Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm: Sizing up Bybee's Feeble Attempts at Reading Resolutions

Bybee has gone off to work after a morning of lallygagging. Exactly how many applications of shampoo does she really need for those few short thin strands on her head? But never mind that. I've got plenty of other things on my mind.

Another year down the reading drain! Poor Bybee; she has these flashes of brilliance then long stretches of murkiness. Her intentions are good, but her follow-through...do you think she's got a touch of adult ADD? Examining her faults and foibles always gives me a headache like someone whopped me upside the head with a volume of the OED, but I shall not flinch from the task set before me.

1. Read for charity. This resolution is still a little half-baked. For every book I read, I'm going to award myself 1,000 won, roughly the equivalent of 1.00 USD.

Bybee ended up tweaking this goal a little bit -- she changed it to a penny a page instead of 1.00 for each book. Good move. As a result, approximately $270-something dollars is going to an orphanage in Siem Reap. If she'd taken my advice and read some lovely Victorian chunksters, the Cambodians would be getting so much more.

2. Read 100+ books.

She read 106 books. Hmf. The Plump Pig, indeed.

3. Complete all my challenges:

100+ Books Challenge

See above comment.

Support Your Local Library Challenge (50 books this time)

She clumsily scratched her way to 17 books, then went a-wandering off God-knows-where.

2010 Canadian Book Challenge

Fail. 5 books out of 13. Bad Bybee! No poutine for you!

Read The Book, See The Movie Challenge.

So many wonderful pre-1900 novels have been made into movies. I'm just saying.

The Pulitzer Project.

She read another 4 this year. Like I care. The Pulitzers didn't come along until well into the 20th century. Yawn.

4. Read more books published before 1900. You see, Tuffi? I care.

"Tuffi" indeed! 7 books out of 106? I have to admit though that when she read The Rule of St. Benedict (published in 530) I felt a little funny in the head with hope and joy. Alas, in no time at all, she was back bumbling around in the modern...stuff.

5. Read internationally.

Only 32% of her reading was international this year. I wish I knew a number of different languages. How would "Susan, you suck" sound in Tagalog or Ukrainian?

6. Get caught up on my book reviews.

She got caught up all right, but she's straggling again with December's reviews.

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So there you have it. How does she get herself dressed in the mornings? I wish I could quit her and find myself a true bookworm that shares my genteel sensibilities, but I'm yoked to Bybee. She is what she is and she is my fate. I'm bound to be sitting on my little pincushion of despair for yet another year, but you'll never hear me complain. Ouch.

Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm: Sizing Up Bybee's 2009 Reading Season

Bybee had a sudden craving for mandu so she went out and I haven't seen her since. Perhaps she's snowbound somewhere. Perhaps it wasn't a longing for mandu. She knows full well that it's time to cast a glacial eye at which resolutions she kept and didn't keep in 2009 and I think she just wants to protect those big meaty knuckles from a well-deserved rap or two.

Bybee's Bookish Resolutions for 2009:

1. "Complete Middlemarch." Hmm, nothing to fault her about here. I will briefly mention that she started the book in early January and didn't finish it until March 6.

2. "Finish the Canadian Book Challenge." Bybee did this as well and I'm pleased with her for completing the Anne of Green Gables series. I'll even be magnanimous and ignore that little burp with Anne of Windy Poplars. But she's only completed 3 books for the 2010 Canadian Challenge. She'd better get busy or before she realizes it, Canada Day will be upon her like the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens on a hockey puck.

3. "Read more Pulitzers." Tsk. Bybee only read 3 Pulitzers this year. I really don't care, since I'm a 19th-century kind of gal myself, but you'd think after all that feverish hunting and gathering she'd apply herself to that particular shelf a little more.

4. "Make frequent use of the library at my new university." Bybee's made frequent use of the library, but is frequent synonymous with good? Yes, it's true that she checked out The Scarlet Letter in August and read it with surprising gusto, but I weep bitterly to think of all those classics she continually (and willfully) passes up. I've lost count of the times my heart's been broken as she just whooooooshed by all those lovely Henry James novels and galumphed into the nonfiction section.

