Spring/Summer Reading List

After I get caught up on all my TVGuide's and Entertainment Weekly's, it's time to start reading real books again.

• Revisit the St. Louis Guidebook
• The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin
• Finally finish David Sedaris and The Revolution Was Televised
• Uganda Be Kidding Me, Chelsea Handler
• One More Thing, BJ Novak
• The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America, Bill Bryson
• Graphic USA, Bryan Keplesky
• Don't Worry, It Gets Worse, Alida Nugent
• My Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me: And Other Stories I Shouldn't Share, Hilary Winston 
• MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend, Rachel Bertsche
• Not That Kind of Girl, Lena Dunham
• Revisit a classic like Flannery O'Connor

Good Read: Mindy Kaling

I read a lot. A lot of blogs, ebooks, whitepapers and magazines, that is. Not a lot of books. So it is rare that I get to recommend a book to others. 

I picked up Mindy Kaling's book at the airport in LA. I was out of magazines and had already read the Southwest magazine and the Skymall and knew I needed to entertain myself for a couple hours on the plane. (Do you like how I just had to justify a reason for reading? Sad.)

The weird thing is - at the time, I wasn't really impressed with Mindy's new show on Fox, I was never a big Office fan, and the comparisons to Tina Fey do nothing for me because I'm not a big Tina fan (cue the outrage, I know. I'm like the only person on the planet that doesn't think that Tina Fey is god. While I'm disappointing you, I also don't like the Beatles.)

And, like I said, I don't read a lot. I do, however, find that I enjoy books that are more of a collection of short stories. Tucker Max, Chelsea Handler, Flannery O'Connor. And yes, I realize two of those authors are pretty much just about drunken/ridiculous shenanigans. (Come to think of it, Flannery's stories are pretty wild, too.)

Maybe because it is easier to digest a chapter or two at a time, than trying to invest in an entire book. Because I can set it down and if I forget about it for a month, It's not like I will have totally forgotten the whole story. I like that episodic nature.

So I guess that by very structure of the book, Mindy and I were meant for each other. The book is a collection of.... thoughts. Sometimes it is one page. Sometimes it is 20. It's stories and opinions about relationships, about work, about whatever the heck she feels like.

And it's awesome. I found myself nodding along as I read it, like 'I hear ya, sister.' I think we basically have the same brain. Or maybe we're both just unmarried 20/30somethings that really like our jobs and have overactive brains that we can't turn off and form strong opinions about some things that don't really matter in the grand scheme of things (ie random rants).

Anyway, you should read it. Especially if you are a 20/30 something. I think you'll like it.

And for the record, The Mindy Project really grew on me and is now one of my favorite shows.

St. Louis Central Libary

Had the chance to visit the newly renovated Central Library over the holidays and can't wait to go back and explore more (particularly in the St. Louis room on the 3rd floor).

Holiday Wishlist 2012: For Fun

the best, brightest (and gone-to-soon) show

iPhone case

my newest gaming obsession

more inspirational to travel

Once Upon A Time: Storytelling in Business

In business, storytelling is all the rage. Without a compelling story, we are told, our product, idea, or personal brand, is dead on arrival. 

Guber argues that humans simply aren’t moved to action by “data dumps,” dense PowerPoint slides, or spreadsheets packed with figures. People are moved by emotion.

Guber tells us that stories can also function as Trojan Horses. The audience accepts the story because, for a human, a good story always seems like a gift. But the story is actually just a delivery system for the teller’s agenda. A story is a trick for sneaking a message into the fortified citadel of the human mind. 

from Why Storytelling is the Ultimate Weapon.

Redesigns Are Fun.

Movie posters by Moxy Creative
Book covers by Matt

Book It

Remember Book It? I think I need to institute my own Book It list... with a prize for when its completed.

I'm trying to read, really I am. The problem is, I like television too much. And sleeping. And I have to read TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly every week, so that takes up most of my reading time. But really, I swear, I'm trying. On my list....

The Social Media Bible, Lon Safko and David Blake
The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor (again)
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson (and the follow-ups as well)
Freedom, Jonathon Franzen
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (again)

At the rate I'm going, I'll have my Book It prize in like three years.... #fail.

I'd Read This

This Italian children's book has the cutest cover.

From Designers Go To Heaven

Alive

It's one of my favorite books of all time. My sophomore year in high school, my English teacher gave us a choice between two books- Alive.... and something else (is that sad that I can't even remember what it was?). She warned us that Alive was a true story, about a group of rugby players that crashed in the Andes Mountains in the 1970s.... and it was pretty graphic. After spending years reading survivor stories like Lord of the Flies and Hatchet, I'm not really sure what intrigued me enough to want to read this book (after all, it's not like my favorite plane crash survivors of Oceanic 815 had even come about yet...), but I did.

Their story is one of struggle, of faith. It is truly heartbreaking. I've never seen the movie (starring Ethan Hawke), I'm not even sure if I still own my copy of the book. I read it once, and that's all it took.

And then this morning, I came across this documentary of the incident- Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains. Blame it on the end of Lost, but I have a renewed interest in the story. Perhaps I'll even go home and look for that old copy of the book and reread it again. I know one thing, I'll be renting this documentary very soon...

Covers (of books I've never read)

Penguin redesigned some British classics from the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. I've never read a single one of them, but here are my favorites from each decade. Can you guess which is which?

An Ode to Bookshelves

Seriously, I am bookshelf-obsessed lately. and not those nice, organized, alphabetized, borderline-OCD kind. I'm talking about the messy, full of character and books I may or may not have ever read, floor-to-ceiling kind.

From Dress Design Decor, Design Sponge, Destined to Design

Readin'

Watched some of To Kill A Mockingbird last night on AMC and it got me thinking of all the classics I want to reread...

To Kill A Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, Fahrenheit 451, Great Gatsby, Flannery O'Connor's short stories, Anhil's Ghost, The Corrections, Main Street

Also some classics to add to the list (that I haven't read):
Brave New World, Catch 22, Moo, Of Mice and Men


I better get going. I've been stuck on Pride & Prejudice & Zombies since August.


And in the spirit of reading, check out these shirts by Out of Print.

Thanks to Design Work Life for introducing my to the shop