The winner of a copy of Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater, enough yarn to knit the cowl pattern in the book, as well as a tote bag is… Beth W. (yhime407 on ravelry).

Stay tuned for the next podcast which features a generous giveaway from a musician and knitter who’s supplied a significant amount of music to the podcast.  I plan to record over the next week assuming that cookbook that’s almost complete doesn’t take over my life once again.  I’m also investigating the possibility of running a podcast book club over the summer via goodreads.  If any blog readers or podcast listeners are interested, please leave a comment – feel free to make a book suggestion as well!

Last week got away from me; I wrote not one blog post for Knitting and Crochet Blog Week although I did read quite a few great blog posts by other participants.  Chaperoning various trips and events along with the need to get my vegan e-cookbook completed left little time for daily blog posts.  Trust me, if I’m not cooking, asking Caiti to take pictures of my food, or writing and rewriting recipes, I’m wondering why I thought writing a cookbook would be a simple process.  One good thing came out of my various escapades thought – in order to relax after all this activity, I picked up one of my WIPs and in doing so, made some significant inroads over the past week or so.

I mentioned on the podcast that I thought I’d take a dip in the sweater knitting pond by trying my hand at a baby sweater.  A very good friend and his wife recently had their second child.  Since I don’t have any other babies handy, and this fellow teacher has done a lot for me over the years, I decided to knit the Easy Baby Sweater from More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.  An apropos book title because, yes, this baby is over a month old, and while I did contribute to the generic staff gift, I wanted to give this newborn something special.

Blue Sky Alpacas has become my absolute favorite yarn brand, so I had no problem selecting their worsted cotton in Bone and ordering 2 skeins from Loop in Philly for this project.  My swatch indicated that it was comparable to the yarn suggested, but it’s a good thing I made the largest size.  The sweater was so not big enough for a 6-9 month baby! I did have a moment of panic and sent David a DM asking just how big this baby was – no way was any human being going to fit into this tiny cardigan – but after he responded “a meaty 12 pounds” I knew she’d fit in this lightweight garment perfect for air conditioning as we head into summer.

Below is a photo of the finished sweater before I wrapped it.  Of course, David didn’t wait to open it until he got home and his wife could share the fun, but she did write a very nice thank you note.  Surprised me as I think I am so digital now I forget about actual handwritten notes!

I also finished Robin Ulrich’s Frostlight scarf.  I made this out of Paton’s wool in the same color I used to make my mother a Monmouth hat for her birthday.  Yes, this is her Mother’s Day gift even though she lives in Texas, and as I write this, it’s 85 degrees out and will be approaching 90 by the end of the week.  My Mom’s a good sport; she says no matter how old the child is, a parent always appreciates a handmade gift.

Finally, I finished the cowl out of Painted Lady mohair from Stitchuary that I purchased at Vogue Knitting Live.  The colors remind me of the desert southwest; now I have to buy a new winter coat to show off the cowl! Or maybe I’ll be inspired by Isabel of the Fluffy Fibers podcast and sew my own.

Never fear, I still have Sarah’s drawstring bag out of the Koigu we bought at Purl Soho to finish along with my year long project, the Sky Scarf, and I just wound KnitPicks yarn for a v-neck tank that I plan to start this week.  The knitting never ends… and once again, if you’re looking for pattern ideas, a great summer read, and a ball of lovely yarn, check out the giveaway still going on through the podcast!

Here are 5 artists I found either inspiring, intriguing, astonishing, or disturbing.  The links to their pages on whitney.org contain video interviews with the artists regarding their work in the show.

1.  LaToya Ruby Frasier: Our tour guide began with Ms. Frasier’s The Homebody self portraits taken an abandon home owned by her deceased step-grandfather.  The four photographs show the artist dressed in her step-grandfather’s robe and pajamas as well as draped in one of his blankets.

Below is one of the photos in the series:

Hanging on the wall adjacent to these four photographs are a series of photos entitled Campaign for Braddock Hospital (Save Our Community Hospital) which documents the experience of community residents when the hospital was shut then demolished in 2010.  Also included in this series are Levi’s ads displayed in Braddock that the artist has altered to reflect the true nature of residents’ experiences.  For example, Levi’s “Everybody’s Work is Important” is altered to read “If Everybody’s Work is equally important then why weren’t local residents and small businesses allowed a share in the profits from the demolition process of the aluminum, bricks, and windows from UPMC Braddock?”

