Ellen Foster - Kaye Gibbons.


I picked up this book at a second hand book store for two reasons: 1) it costs 50cents and 2) on the cover it says "Ellen Foster is a southern Holden Caulfield, tougher perhaps, as funny ..."

Now, Holden Caulfield happens to be one of the few literary characters that I truly cherish and dont mind visiting a million times over. (BTW I read Catcher .. after reading The perks of being a wallflower and felt completely ripped off. Annoying little copycat). So I read Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons and let me tell you how this magnificent masterpiece completely changed my life!!!! I have no words!!! After you read this amazing book you are goning to send me e-cookies for life just for pointing you in the direction of the epic stellar brilliance this book happens to be.

Or Not. This book is so pathetically boring that I want my 50c back, and I have read some gloriously boring things in my life. The story is a woe-is-me first person narrative of an adolescent Ellen who gets adopted by a foster mother and changes her name to Ellen Foster (who'd have thunk that?). The theme of the book is the kind of oppression olympics that passes for biographical literature these days, "my dad was a drunk bastard, my childhood wasnt sunflowers and candy, everyone is an asshole, why doesnt anyone love me, I'm poor, boo hoo." *le sigh*. If there was supposed to be something funny in there, I completely missed it. And I do understand that you trying to set the tone of the book as "southern American" or whatever, but at least respect the reader and get your tenses in order. Moving on ...

So, a lot of people are making their year end book lists and already preparing next year's reads and I'm sitting here thinking 2009 isnt over as yet, I can still squeeze 2-3 more books in. I dont aim really high, my goal was to read 3 new books a month i.e. 36 books and I have accomplished that. So far I have read 39, that is not counting the re-reads. I never count re-reads because I hardly ever re-read. and I dont count poetry as books either. I'll try and make it to 42 books, that way I'd have read 3.5 books a month. Why yes, I do love multiplications!

So Sia (maryweather)finally receives my box of goodies today so I can post the pictures of its contents here. Didnt want to spoil it for her.





1. Hand-made papier mache trinklet box
2. "Alice in wonderland" pebbles
3. Candle with pressed flowers
4. Papier mache Christmas tree ornament
5. Letter
6. Blue Jay
7. Freedom and Rock Buttons
8. Tiny vial of Patchouli oil
9. Bindis in different colours
10. World-traveller stickers

I'm glad she liked it. So who's bday is coming up next?

So, I finally finished reading “Mostly Harmless” by Douglas Adams and that completes my “trilogy in five parts”. With that I can cross off another thing from my list of things to-do this year. Now If I could just find “Young Zaphod plays it safe” that would complete my “The ultimate hitch-hiker’s guide to the universe”. The third book in the picture was a random buy and it sucked, so I left it after 75 pages or so.

Its November already and I got just another month to finish things off my list. Thankfully most of the non-fluffy practical things got done this year.

1. Buy a house.
2. Reduce my carbon foot print (this is an ongoing process, the more you do, the more there is left to do.)
3. Be a raw vegan for a month (I lasted 2 whole weeks before giving up)
4. Get tested for radiation sickness.
5. Finish up my blog: Tada....
6. Write 50 poems (LOL hahahahaha. In my defense, this whole year has been one big writer's block)
7. Complete 50 ATC/paintings (I have done 41 so far)
8. Read at least 3 new books every month
9. Complete the "trilogy in five parts"
10. Spend a day at Louvre (I can’t believe I still haven’t done this)
11. Catalogue all the books I have read/owned/bought/given away etc (this is more monumental than I thought. Still working on it)
12. Take art classes (Couldn’t find a decent one)
13. Watch 50 foreign language movies
14. Learn French (I did start out with a bang but then life got in the way)
15. Watch at least 5 plays (I have seen 4, so I am pretty close)
16. Watch all seasons of Gilmore girls (Just completed season 6, just one more season to go)
17. Learn to cook at least 5 dishes (I learned two and lost interest)
18. Write every day. (If only there were 40 hours in a day)
19. Get a new phone
20. Get my taxes in order.
21. Get the house painted.

