Hour 16.5

Hours Spent Reading: 16.5
Books Read: 5
Pages Read: 1454
Money Raised: $639
What I'm listening to: Size 12 Is Not Fat

Please remember that I'm reading to raise money for Room to Read, which builds libraries, stocks them with books, and trains people to become their librarians.

Ok, I have to work in the morning, so this is my last blog post until tomorrow night. I'll be reading a bit before bed, then listening to audio books during my commute and reading at lunch, though, so I'll still be plugging away the best I can.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson John Green and David Levithan

If you took the best parts of An Abundance of Katherines and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and put them in a blender, you'd get something almost as awesome as this book.

Two high school students, both named Will Grayson, are having a horrible night when they meet. Then one Will Grayson starts dating the other Will Grayson's best friend. There's a girl named Jane, who has a boyfriend. There's a musical written, directed, choreographed, etc etc etc and starring Tiny Cooper, the said boy/best friend and the gayest large person on the plant, or the largest gay person.

And because it's the best of Green and the best of Levithan, it's about so much more than the plot and it's more madcap and hilarious than I can say.

If you like either author, you'll like this one, too.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Post Holiday Whatever

Well, some big changes here at Biblio File. Well, not here at Biblio File, but in my life. After three years I am no longer a "Counterfeit Librarian, Beltway Bandit and Femme Fatale Extroidinarie" and am instead a "Coffee addict, torch singer, and librarian ninja."

2 years ago, we moved and I stopped driving 1/2 around the beltway to get to work, but I still had to do large amounts of beltway driving to get to school, but, my dears, last Sunday, I finally graduated from University of Maryland's iSchool, so I'm now a big L Librarian. The only real change this makes in my day-to-day life at this point is that I no longer have to drive 1/2 way across the metro area to get to class 2 nights a week, no more papers to write, and I have to start paying full price ALA dues. I'm already working as a children's librarian, so I'm saved a job search. Yay!

Although, I will point out that is NOT my diploma. They will mail that to me next month. That is a poster of the University of Maryland, because well... I don't know why they gave me that. But they did.

In the mean time, my family was all here for graduation/Hanukkah/Christmas but they have all gone home now and the house is quiet and I'm wondering what to do tonight, as our box of Hanukkah candles was 1 candle so there will be some sort of improvisation.

Cybils short lists are coming out next week, which has me VERY excited, because I'm on the judging committee for middle grade/YA non-fiction and I can't wait to see what's nominated.

AND! I got a most fantastic handmade book from my secret santa. (My camera's being weird, so there are no pictures.) BUT! Secret Santa! You did not tell me what blog you blog on! I would love to know! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

In the mean time, let's talk books, ok?

First up, as it's time for such things, is

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank-you Notes Peggy Gifford

Moxy's back! It's after Christmas and Moxy has to write 12 Thank You notes before she can go to California to see her father, whom she hasn't seen in years. Moxy does not want to write her thank you notes and 12 seems like a huge number. Luckily, she has an amazing beyond amazing plan to churn out her thank you notes lickity split and then she will be off to Hollywood to see her dad and be discovered.

Of course, it involves her step-father's brand new photocopier that she's been forbidden to touch. And some spray paint. Of course, it doesn't go to plan and unbelievable hilarity ensues.

Even better than Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little! This has some bigger issues and a little more meat, without getting bogged down or depressing. It's still hilarious and kids (and maybe some adults) will identify with writing Thank You notes as being the most horrendous chore ever assigned. Plus, there's spray paint. You can only imagine Moxy and spray paint...

Also, I spent Christmas Eve Day and Christmas Day reading

Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle

Do you know how unfair it is that 98% of the country had a huge blizzard and there was a huge blizzard in my book and it was like, 65 degrees out? Frustrating doesn't even begin to cover it!

Anyway, enough of my whining about the weather. This books is three stories that all take place in the same town during the blizzard of the century. Jubilee's parents are arrested and she's shipped off to spend Christmas with her grandparents, only to have the train get stuck. She gets off, wanders into the Waffle House across the highway and meets Stuart, who takes her home. Normally she wouldn't go, but a bunch of cheerleaders ALSO got off the train with her and are also at the Waffle House.

Meanwhile, Tobin and his friends are having a James Bond-a-thon when their friend who works at Waffle House calls and says there are cheerleaders demanding Twister. So they are off into the blizzard, trying to beat other guys to bring Twister to the cheerleaders.

And then, finally, Addie messed up with her boyfriend Jeb, and he stood her up when she tried to apologize. (BUT! the reader knows Jeb. He was on the train with Jubilee and is trapped at the cheerleading Waffle House) It's the day after Christmas and she's at work at Starbucks, trying to figure out how to fix things with Jeb, how to not be so self-centered, and trying to get a pig for her best friend.

So while we have three seperate stories, they are entwined and main characters in one story become minor characters in another. Each author took a story, and I enjoyed them all. I wish I would have been at all the planning sessions for this, because that sounds like fun.

