The Geekboat Files Vol. 1

While shopping for the perfect 90210 birthday gift for my bff Brooke, I came across the book Geeky Dreamboats: A Celebration by Lacey Soslow & Sarah O’Brien*. I’ve already gotten myself a copy.

In addition to deliciously nerdy pictures, each entry has this CV:

Before putting it in the giftbox and sealing it up, I read it. How could you not? It’s about dreamy nerds! With a few exceptions (some non-geeks, I think, are included), the book is fantastic! I added index cards with my thoughts at the acceptable places (like the Wilson Bros. page) and SWORE I saw an entry for Anderson Cooper. Sadly, I was mistaken. Once I realized that absence, though, my brain went into overdrive…who else would I add to my Geekboat list?

This is what I thought about at work this morning; maybe sitting in front of my PC with a spreadsheet open in front of me invigorated my Geekboat senses.

My recommendations for addition:

1. Anderson Cooper (of course)

2. Andrew Bird

3. Matthew Gray Gubler (He’s my fave right now; attributed to all my ION Television Criminal Minds watching.)

4. Lukas Haas

(With the exception of Anderson Cooper, who, again, I SWEAR I saw in the book on my first look-through) I guess it’s no secret that in addition to geeks, I have a thing for tall, mostly dark-haired, spindly guys. As they say in France, le sigh.

Applications (well, the comments section) are now being accepted for Geekboats. Who would you include?

Now…on to life’s big question: Can Geekboats build tables?

*In other words, everything about that book and the image from that book (and the word “geekboat”) is copyrighted. This isn’t my original idea. This is a wonderful idea by Lacey Soslow & Sarah O’Brien. Thanks Lacey & Sarah!

Person, place or thing

So, after coming perilously close to being disgusted with the repeat-play on my iPod, I’m back to Lala.com to find some new music or, if nothing else, listen to some music I know I like but don’t own. This morning I started thinking about specific songs that embodied…well…themselves…perfectly. Does that make sense?

I once heard someone talk about bands and how they represented something bigger – in this case, Arcade Fire specifically, and how they seemed to be the embodiment of youth. Not youth youth, but of being young. I agree with that, and I think there are other bands out there that do similar things*. However, I think that there seem to be more songs lately, let’s say outside of rap and country, that juxtapose their lyrics and melodies for ?shock? ?impact?…I don’t know.

Less often, there are songs that seem to come together in one great piece to hand over a feeling. Patrick Watson’s Beijing, which I mentioned in an earlier post, does this. Today in my listening, I decided that Two by The Antlers also does this.

What are your thoughts? What do you consider total-package songs? Universally? Personally?

*A personal example would be Better Than Ezra. While this isn’t like the Arcade Fire, because I believe the scope of this is smaller, BTE completely embodies college to me. That’s it. BTE = Jennifer’s four (and a half) years at Samford University.

What’s your 4-8-15-16-23-42?

It’s LOST day, and I want your theories. All of them, even if they could easily be disproven. The idea is to gather as many as possible here and then come back at the end of the season (series :() and see who’s the closest to being right. Take your time, post as many as you like, and if you need more room, let me know and I’ll loop you in with your own post.

Also, don’t give me any grief about spoilers. These aren’t spoilers, they’re fan theories, so unless Damon himself wanders over…don’t take it so seriously!

My early theory:

Everyone is in a coma at the same hospital. Doctors are performing experimental therapy on them by feeding all of them the same “reality” and the observing how their brains react. When a character is pulled by the Others, they are actually waking up from their coma. This would explain why most of the kids were taken early: their bodies were able to recover more quickly. Also, because every character entered the show soon after some sort of tragic accident (or connection to a tragic accident), they could all have been in some sort of physically/mentally altered state. My theory was pretty much blown when they saw Cindy the Stewardess with the Others.

Another theory:

Vincent is Walt. Or an extension of Walt, a la His Dark Materials. Think about it…

Okay, now what’re yours? Go!

Being Owen Wilson

So, last night while I was giving in to insomnia, I watched The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and all its special features. Today I’ve spent a few minutes reading quotes by Wes Anderson and the Wilson brothers.

This quote by Owen stuck out:

“I think of myself as a doom person. I’m a worrier. But I like the idea of being an optimist. Maybe I’m the kind of optimist who deep down knows it’s not going to work.”

What an honest and true thing to say… Brooke and I discussed it and I’ll let her weigh in via comment if she’d like. I think that for me, this is a true and relevant statement; however, I feel like I’m in the exact opposite place. I am a big worrier, but I always feel guilty about it (the worrying), which is only balanced by my feelings that I should be worrying more. I think that, in the end, it relates back to the “P” in my INFP temperament where I tend to enjoy spending time in the planning phase and not the decisions phase. If you love to plan, the possibilities are endless, and usually there’s enough time to make a good number of them optimistic.

Does this make sense at all? Thoughts?