2.  If a work of art contains language or even typography, I’m immediately drawn to it.  I missed John Kelsey’s “poems” on my first pass of the exhibition, but over lunch in the coffee shop downstairs, one of the art teacher mentioned it.  Composed of words taken from spam emails, two poems entitled “Impoetnce” and Depesrsion” struck me as a true reflection of everyday life in the 21st century.  Granted, I have some fine spam filters on my various email accounts, but every so often one of those “male enhancement” emails will sneak through with misspellings and inaccurate assumptions.  The poems read, at first, like another stilted spam email, but if you read them again, they do reflect their subject including the slightly off nature of the spelling.  A list of the recipients of the emails used to create the poems is included with each, and I think demonstrates the reach of this type of communication not only in volume but in the broad demographics of people who find these messages in their email. Make an effort to find this work of art; it’s on a floor with a lot of colorful pieces and the stark serif type of the poems was lost at least to this visitor on my first walk through.

3. Words attracted me to the work of Moyra Davey as well.  The twelve unfolded “letters” of Mary, Marie really drew me in especially when I learned they each letter was creased and worn because the artist mailed them to her mother, sister, and nieces.  The words she chose to include on each piece of post comes from Mary Wollstonecraft’s Letters written when she travelled to Scandanavia at the end of the eighteenth century.  Her daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, was an infant at the time but would grow up to pen Frankenstein.  Both women were strong, vocal advocates for women’s rights; my own conclusion is that the artist mailed these missives to the most important women in her life just as Wolstonecraft mailed hers to the father of her daughter confident in the woman Mary Wolstonecraft Shelley would become.

This may seem an odd analogy to some, but I recently participated in a fabric postcard swap run by @caithnesscraft on ravelry.  Pairs of women in the United States and Europe mailing small pieces of art to one another?  Perhaps there is power in craft!  When I join another postcard swap, I might just incorporate elements of another woman’s letters in a way similar to Davey’s project.  Below is a photo I took of Mary, Marie:

4.  In her last podcast, Martine of iMake talked about her new love of cross stitch.  I learned to cross stitch in middle school, created many a cross stitch sampler into my mid-twenties but abandon it for needlepoint and now knitting.  Quite a few of the students in the knitting support group that meets on Fridays in my classroom were on the trip to the Whitney, and they couldn’t wait to show me Elaine Reichek‘s work.  Five pieces by this artist hung on 3 walls, the largest a tapestry made by taking an image from the internet, scanning it into a computer, then reproducing the image on a wall sized tapestry with a computerized loom.  I thought this was ingenious but my students quickly pointed out that, if the artist did this for a class project, she would be told the work wasn’t original, your grade will suffer, try again!  I get that and agree that I’d much prefer this wall hanging include original artwork but at the same time as a computer geek and crafter I love the use of the computer to create art hanging in a renown museum.

Below is the tapestry entitled Paint Me a Cavernous Waste Shore:

Plagiarism debate aside, I loved her handstitched pieces.  One, There’s No Need is a labyrinth of cross stitch around a quote by Jorge Borges, “There’s no need to build a labyrinth when the entire universe is one.”

My favorite piece of Reichek’s, however, is We Construct a Narrative part of the Ariadne’s Thread series.  Around a stark black stitched image on neutral fiber reads, ““We construct a narrative for ourselves, and that’s the thread that we follow from one day to the next. People who disintegrate as personalities are the ones who lose that thread”, a quote from Paul Auster.

5. By far my favorite artist I discovered at this Biennial is K8 Hardy.  During our official tour, the tour guide brought us to Hardy’s work after Frasier’s photographs.  I loved the predominance of shoes and the retro feel of the photographs but otherwise just thought they were cool.  This is where going to a museum with students is a priceless experience.  The tour guide pointed to one piece and asked the students what they made of the juxtaposition of red stiletto shoes and duct tape:

A student I’ve been impressed with since the day she walked in the door explained that the woman’s feet duct taped into traditional female footwear (stilettos) suggests forced conformity.  The shoes don’t fit and in fact one foot is almost completely out of the shoe and held in place only by the duct tape; the woman doesn’t fit into the role prescribed by society.  The feet are “upside down” which suggests reversing traditional gender roles or the havoc of trying to confirm, and the industrial background jars with the footwear one would normally see on a woman in an office, hotel, or nightclub.  (I pictured Joan from Mad Men in them but then again, she’s fighting gender expectations too!)

While I loved Hardy’s images, I got none of that until that student explained it to me.  Now, I not only love the message inherent in her work, but my daughter and I are planning to attend Hardy’s fashion show at the Whitney on May 20th.  Watch this space for a review!

