"A commonplace book is what a provident poet cannot subsist without, for this proverbial reason, that “great wits have short memories:” and whereas, on the other hand, poets, being liars by profession, ought to have good memories; to reconcile these, a book of this sort, is in the nature of a supplemental memory, or a record of what occurs remarkable in every day’s reading or conversation." - Jonathan Swift, "A Letter of Advice to a Young Poet"

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Shrove Tuesday

In honor of designated pancake day, I feasted on waffles this morning - not quite the same, I know, but it's all I could find, and this busy student has no time to make her own pancakes.

For my annual shameless exploitation of Catholic tradition, I've resolved to spend at least 15 minutes every day working out, stretching, dancing, or running around - in other words, waking up my body from the stupor of reading and writing, which is my life right now. Although I'm not religious at all, I find the 40 days of Lent to be a perfect time frame for resolutions.

Speaking of which, one of my New Year's resolutions was to read more books for fun, so last night I stopped off studying early and started reading The Hunger Games. And now I know why people keep reading YA even when they're no longer of the target age. As much as I love highly sophisticated and complex and fancily-written books, there's something different about a book that's about nothing but telling a story. Something different about the thrill of flying through the pages because you can't wait to see what happens next. Good stuff. I'll probably finish today or tomorrow and let you know what I think when I do. Until then, happy pancake eating!

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