Age is Irrelevant

My mom has a milestone birthday coming up on Friday, but I probably wouldn't have figured this one out on my own. At any given time, if you asked, I wouldn't be able to tell you how old my parents are without first doing some complicated math in my head. The reason for this is simple.

When I was little, my mom told me that if anyone were to ask how old she was I should say 28, and leave it at that. We practiced.

"How old am I?" she asked me.

"28 and leave it at that!" I answered dutifully.

Hey, I come by my smart mouth honestly, and I don't even think I was trying to be smart at that moment. However, the number 28 has stuck in my head, even now that I'm 31 myself.

So, happy birthday (a day early) mom!

And if you're wondering how old she's going to be? Well, it's a milestone. And I'll leave it at that.

Oh, Look. It's 2012.

Hello there internet. Welcome to the beginning of the end. Except it's not really the beginning, as it's already the 21st of January. And there's a high probability that the world won't actually end eleven months from today. However, I would like to make a prediction that this won't stop the countdowns, including my own.

So. Eleven months left before catastrophe leaves the earth as an apocalyptic wasteland. What are you doing in the meantime?

Myself, I've been writing. Nothing like an impending Armageddon to push me to write that book I've been talking about for ages, huh? I've also been reading. Every year I set myself a goal of reading 50 books in a year, and every year I stop keeping track, but sadly fall short of that goal. This year I've read two brilliant books thus far, both of which have made me weep like a little girl. They are:



  The Fault in Our Stars by John Green    The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 

If you ever want to read a book that will indeed make you cry, I highly recommend either of those. Maybe I'll write better reviews later.  For now, they are really good, and tear-jerking.

That being said, I've also been planning a once-in-a-lifetime/before-the-world-ends trip to the opposite side of the planet. Namely, I will be going to Australia. This means that I have gone through the process of securing myself a passport. 

I'm not going to show you all my passport photo. All I will say is, I look rather angry when I'm not allowed to smile. It's all very vicious. However, I went for expedited services and got my passport in eight days, from the time I had my Congressional Representative's office send it in, to the time they called me back and said, "It's here!" That was rather impressive.

You know, I'm thinking that I want to make my 2012 reading list a thing. This will serve several purposes.

1. I might read more if people are following along, ready to judge me on how close I get to 50 books this year.
2. You can be entertained at my reading selections. 
3. I might actually blog about these things and then I will be blogging and not just thinking to myself for twenty-one days, "I should probably blog something soon."
4. I can test out my mad book reviewing skills.*

Alright. 2012 Book Reviews are officially a thing. Look for the first two soon.**

And tell me how you plan to spend your last eleven months on earth before APOCALYPSE NOW?!


*I have no mad book reviewing skills.
** Soon is a very relative term.

An Open Letter to eBook Publishers

Dear eBook Publishers,

First off, I love eBooks. I really do. I love my outdated, first generation Nook that I got a year ago for Christmas and was replaced by the Nook Simple Touch this year. It doesn't matter that you can't buy one anymore. I have one. It's pretty. It works. I like it.

What I don't like is that since I got my Nook, eBook prices have increased. Now I get it, really. Some of the prices I'm comparing were sales and discounts. But even so, the rising prices are a bit suspect in certain cases.

For example, when I can buy a print version of a book for the same price or even cheaper than the eBook version, I get a bit confused. You do realize that an eBook doesn't cost any money to print, right? Nor is there overhead at the warehouse where it's stored or the store where it's sold. There's no shipping costs. As it turns out, an eBook is just a document! Maybe a protected document, but a document all the same.

Now I know you want to make money, and that's generally considered to be a good thing. And maybe I'm just crazy in believing that an electronic document should be cheaper than a printed book, while also saving trees and fuel and all those other resources. But surely there's a balance between your profits and my expected discounts? Right?

In the meantime, I'll keep buying books for my Nook. But I'll also be checking out books from the library. Which reminds me, don't get any more ideas about limiting eBooks with libraries. Please? The system works for me.

And as a final note, Pottermore? Please, please open up your store already. I really want my Harry Potter library on my Nook. I'm pretty sure my copy of Goblet of Fire is missing pages, and in any case, the spine has long since snapped.

Thank you!

Sara