Books. More of them. Again. Still. (Sorry)

I wrote this last night when I finished reading a(nother) book:

I just read a book called Tangled, and a quarter of it (it was a weird book) was about this guy who was a blogger, and blogged a lot, and maybe was addicted, but not really. I was just like, YES, been there, yo, plus you're cute, we should like, virtually get together ifonlyyouwererealsigh. It was a cute ending. But it was a bad book and I was overall disappointed, don't read it. It had a lot of potential for someone like me, who enjoys sexy-nerd books. But it wasn't a sexy-nerd book, it was a "let's-follow-the-lives-of-four-people-who-met-for-like-a-day book. I've gotten that a lot, wasted potential in books. That's why I'm so happy I read An Abundance of Katherines, because it was AMAZING and such a change from I Am Number Four and the Hunger Games, which is a series I've officially decided I DON'T like. Because the more good things I hear about it the more I remember not finding any really good things about it, and how I was just slightly bored and not believing. Colin, on the other hand, with the thing for Katherines,  and his Not-A-Terrorist-Best-Friend Hassan (note: I really have a thing for Islam, honestly, It's like my favorite religion. More on that later, maybe.) are people I could believe in a little more.

It's getting worse, though, my cynicism. Ever since The Catcher in the Rye I haven't been able to stand phonies. See, my philosophy/thing about The Catcher in the Rye is that Holden is so watchful of phony things or other people doing something phony that he is afraid to do ANYTHING at all himself, because HE doesn't want to risk being phony. Which is actually why he's such a slacker--because he doesn't want to look like he's trying, Someone who tries and doesn't make it is a fake for pretending, and so it's better to just not try at all.
Sorry, that was just a Holden Caufield detour. Also, if we ever have to write a paper on The Cather in the Rye, I CALL THAT TOPIC, consider it taken.

Back to books. Well, back to phony-ness. My point is, I haven't came across a story I think would actually happen. I mean, not HAPPEN, per se, because I'm obviously including fiction/sci-fi in this and I don't want that to HAPPEN, but I do want to believe in it and believe in the characters. Books are just distancing themselves from me and I can't lose myself long enough to just read. I also still have that horrible habit of directing it as if it was a movie in my mind, which is annoying, distracting, and also never going to happen in real life so depressing. To continue.

My opinion of books changes after I read them. I just finished this book Crashed (sequel to Skinned, by Robin Wasserman, she's very good, look her up) and I enjoyed it, but now I don't remember what I liked about it. I probably won't like it at all soon. I guess that's kind of what happened with the Hunger Games too.

This is tragic. Really, it is. I jsut need a really good book to kick me back in.

Hey, is Paper Towns really way better than An Abundance of Katherines?


OKAY, writing from last night ends HERE. Writing from 5 minutes ago BEGINS here.


So this was the second book I've read recently about ideas of the mind working like a computer, connecting to computers, downloading and saving memories, working with memories, etc. The first was Crashed (Robin Wasserman) and this one was Brain Jack, which I think I've mentioned to someone recently... I don't really remember what I talk about.
But it was about this majorly amazing computer hacker, living in the near future (Las Vegas was destroyed in a terrorist attack, and the security is just a little stronger.) and this software (hardware? I don't know what you would call it, it's a headset, but I guess it's kind of a program too) comes out that lets you connect and control a computer just by using brainwaves, instead of having to use a keyboard and mouse. So the hacker is like, well, if you could hack a computer, you could hack a mind, and he joins this government group that protects terrorist hacking attempts and they pretty much discover that and the world implodes, but they don't believe it kind of. Hard to explain. I say implodes because the program just plants memories inside your brain, and you can't really tell the difference. An inner explosion of messed up ness. So anyone who connects is at risk, and they're controlled, and whatever. (It's really hard to explain this book because it has an odd beginning so I kind of have to give away major plot points in my mini description. So spoiler alert. Whoops, too late.)

