Read This Book: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

This post is the first in a new series called Read This Book. As some of you may know, I used to have a separate blog devoted to my literary loves. While I may continue with it at some point, I have since decided to consolidate a bit, and start writing about books on this blog! Stay tuned for upcoming posts in the series.

Photo thanks to redheadedbookchild

Last Tuesday, I came home from school in a good mood. It was a lovely day, bright and happy, with impeccable weather. I suddenly had a thought to go to the nearest Indigo, one of my favourite haunts – ever. I was home though, and quickly becoming a little too comfortable sitting down and relaxing after a long day. I questioned whether I should just stay home.. But something told me I should go. So I did! Was it the magical pull of discovering this book? I’ll never know..

I wandered the first floor for a while, choosing a book or two to peruse. It was just an ordinary trip to the bookstore until I got upstairs: where the Random House/McClelland Stewart Fall Book Preview was taking place! [#nerdalert] Oh boy. I was a bit late, but there were still some empty chairs with thick PowerPoint slide printouts sitting on top of them. I snatched one up as quickly as possible, and parked my booty for the next few hours, sitting in wonder as I was told of book after wonderful book that I simply must read. But it wasn’t until the Random House representative, Jen, stood up and started raving about this book that I got really excited. This is a woman who reads hundreds of books a year, and she’s this passionate about a book? She says it’s the most exciting book since Shadow of the Wind? Well. Those who loved that book as much as I did will understand what happened next.

I practically threw the other books in my hands on the floor (kidding, that would never happen). Ran after a sales rep. Breathlessly managed to ask for: The Night Circus. Raced home and consumed all 387 pages within 48 hours.

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Shifting Your Focus

Here’s something I’m sure you can all relate to: sometimes I freak out.

Sometimes I worry about myself: how I’m dressed, where I’m going in life, my grades, my comportment. I throw pity parties, on occasion, and whine about how hard my life is (read: not at all) to anyone who will listen. I get into “moods” and at times conduct myself in the manner so succintly outlined on the First World Problems Twitter page.

And while it might sound stupid or dramatic or ridiculous, I really have been struggling lately with living too much inside my own head, thinking too much about my own worries and fears.  I’m sure you can all agree that once you’re in a mood, the funk is dark and twisty and it can be fairly hard to bounce back. Developing coping techniques to deal with such moods is not an easy task, even for the most confident among us.

On the other hand, though: I have to remember to count my blessings. And I have so many of them to count. Which is why my favourite new coping technique is about shifting my focus to others.

Here’s the idea: start thinking about anyone but yourself.  Anyone. Put them at the center of your thought target and fire away! What resonates most with me personally is the idea of making someone’s day, and helping people in my life as much as possible. Maybe you’d prefer joining in with a protest that moves you, contributing to a charity you believe in, volunteering for a local organization that does great work, or sending letters to the people that you love. Maybe you just want to start collecting smiles, or hugs that you helped create.

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My 7 Links

Today I got a lovely email from Tripbase blog, informing me that I’d been nominated as a My 7 Links blogger! I’d like to take this opportunity to thoroughly thank whoever it was that nominated me – I am very flattered. If you’re unfamiliar with the program (as I was, I’m sorry to say!) then you should check out the rules here. The gist of it is that I’m meant to sort through my archives and pick out the gems – a pretty cool idea, if you ask me! A “best-of” post, so to speak. So, without further ado: my 7 links.

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Lemon Meringue Pie

My father came to visit last week. And since I haven’t been posting anything of consequence, I would like to take this opportunity to blame my blog’s dry spell on my Dad. You see, had I not been touring contemporary art museums, imbibing tequila shots (yes, with my father), and generally being the best tour guide known to man, I would probably have been sitting alone in my apartment, writing useful content.

Instead, all I have to show for my lack of posting is this pie. This lemon meringue pie, which tastes of love and summer, that I specifically prepared for the arrival of my father and the remains of which have been heartily consumed by my boyfriend since the departure of said father. People, I whipped this meringue by hand. With a whisk. That’s love. Don’t tell me it’s not until you’ve reached minute forty-five of meringue whipping. It should probably be noted that I don’t own any manner of electric beaters, but that makes no difference. By hand! By hand!

You should make a pie for someone that you love. People love pie. People love the fact that you baked them something. People love you. (Are my daddy issues showing? Just kidding. Kind of.) Either way, here’s what happened.

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