Summer Reading Extravaganza Day 1: Fun Summer Reads

Welcome to the Summer Reading Extravaganza! Our goal today is to get a bunch of reading ideas to help pass these hot summer days!
So we’re asking…what’s your favorite beach read or what’s in your beach bag?

Summertime is when I usually break out the chick lit or YA novels. Last year, I reread the Harry Potter series (who am I kidding, I do that pretty much every year), and before that it was Jane Austen. This year, I'm participating in three different reading challenges (the 1% Well-Read Challenge, A Midsummer Night's Challenge, and, starting next month, the Book Awards II Challenge), so I have a few books in my to-be-read pile specifically for them.

Those books aside, I love Amanda Grange's historical romances; I just read Captain Wentworth's Diary while at the beach earlier this month, and I'm looking forward to Edmund Bertram's Diary, even though he's my least favorite Austen "hero." I've also moved recently and have found a ton of old books that I read when I was younger (the Baby-sitter's Club series, Sweet Valley High, random choose-your-own-adventure novels), and I've enjoyed reading them again. My sister's picking out the ones she wants to keep, and the rest will be going on BookMooch later this summer.

Other books that I'd like to read this summer (based on recommendations from friends and other reading blogs): The Baum Plan for Financial Independence, Gifted, The Green Glass Sea, and The Clique Summer Collection (don't judge!).

Visit The Friendly Book Nook for more fun summer reading suggestions!

Cunning, ain't it?

I finally got around to adding the pompom ball up top. Yay! This one's for Fran, but I'll be making more for Dragon*Con later. My next project is an amigurumi penguin for Ashley, who's moving into the apartment complex this weekend.

The Sunday Salon - 22 June 2008

This is my first Sunday Salon post, and it's a little late because I had work and a birthday party to attend today. So, I didn't get to do much reading today.

This week, I finished:
The Open Shadow, which is registered on BookCrossing and free to the first person who asks me for it
A Midsummer Night's Dream, which I haven't reviewed yet because it's part of the A Midsummer Night's Challenge

I'm currently reading:
The Yiddish Policemen's Union - It's not for a challenge or anything, I just really like Michael Chabon. I'm on page 197; I keep getting sidetracked by other books, so who knows when I'll actually finish this one. BoingBoing has a good review of it.
Lords and Ladies - This is the second part of the A Midsummer Night's Challenge. I'm enjoying it so far, but it's a bit confusing because I'm not terribly familiar with Disc World and there are quite a few characters I don't know. I love Terry Pratchett, though.

Still to-be-read:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - my June 1% Well-Read Challenge book
Rant - Chuck Palahniuk is one of my favorite authors and this came out in paperback recently

Are you ready to celebrate?

I don't know what's more awesome: the fact that the Phoenix rover found water ice on Mars, or that it has its own Twitter page to keep those of us stuck on Earth up-to-date.

Of course, naming a trench "Dodo-Goldilocks" is pretty cool, too.

My first Instructable, Part 2

So, yesterday I posted about my veggie Mexican lasagna recipe on Instructables. Today I check my e-mail, and guess what?



My recipe is being featured on the home page! I am so, so psyched about this. Tiffany came home just after I got the e-mail, and she was amused by my enthusiasm.

Now I'm off to get ready to go to a movie. With a boy! This day just gets better and better...

Summer Reading Extravaganza!

The Friendly Book Nook is hosting a Summer Reading Extravaganza! Each day next week, they will be posting a topic about summer reading that I will then be posting about here on casual dread. There are prizes, too, so go sign up! You don't have to write a blog yourself to participate, as long as you comment on what others write.

My first Instructable!

Tiffany and I have pretty much gotten settled into the new apartment. We were supposed to have some friends over for dinner tonight, but they had to work and canceled on us. Then Tiff decided to go to Athens with another friend. She invited me to come with, but I chose to stay home and cook the Mexican lasagna that we were going to have for dinner. And then I published it on Instructables! It's my first Instructable, so I'm very excited about it. Check it out here.

Fun in the sun

Pictures from our annual family trip to Hilton Head last week:


the view from our balcony

Sand sculptures!

a land shark eating a sunbathing tourist


an eel (?)


the requisite sandcastle


starfish

I didn't actually make any of these, but I thought they were cool and wanted to get pictures of them before the tide came up and washed them away. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that taking my camera from the nice, cold air conditioning into the hot, muggy sunshine would make the pictures come out fuzzy. Oh, well. I also have pictures from a kayaking trip we took through the marsh, but I used a waterproof disposable camera for those and am still waiting for them to get developed. I did make something on the trip (Mom and I both brought our creative outlets; she quilted, and I crocheted), but I'm still working on it. It's actually for Dragon*Con this year, and I'm hoping it'll be a big damn surprise for one of my fellow convention-goers.

Imitation is the craziest form of fandom

Chuck Klosterman wrote an article for the Guardian that looks at bands and their fans:

If you scrutinise the followers of any significant rock group, you will predominantly find unrelated, nondescript quasi-hipsters who represent nothing in particular; the clearest sign that any entity has become mainstream popular is when it appeals to random people who don't really care. Asking a band about who inhabits their fanbase tells you nothing. A better question is this: "Who are your fans that care too much?" Because it's always the fringe lunatics who matter more.

There's also a photo gallery that lets you test how well you can match the fans to the bands. Some of them are ridiculously easy (Marilyn Manson, Rod Stewart, Missy Elliot), and some are less so (The Klaxons? McFly?).

It's pretty interesting, and it makes me wonder: do people take your fanness less seriously if you don't emulate your object of obsession? This coming from the girl who's dressed up for Harry Potter book releases and is already planning her Dragon*Con costumes...

Na Na Na Na Na Na CATWOMAN!

This is one of the coolest articles I've read in a while:

WHAT could be described as a fairy tale turned real on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, as a cat allegedly turned into a middle-aged woman after being hit by a commercial motorcycle (Okada) on Aba/Port Harcourt Expressway.

Got that? A CAT turned into a WOMAN. And then a bunch of people started beating her up, and actually killed another cat (cat-woman?) that was with her. The third cat-woman got away.

Awesome.

Found via Neil Gaiman's journal.