Thursday, June 25, 2015

10 books to read...aka: my summer reading list
























So, in the summertime, this is what I do:
Eat.
Read.
Sleep.
Read.
Work.
Read.
Work-out.
Read.
Read some more.
Repeat.

All while NOT getting tan. (My skin thinks it's a sin to be anything a shade darker than "pale".)

Seriously though.
I will read more than 10 books this summer.
Let's face it.
I've already read 10 books this summer....so what's 10 more? ;)


Problem: I've got like, 90 books that I want to read...and I feel like I should make myself read a variety of books because otherwise I'll get stuck in the Young Adult Fiction section of the library and NEVER LEAVE.


So, there's some fiction, non-fiction, serious, funny, dystopian, romance, classic, new, etc., etc., etc.....because that's life.
It's also what my bookshelf looks like.



1. Station Eleven: It looks like tragedy on paper. I love tragedy. How bad can it be?




2. All the Light We Cannot See: I'm going to need tissues for this one.





















3. #8, #9, #10 of The Ranger's Apprentice: ONLY THREE LEFT...and I must finish this series...I think they should just make it into one ginormous book. (Because that would be AMAZING...)




4. Sense and Sensibility: one must have a classic on every book list...





















5. I Was Here: this one looks sad too...what is it with me and sad books?




6. The Princess Bride: I know the movie, but not the book, and that's a problem that needs fixing.





















7. Legend: This one is in the stack by my bed. As we speak. Like, I have to read this or I will be forever ashamed.





















8. Earth Girl: Also in the stack, although I've never heard of it before the librarian recommended it...the description on the back reminds me of the Lunar Chronicles (which are excellent, by the way.)






















9. Kisses from Katie: I have this prediction that this book will be very motivating for me to read because it's about missions. Also, personally I find her story extremely inspiring.






















10. A C.S. Lewis book: either The Screwtape Letters or Mere Christianity...or both.... :D





11. BONUS: A Severe Mercy (mwahahahahaha...eleven books....I'm such a rebel...)























So, the other thing that I really want to do is a review for each of these. Something along the lines of "on a scale of BOOYEAH to heckno, where does this book fall?" sort of a thing...

*sigh* There's so much to look forward to.



keep it chill people,
sami




P.S. Just an FYI: This is part 1 of a 10 part series: The 10 Things. It's gonna be epic, so stay tuned.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

noise with a capital "n"


written 2/1/2015
Absolute silence. Pin-drop silence. Sometimes even people moving around in the space around me or the next room over will break my concentration and then I’m done. That once-in-a-blue-moon writing session is over.

Silence helps me, but it’s also what gets in the way. Because absolute silence is hard to find. When I do find it, everything lines up in my head and marches down my arm and through my pen. Onto my page the ink flows in my semi-sloppy handwriting. It works, and the words fit together like the pieces of one of my favorite puzzles.

But then Noise – with a capital “N” – breaks the precious reverie.
Sometimes just leaving the page to sit will help. Sometimes I simply get fed up with the content. So I have to let it sit - like Mom's sourdough - and fume, and ferment, and fester. And when I get back to it, it come spilling out like children from their bedrooms on Christmas morning, shouting and gleefully chaotic. 
Of course, if I only ever wrote when I had complete silence, I would never write anything. Pin-drop silence is what I write BEST in. Sometimes semi-silence, or anti-silence work just as well.

For example, as I type this I am surrounded by the faint sound waves of my parents voices and the television. Super Bowl Sunday was never a “celebrated” holiday in our house, but we still watch it. Or, at least, my parents and my little sister do. I am a non-football-fan.  But the almost quiet is nice to write in right now. It keeps the extra thoughts in my brain down to a minimum, drowning out the unimportant voices.

Now, anti-silence, that, THAT must be used with the utmost caution. I mean, noisy coffee shops should only be the writing environment for the fiercest battle scenes and the driest tears. For drowning noise is that which forces me into my deepest concentration. The anti-silence strangles all my voices except the one that I focus on, the one that I am typing from, the speaker. The anti-silence is my bouncer, keeping everything in line until I can deal with it myself.

Each type of noise and anti-noise has its place. But my best, deepest writing comes when I can hear my own breath, my own heartbeat, and I know that I am alone. That’s the only time when I can truly be myself, and let the voice in my hand and heart and head and soul speak what it will.



















Thursday, June 4, 2015

seven million reasons

life.
is busy.
with seven
million
things to do.
busy busy busy
relentlessly
booked schedules
rushed meals
loud music on car rides
because there must be a release.


seven million things to do
none of them important
none of them world-altering
life-changing
important.


seven million reasons
to stop
run away
and never return
to this life of busy.


but stay -
do the
seven million things
that you hate
but are as comfortable as
playing scales on the piano
cleaning the coffee pot
taking out the garbage
or making sure your shoes are clean before coming indoors.


things that have to happen so that
the world makes sense
seven million things
that might keep us from living.
they all have an antidote.


the cranky person: skip on the sidewalk
the sleepy eyes: converse with the barista
the boredom during a vacation: go skydiving, because you can
the pining: do it alone. you won't always be able to
the tired days: roll windows down, turn music up
the frustration: remember peace, make it happen
the longing to do something right: you know how to do it.
 
the only thing stopping you
are the seven million little things
that we think keep us from living.
but are in fact,
the very seven million reasons
that we do live.