Thursday, September 15, 2011

College application, why you so mean?

Hello, friends. How's life? Do you still have hair? Yes? That's lovely. I, in the midst of applying to college, am going to lose all of mine. That's basically just decided. It's quite sad, too, because I'm ginger and we're a dying breed -- my hair loss, thus, will have horrific ramifications to world diversity.
...Er. Right. (I promise, I'm smart! Just don't look at my math grades...)
But seriously. I shall mourn my hair.
-admires the Ginger-
Anyway.
Amid the endless panic attack marvelous adventures of making perhaps the most important decision of my teenage life, I've spent a lot of time on the Common App. Essays are fine; I don't mind those. I try not to look too long at my GPA, and I'm okay with my test scores. But then I get to the hardest supplemental question a college can ask.
What is your favorite book?
-__-
Asking that question to a bibliophile is perhaps the cruelest injustice you can force upon them. (Except, you know, burning books and banning books and all of that really, truly horrible stuff.)
It's evil for multiple reasons.
First.
College is a smart place, and so I am tempted to list smart books. Honestly? I've yet complete Old Man and the Sea, but it seems like the type of book that should be my favorite. But it isn't. Not at all. The thing is, I've got dozens of favorites, and they're completely totally random.
I do really, really love this one:
But somehow I doubt any college would believe that. A Little Princess is my go to comfort book, but that doesn't seem particularly intelligent. I love it for the story and the writing and the nostalgia.
But Harry Potter was the book of my childhood. I pull Ender's Game out when I'm having bad days. Howl's Moving Castle feels like an old friend, and Divergent is that new, sparkling buddy -- and those are just a few.
Asking me to pick one is like asking me to pick a favorite friend (except not, because Maggie wins that) (even though she, now having joined debate, has sided with the boys in incessant and yet amusing mockery)
and ends up being much too difficult.
So, obviously, my response is to just give up on college.
...
Oh, wait, maybe not.
Anyway. What about you? What's your favorite? Can you pick just one? Do you think that I should drop all hopes of college and wrangler Jaguars.
More later.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Books and friends and bookish friendships

Hello darlings! Have you missed me? (Pretend, please?)
I've missed you all. I've pined. No, really. I mourn the death of my home's Internet pretty much hourly, especially since all the stupid college classes I'm taking aren't stupid at all and in fact need internet to do a large amount of the work.
(No, come back! Come back, I'll stop whining, I promise!)
Anyway.
I'd forgotten that my phone could work blogger, so I'm gonna try and use this to post occasionally (until freaking AT&T gets here with Internet) (Seriously. Doing debate without internet is awful) (Okay, I'm done) because I miss you all.
 But anyway. (Again.)
Do you talk about books? I'm guessing yes, if you're reading this. I always feel weird describing the books I'm reading to random people, because too often I'm just like ...well, there's a boy...and he's a vampire/zombie/werewolf/elf....and he's really cute...
But to real book people? Talking to them is fun. I forget, sometimes, that book people are everywhere, though.
I had a conversation with a guy today about books. (Dude, I know. I talked to a guy, about books. A new guy. How weird, right? Don't you love my stereotypes? No? What about my parenthesis?) But that isn't the interesting part. I haven't discussed books with someone new in a long time. I'd forgotten the friendships that done from yammering about them. Stories and characters and plot make the best bonds.  At Alpha this past summer, people were able to immediately start conversations because of books, because of love shared over stories.
(But still. Don't necessarily be that person in the book store that is like OMG THIS BOOK I LOVE IT ALSO HI YOU ARE PRETTY. Because books do not need to equate pick up lines.) (Unless he's British. Then do what is necessary.)
Actually, the bond with my best friend came from books. They tie people together easily and there's something magical about that. The best writing comes with friends. The best friends often share books. (Like in Tamora Pierce's Circle books omg Briar and Tris.)
Anyway. For now, that's all my fingers can type on this aggravating keyboard. And to my best friend, happy birthday. :P
Maggie, I love you. Here's to another lovely year of books. :P (Even if 18 means adult and adults are scary.)
More later, people. Continue loving each other. Also, discussing books.
(And if you have internet? Hug it for me. Love it. Because someday, it might be gone.)
(Okay, seriously, I'm done complaining now.)
(Love me.)