So far, so good. Every year I choose a theme and read 6 books based on that. Only 6 because I get bored very easily and cannot stick to one topic for too long. Last year it was Mental Illness (One flew over the cuckoo's nest, The curious incident of the dog at night-time, Of Mice and men, Slaughterhouse 5, Me talk pretty one day, A clockwork orange). This year was Douglas Adams (The trilogy + Last chance to see). For next year's theme, I'm thinking the Beatniks. Maybe. It’s been a long time since I visited Jack Kerouac, et al.

This is the first time in weeks that I actually have enough time to sit down and write an entry. But now when I am here, I can’t think of anything uplifting to say. All I have is bad thoughts and a lot of cribbing about the people's ever-increasing level of stupidity. But we all have our share of annoyances/grievances, who'd want to read mine? So all I am going to say is trying to be nice and being a decent human being does not go down well with some people. I'm so glad that I am home for two days with nothing important left to do. There are so many thoughts that I want to put on paper. I also need to update my project365 tumblr. I have taken a lot of pictures, but it’s the uploading part which keeps getting postponed. But first, here's a meme.
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So, say you were meeting a new person--blind date, new friend, who knows. And you wanted them to have some idea of what kind of person you are, and who you are. But you can't actually tell them in so many words. Instead, you have to give them a box, with a dozen things in it for them to look at/read/listen to/taste/whatever. What would you put in the box?

1. A handmade paper journal.
2. "Love in the time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
3. A bottle of L'air du temps by Nina Ricci.
4. Nirvana's Unplugged album.
5. Emily Dickinson's poetry book.
6. A fountain pen and an old-school ink bottle.
7. A portable watercolour palette.
8. Postcards from different countries.
9. A silk Omamori for luck.
10. A pack of Gualoises Bleues.
11. A rustique crocheted scarf.
12. A printout of "Pale fire".

I know its a bit late but I want to wish everyone who is doing the NaNoWriMo this year all the very best of luck. May you find the inspiration and time to finish all your novels on time. I attempted it last year and failed miserably enough for one lifetime. Tell me about your plots so far?


Sia's (maryweather) package arrived.


The brand new copy and my old one from wayyy back.


This is heading your way Sia, Heads up.

My resolution this year (as every year) is to read more than 3 books a month, that is a total of 36 books. Last year I succeeded in achieving this goal. Dont know abt this year though.

Books I have read so far

1. The Secret History : Donna Tartt.
2. Lord of the flies : William Golding.
3. The wind-up bird chronicles : Haruki Murakami.
4. The book of Ruth : Jane Hamilton.
5. A town called Dehra : Ruskin Bond.
6. The Road : Cormac McCarthy.
7. Buddha of Suburbia : Hanif Qureshi.
8. Tropic of Cancer : Henry Miller.
9. The Divine Comedy (Inferno) : Dante.
10. The Divine Comedy (Purgatory) : Dante.
11. The Vagina Monologues : Eve Ensler.
12. The Birth of Venus : Sarah Dunant.
13. Of love and other demons - Gabriel Gracia Marquez.
14. The Secret Scriptures - Sebastian Barry
15. The Notebook of lost things - Megan Staffel
16. Angels and demons - Dan Brown
17. The night train to Lisbon - Pascal Mercier
18. How Opal Mehta got a life - Kavya Vishwanathan.
19. A thousand splendid suns - Khaled Hoseini
20. Holy Blood Holy Grail
21. Wintering - Kate Moses.
22. Blind Willow, Sleeping woman - Haruki Murakami.
23. How to be Good - Nick Hornby.
24. Runing with scissors - Augusten Burroughs.
25. My Antonia - Willa Cather.
26. Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert.
27. Walden or life in the woods - David Henry Thoreau
28. Sophie's World - Jostein Garder
29. Last Chance to see - Douglas Adams
30. The death of Bunny Munro - Nick Cave
31. The story of the ship wrecked sailor - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
32. The girls' guide to hunting and fishing - Meg Cabot
33. This book does not exist - Gary Hayden
34. The interpreter of maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
35. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
36. So long, and thanks for all the fish - Douglas Adams
37. Mostly Harmless - Douglas Adams
38. Sputnik Sweetheart - Haruki Murakami
39. Ellen Foster - Kaye Gibbons