It's been quite a while since I've been that quiet out here in the blogosphere and I have no intention of continuing this streak of silence. I should recover from my laziness by tomorrow.
I think the contents of my post earlier this week kind of drained me and the book I was reading just made me feel completely off and withdrawn. Seriously...the creep factor totally messed with me this week. I've been totally off and nothing has gone the way I've wanted it to.
Let's talk about it...
Posts I Posted: So...this week I felt like an incredible jerk when I gave 2 stars to a book that was written by a 93-year-old woman who lost a child at the age of 5. My review was honest, but it didn't make it any easier to feel that I'd totally raked this book across the coals. Oh, and I didn't even put everything in my review. I left out a whole page of notes because I already felt super bad about all the things I'd criticized.
Books I Read: Add that horrible guilt to the fact that I read quite possibly the most disturbing book ever, and my week was totally off the rails from normal.
I finished reading American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, my Deal Me In Challenge book for this week. Holy crap you guys. Psycho does not even begin to describe it. This book was a wreck. I wound up giving it 2 stars as well.
Here's the thing...it's full of seriously disturbing imagery and quite a bit of profanity. Now...that was to be expected. The title is American Psycho...it's not going to be sunshine and lollipops. However, that's not the reason for my low star rating. Despite my crummy rating, the book really does have some literary merit. The book is written in first person and really does quite a good job of portraying a complete psychopath. He starts out mild and then just progressively gets worse and it's written in a way that they guy really does become real to you as a reader. A creepy, I want to run away, please don't even look sideways at me kind of real.
But...I had a hard time staying with the narrative. It started off irritating me right away. Lots of over the top description since the character is obsessed with what everyone is wearing and all of the cool gadgets he owns. I swear, if I read the term "hardbody" one more time, I'm going to lose it. I wanted to slap the crap out of him.
It does paint a pretty clear picture of the 1980's financial yuppie landscape in New York, but then it all totally goes crazy. Seriously. The crap hits the fan in a major way. Hell in a hand basket. Not, well...you might need to get a little mental health counseling. It went full-blown Dahmer crazytown. It gets slowly more disturbing, adding increasing frequent slips of profanity, violence, and just absurdly offensive comments. I really was concerned that wouldn't be able to finish the book. But...I made it. I'm a little bit messed up from the experience, but I pushed through.
My two star rating comes not from Ellis's lack of a decently constructed book, but more from my complete abhorrence of the storyline. In all reality, the book is actually quite well written and impressive. I just couldn't freaking take it. My stomach was in knots and I had to put the book down and walk away at several interludes. Though I'm glad I read it and was able to check it off my list, this is one that I will never be tempted to read again. Once was traumatizing enough.
Recipes I Tried: Nothing new this week, just a couple of old standbys. We made Mandarin Chicken Roll-Ups...one of my favorite summertime recipes...and I put together some Stuffed Peppers at Darian's request.
(Something went totally haywire at some point during the evening though and he managed to projectile vomit those darned peppers all over my kitchen floor and living room carpet. Even better? He still said that he really liked them and wanted them again once the Poltergeist vomit scene concluded.)
One of these days I'll start giving you guys a recipe each week from the family files. Despite Darian's horrid reaction earlier this week, I promise that the majority of the meals I put together are really tasty, and not poisonous at all. I actually have gathered up some quite good ones along the way.
Projects I Worked On/Finished: Once again, total shaming time. I accomplished nothing. Yesterday I headed upstairs with the total intent to bust out some serious project action. I started off by working on the planning for one of my Pinterest projects for the month. And then things went horribly, horribly awry. I spent 90 minutes trying to get that stupid project to come to fruition, but the planning was a total failure. I gave up and went back downstairs to a plate of celery and tzatziki dip. Pathetic.
Challenge Progress: There were some things completed this week. Reading American Psycho made a dent in my progress on several challenges other than the Deal Me In Challenge, including my Read 1,000,000 Pages, Read the World, State by State, and Century of Books challenges.
I started working on a few things for the 101 in 1001 and my 50x50. These are little steps and it will be a while before those green "in progress" goals get turned to red, but it's something.
Deal Me In Pick for the Week: This week, I drew the 4 of hearts. I will be reading This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales.
In the mix of all that (because we're freaking nuts), Darian and I have decided to join in on another read-a-thon here shortly. It's the Summer Library Challenge Read-a-Thon hosted by The Book Monsters. Obviously to do that, we need library books. It's been a while, so today Darian and I tried to make an impromptu trip to the library. We were completely excited and ready to scour for some good books. And...pfffthffttt. Library closed. That's what happens when you live in Mormonville. Nothing is open on Sundays. Totally annoying. I'll be hitting the library after work tomorrow in preparation, but the actual read-a-thon dates are June 16th to 22nd. We'll be ready!
And darn it, I will get more stuff up in the shop this week. The goal is to get some hand puppets ready to go, but as always, if you have any specific requests, let me know and I'll add them to the list.
I'm going to go make some dinner now...then I think it's back to being lazy for the rest of the evening. Productivity is not my strong suit at the moment...maybe tomorrow...
Oh noes! I hate when I head out to the library and find it is closed! Hope you find lots of great books!
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