So there you have them, the 5 artists I discovered at this year’s Whitney Biennial.  If you have a chance to visit, I strongly recommend that you go.  You may not fall in love with any of the art there, but you will certainly have a lot to think, talk, and write about after you go!

In this episode, I announce a giveaway graciously donated by new show and blog supporter, Patricia’s Yarns in Hoboken, NJ, talk about what I have on and off the needles, review Pints and Purls: Portable Projects for the Social Knitter by Karida Collins and Libby Bruce, provide another comparison of 3 books (much less weighty than the 1Q84 literary analysis in Podcast #8), and review a TV show I’ve just discovered.  In response to a request from listener and music contributor to the podcast, Jacob Haller, I recommend some of my favorite Star Trek episodes since you can now stream the series on Neflix.  I’ve added that segment and will include it for at least the next few podcasts.

The Scintilla Project is a great blogging initiative can be found here.

The “Exploring Stripes Bag” by Holly Webb can be found on ravelry here.

My Sky Scarf is 3 months old!

Books I mention:

Soft Target by Stephen Hunter

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Also check out Sons of Anarchy on Netflix if you want to continue the crime theme of these books.

Finally, the Giveaway! Courtesy of Patricia’s Yarn in Hoboken, NJ, this giveaway includes her book Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater, a tote from her store, and enough yarn to make Ellen’s cowl (pattern included in the book).  In order to enter, you may do any or all of the following:

1.  Comment on the blog post for this podcast (1 entry).

2.  Kindly write an iTunes review for this podcast (3 entries).

3.  Follow me on twitter and post a comment here when you do (1 entry).

4.  Pin the blog post for this giveaway on Pinterest using the image Patricia provided then leave the link in a comment on the blog post (2 entries).

5.  Join the ravelry group (1 entry).

6.  Sign up for CaithnessCraft’s bookmark swap and leave a comment on the blog post that you did for another entry.

You may enter in as many ways as you’d like, and I will announce a winner on the blog on May 5^th as well as on the next podcast.  Here’s a look at what you can win:

Music used in the podcast includes:

Blog Like It’s the End of the World by Tom Smith (courtesy of Music Alley)

Kitten Knitting Blues by Jacob Haller (courtesy of Music Alley)

Circumstantial Evidence by Jacob Haller (courtesy of Music Alley)

Drinkin’ 40s on the Subway by the Beer Drinking Fools (courtesy of Music Alley)

John the Revelator by Curtis Stigers and the Forest Rangers from the Sons of Anarchy Soundtrack CD

Why you may ask? Here are 10 things I learned today in traffic court:

1.  Camo pants are the height of fashion in traffic court.  I need to get me to Walmart and buy some of them camo pants so I can avoid going to jail for driving with a revoked license three times and have my sketchy sister-in-law post my bail.  Also, said camo pants must have a pocket big enough to carry my wallet and keys even though I don’t need keys since I don’t drive.  Ok, maybe a house key, but I don’t think this chick lived in a house.

2. If I’m a guy in high school, and I get a speeding ticket as well as a ticket for failing to produce my drivers license, I should dress like Michael Imperioli in the Sopranos.  I will have my tickets dismissed and pay only court costs after entertaining the courtroom with my amusing story about how I didn’t want to be late getting my sister to her dentist appointment so I forgot my wallet in my locker at school yet we stopped home so she could brush her teeth.

3.  I never, ever, EVER, EVER want to get busted for drunk driving in New Jersey.  After hearing a judge read the list of all the bad things that will happen to me if I do, I will never, ever, ever do this.  Not that I’ve ever done this, but there’s no way anybody would do this if they knew what they’re in for.  Driving with a revoked license and wearing camo pants to court isn’t nearly as bad as what will happen to you if you face DUI.

4. If you have a provisional license, you cannot plea down your charge or your points.  The law states they must stand.  So, if you still have your little kid license but qualify for the big kid license, make sure you get the big kid license before showing up in traffic court.

5. Put your hair in pig tails and make sure you dye it 500 colors but leave a little gray.  Not as snappy as the camo pants, but it is eye catching.  Everyone who’s getting bored with all the repetitive DUI cases will perk up when you walk into the courtroom.

6. You have to be really poor to qualify for a public defender.  Not poor like Governor Christie’s made so many of this state’s middle class citizens but really poor like minimum wage or unemployed poor.  I thought everyone got a public defender if they wanted one.  Not so in traffic court.

7. If you aren’t interested in the stage show that is traffic court, bring a lawyer.  All the cases with lawyers go first.  Granted they are the most amusing (and sometimes scary – see #3 DUI), but plan to sit there for at least an hour while the lawyers earn their pay.