I liked all three stories. I can rank them in order of which I liked them, but I won't because I did really like all of them and think they worked really well together to make up the whole.

I'm working on my end-of-the-year retrospective--which books were my favorites, how much I read, and what I should try and read next year.

Jealousy and Envy

First things first:

My fortune cookie of the day:

Ideas not coupled with action never become bigger than the brain cells they occupied.

I made that big and red. That fortune hangs on my bulletin board and comes from a cookie my coworker brought me last week after going out for Chinese (she, for some odd reason, doesn't like fortune cookies. My gain.)

It's pretty cheesy, but is also really speaking to me right now.

Also, Rachel won my Vibes contest and so the book will be in the mail to her shortly. And for those who didn't win, it'll be in stores (and hopefully your library) next month.

And, to taunt you further, today I review

Paper Towns John Green

First things first--this is John Green's best book.

If you've read a John Green book before, you know that you can never really describe the book by describing the plot--it's hard to get too into the plot without giving much away, but also, the books are about so much more than just what's going on.

If you haven't read a John Green book before, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

Quentin has always loved Margo Roth Spigelman, the girl next door. One glorious night before graduation, she takes him out all night to exact revenge on her cheating boyfriend and a few others. The next day, she's gone. Margo often disappears, but this time she doesn't come back. Quentin thinks she's left clues and is off on a hunt to find her.

As in his other works, Green's real strength is in his characters, especially the secondary ones. But this time, Green takes it a step further as his characters realize that you can never fully know another person. How Quentin sees Margo is not how Lacey sees Margo and it's not how Margo sees Margo. We all present different facets of our selves to the world--we very rarely let one person see all of us, but, at the same time, when viewing people, we view them through our own lenses and project our own ideals or hatreds on to them. And, when you idolize someone from afar, as Quentin does Margo, the difference between what you think and what he or she actually is, is much greater.

Smart, funny, heartbreaking, thought-provoking... John Green has done it again.

The man has 3 books out, one with a Printz, one with a Printz honor, and this one will be hot in contention for this year's top prizes. He's my age. I'm horribly jealous, especially because his work deserves all of it.

Look for it on October 16.

In the mean time, listen to A LOT of Mermaid Avenue and brush up on your Leaves of Grass

And, I leave you with this:

Last night or the night before that,
I won´t say which night
A seaman friend of mine,
I´ll not say which seaman,
Walked up to a big old building,
I won´t say which building,
And would not have walked up the stairs,
not to say which stairs,
If there had not been two girls,
leaving out the names of those two girls.

In Which I do not do Justice to a Genius

Hi! Today I'm going to talk about John Green. I've been putting this post off, mainly because I don't have anything interesting to say besides he rocks! If you doubt me, just check out the hilarity that is Brotherhood 2.0.

Go ahead, check it out. I'll wait.

Yes, I realize you won't come visit me for a week after watching that, but hey. It's worth it. You'll come back to me, if anything, because I turned you onto Brotherhood 2.0.

So, anyway, John Green is like, my age, which really isn't that old, despite what I may tell you. He already has 2 books published. His first one won the Printz and the second one was a Printz honor. I feel like such a failure.

His work is characterized by main characters with odd things (in the first, knowing the last words of everyone, in the second, being a genius who has only dated girls named Katharine) and quirky side-kick characters.

Yes, there is some sex. But nothing worse than what my dog does to random dogs at the dog park. (We've decided she needs to know a few basic commands--come, sit, lie down, and stop bringing shame upon the family.) And there is some language. I talked about this with Molly over at Bittersweet.

Anyway, so his first one is Looking for Alaska

I like this book a lot more now than when I first read it. The problem is that it's the basic boy meets girl who fascinates him and then she dies plot. And I read it right after reading As Simple as Snow, which has a similar basic plot, even though the two books are very different. (And when I say right after I mean, I read Snow, went to the kitchen and made a fresh cup of tea and read Alaska. I had to read a bunch of books for work (those two titles being two of them) and so I did read the entirety of both of them on the same day.

After the intricate puzzles of Snow I just wasn't ready for the intelligent humor of Alaska

It was Green's second book, An Abundance of Katherines that I came around to appreciate everything that was going on.

In Katherines a child genius who has just graduated from high school and his best friend go on a road trip. Their car breaks down and they end up spending the summer in this small little town that's dying, because the factory (which makes tampon strings) employs almost everyone and it's not doing so well.

Trust me, it's hysterical, and no one dies, so it's not depressing like Alaska was.

Green has an excellent sense of the plausibly absurd. (I mean, a factory that makes tampon strings?! So bizarre, and yet, someone has to do it, right? These factories must be out there somewhere.) Coupled with his quirky characters (Yes, I know I used that word already, but really, it just fits well), especially the best friends are wonderful.

Check him out.