What I Miss About Childhood

Time Flies

The thing I miss about childhood was having hours and hours of time where I wasn't accountable to anyone. I was a latchkey kid who had three or four hours of unsupervised time at home every afternoon before either of my parents got home. I used to read a whole book in a day, and do projects that took up the floor in a whole room. I didn't notice time passing until the room would suddenly grow dark as the sun fell. I miss the books and the pojects. I miss knowing that nothing would interupt what I was doing and how deeply I was doing it, whatever it was. The art project or the world in the book would be my whole world. And that was happiness.



As an adult I don't make up for it very well, I have consolations, but they are consolations, make no mistakes. Days out by myself, stolen moments reading in locked bathrooms. I try to schedual time for projects but they aren't priorities, not compared with people I care about, a job I believe in. And because I can't turn away the things I give priorty there is little time for the little projects and stories to really saturate my soul.

Saturday question: worst injury received& inflicted?

88. Ooku: the Inner Chanbers. vol. 2. by Fumi Yoshinaga

89. Ooku: the Inner Chambers. Vol 3. by Fumi Yoshinaga

90. Dreaming of Dior by Charlotta Smith, ill. by Grant Cowan (A bunch of nice little stories matched with amazing illlustrations of the dresses the women of the stories wore.)

91. Spendor by Anna Godberson

92. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

93. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson (The original title in Swedish translates to "Men Who Hate Women," and although fitting in many ways I would probably not have read this if that had been the title in english. I love this book and the main female character even if she is only sparsely characterized early in the book. She was instantly added to my fictional rolemodels. Not for the faint of heart; well worth the time.)

94. By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead by Julie Ann Peters

95. Scott Pilgrim (vol 5.) vs. The Universe by Bryan Lee O'Malley

96. The Good Body by Eve Ensler

97. Angelography by Danielle Trussoni

98. Chobits. 1. by Clamp

99. Britten & Bulightly: a graphic novel by Hannah Berry

100. French Milk by Lucy Knisley (a fun sketchbook travel journal of paris. full of all those little details that make a reality.)

101. The Meaning of Herbs: Myth, Language & Lore by Gretchen Scoble & Ann Field

102. Chobits. 2. by Clamp

103. Chobits 3 by Clamp

104. Design Your Life: The Pleasures & Perils of Everyday Things by Ellen & Julia Lupton (recommended by JB. A series of fun little essays about the every day things that generally go unnoticed because of how common they are. instills a lingering tendancy to thing about why things like toasters and bras look the way they do. wonderful.)

105. Show Me How: 500 Things You SHould Know: Instructions for life from the everday to the exotic by Derek Fagerstrom, Lauren Smith & the Show Me team. (A wonderful full-color manual on a wonderful array of things. well worth a thourough browse.)

106. Antique Bakery 1. by Fumi Yoshinaga (an earlier comic by the creater of Ooku. the antic of three guys running a french bakery in Japan. romance hijinks between gay & straight characters, the mysteries of personal histories. not as well thought out as Ooku but not inteded to be.)

107. The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha (a delightful list of things that will make you smile no matter what mood you were in when you opened it.)

108. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larrson

109. This is Water: Some Thoughts Delivered on a Signifigant Occasion About Living a Compassionate Life by David Foster Wallace (The speech everyone should get at soem point, or many points, in their life.)

110. Heroes: Saving Charlie: The Untold Story of Hiro & Charlie by Aury Wallington

111. the Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

112. The Arrival by Shaun Tan (re) (Easily & by miles my favorite book about the immegrant experience. no preaching, no whining, just honest & compassion inducing. Apropriate for a human of any age, readign level or lack there of, no words.)

113. Chobits 4 by Clamp

114. Chobits 5 by Clamp

115. Chobits 6 by Clamp

116. M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman. (a little disappointing because so many of the stories have appeared in other collections, nothing against the stories themselves. Neil is always a Magician of the highest order.)

117. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: a Flavia De Luce Mystery by Alan Bradley (Flavia has definately joined Witch Baby & Lisbeth Salander on my list of Fictional Rolemodels. She may be eleven but she's a chemistry genius with a knack for poisons, oh but she's the good guy/gal. I don't read a ton of mysteries but I can imagine resisting any bit of snooping Flavia might let me tag along for.)