5. "Complete the Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge." Bybee finished this challenge on time and with no difficulty. Hmph. Only 3 books somehow relating to food, and you know Bybee and food...! But since we're on the subject of challenges, let's talk about the Eco Reading Challenge. Trust me, if Bybee could hear this, she'd have both hands clamped over her fleshy ears singing lalalala. Yes, it's true -- she only read 3 out of the 4 books she pledged for the challenge and one of them was finished after September 1. Fail.

6. "Study Korean." Her reading is progressing slowly and she's picked up a handful of new vocabulary. After 5 years, she might know almost as many words as a Korean toddler. I cringe that she's not more aggressive about self-improvement.

7. "Keep challenges manageable." Bybee kept this resolution for the most part, but I don't quite approve of it. So many new and exciting challenges involving opportunities to read 19th (and older!) century books emerged and poor little Susan was all, wah wah wah...I'm too busy. Busy watching How I Met Your Mother and reading back issues of Us magazine, I'd say!

8. "Be less of a slob about writing reviews." Ooooooooh. I'm thinking of someone whose name starts with B (and it's not Bronte) who has taken up permanent residence on Slob Street in Slobville in the Land of Slob. I must whisper this next bit of shameful news: She's 20 reviews behind! I thought this unfortunately-named blog was a book blog. Am I missing something?

9. "Read more internationally." Sigh. Pass the aspirin. Bybee squandered so many opportunities to bake two cakes with one oven. I'm thinking Don Quixote. I'm thinking about Dumas and Hugo. What about Boccaccio? I can't go on; I've got a burning feeling in my chest like Dante's Inferno. It's not the coffee.

10. "Let nonfiction rule this year." Well, it didn't. The final score was 56-48, fiction. I could care less, especially since I just heard the elevator open and Bybee's voice in the hallway humming Non, je ne regrette rien off-key, but I would like to quickly point out that there's a lot of fine old nonfiction around. Pepys' diary. Life On The Mississippi. Between Marcus Aurelius and Machiavelli, she could have a really nice time. Wouldn't anyone?

August Reviews: The Fiction

My Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm's eyes are half-closed and she's wearing a lazy, self-satisfied grin. Every now and again she claws the air dreamily and lets out something between a purr and a playful growl. Did someone slip Tuffi some catnip, or is she still dazed by how we tripped the lit fantastic this month?

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1. The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan. This juvenile fantasy fiction was a nice surprise. I really wasn't expecting to be so thoroughly entertained by the adventures of Percy Jackson who discovers that he's the son of a Greek god and he's in trouble because other gods and monsters are out to get him. Further complicating his life, Zeus is mad because he thinks Percy stole his lightning bolt. Riordan obviously had a lot of fun casting the gods and goddesses in their modern-day guises. In addition, he test-drove this book with some middle school students before publication so it's got that authentic, slightly grubby tweenish feel to it. Did I say I had fun? Thanks so much to BOOKLEAVES for selecting this one for our August meeting.
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2. The Best American Comics 2006 - Harvey Pekar, Guest Editor and Anne Elizabeth Moore, Series Editor. Many of my favorites -- Jaime Hernandez, Lynda Berry, Alison Bechdel, Rick Geary and Robert Crumb made appearances in this volume. Of the newbies, I enjoyed Lilli Carre's Adventures of Paul Bunyan & His Ox, Babe in which Paul and Babe are on a lunch break out there in the woods and Paul discusses Proust and broods about how his size encumbers his life -- he can't kiss a girl "without getting her all wet" and to get properly drunk costs more than his whole salary. Paul dreams of striding off with giant steps into a new life in the big city where he'll "be a regular guy." Babe patiently listens and occasionally gives Paul a reality check. My other favorite was Thirteen Cats Of My Childhood by Jesse Reklaw, which starts out being about these cats, but gradually, as Jesse gets older, becomes more about his strange and troubled father. Pekar and Moore put together a well-selected and organized compilation. At the back, there's a list of "100 Distinguished Comics" for further reading.
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3. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne. There's plenty of sin to go around in this 1850 novel about 17th century Puritans in Salem, Massachusetts. Hester Prynne has had a baby with no husband in sight -- he sent Hester on ahead from England and is missing and presumed dead. Jailed for her sin, she gives birth in prison and refuses to name the father of her child. After a public condemnation and a little more jail time, she's set free but must wear a scarlet A (for "Adultery") on the front of her dress.

