Top Fives: Books

Top five books on my shelf I haven't read but should:

1. Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier)
2. The Little Friend (Donna Tartt)
3. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
4. The Virgin of Bennington (Kathleen Norris)
5. Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens)

Top five books I will probably re-read before I push myself to read something new:

1. Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
2. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
3. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
4. On Writing (Stephen King)
5. Bridget Jones's Diary (Helen Fielding)

Top five books I recommend to various people for various reasons:

1. The Cloister Walk (Kathleen Norris)
2. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
3. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Anita Loos)
4. If You Want to Write (Brenda Ueland)
5. Animals In Translation (Temple Grandin)

Top five books on my shelf I will probably never read (not counting Chris's poker books), not for any particularly malicious reason:

1. The Sweet Hereafter (Russell Banks)
2. The Song of Bernadette (Franz Werfel)
3. Rum Punch (Elmore Leonard)
4. Goldwater (Barry Goldwater)
5. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)



Comments from this post when it was originally published:

Lisa said...

Ooh, I loved Mists of Avalon and the companion books (whose names escape me at the moment). I tried to read Life of Pi, but for whatever reason, I just couldn't get into it. Some former English major I am, huh? LOL
11:00 AM


Maia Caron said...

I have a King Charles Cavalier too. They are really the cutest and sweetest dogs on the planet imho. Loved your lists. I would recommend Cold Mountain. Loved that book. I too, want to re-read Gone With the Wind and Atlas Shrugged. Thanks for suggesting The Cloister Walk. Would it make a good beach read? The Mists of Avalon is great escapist Goddess lit but you have to be in the mood for that. Think Lord of the Rings for women.
6:50 AM

Katie said...


Hey, Maia! Thanks for reading. I completely agree about Cavaliers. I went into total Winston withdrawal this weekend -- luckily, I was at a dog show, so there were pups around to distract myself with.

"The Cloister Walk" isn't a beach read. I should have been more clear on that. It's a book I recommend to people who are doing some soul-searching or similarly hefty thinking.
7:54 AM


Alex said...


I haven't read "The Kite Runner" either - and it is on my dresser under some clothes, so I should;

1) Put clothes in drawers.
2) Read "The Kite Runner".

The last good book I read was "Killing Yourself To Live" by Chuck Klosterman. It's a good read if you're into dysfunctional relationships, rock and roll, and Ford Tauruses. What is the plural of Taurus? Is it Tauri?

Odd.
8:49 AM

Katie said...

I am not into any of those things, but if you recommend it, I might check it out.
11:30 AM

"Writerly things," she said.

The only thing I've been writing lately is the dog show. Which is fine, because I really like the dog show. Which is good, because it's only a week away and I have to work every day to be ready for it. And that part of the equation is a little tiring.

So what have I been doing while not writing?

Thinking hard about some new projects. I should say "new", because one of them ("7S") is 45,000 words strong right now. The other ("AW") is just roughly outlined. And the next one ("FB1") is only the vaguest jumble of characters and circumstances.

Having books lined up for future writing gives me the most wonderful, peaceful feeling. It's kind of like coming home from running errands on a rainy day and having a really excellent book that you're excited to read, just waiting for you. Only different. But seriously, there's something about it -- it's the opposite of a lonely feeling, but it's about writing. And the best part is that the ideas shuffle themselves around, and maybe at some point I'll come up with a strong idea that bumps one from the "Longform - Front Burner" folder to the "Longform - Back Burner" folder, which I think just happened last week with a new idea (the vague jumbly one). I feel like I can go somewhere with it. So I think I'm bumping my old number four ("TR") to the back burner, which is cool, because it's a little looser storyline, and it can simmer back there for a couple of years.

Also:

1. Updating my website. Finally a design that doesn't make the husb run out of the room gagging. For the first time ever.

