Friday, June 14, 2013

Revisiting old friends

I just finished re-reading A Tale of Two Cities; Northanger Abbey; Pride & Prejudice; the Indian in the Cupboard series; and An Old-Fashioned Girl. I enjoyed Northanger Abbey much this time than I did 13 years ago, haha.

I'm a repeat reader, for sure. I have favourite books that I get off the shelf a couple times a year, especially if I'm sick or haven't been to the library lately. A handful of these include Harry Potter Book 1 and Book 7 (all of the Potters, really, but those two the most); Strong Poison, Gaudy Night, and Busman's Honeymoon, by Dorothy Sayers; The Hawk and the Dove, by Penelope Wilcock; and O Jerusalem, by Laurie R. King. A new addition to the favourites is The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green.

They're like my fuzzy bathrobe: familiar, comforting, welcoming.
Always waiting for me. Able to distract me when I'm hurting.

What books do you love to re-read? Or what have you re-read lately?

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

I don't want to be ______!

I was reading a memoir on Saturday, and I started thinking about adjectives. Not just the ones I like the best, or the ones I think are hackneyed, or ones I loathe....
I will confess right now, there are one or two I'm scared of.

I'm scared that they will be applied to me, either now or when I'm dead.
(It was a memoir about ALS. I don't have any lethal conditions that I know of.)
And the tragicomic part of it is, they're not exactly terrible words.
You'll see what I mean.

One of the ones I'm afraid of is 'flighty'. I am not always as reliable or as capable as I'd like to be, and I am trying to be better at following up on plans and projects, but I still fear being labelled for this.

I'm also scared of 'slob', 'dowd', 'sloth', and 'useless'. Oh, and 'untrustworthy'. And 'shallow'.

'Angry', 'bitchy', and 'snide' are probably all too applicable.

But my number one, as embarrassing as it is to admit, is 'sonsy'. Ooooh, it makes me cringe! I have this deep-rooted fear that it will be used to describe me at some point, and I can't bear the thought! I know it's silly, and I thought that maybe if I put it out there in the cyber-open, I could stop worrying about it more easily.

 Are there words that you're afraid someone will use to describe you?

(Don't worry, I have some more positive posts coming up.)