118. The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag: a Flavia De Luce Mystery by Alan Bradley (No more Flavia until February 2011, very sad.)

119. Lulu Meets God & Doubts Him: A Novel by Danielle Ganeck (The title is the title of painting that is the lust-point for most of the characters in this book. not a bad book, but I probably wouldn't have finished it if I hadn't been missing New York at the moment & mourning the wait for Flavia, Lisbeth & manga.)

120. The Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault (A fun little mystery in a dictionary office. A treat for etymology geeks. Found by using that Amazon Recommends thing at the bottom of the page for Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie.)

121. Chobits 8 by Clamp

122. The New Yorker Book of Literary Cartoons

123. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (the third in the Hunger Games trilogy. go read them if you have not. thanks to AR for the recommendation.)

124. Alice in the Country of Hearts. 1. by Soumei Hoshino & Quinrose. (not wonderful, haven't looked to see if there is or will be a sequel, so I guess I don't care. getting kind of tired of people trying to re-write Carroll's mythos, I liked it the way it was.)

125. Skim by Mariko Tamaki & Jilliam Tamaki (graphic novel, first love, the first time you don't tell your best friend the whole truth, being different. very well done.)

126. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (re) (still hilarous.)

127. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (re) (I still love this book, its language and its characters so much... it's very tempting to carry it about like a talisman as I used to with Dangerous Angels.)

128. Time's Magpie: A Walk in Prague by Myla Goldberg (a nice little travelogue, keen details from an authoress who seems to be interested in the same kind of little details of culture & curiousity that I would have been. a nice littel respite from the daily.)

129. Black Bird 1 by Kanoko Sakurakoji (a girl who can see demons finds out that her first love was a demon & that now that she is sixteen she is the most desired bride of every demon ever. very ramntic drama with a bit of magic. silly fun escapism.)

130. Black Bird 2

131. Black Bird 3

132. Black Bird 4

133. Black Bird 5

134. Antique Bakery 2

135. Antique Bakery 3 (Long term mystery building. I'll read something that isn't a comic again soon, really.)

Testing

the great catching up...

47. Tongue by Kyuang Ran Jo (An excellently written tale of food, sorrow & revenge.)

48. Twitter Wit

49. Enchanted Dreams by Nancy Madore

50. Red Carpet Rose by Pat Brady

51. Garden of the Perverse edited by Sage Vivant & M. Christian

52. Illustration Now edited by Julius Wiedeman

53. Paris Changing: Revisiting Eugene Ateget's Paris by Christopher Rauschenberg

54. Philip Marlowe's Guide to Life by Raymond Chandler (Words of wisdom from the master of the tough call.)

55. Steamed: a Steampunk Romance by Katie MacAlister (Kept expecting it to get better, silly me.)

56. Best American Erotica 2005

57. The Proof of the Honey by Salwa Al Neimi (A study of Middle Eastern feelings towards the erotic from an insider.)

58. Mr. Darcy's Diary by Amanda Grange (A nice Pride & Prejudice novel from Darcy's side, carefully kept to original tones & word choice.)

59. A Touch of Deadly by Charlaine Harris (Brain-junk fun)

60. Rose is Rose: Right on the Lips by Pat Brady

61. Best American Erotica 2004

62. Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni

63. Fables 13: the Great Fables Crossover (the most disappointing volume in the otherwise fantastic Fables series)

64. The World According to Twitter by David Pogue & his 500,000 Followers

65. The Anxiety of Everyday Objects by Aurelie Sheehan (Wonderfully written. The adventures of whimsical dreamer in an office job. Excellent.)

66. Best American Erotica 2008


67. Autobiography of a Geisha by Sayo Masuda


68. Yellow Dog by Charles de Lint


69. Portable Childhoods: Stories by Ellen Klages (Wonderful fantasy short stories of a similar vein as Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things.)

70. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder (Pretty good fantasy. Death sentence traded for a food tasting job, interesting scenario, but the main character wasn't enticing enough to get me through the sequel.)


71. The Bad Girl's Guide to Getting What You Want by Cameron Tuttle

72. The Wild Things by Dave Eggars (Pretty close to the movie, very emotionally dense.)


73. Instructions by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Charles Vess (Everything you need to know about how to live is in fairy tales, instruction manual by extract. Excellent.)

74. Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Charles Vess


75. The Year of Yes by Maria Dahvana Headley


76. Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan


77. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (Why would a teen girl commit suicide? What drives us to the bottom? What would you do if you got there? Excellent, not an upper. Strong argument for the importance of all actions, no matter how small a decision might appear to be.)

78. Demo by Brian Wood & Becky Cloonan (graphic novel) (A bunch of awesome short stories about extraordinary people.)


79. Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn

80. Shrimp by Rachel Cohn (sequel to Gingerbread)

81. Cupcake by Rachel Cohn (finishing the trilogy)

82. Luxe by Anna Godbersen (1899 NYC. betrothals, scandals, secrets...first in quartet.)

83. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer (Not as good as the main Twilight books, it exists for the obsessed, more so than I. Luckily short.)

84. Herotica 5

85. Ooku: The Inner Chambers. Vol. 1. by Fumi Yoshinaga. (Alterna-history. What if a disease killed off 75% of teen males in ancient Japan & kept doing so for centuries? How would it change culture, state infrastructure & interpersonal relationships? Excellent adult manga.)

86. Rumors by Anne Godbersen (The Luxe quartet continues.)

87. Envy by Anne Godbersen

a lot of reading can happen when you're out sick (nothing too strenuous though)

37. Rose is Rose: 15th Anniversary Collection by Pat Brady



38. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (re)



39. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (re)



40. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (re)



41. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (re)



42. The Big Bento Boy of Unuseless Japanese Inventions by Kenji Kawakami



43. Nightmares & Fairy Tales: Once Upon a Time... by Serena Valentino & FSc (re)



44. Tokyo: a certain style, text & photos by Kyoichoi Tsuzuki



45. Nightmares & Fairy Tales: Beautiful Beasts by Serena Valentino & FSc (re)



46. Rose is Rose: Running on Alter Ego by Pat Brady

30. The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery (This was a very engaging autobiography-style portrait of Japan as it was opening to the west, of the evolution of gaijin [foreigner] from the differences in cultural etiquette, and how a traditional art form updated itself to remain relevant in changing times.)

31. A Year in Japan by Kate J. Williamson (A delightful volume of wonderfully executed watercolors and observations.)

32. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (Two novella, engaging & sparse writing style.)

33. Stitches: a memoir by David Small (Tragic, moving, inspiring. The terror of a childhood made of secrets.)

34. The Floating World by Cynthia Gralla (Toyko's entertainment world in the '90s with amazing descriptions of the power of dance and feeling admired, heart-wrenching narration of anorexia.)

35. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (re) (As good as it was in elementary school, probably better. "Whole Story" edition was an added entertainment.)

36. High-Spirited Rose is Rose by Pat Brady

7. City Chic by Nina Willdorf

8. The Character of Rain by Amelie Nothomb (re)

9. The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint (re) (My first experienc with De Lint's Newford & Jilly Coppercorn)

10. Promises to Keep by Charles de Lint (So far the novel with the youngest Jilly, to my knowledge)

11. Memories of my Melancoly Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (re)

12. PostSecret: Confessions of Life, Death, and God edited by Frank Warren

13. Club Dead by Charlaine Harris

14. Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris

15. Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

16. Definately Dead by Charlaine Harris

17. A Survival Guide for Landlocked Mermaids by Margot Diaz

18. All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris

19. Yotsuba&! 1 by Kiyohiko Azuma (re) (Manga made of joy.)

20. Yotsuba&! 2 (re)

21. Yotsuba&! 3 (re)

22. Yotsuba&! 4 (re)

23. From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris

24. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

25. The Lost Painting by Joanthan Carr (the true story of a lost & found Carravaggio)

26. Yotsuba&! 5

27. Yotsuba&! 6

28. The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious--and Perplexing -- City by David Lebovitz (Amusing musing on living in Paris)

29. Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

Book List 2010

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (re) (Comfort food.)

2. A Guide to Elegance by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux (Some of her reactionary stances make far more sense in light of the original copyright, 1964, but she can be admired through and through for her absolute faith in her own way.)

3. How to Wrap Five Eggs: Traditional Japanese Packaging by Hideyuki Oka with photos by Michikazu Sakai (Seldom instructional, but very inspirational.)

4. Sundays at Tiffany's (re) (Comfort food, too sweet still.)

5. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (Junk food.)

6. Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris (More junk food.)