Blah.

My dad was served divorce papers yesterday. So now life is sort of crazy. Lots of emotions and everything. I think a divorce will make a lot of things better, but that doesn't make it any easier. Best Buy has my computer for the next few weeks too, so that is a big pain. I have no idea how I got a virus, but I did. The temperature outside is dropping like crazy and it is snowing. That seems really fitting for everything going on right now.

So I am officially about half done with The Amber Spyglass...finally. I think certain parts of this last book are kind of slow. But hopefully I am past them now. I don't want to give anything away, so I can't say too much :) What I really need right now is some good Stephen King or Michael Crichton or something. Basically anything intense and fast paced. Hopefully I can get a lot of reading time in today.

I have work for five hours today, but I am sort of dreading it. I just want to be home. I feel drained. Five hours isn't a lot, but if it's really dead time will go so slow.

Meh

I have kind of dropped the ball on blogging and reading lately. I am still not even half way done with The Amber Spyglass. I just cannot concentrate. Not to mention that I am working more than usual and have a lot going on with the holidays and stuff. So it's annoying.

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving. Usually this day is super fun and full of family. This year it is kind of different though for my family. My parents are separated and I will only be seeing my mom. My boyfriend, his sister and I are all going over to my mom's house to play games, eat and watch Friends. It should be a really great time, but it's also kind of bittersweet. I have never had a holiday without my dad.
I have an unbelievable amount of things to be thankful for. The main thing being my life. Just a few months ago I was in the hospital with severe kidney failure. Only a couple years ago I had a cancer scare. Right now I am feeling healthy and well. I don't think I will ever take that feeling for granted again. Another very important thing I am thankful for is my family. Even though right now my parents are going through their thing, I still feel very stable, surrounded by love. My mom is my best friend. My boyfriend is amazing and patient and keeps me sane. My dad is a buddy and has helped me out of a lot of tough spots. And then my pets. Sonic, Nova, Chewie and Scout. I have always said I like animals better than most people. They are always there. They care about you no matter what. They are funny. They take naps with me. They are like my children. I try really hard to not take my family for granted. Sometimes I do though. When they are consistently there for me, it's hard not to. I love my family so much. I can't even begin to explain it.
I'm also thankful for a billion other things, but I don't feel like listing them all here :)

Now on to the reading thing! I am about a third done with The Amber Spyglass. It is taking me an insane amount of time to finish it for some reason. I suppose I'm just busy and tired. It's really good and whenever I get the chance to read I am enjoying it. The Nooks just got a new update and it is pretty awesome. The pages turn way faster and I can make lists of books, instead of just one huge list. If you don't have an ereader those probably sound like really stupid things, but they make a lot of difference!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Ice!

My Doxie Nova testing her boundaries.

Overnight the area of Minnesota I live in had really bad ice rain. Now there is a layer of glare ice on everything. I tried walking down our outside steps with the three dogs...not an easy task. Once we made it down, it was hilarious watching them try to walk. And I'm sure it was fun for the neighbors if they got to see me trying to walk. You literally can't! I had to walk on our front bushes to get back up to the driveway. I guess there were some 300 car accidents last night. Yikes!

I haven't been reading a ton in the past couple days. I have had a constant headache for the past week. Today I was lucky and woke up with only a dull ache.


I wanted to share this link. It's pretty awesome.

The Subtle Knife: Wrap Up!

The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman is the second in the His Dark Materials trilogy. I think it is definitely better than The Golden Compass. The story clips along a lot faster and the story is set up perfectly. I cannot wait to read The Amber Spyglass. I think Pullman did a great job ending The Subtle Knife. I need to know what happens next :)
Rating: 10/10

This is an awesome article! If you want something creepy.

Half Through

I am half done with The Subtle Knife, the second book in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman. So far I like it a lot, definitely more than The Golden Compass. This one gets into the action a lot quicker and the characters are a lot more fun. I am excited to see where it is going to go :) I am puzzled that these books are considered 'young adult'. They aren't. At least, I probably wouldn't want my young child reading these unless they were very mature. I think just because a novel has kids as main characters and animals as characters, people are quick to label it 'young adult'. That's a mistake.

I might read The Beach by Alex Garland next. Don't hold me to it. I'm pretty sure that is going to be a very dark book, and the way things are right now with my parents separation, I'm not sure if I want to deal with dark topics. I always have a hard time picking what to read next. I think it's because I have way too many books to choose from. At the moment I have about 200 books on my Nook. I also have about double that in paper and a bunch of eBooks that aren't on my Nook. Too many choices!!!

Here are funny exam answers
&
People who faked their deaths


The pictures in this entry are some of the covers I thought were odd for The Subtle Knife.

SNOW!!!

It is snowing very hard outside! The weather people are saying we might get 10 inches. Exciting stuff! It looks like Christmas :)

 Here, this is fun!!!

The Golden Compass: Wrap Up! & Stuff

This entry marks my 50th novel read this year and 1,000 views to my blog :) Two very good things. 

Today I finished The Golden Compass. It was awesome! I'm not sure why I hated it so much the first time I tried to read it. The characters are a lot of fun and it is really different as far as young adult novels go. I would say it blurs the line between adult fiction and young adult. I'm going to finish the trilogy, The Subtle Knife being next.
Rating: 8/10

I wanted this entry to be really awesome, but I don't feel like saying much. My back hurts and I feel very complain-y. Things are extremely odd right now in life.

This is an awesome website! Seriously. It is something that will make you think and hopefully consider what is and is not important. It reminds me a lot of the Post Secret books... which I love.

Hopefully everyone has a really nice rest of the week. Take time to take care of yourselves. Or if you are self-centered, take time to take care of loved ones :)

Here are some hilarious lol cats:

Good Quote

"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Interesting

Here is an article called 6 Books Everyone (Including Your English Teacher) Got Wrong


I love it, because I am always bothered by people who try to explain 'what the author was trying to say'. Especially when the author they are talking about is dead. No one truly knows what novels are a metaphor for or what they are trying to say, unless the author addresses this. And sometimes books are not a metaphor for anything. Things sometimes are just what they are. I think this is the problem I often ran into in school. Both k-12 and college. In English classes you always had to discuss what was really going on. I hate that. I hate picking apart books and making them more or less than what they actually are. It is one of my pet peeves. I haven't read any books on the list I posted, but it is still really interesting because of all the books I have read, where people try to explain what they are really about. Ugh!!!


I am about a third of the way through The Golden Compass and I am definitely liking it more the second time around. I don't remember much of it, either. So it seems new and fresh. I'm so happy it's good, because life sure is insane right now. My parents separation is in full swing and I am having issues. I feel so bad for all my friends who had to deal with this in high school and earlier. I am 22 and having huge troubles with it. No wonder my generation is so messed up. There is no way a teenager could deal with this and just get over it.

Here are some interesting facts.