A while back, I did a post about fictional characters whose ears I'd like to box. After a long interval, I have a new one and he has zoomed straight to the top of my list. Welcome, Arthur Dimmesdale...whack! What Hester saw in him, I can't imagine; he must have been hot beyond measure. If I had read this novel in high school like everyone else, I think I might have had sympathy for the poor guy, but now I have no patience and actually had bouts of sadistic glee when Roger Chillingworth and little Pearl would mess with his mind. Speaking of which, this is a great psychological novel. A little top-heavy with symbolism, but what would have felt deadly in high school now seems like pretty fun stuff. There's a cool, creepy aside in which Hawthorne lets readers know that the kids who torment Hester grow up to be part of the Salem community that held the infamous witch trials. I read this quickly and avidly and was completely engaged in a way I never expected to be by Hawthorne, of all people. While I'm in my dreamy Nat-Love state, I may give The Blithedale Romance another try.
I can't believe I just typed that.
Tuffi, get your mitts off the keyboard.

4. The Snows of Kilimanjaro And Other Stories - Ernest Hemingway. This is like Hemingway's The White Album; it's a collection of his short stories that he wrote over a period of 25-30 years. The title story is great and is bookended by another powerhouse story, The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber. Also included are The Killers, A Day's Wait and A Clean Well-Lighted Place. The other stories explore similar Hemingway themes, but don't seem to be as strong or memorable. Still, The Snows of Kilimanjaro is a solid introduction to Hemingway's work.

5. The Moon And Sixpence - W. Somerset Maugham. In this 1919 novel, a young writer finds himself constantly crossing paths with Charles Strickland, a stockbroker who suddenly decides at the age of 40 to leave his job and his family and move to Paris to become a painter. After a few years in Paris, Strickland moves on to Tahiti. Loosely based on the life of Paul Gauguin. I liked Maugham's technique of observing Strickland from the outside rather than going into his mind or having him do a big reveal -- it keeps the reader as frustrated as his family, friends and acquaintances would have been. Strangely enough, although Strickland is portrayed as a boor and a bastard, I don't find myself wanting to slap him very much at all.

6. Howards End - E.M. Forster. The story of 3 middle class families: the wealthy Wilcoxes, the comfortable Schlegel sisters and the struggling clerk Leonard Bast and his wife. "Only connect" is Forster's epigraph and Margaret's motto. Sure enough, in this novel, everyone and everything is connected. Margaret Schlegel can see this with great clarity, but her husband, Henry Wilcox stubbornly persists in his disconnect, especially where the lower classes are concerned. Not only is this a novel about people, it's a critical appraisal of English society as a whole in the years immediately preceding WWI. It took me a while to get into the book, but once I was there, well, I was connected. Not only that, but I achieved another level of connection with Alison Bechdel in the 2006 comics anthology listed above. That brief selection from Dykes To Watch Out For is entitled Only Disconnect.

7. Native Son - Richard Wright. A gritty and explosive novel about the life and crimes of Bigger Thomas. I both admired and was astounded by Wright's searing frankness about the choking fear and hatred Bigger has for white people. An excellent example of a novel from the school of naturalistic literature. Native Son reminded me so much of Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy.

My Brother's Books: R.M. Ballantyne

When I went to visit my brother and his family last month, I couldn't help taking a look at their bookcase. Wow, I saw some pretty books there. I know, all books are pretty. But these were stunning; I was salivating. There was a colorful row of about 10 multicolored cloth-bound books with gold lettering on the spines.

My brother saw me peeping. "That's the series I'm reading now. Christmas present from my family."

"What are they?"

"Adventure books!" my nephew said. "You can read them; they're not inappropriate." I had to smile; I knew where that was coming from. I felt like telling him: "Kid, reading inappropriate stuff is the beauty part of being an adult," but his mom is of the helicopter persuasion and there were more important things at hand so I kept my lip buttoned and focused on my introduction to R. M. Ballantyne. How had I missed hearing about this guy? How did he get past my Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm?

