So I'm a bit of a book snob....

This, I think, comes to the surprise of no one. Especially if you've ever had a conversation with me about books or you've seen my personal library. I am a voracious reader and I have a well rounded library and tastes in books, everything from comic books to books on theoretical physics to children's classics have made it into my collection. While my tastes in books is rather broad, there is one thing that is pretty constant in my collection and book history; I do not read garbage. That is to say, life is too short for bad writing, too short for terrible plots, too short for flat main characters.

This of course reminds me of a time when I was reading Pride, Prejudice and Zombies, something I should mention I am not proud of, but I thought it would humorous. Unfortunately it was terrible, it took a literary masterpiece and reduced it to a heaping pile of garbage. So when I accidentally spilled my cup of coffee on it, I unceremoniously chucked that sucker into the trash without a moment of hesitation. So without further ado, I present my list of books to avoid and the books you should read instead.

• The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer: If you want to read about vampires try anything by Anne Rice or The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. 

• Anything by Stephanie Meyer: She a terrible writer, read almost anything else. 

• Sense, Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters (who thinks it's ok to bastardize Jane Austen): Instead try Sense and Sensibility the classic novel by Jane Austen, it's fantastic.

• Pride, Prejudice and Zombies by Ben H. Winters (another bastardized classic): Instead try Pride and Prejudice, it's a literary classic. Also Mr. Darcy is one of the sexiest men in literature. 

• The Fifty Shades of Grey series by E.L. James: If you want to read erotica read almost anything ever written by Anais Nin, maybe start with Delta of Venus. 

• Anything by E. L. James: Anyone who can make domestic abuse, stalking, rape and a bastardization of S & M acceptable to the general public is not someone I would ever waste my time and money on. Also she makes me embarrassed to say that my alma mater is WSU Vancouver. 

• Romance Novels, I have to banish an entire genre because they are form letters pretending to be novels. They rot the mind, if you want to read a great love story try Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, One Day by David Nicholls, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 

• Broerature: This is a term I just made up, but it includes gems like I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max. Basically anything that is deliberately shocking for the sake of supposed "humor". These books tend to be terribly written, have horrendous grammar mistakes, and exist only to entertain other Bros. Instead read something that empowers women and will probably make you a better human like The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, or Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit. 

** You'll notice that I only put links to books that I would recommend, I cannot support the reading of garbage. So I have not made it easier for you to locate it. 

** Image Credit: I found this lovely art print on Etsy by SacredandProfane.  

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Word of the Week

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Je Suis Parisien

Today, or rather yesterday, (with my rather odd sleep schedule I have not gone to bed yet) I awoke to the news that Paris had been attacked by terrorists. There were six attacks across the city leaving 128 people dead and at least 180 more injured. At this point it is believed that all the attackers died, most via suicide. French President François Hollande has declared a state of emergency for the first time since 2005, closing public places, imposing curfews and restricting the movement of people and traffic throughout the city. My heart weeps for Paris, we must all pray for Paris.

Image credit: I took this picture of the Eiffel Tower when I was in Paris in 2013.

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Writing advice from John Steinbeck

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National Novel Writing Month

November is National Novel Writing Month or #NaNoWaMo! I've written a novel in a semester before but I've never attempted to such a feat in one month. I'm not sure how much writing I will get done given that I have several secondary applications due in the next thirty days, a full time job, and have difficulty getting more than 6 hours of sleep each night. But this is (hopefully) the last time I have an opportunity to participate in #NaNoWaMo before I start medical school, and I think it's pretty unlikely that I will have time to write a novel while studying 70+ hours a week. Perhaps I should write a novel about the joys of applying to medical school and all of the hoops required to be a competitive candidate.

Sign up for NaNoWaMo here. 

Image credit: I took this picture of my coffee this morning, the mug can be purchased from  The Rumpus, the quote on the mug comes from Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed.

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Climbing out of the rabbit hole

My lack of new posts over the past 12 days can be largely attributed to my lack of energy and time to devote to things other than very adult obligations (laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, work, etc..). Any time not spent on basic adult obligations was devoted to working on a secondary application for a unnamed Medical School that was akin to a very intense therapy session. They asked the very standard questions about what I think will be my greatest difficulty in becoming a physician and experiences that would allow me to relate to my patients; but then they also asked about how I handled situations in which I was treated unfairly, had difficulty working with others, and about personal feedback that was difficult to swallow. I spent almost the entire month allotted working on these short essays, pondering about how to best answer these questions, and feeling like this particular set of essays was in a way booby-trapped. In the end I came to the realization that in order to answer these questions in a way that was both honest and representative of who I am at this point in my life I had to give extremely personal answers, I had to expose some of my most closely guarded secrets, thoughts and options.  In the end it seemed fitting that I should have to pay an additional fee to submit my secondary application simply because the process felt more like a productive therapy session than a medical school application. 

** Image Credit: Breakfast at Yurman's

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