressing. He took something so common and boring and made it very funny and enjoyable to read. I love this guy. And I need to get the rest of his books, which I plan to do when I get the ticket-refund money.

Now I don't know what to read rest even though I have quite a few books waiting. Still, if any of you would like to recommend anything, I'm always looking for new stuff to read.

Lastly, Scrapbook 2009 has been updated.

Scrapbook '09 updated.

This would be the cutest book ever if it weren't so bittersweet. Maybe it affected me a lot more than it would because I know a 10-year-old boy like Christopher.

A lot has been happening this past few days, but I don't think any of it is worth mentioning. The one thing is that I somehow pulled a muscle in my leg in my sleep last night, and now I'm walking around like The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I hope it goes away soon 'cos I was planning to go out tonight and get drunk.

Added to Scrapbook '09

I've been having to get so much reading done for work lately that it took me about 3 weeks to get to 1/3 way through this book. I had like 100 more pages to go, so as soon as I came home from work today, I sat on the damn toilet and didn't come out until I read the very last sentence. My ass hurts, but it was so worth it.





P.S. This site is ridiculous. Gotta love GMail's random links.

Added to Scrapbook '09

What a fucking waste of time. I should learn to ditch books at the point I feel like I've had enough and that they're not going anywhere. But nooooooooooo... The dork in me has to finish, hoping they'll get better.

Thankfully, someone on bookmooch.com has already mooched it from me, and I don't have to keep seeing it on my bookshelf.

Added to Scrapbook '09.

I've just finished this, and I feel like I have to much to say that I don't even know where to start. I guess the beginning should do it. So...

I first became familiar with the name "JT Leroy" through his articles in magazines like Spin and ID. And then, when I saw that he was credited for writing the screenplay for Gus Van Sant's Elephant, I got curious. Of course, by the time I got curious, he had already published two books: Sarah and The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things. I'm not going to go into what they're about; you can check that out for yourselves. Anyway... I bought both of them and finished them both in a single day. You know how there are times when you go, "I can't even out it into words?" Well, JT can, which is why I admired his work and have followed up since...

Then, I found out The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things was being made into a movie, and guess what? ASIA ARGENTO was directing it, and starring in it as Jeremiah's mother, Sarah. Of course I was super-excited because I've had a crush on Asia forfuckingever. So I watched the film and loved that too. And I was listening to his band Thistle and loving that as well at this point...

Later, it turned out that LT Leroy didn't exist. A woman named Laura Albert had written the books, and her sister-in-law, Savannah Knoop, had been posing in as a boy, as JT Leroy, which brings me to this book...

It's Savannah's story of what she went through as JT Leroy. I think it further proves that Laura Albert is a genius in more way than one: she's a great writer, and apparently she can do anything she puts her mind into. A lot of people were, of course, very angry when the truth came out, but that just made me admire her even more because it takes a lot of balls to get someone to help you fool the world (literally) and be able to succeed at it.

While Savannah Knoop is no writer, I thought the book was as truthful as she could be and very exciting to read. I loved reading about how she wanted to quit being JT many times, but she was also kind of becoming him that she couldn't stop. She would get so nervous about public appearances, about saying/doing something wrong, and when that mixed with her own low self-esteem, it came to the point where she would start crying or puking.

There were parts about her clothing lines and more personal stuff about herself, which I thought was rather unnecessary because, as always, all people (and myself) care about is JT.

Long story short, I liked it a lot and read it in a heartbeat.

Now I need to really get a hold of the only JT Leroy book that I haven't read yet.

Added to Scrapbook 2009.

Big thanks go to JuJu dreamxobscene and Hannah tongueeatcheek for telling me --more than once-- that I have to read this.

I always read with a pen because I like to underline the parts and words I like, in addition to reading them a couple of more times before moving on. With this book, though, it was very hard because I would've underline the entire book.

( For example... (spoiler alert )

I can't wait to start reading Beloved, but before that I'm throwing a Jane Austen into the mix.

Garth Nix's comment on the back cover pretty much sums up how I feel about it:

I wish my younger self could have had the opportunity to read and reread this wonderful book, and my older self wishes that I had written it.

This one also takes its place among my favorites. I wanna just crawl inside it, walk around the pages, spending more time on my favorite parts, and then falling asleep in Mr. & Mrs. Owens' tomb when I'm tired.

Added to Scrapbook 2009.

I've just finished this, and it makes its way right into my favorites. And now I need more Willa Cather as if I don't have enough "to-read" already. Oh, well...

Added to Scrapbook 2009.