oh, literature

seeing as how i'm unemployed right now, i have a lot of free time. i have restarted my quest to read the 100 greatest novels of this century. i have only read about 15ish (the ish is for the maybe 3 books on the list that i started but didn't finish or that we covered in one of my AP lit classes but i never really read...)of the books on this particular list, but i've discovered that there are a whole bunch of different 100 best novels lists. there is the question of whether to only read the 100 best of this century or include the 100 best of all time (oh shakespeare). then do i base my list off of a poll composed of votes from the general public or based on the votes of a board of literature gurus from some publishing company? i think to begin with i'm going to read the books that seem to appear on all these lists.

i'm on page 75 in lolita. so far, i really like it, which i was at least partially surprised by - come on, we all know whats going to happen in this one. nabokov's voice is really pleasing to me though. and i even like how humbert humbert is overly pleased by himself.

"let me repeat with quiet force: i was, and still am, despite mes malheurs, an exceptionally handsome male; slow moving, tall, with soft dark hair and a gloomy but all the more seductive cast of demeanour..."

when did "slow-moving" become something to make us ladies swoon? hmm. this also demonstrates another aspect that i like - the random but fairly common french phrases. who knew my 4 years of french would actually come in handy (especially since i can't actually speak it at all)!

at any rate, i'm excited to be reading good literature again. in college i was always reading so much intense scientific stuff that the novels i read for pleasure were really nothing more than fluff.

no sponges here

i've kept a blog at livejournal for ages. first there was the silly high school ranting. then slightly more interesting thoughts. then i made a separate travel blog for the 5 months i lived and studied in finland. well, turns out i really liked keeping that latest blog; after returning to the states, i couldn't see any reason why the lovely public would have any interest in my rambling thoughts and ideas. buuuuut - hooray i changed my mind! (get used to that, it will probably happen frequently)

so here it is, my very own shiny new blog. i have yet to decide what its focus will be. i am hoping that writing here will force me (and you!) to think more about the things i hear about and actively participate in learning despite being officially graduated and all that jazz.

which brings me to the address being www.dontbeasponge.blogspot.com. my high school AP biology teacher mrs. gazaway once told me not to be such a sponge. she said to read and try to learn as much as possible, but without simply absorbing all the material without processing it, asking questions, determine which bits of information clash with other bits of information, yadda, yadda. so here's to me being a filter and not a sponge!

but wait, sponges are filter feeders...

edit: adventures in the (almost) arctic is my old travel blog from finland, just in case anybody was interested :-)