8. Judges can be nice people.  The judge in this court was a truly nice guy and did as much as he could to help everyone out who came in front of him.  He was patient, explaining things over and over again, rescheduled court dates for the multiple number of kids with provisional licenses who qualified for real licenses (see #4) so they could plea down their tickets.  Definitely not a scary guy.

9.  Bring bamboo knitting needles.  You will go through a metal detector.  You don’t want everyone staring at you when you set off the metal detector.  Also, the cop checking your bag will pause when he sees your knitting.  Perhaps he is thinking that no one who carries knitting with them to court is a bad person.

10.  Traffic court is old fashioned: traffic court takes only cash and does not take debit or credit cards nor do they take checks.  They do, however, have payment plans.  Last time I was in traffic court was over a decade ago in Neptune, NJ.  Not only did Neptune take cash only, funny thing, they would give you a lesser charge without points if you had enough cash to pay double the fine you were facing but no payment plans.  There were also hookers with purple hair and some dudes from County in orange jump suits in Neptune traffic court.  I much prefer the camo pants, Sopranos suits, and multicolored pig tails found in Hunterdon County’s traffic court.

So, let’s hope you never have to go to traffic court in New Jersey, but if you do, make sure you wear your camo pants, aren’t facing DUI, and bring that big kid license.  Better yet, if you’re feeling a little down, spend an hour or so in traffic court.  You’ll realize you’ve made better life choices than most of the people there and if that doesn’t work, you’ll leave knowing you definitely made better style choices!

Unfortunately, this assignment did not produce the results I expected.  Instead, the teacher (me) learned that you can’t force a blog reader to comment; organic comments are the only type that inspire readers and blog writers alike.  Most student comments were thoughtful yet it was obvious they were writing for the grade not the opportunity to join a conversation.  The most telling aspect of the assignment was that not one student responded with more than the 2 required comments, and none of the comments prompted a true discussion.

At about midway through the marking period, a member of a blogging group I recently joined on LinkedIn started a discussion about the etiquette of commenting.  She conducted an experiment in which she posted comments to over 70 blogs written by group members in order to see how many bloggers reciprocated with comments on her blog.  One can safely assume the these bloggers wanted feedback via comments since they posted links to their blogs in a new posts thread; therefore, the woman conducting the experiment was in no way posting random comments or in any way spamming these blogs.  In fact, her comments on my blog were not only considered but thought provoking.

The first few respondents to this discussion stated that they generally respond in kind and even use plugins to make that a simpler process.  Then I came across a longer response that contained this observation:

“…usually [I] leave a comment back if I can say something genuine.  Otherwise, we are just playing a silly numbers game, not creating community.”

This member went on to say that she enjoys helping other bloggers and may promote or respond to a blog via social media or another outlet.  However, she was adverse to commenting as a tactic to bump a blog in terms of SEO or artificially inflate readership numbers.  As the discussion continued along the lines of the first few comments, I thought I’d join in to support the minority view above:

“Comments are always appreciated by bloggers … I comment when I read a blog that sparks a reaction not just because the blogger commented on one of my blog posts. It may be weeks before I see something I’d like to comment upon but I will return to a blog written by someone who posts a comment as opposed to a random blog I come across & don’t see anything that sparks a response. The “tit for tat” commenting approach seems disingenuous to me and not why I blog or podcast.”

The best part of posting my take on comments was a connection with the person who originally dissented from the prevailing view as well as the moderator of the LinkedIn group.  Downside: the next commenter told me she would’ve responded to my blog but she was tired of people not reciprocating comments and then posted my Alexa ranking. What’s an Alexa ranking you ask? Something that’s meaningless to anyone but bloggers looking to make significant income from their blog and / or attract big advertisers.  I think anyone who’s visiting my blog or listened to my podcast knows I’m not doing this for the money.  In fact, I prefer “supporters” and in no way want advertisers or other monetary compensation to color any reviews or commentary I include on this site.  My only real concern is the reaction from those at my “day job” regarding what I post anywhere online (for more on that topic, see a previous post about why I set my Twitter account to “private”).

Yes, I read most of the blogs posted by members of the group throughout the week, but I don’t comment just to comment.  The blogger concerned with Alexa ranking writes about news and events primarily outside the United States.  I find her blog informative at times but I am in no position to comment on politics in the EU or Keynesian economic policies.  If she writes about the state of the economy in New Jersey during the Christie era, then I promise, I will have a lot to say!

