Tale of Two Cities?

I own a lot of 'classic' novels. I have about three copies of Pride and Prejudice, two copies of An Old Fashioned Girl and Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, and a few other titles like Sense & Sensibility and Little Women. I'm kind of hesitant to admit that I've only read one--Jane Eyre--and parts of Pride and Prejudice. I'd need hours to just sit and read and decode sentences, and those kinds of hours became increasingly sparse as I got to the age where I would feel inclined to read those kinds of books. (I mean, being totally honest, I want to put them through a sifter. Just to get rid of excess words that confuse me.)

I wasn't particularly excited, then, when we started Tale of Two Cities in English. I'd already read Lord of the Flies over the summer, which I thought was wordy at the time. Now, in comparison to Tale of Two Cities, William Golding was practically blunt. For the first few chapters of ToTC, I felt like I was drowning in half-a-page-long sentences.

But.

Then I started to get a feel for the characters. And understand who they are and their role in the story. And Sydney Carton is my favorite. He is just awesome. And I started to piece together plot threads and hints and foreshadowing and symbols and social commentaery and suddenly the book was so much easier to read.

I'm not saying it's not wordy, because it is. I have to sit in a quiet place and really concentrate on the sentences to understand them as I read, and I often have to reread paragraphs just to understand the point trying to be made. But I'm actually enjoying reading it. Phew.

Firsts!

Updates!

Yesterday I had my first Barnes & Noble book signing. It was great! I loved that a few friends and teachers stopped by, and that I also met a lot of new people. A family came by with a very dog-eared and reread Rain and about made my day when they asked me to sign it to all of them.

Upcoming book signings are on my website! (I'll be at a Borders in Allentown and the Altoona B&N next month!)

I'm still working hard training & fundraising for Team in Training. Mom and I ran Saturday morning before my book signing. I'm not sure if it was good or bad that I then sat in a chair for a few hours. Sore muscles today say bad.

The first homehigh school football game was Friday! Best day yet. I am such a marching band groupie, but that's okay, because I have other groupie friends that cheer in the stands with me. And then go eat pizza until midnight after. Which meant I was home late, giving me a first "I thought you'd be home earlier" from Mom.

Aaand first math test tomorrow, which meant it's the first time I've had to study since last year. It's been a weekend of firsts....

A Brief Conversation With My Homework

Me: Gee. it's Saturday, I'm in the middle of reading a really good book, I stood outside in nonstop wind for hours this morning fundraising for TNT, helped my neighbor bake a cake and watched Penn State crush Youngstown. What should I do now?

Homework: OH. Guess what. You should work on math. And English. And Spanish. And then write a blog post. And then watch "Supersize Me" with your little sister because you made her watch Gattaca last night in exchange for watching that today.

Me: No.

Homework: Really, you should watch it. It's educational. And it's only fair.

Me: But she loved Gattaca! It's not like I tortured her.

Homework: Like that matters. But of course, Supersize me is considered "fun," so it's at the end of the list.

Me: Actually, math is at the end of the list.

Homework: Oh, no. It's first. See, I just made you get out your ridiculously large textbook with ridiculously small print, as well as your graphing calculator and the yellow mechanical pencil you've almost used up in one week.

Me: It's not my fault the tips keep breaking. It's YOUR fault.

Homework: Maybe if you weren't always so angry with me, you wouldn't pound your pencil into your notebook in frustration. Have you considered seeing a counselor for this?

Me: That's it. We're done.

Homework: Don't you walk away from me. If you don't sit down and pick up that nearly-empty yellow pencil RIGHT NOW, I will kindly sic my friend Little Black Cloud on you.

Me: ...

Homework: Oh, look, math problems! Let's get cracking.

Me: I hate you.

PS-- most relevant thing I learned in biology last year? Gattaca is a freaking AWESOME movie.