I have the flu. By the end of the day, I will have drunk an entire bottle of orange juice by myself. My doctor insisted that getting the flu shot meant that my flu wasn’t going to be as bad as it could be. I’m not sure I believe her. I had actually seen this doctor for a little over four years, just by chance. She’s worked at the student health center for a while now. She remembers me, which I don’t take to be a good sign. “Now, Neem, I know you. Normal people stay in bed when they have the flu. Can you go home and stay in bed and say, read a book? Will you just take it easy?”
So, I read multiple books.
Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines
Anya had given me this book for “Team Neem Winter Holiday” and got it signed by none other than Jim C. Hines himself! He’s a local author, and he writes two of my favorite book series (one of which I named a kitten after one of the characters, Talia). Libriomancer was what I could only describe as simply delicious. Having lived in Michigan for a while, there was something special about reading the book and knowing the places that he kept referencing. He had so many delectable nerdy references. The entire book was truly lovely and insanely engaging. I had a hard time putting it down even though I was crazy sick and exhausted. The premise of the book is that libriomancers have the magical ability to reach inside of books and get objects and that there is trouble in the world when someone abuses that power. The magic system seems very awesome and definitely plays on many of my daydreams growing up that I could take some of the magic out of books and into the real world.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Anya, again, was the one who gave me this book, this time for my birthday. I had actually read it before, and it’s one of my favorite books. Amusingly, I named a different kitten after the main character, Kvothe, in this book. I think I’ve reread this book about a dozen times now. Kvothe and his love interest Denna both have parts in the story that really relate to me. I love that I can pick up this book and open it at random and thoroughly enjoy whatever is going on in the book.
There are so many quotes about Denna that resonate so much with me. “She’s not much for being pinned down.” They talk about how “she’s not to be looked down on for moving where the wind blows her.” Later in the book, she talks about how she want to “be beholden to anyone.” In any case, I absolutely adore her exchange with Kvothe about the seven words to make a woman love you.
“I was just wondering why you’re here.”
I also caught up on comics (Fables and Fairest) and started reading Effective Java until I realized that they assume that you already know Java. I do not. I will though. I will soon. The internet will help me. The internet first tells me that I should download Eclipse. Now, I successfully complete my first Hello World in Java. This girl is going to learn a new language.
Edit: I just read one more book: The End by Lemony Snicket. It was the last book in the Series of Unfortunate Events. I was very unhappy with it. It didn’t answer anything at all. I started reading those books way back when, probably a decade ago. I eagerly read each book as they came out until I lost track of it at the very end with the very last book. I finally got it from the library. Disappointed.