Robert Michael Ballantyne (1825-1894)was a 19th century Scottish juvenile author who specialized in adventure. Ballantyne seems to have done his research first-hand, taking journeys to places anywhere "from the Arctic to the South Pacific". His tales stressed "Christian character in the face of adversity." In his day, he was a bestselling author, often churning out 3 books a year. I didn't do an exact count, but he seems to have written more than 50 novels. His first hit, The Coral Island (1857) was read and admired by boys everywhere, especially little Bobby Lou Stevenson, who grew up to write Treasure Island. In a poem that prefaces the story, Stevenson pays tribute to "Ballantyne The Brave".

According to Wikipedia, Ballantyne made a mistake in his first book about the thickness of coconut shells, so after that, he was determined to do scrupulous research on the topics and settings in his novels. For example, he had worked as a young man in "the wilds of Canada", which provided material for several books, he worked with London firemen for Fighting The Flames and tin miners in Cornwall for Deep Down. A fan site, started by a 16-year old Ballantyne enthusiast has a cool world map that has stars on it representing various locales around the globe where 20+ of his novels took place. When you click on a star, a brief summary of each book is displayed.

All of his books apparently feature young men who are tweens or early teens who are facing some kind of life challenge and following the example of role models around them, they learn to keep cool and courageous, never waver in showing gallantry and let God be their compass. The last is one of the reasons Ballantyne fell out of fashion in recent years, and also why he's come roaring back more than a century after his death.

From that first moment at my brother's bookcase, I was intrigued by Ballantyne, but slightly put off by what I assume is heavy religious content. I was picturing Elsie Dinsmore except Elmer Dinsmore. Then, when my brother and I were corresponding about Ballantyne, he sent me a little snippet from the web describing Ballantyne's work that included this caution: Ballantyne describes incidents in a graphic manner. Parents may want to preview. Finding out that this guy in all his piety still had the power to alarm mommies made me determined to be courageous and gallant about the religious didacticism and read him myself. Although I can't get my hands on those gorgeous books, Ballantyne's works are available at Project Gutenberg.

Tuffi is practically in rapture because we'll be adding another 19th-century author to plug up the abysmal gaps in our literary knowledge, I'm pleased because I've discovered (well, my brother has -- a damned unlikely source, too! Who'd have thunk it?) an author that's rather obscure (or is Ballantyne obscure? Is it possible that I'm just late to the party?), and both Tuffi and I are pretty jiggy knowing that we've gained awareness of an important link in juvenile fiction. It's a lot to chew on. Thanks, Bro.

One Month, One Week

It's been one month and one week since I climbed the dreaded 118 steps and set foot in my beloved library. Perhaps it was glad to see me today. The shelves are looking nice and well-stocked since most of the students have turned books in and gone away for the summer. Library, I was faithful to you. ..I didn't go to my hometown library during vacation.

Anxious to get back to my "Support Your Local Library Challenge", I saw plenty of good books, but checked out only two. I'm attempting restraint because during my last couple of visits in the spring, I returned most of the books I'd checked out without reading them. Once I get these two done, I want to tackle The Forsyte Saga.

Anyway, here's what I carried out and back down the 118 steps:

1. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne. Would you believe that I've never read this book? In college, I read some Hawthorne: a handful of the short stories, The Blithedale Romance and The House of The Seven Gables twice. I liked the stories, perceiving the faintest enjoyable whiff of Poe in them. The two novels didn't float my boat at all -- in fact, quite the opposite, actually --but I have high hopes for Hester & the gang. Meanwhile, my Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm is wriggling with glee.

2. Shaking The Nickel Bush - Ralph Moody. I've never read anything by Moody, but I saw this autobiography, (which I gather is part of the Little Britches series) in the humor section, not too far from The Benchley Roundup, which I loved and always stop by and visit when I'm in my library. On the first page of Shaking The Nickel Bush, Moody mentions that his hometown is St. Joseph, Missouri, which is less than two hours from Sedalia. Proximity seems to have carried the day for Mr. Moody.
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Although I hated for vacation to end, it's so cozy and reassuring to get back to my rituals and routines.

May: An Even Dozen

Another good month for reading. Maybe triple digits isn't a dream. Fiction creamed nonfiction this month. I read what I liked and still made good progress on my challenges and got my book group(s) reading done. Even my Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm is grinning.

