Any Decent Title Would Be a Spoiler

I saw it coming.

You saw it coming.

My family and every English teacher I ever had saw it coming.

I failed the second half of this month's Challengavaganza. Failed like a failing failure from failsville.

I know how it happened, I waited too ling to choose a book, and I got distracted and then I picked THe Sun Also Rises [in my pants] and then I had other stuff I needed to do, and other stuff I didn't need to do but I did anyway and now I'm a failure which means...

the first half of the month will have to be from the dreaded Fail List.

Fail List
1.Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond.
2.Twilight Saga - Stephanie Meyer
3.Plagues and Peoples - William Mcneill
4.Faerwell to Manzanar -Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston & James D. Houston
5.Hiroshima - forgot author, sorry.
6.A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickins
7.Ceremony- Leslie Marmon Silko
8.Cry, the Beloved Country- Alan Paton

Now, as the rules go, there's no reward for completing a punishment, there's no punishment for not completing a reward, and there's no reward for completing a reward.

No official rule has been made for failing a book from the fail list. [my vote fully goes for no punishment for not completing a punishment since the whole point of the fail books is they're difficult to complete] I'm open to your votes.

In my humble opinion, a non-book punishment punishment for failing a fail would be best to avoid a long, horrible chain of failures that would no doubt make me swear off reading actual books for many more years.

So, yeah,

1. Votes for which book (just one book if part of a series) I should read for the punishment

2. Votes for punishment-punishments (if any at all)

3. and Should I start also making video parts to the Challenge compilation?

--next book starts tomorrow.

Reflection on the Challengavaganza's First Seven Days

I don't know a lot about what exactly makes writing good, or funny, or captivating, and I don't know the formula to word sequences that pull a reader's eyes across a page without them putting forth much effort, but I know that whatever it is, things like Paper Towns, and The Brothers Karamazov have it, and American Gods (no offense to the man who suggested it to me) did not.

I mean, I started American Gods with high hopes because it's frikkin Neil Gaiman and who doesn't love Neil Gaiman and Stardust was certainly awesome plus, Coraline, I didn't see it but jeez it looked interesting...but it took, like, 5 tedious days to get through the first ten pages. Luckily, an awesome friend suggested reading "No Exit" first and I'm extremely susceptible to the suggestions of those participating in the Challenge. (Yay, one act plays!)

To kill time between then and when I could go to the school library(today) and check it out. I started reading The Brothers Karamazov and ten pages of that breezed by in minutes and were accompanied by clear and present laughter at points which I found weird. Really weird.

The question is, what does an existentialist, 19^th century Russian writer with no awards and no notable movie adaptations have that a 21^st century rock star of literature with scores of awards and like ten films with his name on them doesn't?

I leave you with a non sequitur, yet very true statement.

-My favorite things are beginnings.

P.S. I like "No Exit" so far.

Next Tuesday will be time to begin The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party.


(day one can be found here: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=8822520&blogId=508370549 )

Nobody reads this blog but,

Just in case...

I also posted this on facebook and myspace.

Ok, it's not that I'm conceding that I actually need to actually read actual books instead of reading about books or listening to people talk about in order to live a full and enriched life (or assert my intellectual superiority).

I have a strict policy of not retracting statements except in the most dire circumstances. (there are a few small loopholes that will not be discussed at the moment)


It is that I would like to witness examples of various writing styles as they are applied to storytelling situations.

um, et cetera.

So what I'm going to do is apply a self-challenge of reading at least two books a month for 12 months starting next month (September 1^st).

I will call it Marlon's Mind-Exploding ≥24 Book Challengavaganza!


What I need from you, if you would be so kind, is to suggest to me any book (or as many books as) you want to be read within this time. Any book, regardless of how long it is, whether or not you think I'll like it, whether or not you think I've read it before (assume I haven't), or whether or not you think I'l quit 25% of the way through the book (I might, but I'll try not to)

Also, my plan is to somehow document this and make it interesting.

-Let's go, if you want it you can get it, let me know...