My Favorite Poet

Unlike authors of books, I have a much easier time choosing a favorite poet. For me, poetry is something much harder to invest time in reading. Much of the poetry that I have read has been in school. However, one poet has stood out to me and made me hungry for me.

Meet Emily Dickinson. Her life story is a little bit bazaar. For starters, she spent most of her time in one room of her house. She rarely went outside and is known for primarily wearing white. During her life, she wrote a multitude of literary works (though she is primarily known for her poetry.)

Although her poetry is now popular, she only received fame after death. Dickinson choose to publish a select number of pieces during her lifetime, but only anonymously. When she died, her family discovered her massive works and choose to release them to the public.

One of my favorite things about her poems is that she never titled any of them. As a writer, I know how hard it can be to find a title for a piece that you have written. It is awesome to see that one of the best poets of all time never titled anything!

Anyways, to reference her poems most people refer to the first line. They were originally numbered. However over time, using the first line has become more popular.

In total, 1,800 poems were discovered after she died. Four years after her death, they were published and sent out to be discovered by the American people.

The reason that I like her poetry is that it is inspired by darkness. Most of her inspiration came from the cemetery outside her window, her religious upbringing, and the book of Revelations. Due to her muse, many of her poems carry a dark undertone.

My favorite poem by Dickinson is "I heard a fly buzz- when I died" or 591.

The poem focuses on the last moments before death. The new perception that a person takes on when they reach their final moments. How in that moment life is so still that even a fly in the room is noticeable.

Dickinson recognizes how earthly affairs matter no longer. How serenity has come down upon the person. How responsibility has been relinquished.

And then, "I could not see to see-"

That is the final line to the poem.

I believe that this has both a metaphorical and literal meaning. First of all, when you die you can't see. That is a very literal interpretation.

But I believe that there is much more to this than the absence of sight. I believe that when you die, you can no longer see the point. That you can no longer understand why you lived for some of what you lived for. Why humans live for time constraints instead of freedom. Why we worry about tomorrow instead of focusing on today.

I believe that at the point of death, we will use the ability to see the meaningless things in life. All that will be there is the stillness. The peace.

That is my interpretation of Dickinson's poem "I Heard a Fly Buzz - When I died." If you would like to read it and leave your own opinion on what it means, I would be happy to read it!

How I Broke Up With One Genre

For the longest time, I only read romance. Every book that I read had to be strictly romance or have a strong romantic subplot. That was my thing. And then I started watching BookTube.
If you don't know what BookTube is, simply go on YouTube and search "BookTube." You will find an oasis of videos focused on new, old, and random books that will break your budget if you are a book buyer like myself. By discovering these videos, I was exposed to a variety of genres outside of romance.
The book that really broke my habit was Andy Weir's The Martian. I had not seen the movie, or heard anything about a movie being made when I first learned of the book. All I knew was that the book was about a man trapped on Mars.
That sounded really interesting to me! I am not a very scientific person at all, but the idea of being trapped on Mars sounded like something I would want to read about.
So I did.
I have to admit that being in the mist of a chemistry class did help me to understand some of the scientific details of the story, however from a writers standpoint the story was genius.
Weir's main character Mark Watney was left on Mars by the rest of his crew due to a freak accident. Since then, he has had to figure out how to survive on his own until he can be rescued, or the next mission comes to Mars years later.
Because he is alone, the story is primarily written with very little dialogue. The feeding of the story comes through detail. Lots of great detail.
This book is indeed consider Science Fiction, something that I would have never considered reading without the input of BookTube bloggers.
I think that sometimes as readers we have to "break up" with one genre to find some of out favorite reads. The Martian is definitely one of my favorite books that I have read recently. There is also nothing wrong with reading romance. I still do. But expanding out of one genre is one of the best things that I have ever done.

Coffee Book Tag

I have never done a tag on my blog so here it goes! This is the Coffee Book Tag!

BLACK: NAME A SERIES THAT’S TOUGH TO GET INTO BUT HAS HARDCORE FANS.

I started reading Outlander and I like it. I do enjoy picking it up from time to time and reading a couple of pages, but I just cannot get into it like some people do. I love the idea of the story. I like learning about the time period. I like the characters. I just cannot devote myself to finishing the entire book.

I have convinced myself that it is because I have the mass market paperback edition and that I need a larger copy of the book. Like, it's the same concept as how I cannot read a book on an ereader. I just need to have a larger copy of the book and then I will be able to read the book and become a part of the fandom.

But until then, this is where it stands. I have a really hard time getting into Outlander. I'm sorry guys!

PEPPERMINT MOCHA: NAME A BOOK THAT GETS MORE POPULAR DURING THE WINTER OR A FESTIVE TIME OF YEAR.

I honestly am taking a total guess on this one. But I think My True Love Gave To Me is a lot more popular around the holiday season. I don't know. I don't read books for the season. Just to be honest here. I had to look up the name of the book because all I know is the cover. However, now that I see some of the authors it looks like it would be a pretty good read.

HOT CHOCOLATE: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CHILDREN’S BOOK?