2. Going out to dinner with friends and coming up with awesome new book ideas such as "Details B. Chapman" and "Dave's Bird-Dad Hike". Also threatening waiters with bodily harm if they touch my wine, and trying in my way to control the husb's behavior, and failing. And reminiscing with said friends about things that happened 8 years ago and realizing that we share all of the exact same memories. Which is a little creepy. Also, talking about Bonobos.

3. Working on the dog show (SURPRISE!).

I didn't go shopping yesterday, Black Friday, but it refreshes some old toy store employee memories. I had such a good time working there during the holidays! What a wonderful group of people that was. What ancient history.

Why is it so hard to read lately?

It's probably just me, but for the past two years or so, I've had a real attention span problem with novels. I find myself reading mostly non-fiction or books I know and love. This is a shame, because on my bookshelves are at least 50 books I've never read. I don't know what's keeping me from them. I grew up reading a book a week.

I went through a period where I was kind of making it a point to "power through" fiction, and that may have been part of the problem. I read a few not-so-great-but-what-the-hell novels, which is enough to make any self-respecting person with a short attention span move on to greener pastures.

Mind you, there's some excellent non-fiction out there right now, the standout in my mind being Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation. One of the most fascinating books I've ever read. But I know that at least 10 of my 50 unread books have to be enjoyably good, because of comments I've heard from people I respect, or the subject matter interesting me, or whatever. I just can't seem to physically pick one up and get into it.

Which I think I need to fix, especially if I'm going to be expecting people to pick up my book and read it. Methinks I need to pay off the karma police between now and 2008.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Five movies I wasn't supposed to like.

Current mood: bouncy
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

1. "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" -- blood, men on a boat, cannons, blood, men on another boat blowing up the men from the first boat... but what do you know? It was a pretty good movie.

2. "Garden State" -- me + film school / reactionaryism = I am not a fan of indie movies. I'm just not. I mean, I liked "But I'm a Cheerleader" for a lot of reasons. Critical darling "Sideways" didn't do it for me, on a number of levels. But "Garden State" was really, really good. I liked it. And it even has Natalie Portman in it, which is typically an automatic "thumbs down"!

3. "Two Weeks Notice" -- the husb and I are the only two persons on the planet who preferred this movie to "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days". TWN: fun! funny! Hugh Grant! HTLAGI10D: nooooooo.

4. "Ruby in Paradise" -- a weensy little indie film made in Florida, starring a young unknown named Ashley Judd. I saw this movie as part of an Independent Film class and I have no idea why, but I was glowingly happy and peaceful for like three days. Ashley Judd has failed to have that effect on me since, although her sister's remix of "I Want to Know What Love Is" is pretty damn glowacious.

5. "Proof of Life" -- the movie that turned America against Meg Ryan. I don't even think people were supposed to watch this, much less like it. But I did both. And not only does it feature Russell Crowe, who is very hunky in a way that appeals to me for no apparent reason, but it has that other guy, who played Meg's husband, and he was great, and the movie just kind of worked for me. Plus, and I can say this because no one who hasn't seen that movie is ever going to go out of his or her way to see it, the ending is quite satisfactory in that they don't make you really like all of these people (David Caruso! it gets stranger and stranger) and then slaughter them all. Unlike "Master and Commander", which I liked anyway.

So sue me!

PS - ..6: "Lost in Translation" -- don't know why. Just liked it.

How Frankie Muniz changed my life.

Current mood: contemplative

This has been on my mind for the past day or so, because for some reason, all of LA's rudest drivers were on the road yesterday, and they all decided to pick on me.

I used to spend the entire (hour-long) drive to the office in a seething rage. It totally makes you understand how people can completely lose it and push each others' cars off cliffs, etc. Because when I have been waiting in line for fifteen minutes just for the privilege of getting to the onramp for the next 11 miles of freeway, and you, Mr. Blankety Blank, decide to ride it out in the number-3 lane and then cut in at the last minute -- traversing diagonal lines, etc., to do so -- well, then, I deserve to sit you down in a chair and slap you silly until my violent impulses have been satisfactorily released.