I Want My Harper Lee…

Paste Magazine (a great magazine, you should subscribe!) recently posted the 10 Frequently-challenged Books Everyone Should Read on their website. Now, this is an issue that steams me up, for two reasons:

1. Books, like any other media (and I’d definitely consider books media, because what better commentary can you have on an era than by looking at which books are a) chosen to be published and b) popular among…well, this is a topic for later, I think), exist to sell something…a physical product in most cases, but also an idea, moral, experience, etc…but also, I think, to help people grow up. You can look at a certain book (like Catcher in the Rye) and say “Oh, that’s going to cause violence, truancy, gutter-talk…” but to me, why not keep the kids that would normally cut class IN class by giving them a book to read that would interest them? Also, at what point do you introduce certain themes to kids so that they can start forming their own ideas about what they want to be and not to be (thank you, Shakespeare)? I know that the argument is about questionable required readings, but face the facts: do you want your daughter to skip reading a Judy Blume book only to spend that time reading Seventeen or watching E!? What’s the bigger threat? In my life, books have done more to help me organize thoughts, encounter different ways of thinking, and shape my own way of life than they ever caused me to curse, have questionable relationships, etc. (I learned all that stuff from the movies…)

2. Here’s where everything turns: who, exactly, is challenging these books? I mean, I hear about it all the time, but everyone I talk to has had these books on their required reading lists. So why is a list of the 100 Most Frequently-Challenged Books still in existence? I’d love to see these broken down by geographical location worldwide. The only thing that springs to mind is that scene in Field of Dreams…

Amy Madigan in Field of Dreams

So, here’s the hundred (from 1990 – 2000)…have you read any of these (I’ve bold-ed mine)? It’s an interesting list. Just a note: These aren’t all books that are required by schools; the list was compiled by the American Library Association, so it is more for books that people asked to be removed from the library (which is even more infuriating to me).  I’d love to hear how these books, and others, have shaped you…even if it shaped you by not being allowed to read it…Also, do you have any favorites from your childhood/preteens? I want to know what they are!

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
15. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna
20. Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
40. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
46. Deenie by Judy Blume
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
62. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
88. Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

As far as my favorite childhood books go, I was infatuated with series, so The Baby Sitters’ Club was up there at the top, along with anything by Roald Dahl. Moving into preteens, I loved anything by S.E. Hinton and Robert Cormier (I Am the Cheese? GENIUS!). I also read all of the historical fiction of Ann Rinaldi. Something that I’m so thankful for is that every time my mom bought me a book like The Babysitters’ Club, or by Christopher Pike or whoever, my mom also had me pick out a Newberry Award winner. Those were some fantastic books…

Now, a different kind of list: Newsweek’s Top 100 Books of All Time. Which of these have you read? Interesting to see how many of the “challengers” are on here, isn’t it?

1. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
2. 1984, George Orwell
3. Ulysses, James Joyce
4. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
5. The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
6. Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
7. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
8. The Illiad and The Odyssey, Homer
9. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
10. Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri
11. Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
12. Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift
13. Middlemarch, George Eliot
14. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
15. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
16. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
17. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
18. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
19. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
20. Beloved, Toni Morrison
21. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
22. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
23. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
24. Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
25. Native Son, Richard Wright
26. Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville
27. On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin
28. The Histories, Herodotus
29. The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
30. Das Kapital, Karl Marx
31. The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli
32. Confessions, St. Augustine
33. Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes
34. The History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides
35. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
36. Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne
37. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
38. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
39. On the Road, Jack Kerouac
40. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
41. The Holy Bible
42. A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
43. Light in August, William Faulkner
44. The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois
45. Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
46. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
47. Paradise Lost, John Milton
48. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
49. Hamlet, William Shakespeare
50. King Lear, William Shakespeare
51. Othello, William Shakespeare
52. The Sonnets, William Shakespeare
53. Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman
54. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
55. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
56. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
57. Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
58. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
59. For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
60. Slaughter-house Five, Kurt Vonnegut
61. Animal Farm, George Orwell
62. Lord of the Flies, William Golding
63. In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
64. The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
65. Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust
66. The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
67. As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
68. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
69. I, Claudius, Robert Graves
70. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
71. Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence
72. All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren
73. Go Tell It On the Mountain, James Baldwin
74. Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White
75. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
76. Night, Elie Wiesel
77. Rabbit, Run, John Updike
78. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
79. Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth
80. An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser
81. The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West
82. Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
83. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
84. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
85. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
86. The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud
87. The Education of Henry Adams, Henry Adams
88. Quotations from Chairman Mao, Mao Zedung
89. The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, William James
90. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
91. Silent Spring, Rachel Carson
92. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, John Maynard Keynes
93. Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad
94. Goodbye to All That, Robert Graves
95. The Affluent Society, John Kenneth Galbraith
96. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
97. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley and Malcolm X
98. Eminent Victorians, Lytton Strachey
99. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
100. The Second World War: The Gathering Storm; Their Finest Hour; The Grand Alliance; The Hinge of Fate, Winston Churchill