It was pretty interesting, because I don't actually know much about computers and the finer points about them. And I'm not saying that a science FICTION book set in the FUTURE about BRAIN CONTROLLED COMPUTERS is the most reliable way to learn about something real, but honestly I've learned so much from reading fiction, so, so much, and I trust myself to mostly weed out what's not possible/what didn't happen/what couldn't happen/what was made up. So I believe I learned something from reading this book. Correct me if I'm wrong--actually don't, I like living in a fantasy world.

And also, I like thinking I know things.

Books rock. That was a good one, too. Not the best, but it did kind of lower my book funk a bit and I did lose myself in it for a few chapters. Not enough. I'm not satisfied. I'm hoping that Paper Towns is enough to really do it. I don't know if I'm going to read that next though, don't want to risk it. It's called Perfectionist Paralysis, and I learned about it on Urban Dictionary. It means not being able to start something for fear it won't be perfect.

If you just read ALL OF THAT, I'm very proud of you. It was a lot of words about a lot of other words, and I know most of you don't really share my exact, messed up, random, rambling taste in books or book commentary.

Has anyone read any of these books? Opinions on The Hunger Games (hint: way over rated?)

Sorry for rambling on, but I like to talk about these things and if I try to do it in person you'll get bored and HERE I HAVE YOU IN MY CLUTCHES AND YOU CAN'T INTERRUPT ME OR RUN AWAY OKAY MAYBE YOU CAN RUN AWAY BUT I WILL NEVER KNOW AND IT MAKES ME HAPPY. You know what I mean? Talking over the computer is different because even if you don't read it, it always came out, and you always SAID it. So it counts. Anyway. I hope someone does read this, because I really need someone to talk to about all these books. Because they're killing me. Not literally, obviously, it's just I get a lot from them and it's like my youtube people, if I'm the only one who know's about them, I'm the only one getting (my) references. And I like people getting my references, believe it or not, even more than I like making references.

And on that happy note, I leave you with congratulations for reading this and hopefully you will comment to tell me that you need to be personally congratulated either via the internet commenting zone of blogger or GASP in person.

ps. I'm getting worse at typing. Faster, but more typos. It sucks. Had to pretty much reread everything and correct it. It's so annoying. Typing. God.

pps, this is 1300 words, more or less, probably more including this post post script.

ppps, I will talk about the islam thing maybe later. If this post left you thinking "hey, she said something up there in that mess of crap about why she liked Islam and then she doesn't actually say anything about why she likes Islam." well now I mentioned it in the post post post script and I'm directing you to the future, where there will be a post about it. Hey, would you say "where" there or "when?" I think in that case the future is a noun, right, so it would be a where, but isn't it, like, a time? ACK. Need to stop talking. Okay. Ready. Hitting "publish post.."

POSTING OKAY LOVE YOU BYE NICE TALKING TO YOU.

ALSO, MAKEOVER, I DIDN'T WANT TO, WASTE OF TIME, BUT NECESSARY, IT LOOKED LIKE CRAP BEFORE. MIGHT LOOK EVEN WORSE NOW, I MIGHT REDO. LATER. NOT NOW. NOW I'M SLEEPING, NERDY CONVENTION TO GO TO TOMORROW. FEMALES IN FICTION. FUN. IT WILL BE, I SWEAR. YOU GOING? 7:45 AT ITHACA COLLEGE. WHY AM I STILL IN CAPLOCKS? It's going to be fun, it's at Textor Hall, it's very early and I should be sleeping.

Whatever happened to pressing "publish post?" God. I distract myself easily.

[edit: by the way, I just got back from the convention, and really want to debrief, but not now, but I'm just saying that if you went you've heard this all before and I'm sorry for talking about this stuff and just repeating myself. I actually posted this before talking about those things, so I was kind of quoting myself and I feel bad about it but THESE KIND OF THINGS CAME UP and I just happened to have thought about them before.]