I could never pick a a favorite book. I cannot even pick a favorite book from my childhood. I read most of the usuals that we all read. So I am going to pick two of my favorite books/series from when I was a child.

My favorite book when I was a little little girl was called Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. My great grandma read this book to me all the time. It is about a mom and son. The focus of the book is how the love for the son does not change how he grows up and how he is finally the one that must hold and love his mother.

But when I was in the Middle Grade age I really loved Dear Dumb Diary. This was a very girl focused diary series about middle school. It was full of laughs and lessons that probably did not help me one bit. But the drawings were fantastic and I loved every bit of it. 

DOUBLE SHOT OF ESPRESSO: NAME A BOOK THAT KEPT YOU ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT FROM START TO FINISH.

This is the only real ebooks that I have ever read and only because they were only published as ebooks. They are The Eden Trilogy by Nicole Williams. (If you have ever seen a paper copy, please tell me!) 

These are, if I had to pick a favorite series, these are it. Each book kept me on the edge of my seat wanting to scream at the characters. I loved every second of the adventure and would recommend it to anyone who likes supernatural romance.

Basically, without giving too much away, it is about a girl who has just moved into her new college campus. She begins giving tours and is told to take Will on a tour. Except there is an instant attraction between the two. And Will is an immortal. 

STARBUCKS: NAME A BOOK YOU SEE EVERYWHERE.

I have seen this book everywhere, except where I had a gift card and was ready to buy it! It's Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. I want this book so bad. I need to read it. That's all I can say. I just have to read it. I think that the book is haunting me and just saying "Read sanume, Read me."

If you do not know what this book is about, check out my Summer Reading List post. I briefly summarized it on there. I will also review it when I do get a chance to read it.  I plan on buying it off of Amazon since that is the cheapest I have found it.

THAT HIPSTER COFFEE SHOP: GIVE A BOOK BY AN INDIE AUTHOR A SHOUT OUT

This book is not out yet but is by an amazing indie author, Angie Grigaliunas. Her first book is called Sowing and will be released later this summer on Amazon. I have been following her through the later half of the writing process and it sounds like a brilliant read.  I would recommend this to anyone interest in fantasy/dystopian genre. I feel like anything I write about it does  not sound as well said as when she herself describes the story. Probably because a writer has so much passion about their work. I definitely recommend this. Every snippet I have been lucky enough to read has been amazing.

 OOPS! I ACCIDENTALLY GOT DECAF: NAME A BOOK YOU WERE EXPECTING MORE FROM.

Normally, I am not let down by a book. However, The 5th Wave was a let down for me. I did not even finish it. I could not do it. I wanted to. I kept thinking that it was going to get better and it never did. It was like a big, snooze.

If you have read The 5th Wave and really think that I should give it another shot, then let me know. If I have enough people tell me that it will be worth it, then I will give it another shot!

Summer Reading List

 Since I was a little girl, summer reading was a part of my life. My local library always had a summer reading program. You would keep track of the number of hours that you read and at given benchmarks earn a prize. Most summers, I read beyond that of the grand prize, I just did not keep track of my hours that well.

With the progression of technology, reading has become harder to find time for. More often then not, I find myself sitting down to read a book and winding up on Facebook or Twitter instead.

The problem is, I have a lot of books that I want to read. That's why I have committed myself to a summer reading list this year. Of course with some of my busy activities, I may not complete the entire list, but it sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?

The first book on my reading list was started towards the end of the school year. That was The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I have written and posted a review on here if you are interested in learning more about it. Basically, it is the story of two magicians who are bound into a competition against each other. It is an enchanting story that I would recommend even if you do not particularly read fantasy. I am not a huge fan of fantasy myself, but I enjoyed it.


The next book I will be reading is The Shack by WM, Paul Young. I do not know very much about this book. I am reading this as a deal with my mother. She has to read one of my favorite books and in exchange I am reading The Shack. (She is reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.) This book is faith based.

Another faith based book I will be reading is Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller. This book was a graduation present from my youth minister and I was told that it is absolutely amazing. So if you are interested in faith based reading, this is a nonfiction faith based book that is supposed to be great. (I will be reviewing all my summer reads.)

Next, my plan is to read The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Cline. This is the libraries book of the year. My school's librarian told me that I had to read this book and when I found it at the thrift store for $0.70 I got it. All I know about this book is that it covers a dark part of American history. I am a huge fan of history so I should really enjoy it.

After that, I have to buy Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. I am so excited to read this book! If you don't know what it is about... sigh. There is a very successful man in the story who becomes paralyzed and the girl has to take care of him. That's all I'm going to say but I have heard it's a real tear jerker.

If I buy more young adult reads that I am interested in, I will add them to my list. I am debating on buying a couple of different books other than Me Before You. But there is one last book that is going to be the last book I read this summer for sure. And it will probably carry into my first semester of college.

11/22/63 by Stephen King is one hunk of literature. At a whooping 849 pages, it will take a large chunk of time to read. The premise of this book is stopping the assassination of John F Kennedy. This book was also recommended to me. I am certain that I will finish this monster of Stephen King writing!

If you have any other suggestions of what I should be reading this summer, please comment below!