#goodbye 2013

[roseyboy]

this weekend ive deleted 56,000 posts from my blog 

[zeebling]

[avrilsboy]

deleted 7,000 posts : )

[joartflores]

[monochromekhiphop]

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CMYK - Good Night

[playadeeo-blog]

Love has more forms than one. That I have learned.

I first fell in love, when I was 12. And he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. He's look made me weak in the knees and red in the face. I was utterly in love with him. Everything inch of him. They say it only happens once in life, that you find someone like that. He killed himself, when he was 14. I lost hope of ever finding someone like him again. Someone who would tickle my fancy like he did.

I'm now 19 and have been in 2 relationships. I clearly made compromises, because I had forever lost what I wanted the most. I settled.. for something that was not a 110%. I started the first one, because I had found someone, who truly loved me. I needed that love, I needed to give and I needed to receive. I craved that love so much. I wished for love to find me every time I thought I saw a falling star. (Stupid I know.) I had never felt like I felt back then, it was all new and exciting. I wanted to experience everything, I wanted to learn and I wanted to explore. And that is what I did. I was so innocent. There was a lost of lust in that relationship.

The second one started from a friendship that had developed too far. I'm not even sure he really loved me. I just trusted him too easily. It developed into a story I now cannot believe is a part of my life. He lied to me about his name, education, work. I was shocked. I was lost. It will soon be 6 months since that relationship ended. He only stopped sending creepy messages in late-December, because I changed my phone number and blocked him in all sorts of social-networking sites and filed a police report against him, after he started leaving stuff for me behind my door. Weird fact we met on Friday 13th, I guess you have to be superstitious after all. I have no feelings for that cunt whatsoever. Except a regret for the time I lost from my life by spending it with him. Did I love him? I did, but only as a friend, all I knew of him was lies, so I'm not even sure that the feeling was real. It was hardly a passionate relationship, not from my side anyways. I'm happy that it has now ended for good. What I learned? Never be so attached to anyone, because they'll just drag you like you are just a wet rag in the dirt. 

It has left me more paranoid, scared.. not trusting. We all learn something from the people we encounter. I don't feel like I really want to be in a relationship. Or I feel like I have grown up in that sense as in I don't need a relationship to define "me" or be happy as me. I'm fine on my own.

Yet there is a contradiction, since I did meet someone, but it is another lesson on how you can't have everything that you want I guess. And how you can fall for someone slowly and then all at once. He gives me hope, even if he hates me. A hope that is almost entirely independent from his persona, because he shows me that it is possible to love someone. Love like I never I thought could again. Just like on the first time. I was brave I told him I liked him. That is everything I can do, the rest is what lies in the the stars.. I have learned a lot about love, but I don't think I realize it all. Most importantly of all love walks a mysterious path.

I have definitely changed. I have learned. I have made mistakes, but I'm not ashamed, because it is all a part of the truth of my life, a part of my adventure and a part that has made me who I am today.

[cimmeriantales]

Happy New Year from Anne

Happy New Year from Audrey

Happy New Year from Julie

Happy New Year from Jen

Thank you! We ♥ you!

[boookish]

Year in Review: 2013

This is coming a bit late, since we are now halfway through January, but I figured it was better late than never. These posts about my reading goals are always my favorite (probably why I never post anything else), and I always like to have them to look back on. So, how did my year in reading go? Not great. Not terrible, but not great. I wanted to read 40 books and only made it through 24. (What happened after August to derail my reading productivity? Two words: Candy Crush. Oops.) Page-wise I had hoped to reach 14,000, but only got to 7,673 according to Goodreads (and excluding all the books I abandoned or the one I was reading into the new year). The details, without further ado:

1. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Jan. 2) 2. Arcadia by Lauren Groff (Jan. 16) 3. We Live in Water by Jess Walter (Feb. 18) 4. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (Mar. 9) 5. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (Mar. 16) 6. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (Mar. 27) 7. The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma (Apr. 7) 8. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (Apr. 16) 9. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer (Apr. 29) 10. World War Z by Max Brooks (May 11) 11. The Love Song of Jonny Valentine by Teddy Wayne (May 14) 12. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (May 16) 13. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (May 19) 14. Sorry Please Thank You by Charles Yu (May 19) 15. Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris (May 19) 16. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami (May 28) 17. Drown by Junot Díaz (Jun. 2) 18. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (Jun. 25) 19. You Are One of Them by Elliott Holt (Jun. 29) 20. Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg (Jul. 8) 21. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (Aug. 4) 22. Wild by Cheryl Strayed (Aug. 15) 23. Mudbound by Hillary Jordan (Aug. 29) 24. Faith by Jennifer Haigh (Nov. 13)

Books finished: 24 Approximate pages: 7,673* Best month: May (7 books) Books abandoned: 3 (at least)

Kindle version: 18 Physical copy: 6

New releases: 8

21st century: 17 20th century: 7

Fiction: 22 Non-fiction: 2

Novel: 18 Short-story collections: 4

Most favorite read: We Live in Water by Jess Walter I was never a short-story person, but I think that changed this year. Of the 24 books I read, four of them were short-story collections, and that might be due to this book here, which was awesome. Maybe I'm biased because the writer is from Washington and that made his stories more relatable (finally, someone else who calls the tiny pieces of wood that get stuck in your finger, for example, "slivers"!), but this book had a great blend of human drama and absurdity. I loved the zombie story that took place in Fremont, just two miles from where I live, as well as the one about the man who write horoscopes and messes with those for his ex's sign. Just so great.

Least favorite read: Sorry Please Thank You by Charles Yu Yes, my most and least favorite books were both short-story collections. I probably should have known I wouldn't enjoy this much, since How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe definitely isn't one of my favorites, but all the stories looked quirky and kind of fun, so I gave it a try. I didn't hate it, I just didn't like it as much as the other books I read this year.

Book I just couldn't finish: Night Film by Marisha Pessl So disappointing. The letters, webpages, etc. went pretty quickly from being interesting to seeming a lot like a gimmick. That, on top of the fact the writing was way too close to Dan Brown's style (as a friend noted to me), and I just couldn't do it. It felt contrived, it felt flat, it felt unnecessary.

Most surprising find in 2013: We Live in Water by Jess Walter I had no idea about this book until I saw it sitting on a table at my local small bookstore. Score!

Most anticipated book of 2013: Night Film by Marisha Pessl Yes, I really wanted to like this book. I read her first, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, and liked it a lot. It was very disappointing to find that it didn't intrigue me at all.

Most memorable character: Camille Preaker in Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn I don't know how Flynn writes such messed up, not wholly-likable characters. But however she does it, they're certainly interesting and I will read about every single one. I ready Sharp Objects and Dark Places consecutively this year, and Camille took the cake, as far as interesting characters go.

Favorite author discovery: Jess Walter It's true, I had never read anything by him before this year. Now I'm excited to delve into his earlier works over the next couple years!

Favorite cover of a book read in 2013: Sorry Please Thank You by Charles Yu The book might not have interested me much, but the cover saved it from getting lost in my larger bookshelf, in place of a coveted spot on the shelf in my room where I keep the pretty books.

Favorite quote/passage read in 2013: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson “Ursula craved solitude but she hated loneliness, a conundrum that she couldn’t even begin to solve.” 

Books I wanted to read in 2013, as determined in January:

Night Film by Marisha Pessl (Aug. 2013)

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer (Apr. 2013)

The Movement of Stars by Amy Brill (Apr. 2013)

The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma (Mar. 2013)

Arcadia by Lauren Groff (2012)

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (2012)

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan (2012)

A Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava (2012)

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2009)

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin (1996)

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1963)

East of Eden by John Steinbeck (1952)

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938)

Persuasion by Jane Austen (1817)

I tried to read Night Film, Wolf Hall, and A Game of Thrones, but gave up on all of them. The reasons for Night Film are above, but I thought Wolf Hall was too dry when I could just watch The Tudors for essentially the same story and Game of Thrones, well, the TV show moves a lot faster. I had started Sweet Tooth in 2012, but never came back to it in 2013 and probably won't in 2014.

* Page totals are from Goodreads.com