Shopping and a Book Survey

For perhaps the first time in my life, I had a lot of fun shopping today with my mom, grandma, and sisters. I usually tire of clothes within fifteen minutes, then spend the rest of an hour vetoing the ugly things my frustrated mother suggests, until we're both steamed and empty-handed. This time, however, my sisters were more funny than annoying, and nobody told me to wear more makeup or suck in my stomach. We had a pleasant time chatting, acting like we were about eight years old ("My toe looks like it's growing a nipple!" said Grandma in the car ride there) and had good salads and awesome desserts at Bahama Breeze.

I bought two cute cotton dresses on sale at American Eagle, along with underwear, a black cami, black leather flipflops, and a short-sleeved orange cardigan. I got two pairs of jeans from Express (not that I, like, ever choose to wear jeans), and yellow shorts and a purple top from H&M, but my sister and I aren't really sure which of us they belong to, because my mom paid for them and we wear the same size. I positively drooled over a pair of obnoxious gold, sequined pumps, but they didn't have my size. I guess now I'll never get the chance to feel like Hannah Montana... unless I'm wearing all the other sequined crap I bought solely to feel like Hannah Montana.

Besides that, though, my evening was pretty uneventful. I spent a little bit of time with Sebastian, took a nice walk with my sister, and finally cleared the piles of clothes from my floor. The room looks great, and now I just have to dig through boxes to dress myself for the next week and a half. *thumbs down*

This is about the most boring blog on the whole internet. To spice it up (um, yeah right) here's a facebook survey I filled out the other night. If you guys want to fill it out as well and link to your blogs in the comments, I'd be interested to read them!

1. What author do you own the most books by?

Sarah Dessen (9) and Jo Rowling: 10 different books, and up to 6 multiples of each Potter volume

2. What book do you own the most copies of?
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (6)

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
I'm going to leave Matt [Lauren Fairweather's boyfriend, of The Whomping Willows]'s answer, because I wholeheartedly agree and am sick of explaining myself. "No. I write like I talk, and I'd honestly never say, "Of which book do you own the most copies?" That's just silly. I'm aware that sentences shouldn't end with prepositions, and that's good enough for me. "

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Secret? I'll tell anyone who'll listen. Colin Singleton, Harry Potter, Severus Snape, Marcus Flutie, Remus Lupin, Seb Mantegna, Nick Carraway, Holden Caulfield, Hamlet, Pudge Halter, Q Jacobsen... and that's just for books. If I got into movies, we'd be here all night.

5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
I'm so glad Matt's only read the Potter series twice, because fellow fans usually go through convulsions when I tell them Half-Blood Prince is the only one I've read four times, and the others I've been through twice. I have, however, reread The Catcher in the Rye every year since I was fourteen, and I've read Jaclyn Moriarty's Ashbury/Brookfield trilogy about three times.

6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Beverly Cleary's Beezus and Ramona. My mom used to beg me to read other authors, but Beverly was my first literary love. Little did my mother know that, to this day, I'd still harbor a special love for the eight-to-eleven age group. I want to write for them. They're my calling.

7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
I don't know if it counts as this year, but Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn, without a doubt. Quickly followed by Heart of Darkness. (Not because I'm too vapid to understand it. Just because it's exhaustingly masculine, and the few good bits fight and struggle in my mind to be remembered among all the droning descriptions of boats.)

8. What is the best book you've read in the past year?
HAMLET, which I cannot believe I hadn't read before. Another contender is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. On a more superficial (but still beautiful and fulfilling) note, Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty. John Green's Paper Towns is also somewhere in the running.

9. If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey. It contains my soul.

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I would never wish that fate upon a book I liked. I'm really looking forward to Breaking Dawn, though, because HOW HILARIOUS WILL THAT BE?

11. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
I have faith that the ghost of Salinger will prompty choke to death any bastard who attempts to rape Catcher after it hits the public domain. For those beloved books that are less-well protected, I cross my heart. If Kristen Stewart ever auditions for Jessica Darling, I'm moving to Antarctica.

12. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
Just two nights ago, I dreamt John and Hank Green were my eighth grade English teachers, and that they'd assigned me to make Draco Malfoy out of Sculpey. I also have a recurring dream in which I have to fly a Comet 260 to reach a light switch on the ceiling of a Sam's Club warehouse.

13. What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
I suppose I started the Twilight series when I was eighteen.

14. What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Le Petit Prince, as I read it in its original French, and I have a very elementary understanding of the language. The experience was totally rewarding, though, as that book changed my life.

15. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
I've sadly never seen a Shakespearean play performed live that wasn't one of the obvious favorites. Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Midsummer, As You Like It, Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing. Probably another or two, but nothing obscure.

16. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
I like me some Chekhov (emphasis on the SOME), but, as I've already said, Antoine de Saint-Exupery means a lot to me. French FTW.

17. Roth or Updike?
I'm amused by the little Updike I've read, but I'm no huge fan.

18. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Sigh. I've read neither. BUT I WILL. GIVE ME TIME.

19. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare. Not to sound like a cop-out or anything.

20. Austen or Eliot?
Austen! My God. Austen.

21. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Let's just say that whenever I watch one of Rosianna's videos, I hang my head in shame. Then perk up a little, because her voice sounds like chocolate.

22. What is your favorite novel?
I've already given them enough attention, but the true answer is a tie between The Catcher in the Rye and Half-Blood Prince. But I'm also partial to The Bell Jar, and, call me cliche, but I love The Great Gatsby.

23. Play?
The Crucible. Then Midsummer Night's Dream.

24. Poem?
John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" will never, as long as the world is round, cease to make my head go all foggy with appreciation. Emily Dickinson and I also have a very unique relationship of note, but she's not my favorite.

25. Essay?
I've never read many essays outside of obligation. Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, however, made me tilt my head and smile a lot.

26. Work of nonfiction?
Stephen Greenblatt wrote a pretty great biography on Shakespeare. I'm big on those. I have Will in the World in hardcover. (...Because I stole it from my unpleasant AP Literature teacher. She deserved it.)

27. Who is your favorite writer?
Jo.

28. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Sigh. I'd rather avoid the drama. Chances are, you know my answer to this question already. If you agree, bite your lower lip and smile to yourself. If you disagree, put down the pitchfork; it's an opinion. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're probably better for it.

29. What is your desert island book?
Half-Blood Prince. Gosh, I sound juvenile. I MEANT VICTOR HUGO'S UNABRIDGED LES MISERABLES IN NINE-POINT FONT.

30. And... what are you reading right now?
The Spell Book of Listen Taylor by Jaclyn Moriarty, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. And I ought to start House of Leaves, for Sebastian's sake.

Sexy: My lunch. A salad with strawberries, mandarin oranges, grapes, roasted almonds, goat cheese crumbles, and yummy vinaigrette dressing, served with crisp flatbread. Followed up, healthily, with a mousse-covered brownie surrounded by a sea of melted vanilla ice cream and topped with whipped cream.

Unsexy: The zit on my thigh! I keep rubbing things against it, and it hurts!

Chipotle burritos this year: 27

S'mores this summer: 6

Subscribers: 19,763

Bye, guys! Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow. <3