1. Jane Eyre's American Daughters - John Seelye. I recently blah blah blahed about this fun critical study.

2. In Dubious Battle - John Steinbeck. This is my new favorite Steinbeck novel. A novel about the anatomy of a strike, it kicks ass more than The Grapes Of Wrath, especially when you factor in that Paradise Lost connection. I borrowed this one from the library, but I want my own copy. Many thanks to my former BOOKLEAVES buddy Matt for bringing this novel to my attention.

3. Go Down, Moses - William Faulkner. I want to like Faulkner's work more than I actually do. I enjoy the idea of being a Faulkner fan. Sadly, I'm not there yet. Go Down, Moses, a series of short stories that are supposed to be a novel was a struggle to read. There's one story called The Bear which features a near-mythical ursine creature called Old Ben. After finishing this book, I felt as if Old Ben had been at me. I'm not going to give up on Faulkner, though. It's not like I can. A Fable and The Reivers are both Pulitzer fiction winners.

4. The Murder Of Abraham Lincoln - Rick Geary. Geary's graphic novel covers almost the same ground as Manhunt. I really appreciated his meticulous cross-section drawing of Ford's Theatre that showed exactly how Booth was able to get access to President Lincoln. (For another example of Geary's artistry, read his graphic novel about Lizzie Borden.)

5. Laughter In The Dark - Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov wrote this novel in Russian when he was living in Berlin in the early 1930s. It's so obvious that he didn't find life there or the people congenial. Laughter In The Dark is a black comedy that contains the seeds of Lolita, written more than 20 years later. It's an easy read, probably the most accessible of Nabokov's novels, and beautifully translated by V.N. himself. None of the characters are very likable, but Nabokov's use of language is superb, although some might say it verges on show-offy.

6. The Red Tent - Anita Diamant. I ragged on this novel a few posts back.

7. The Bridge Of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder. This novella, which is a fable of sorts, takes place in 18th century Peru. The bridge of the title, which is made of rope suddenly breaks one day and the five people who were walking across it plummet to their deaths. A priest named Brother Juniper wants to know: Why these five individuals? Was it the will of God or just one of those things? He spends his life making a full inquiry into their lives. Wilder shows how there were only one or two degrees of separation between these people and those that knew them in life. His formal use of language and the delicacy of his writing are well-suited to his subject. This 1928 Pulitzer winner is a classic for a reason.

8. Salt - Mark Kurlansky. A well-researched history of "the only rock we eat." This book brought back memories of when I toured the salt mine in Austria with my father when I was seven. I still remember the costumes, the big slide and touching the mine walls and then the surprise of tasting salt on my finger. As in Cod, Kurlansky not only provides history, he gives us recipes, so I was hungry throughout this read. I'm still trying to wean myself away from a can of Pringles a night. I got Salt from Ruby Ramblings (who has finally emerged from quarantine!) three or four years ago, and only just now got around to reading it for the Eco Reading Challenge. Strangely, right after I finished it, we had Trivia Night here and a question cropped up about how prosciutto is made. I was able to help my team.

9. Lost Names - Richard E. Kim. This is a semi-autobiographical novel about growing up in Korea under the Japanese occupation. Powerfully written, but Kim completely omits the usual common foreign words that most writers leave in to convey a sense of place. For example, he refers to kimchi without even saying that word. In another instance, the unnamed boy narrator, when speaking to his father uses "sir" constantly to indicate the Confucian manner of showing respect to elders, and it looks awkward on the page, whereas a sprinkling of Korean here and there would have taken care of that. Since I hear these words on an almost-daily basis, this gives the book a bare and bleached-out feel. This is a minor complaint about a very well-written work; other readers might not feel the same way. If you're working on an Asian Challenge or something similar, definitely seek out Lost Names.

10. Larry's Party - Carol Shields. My review is here.

11. Then We Came To The End - Joshua Ferris. This absurd and touching 2007 novel about the workers in a company waiting to see who will be the next victim of downsizing is like Seinfeld with a big heart. I hate it when companies tell their employees "We're family". Sometimes it happens, but not because they say so.

12. Murther & Walking Spirits - Robertson Davies. Do you like family sagas? Davies serves this one up with a strange and darkly humorous supernatural twist. An engrossing read from the man who needed a shave.

Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm

Hello Book Bloggers:

Well, Bybee's at it again...or NOT at it, as the case may be. More precisely, she's fallen asleep with a fresh copy of Middlemarch across her face. Trust me -- you don't know her like I do -- it could just as easily be a copy of People magazine that she's polluting with her slumber breath.

Shudder. What do I care? Bybee's newest exhibition of sloth gives me a chance to get at this keyboard and give you the skinny on what this girl decidedly did not accomplish this year. Call me a Tough & Cool Inner BookSNOB, will you? I have impeccable taste and a an ironclad sense of literary purpose! Plus, sleeping and eating don't always have to be be so firmly on the front burner, now do they?

Let's look at Bybee's challenges for 2008: She somehow muscled her way to 100 books. She did well on her Pulitzer reading, but she's hobbling through the Canadian challenge, and someone did not eat her Wheaties for the Orbis Terrarum and In Their Shoes Challenges. And the Graphic Novels Challenge? Please. It was like she slept her way through that whole affair.

I'm seriously wondering if Miz B is really just a pretender to the shelves. Here's a choice bit of gossip: She forgot (she says) to admit to yet another DNF: She was reading What Maisie Knew by Henry James at Project Gutenberg, and got bogged down and quit right about the time Maisie's father and her former governess got hitched. She said defensively that the combination of reading James and reading him online was too much -- it gave her the headache from Hell. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but after Poor Widdle Susan DNF'd Mr. James, she hid out in the bathroom with a Taylor Caldwell novel for a while. Not tough! Not cool! Wussy!

Bybee also made some resolutions last year. Let us re-examine some of her rash statements as she rounded the bend into a New Book Year all those months ago:

"I want to complete all my challenges and if I don't, then I want to do a conspicuous amount of heavy lifting on them." I've probably already said enough, but entre nous, I didn't see any major eyestrain or sweat stains going on this past year.

"This is the year I'd like to get serious about building up my Don Robertson collection." She did buy The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread, but nothing else by the great Mr. Robertson. To be 100% fair, her credit card company went belly-up a couple of months ago, which put a severe crimp in her Internet shopping, but still...by abebooks.com, I sat down and wept.

"Read more books from other countries." You can take the bookworm out of her native country, but you can't take the native country out of the bookworm. I beseeched Bybee to read Balzac, to read Things Fall Apart, to crack open that Murakami novel she was supposed to read for book group, but she just turned up Abba's Greatest Hits even louder and buried herself in her damn Pulitzers. Yes, I realize that Abba's Swedish, but don't think I didn't notice what she was really doing.

"Read more Korean literature." I'm not a complete Bookbitch. Good on Bybee for spotting that article in The Korea Herald about Park Kyung-ni, who, Bybee subsequently discovered, wrote The Great Korean Novel -- Toji. I'll admit that copies of this book are expensive, but think of the bragging rights! Think of being able to strut your cultural sensitivity towards those who might style her (us) as unrefined, unwashed waegooks (foreigners). Talya offered to lend Bybee volume one of this work, but Bybee's been less than aggressive about taking Talya up on her offer. If I were running this sorry show, I'd be camped on Talya's damn doorstep till I had Toji in my hot little hands.

"Delve into more books written before the 20th century, or at least try to go back 100 years to 1908." Would you be so good to pass me that bottle of witch hazel? I find that if I dab it on my temples, the pain recedes slightly. Three books! Only three! I saw what was happening all year -- there was good old Bybee, blithely kicking up her slightly meaty heels in the 21st century, then she tried to mollify me last fall with back-to-back readings of Great Expectations and Persuasion! Then she threw me some weak-assed shit at the very end of December with The Oregon Trail! Who's sorry now? January 1st found Bybee skulking into Kyobo bookstore, buying the only available copy of Middlemarch for our tenth-anniversary reread, then over to Youngpyoong bookstore, where she found a copy of The Octopus (1901) by Frank Norris. How long will this show of repentance last? I'd like to drop the Bronte canon on her pointy little head while she's asleep.

"Keep chipping away at the Pulitzer fiction list." Bybee read 8 of these in 2008, which is respectable. She's a quirky bookworm; she likes what she likes. I just wish she were both quirky and lofty. Maybe with a little push she can be.