(Oh, and let's not even talk about the person who almost RAN INTO my car at 60 mph doing this particular stunt. I was in too much shock to do anything nasty, but cars around me honked furiously in judgment and that made me feel warm and fuzzy.)

This is not where I intended to go with this, LOL.

Anyhoo, I found that I was losing my mind. So I started playing a game with myself. First off, any cut-ins up were fair if the lane markers were still dashed lines. I mean, it's legal. So that cut out 60% of it. Then I started making excuses for people. Suddenly, the 101-405 interchange became populated with people whose wives were in labor, who would miss their flights or lose their jobs or miss their kid's school play if I did not have the labored grace to let them in front of me.

A very strange thing happened -- it totally worked. After a week or two, I didn't even bother making up excuses anymore. I just let people cut in front of me and didn't worry about it. I made it to work in a calm and happy state of being.

And then one day, in a fit of pent-up something, I didn't let some woman into my lane as she sat on the diagonal lines. That's right, I left her sitting there. She honked and made a rude gesture (which was RUDE), and some person a car or two back had mercy on her.

That's when I realized -- if someone is a jerk to me, it tweaks. For some reason, it's embarrassing (I guess just think of the bully kicking sand on the beach), and you feel all scratchy and bitter for a minute. But then it passes. "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" or some such thing comes over the iPod, and the clouds arrange themselves just right, and somebody gets in your lane and gives you a nice wave for letting them over, and all is right with the world, and I get to be glad I'm me and not a jerk who's rude to other drivers.

But oh-ho! If I am a jerk back to someone, I am miserable for hours. I feel bad, I feel angry, I blame myself, I blame the other person, I blame the universe. "When Somebody Loved Me" comes on the iPod and I just want to go home and get under the covers.

How does this tie back to Malcolm in the Middle? Because there was the episode a long time ago where Malcolm felt bad about something he had done, and the guilt was hanging over him and making him miserable. So he asked his mother how to stop feeling guilty, and she basically said, "You can't control it." When you've felt the proper amount of guilt, you will get over it. This has been very powerful for me in the realm of guilt.

But it also goes the other way. When someone is a jerk to you, and it pinches your little heart, instead of pinching back, you can just ride it out. And suddenly there's no more pinch.

That's the hope, anyway.

Sorry to get thoughtful. I know that's not what I'm here to provide. But I had to devote some time and thought to the matter or I would still be mad about the guy who followed about 5 feet behind me the whole 4 miles on the 101 yesterday and then tried to pass me on the single-lane off-ramp.

(Side note: 90% of people who drive Mercedes are rude drivers. It had to be said.)

Ciao! Happy holidays!

Why I have not updated my dog--er, blog.

You will have to forgive me, because never before in my life have I been so immersed in the world of dog shows. Actually, I'm not sure if that's technically true; show night is pretty intense. Other than that, no. All I can dog about is dogs. If I'm not looking at the image of a dog on the Avid, I am compiling a database of dogs using Microsoft Dog. Or creating graphics featuring dog names.

The irony of all this is that the actual dog in my life is spending the week at daycare, which makes me sad, because I miss him. In the car, I keep thinking I'm hearing him shift around in his little pop-up crate, but it must be... rats? I don't know.

Also, the curious matter of publishing this on my own blog is the result of MyDog's blog control giving me an error dog one too many times. I don't think it will always be like this; on the other dog, if it's not too annoying, maybe it will be.

Either way, I am dog tired and have to go write more about dogs.

Adventures in Hollywood, or "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Wiltern"*

Current mood: happy
Category: Parties and Nightlife

Yes, it's true. Twice in just about as many weeks, you can find Katie living it up in Hollywood (or Hollywood-adjacent Los Angeles). Last night's occasion? The Indigo Girls concert.

Now, I don't expect the resident Frankophile to understand fully (bonus if he does). And heaven knows, most of my friends are not Indigo Girls fans. But I am a BIG fan and I have been since about 1995. And I have always, always, always wanted to see them in concert, and I have never, never done it.

