This Week in Other Projects 8/21/16

Not a whole lot this week, everyone. Just packing and thinking about future projects. Though I did manage to make this video on the Magicians over at Between the Covers. Check it out! And more to come next week!

The Sixth Extinction

The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolbert, won the Pulitzer prize for general non-fiction in 2015.

This book is important. Kolbert writes about the five major extinctions that have happened in the past, and examines the events leading up to them, all while looking at the way humans are causing a sixth extinction event today. She talks to meteorologists, paleontologists, geologists, biologists, and numerous other specialists, and examines data and trends to see what the next great extinction will look like and how it will effect us. She also looks at several different species, some extinct and some not, to see how their declines were alike and different.

The most interesting part of the book, was how humans might leave this extinction as their greatest legacy. Species go extinct all the time, but this is the first time it has happened at the hands of another species. This event is something entirely new. And extinction is a strange thing to wonder about. Will I someday have to explain to my children, or grandchildren, where the polar bears went and why there are no more elephants or rhinos? What will I say? Could we have done more of something, or ceased to do other things? Why didn't we care when caring made a difference?

These questions are important. They are questions that I feel I might never find adequate answers for. Kolbert helps to flesh out these questions, and show why they are important. Everyone should read this book. Everyone.

The Road

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, won the Nobel prize in 2007. I read the book in 2008 during my last year in high school.

This was a book that stuck with me. It the story of a father and son walking south through America after a terrible disaster happens. The sky is always grey and dark, snow falls even in the summer, grey and ashy. The father has a terrible cough, and the son knows no other world. They have a pistol, a cart full of food, and their clothes.

I loved this book. The relationship between the father and the son is amazing. The father loves his son so much, and is trying to find a better place for him even though he has no hope that a better place exists. The darkness in the world is so understated, and it really makes the America that they live in feel real. People eating a new born baby, searching through homes for canned food, staying away from others in the dark; in this world, these are all just facts of life.

I loved the tragedy of this book as well. Through out the entire book, the father is sick and knows he is dying. He doesn't tell his son, instead he tries to prepare him for a life without him. I like how the father tries to teach his son hope, even though the father has had no hope except in his son for so long.

This is a great book. Though it is very dark, and at points gory, it has a beautiful story which shines even brighter against the backdrop. It's one I keep meaning to reread and never get around to.

This Week in Other Projects 8/14/16

Hey Everyone!

This week I read a lot of romance a did a few vlogs. Check them out!

Check them out, and there will be some Pulitzer reviews later this week!

Pulitzer Prize Challenge!

Alright everyone.

After much thinking and debating, I have decided on a new challenge: the Pulitzer Challenge. I will be reading all Pulitzer Prize winners from the Fiction, General Non-fiction, and Poetry categories; a grand total of 248 books.  I will be doing this over the next four years (cause I want to read and work on other things, like We Read Drinks and Between the Covers....you should check those out if you get a minute.) It will break down to a post a week (roughly), some weeks more than others.

I hope you all like this new project and keep tuning in! Happy Reading!

This Week in Other Projects, 8/7/16

Hey everyone!

I miss blogging about books, so I will start posting again.

I am looking for a new challenge though. Maybe the Pulitzer Challenge, or maybe I'll read all of the Man Bookers. Please comment below and tell me what you think.

I've been working on several other projects. This week two of articles were published in the Durango Herald: the first on how writers have shaped the west, and the second a review of a climbing memoir, Sixty Meters to Anywhere.

There is also a new post from We Read Drinks, a blog where Andi, Arielle, and myself read books and drink drinks, on Moby Dick. Y'all should check it out!

I also started a YouTube channel called Between the Covers, you can watch my two latest videos here.

I look forward to posting again regularly and please let me know which book challenge you would like for me to tackle next.

--J

My Year in 100 Books

As of the 8th of April, a year has come and gone. In that year I've read 107 books. That is a lot of books.

It has been fantastic. Some books I absolutely loved, while some books were just "meh." Some books reaffirmed beliefs I already had (feminism is important, as is immunization), while others contributed to drastic changes in my life (I am now a vegetarian). Some fiction touched me in such a way that I wish that I could read it again for the first time and think about the plot and the characters often, while other stories faded fast from my memory.

I feel like I learned a lot. I learned that I need to be more empathetic, and that entering into a conversation with someone about an issue can be extremely frustrating, but extremely worthwhile. I learned that sometimes it is important to give up on books that don't grab me by the first several pages.

Now that my year is over, I'm at a bit of a loss for what to do next. I've really loved writing about all the things I've read, though I am looking forward to not needing to read a book every three days (some weekends I just want to marathon Archer), and I would like to find ways to keep communicating about books, and issues that interest me.

If you have read this blog, I would like to thank you. Thank you for paying attention to me in all the noise of things that need attention on the internet. Thank you for caring about books enough to click the link, and thank you for putting up with my sometimes preachy prose. Thank you for everything.

I would also like to ask you. Would you like it if I continued some kind of book related blog? Would you read it, would you like to see different things in it? Would you prefer a different format (youtube, podcast ect...) What did you like about this blog, or what didn't you like? I would very much appreciate any feedback.

I'm hoping to stay involved with projects like this in the future (check out We Read Drinks by Andi B, Arielle S, and myself), and I will try to keep posting here occasionally to keep everyone posted.

Thank you for everything, and happy reading to you all.