I've done things like checking their website to see when they're touring through LA and finding out that they were here the night before, which coincidentally is always a night where I was sitting around twiddling my thumbs and drooling on myself (film school continuing education).

So even though I am not a huge fan of crowds, or driving to places I've never been, or Hollywood itself, or leaving my house, when I happened to see that the purple ladies were on their way here, I went ahead and bought tickets. Two of them. Upon revelation of which, Chris heaved a mighty sigh and said, "I'll go with you if you can't find ANYONE else to go with you."

Fortunately, I did. I found Sue. On with the story.

I didn't know what to expect, because they have a new album out that I own but haven't really listened to. But I should have suspected, because most of their albums are live.

It was a really good show. And I can say that in spite of the facts that I wasn't really drunk, and that their opening act was a snazzy little number called "B---h and the Exciting Conclusion". And Sue bought me the B and the EC shirt AND she never told me that you don't HAVE to sit through the opening act when you have reserved seats. So, B---h was pretty awful -- in many ways more like a SNL comedy sketch. But she tries really hard. Which, of course, makes it much, much worse.

Indigo Girls. They play really well. The blonde one, whom I'm almost sure is Emily, has an amazing voice. I mean, I always knew I loved their voices, but I didn't really how much control she has, and what a sweet tone. And they changed guitars for every song. And Lisa Loeb came onstage to sing "Closer to Fine" with them, which is really one of those songs that Helped Me Become Who I Am. Certain verses in that song are like prayers to me. You'd have to hear it, and I'd have to be there, drunk, to tell you what they were.

They switch guitars for every song, which is cool, and they played a really solid, non-cop-out encore. And the way all their live albums burned the sound of them finishing a song and saying "Thanks, y'all," "Yeah, thanks, y'all," into my head is nothing compared with last night.

My only sadness is that they didn't play "Ghost" or "Romeo and Juliet". I also could have gone for some "Kid Fears". But considering the circumstances, I will take what I am given.

So it was one of those nights where you do something, and then you come home and you realize you can check another item off your "Things to do before I die" list.

Yay!

* I do not actually love the Wiltern; it's fine, but I wouldn't call it love.

It's true what they say, I'm more interesting now.

Current mood: pleased
Category: Writing and Poetry

I'll try to stick to the facts: about four and a half years ago, I started writing a young adult fiction book, and today, someone bought it. So in a year and a half, you can buy it at the store and find out if the brilliantly scripted dog shows are a fluke or not.

Special thanks to Matt (Matthew), not only an arts school reject but also my agent. And I'm starting to think there's a lot to be said for arts school rejects.

Fog on the Freeway

I don't hate freeways. I hate surface streets. The freeway has its own little honor code, and 90% of the people obey it 90% of the time. Which means I can feel free to turn up the music and zone out.

Besides, on a surface street, you can't...

(1) ...see the tiny white government butterflies flying overhead by the tens of thousands. This was the most amazing sight. Butterflies, butterflies, buttterflies... the hope was that they would eat the pollen from the excess vegetation and keep it from growing quite so thick and providing more fuel for the wildfires. That would make it two years ago that I saw them. And I still maintain that if I ever start a girl band, we're going to be called "Government Butterflies."

(2) ...get caught in fog so thick that you can only see five cars on either side of you, so you feel like you're in a little caravan to the end of the earth.

(3) ...get that crazy "where am I?" feeling when the clouds change the direction of the light... "What freeway is this? Where am I going? Where's my exit?"

(4) ...see enormous deer standing on a hill, watching over the traffic.

I didn't rush in to blog my dream, because it was terrible. It was about a group of people stuck in a museum with a serial killer, who was quite violent. I think this came about as a result of talking about "The Sims" yesterday and all the fun ways to kill your Sims, such as having a party, waiting until they all go into the pool for a swim, and then removing the ladders so they can't get out. That actually happened in my dream.

So I'm going to let the ether have that dream.