While I wrote this post, one of my WordPress plugins tweeted a link to an older post on this blog.  A relatively new follower read it and commented … on Twitter! Is this any less valid a comment than one left on the post itself? I don’t believe so and, for me, I see comments on Twitter much faster than I do on the blog.  Many of the podcasters I listen to regularly are on Twitter and that’s the way I let them know how much I’ve loved their latest episodes.   (I’m looking at you @aplayfulday, @caithnesscraft, and @venusfieri!)

Is commenting an SEO tactic, a way to demonstrate readership, or is comment reciprocation 21st century online etiquette? Is there a middle ground depending upon the purpose of the blog and the audience it reaches?  Can you still give blog love via your blog roll (see mine at right)? Feel free to respond in a comment, a tweet, a message on LinkedIn, an email or, if you’re really creative, pin your response on Pinterest!

“What happened?”, I asked.

“My shoes were all muddy so I hosed them down,” he said.

“How did that happen?”, I asked.

“We went on an ADVENTURE!”, he said.

Anyone who has a boy, knows a boy, or is a boy understands that boys go on adventures (I have no idea when this ends – perhaps never).  This got me to thinking: what kind of adventures have I, a grown woman, had in my lifetime?

In the spirit of the “Week of 23”, here are 23 adventures I have had in my 48 years:

1. Drove across the United States in a Toyota Celica in a week.
2. Drove across the United States in a Nissan Sentra in 52 hours.
3. Rode an ATV.
4. Rode a motorcycle (many times).
5. Refused to pay and file my income taxes (the IRS doesn’t like this; I now pay and file federal income tax promptly)
6. Went sky diving (kind of).
7. Tried to surf (not as easy as it looks in the movies)
8. Rode the New York City subway in the 1970s.
9. Flew People’s Express in the 1980s.
10. Got married.
11. Gave birth.
12. Gave birth again.
13. Got divorced.
14. Bought a house.
15. Sold a house.
16. Bought another house and now support that house.
17. Learned a programming language and then another.
18. Decided to become a public school teacher in New Jersey.
19. Took a bunch of students to Spain, France and England.
20. Took a bunch of students to Italy (more disaster than adventure; crazy people make terrible chaperones).
21. Went to Haiti 3 times to teach in a mission school and train their teachers.
22. Went to Ecuador to work with the indigenous children in the mountains.
23. Ate chicken feet soup while in Ecuador (before I became vegan).

How can I top the chicken feet soup?  Care to make a suggestion for my next 48 years?

inkytwig

kimperative

uncletypewriter

lolsangria

stories of conflict and love

brandeewine

little yawps

love letters and suicide notes

tales from south jersey

me, my dogs, my life

faithfully geeky

mrs. mediocrity

noel rozny

m a brotherton

cat-e-whompus

a wondering spirit

streetlights imagination

bibliomama

maggie ink

emma lloyd

marie d. tiger (color is action)

shiny things

estherfoxdotcom

I’m sure there are blogs I would love that I missed – please feel free to make suggestions in the comments below!

My twenty-third year started on a sunny beach in San Diego, California and ended with a 52 hour cross country trip to the residence of my future ex-mother-in-law in Hazlet, New Jersey.  How did this happen in the space of 12 short months?

When I turned 23 in January of 1987, I’d recently been transferred to my employer’s Carlsbad office as administrative assistant to that location’s manager.  Excited to have a female boss for the first time, I thought the challenge and experience of working with a boss who understood the particular issues of working women would alleviate some of the pain of the 45 minute commute each way from downtown San Diego into northern San Diego County.

Unfortunately, Working Girl wouldn’t be released until the next year.  Perhaps if that movie were made just a year earlier, I would’ve made a different life choice.  My hair wasn’t as big as Melanie’s and Harrison Ford never showed up at any happy hour I attended, but my new boss was a size 6 Sigourney Weaver.  (She got that way through liposuction, was married but had a “lunchtime guy”,  and all of us minions were sworn to secrecy.) I’ve never walked out on a job before or since that experience, but I remember that sweet moment of decision as I hung up the phone on her screeching about a report she misplaced, powered down my IBM PC (complete with newfangled color monitor), went in to her office and found the report under her dry cleaning, then said, “I quit” as calmly as possible.

I spent the next week on the beach reading Bonfire of the Vanities, purportedly a tale of 80s greed but peel back the layers and you’ll reveal an exploration of how we have no control over our lives no matter how successful we may be.

With that in mind, I figured it was futile to look for another job so started temping.  I immediately got a gig at Wells Fargo not far from our little cottage in North Park working 4 days a week leaving 3 days for beach, sun and fun.  I reported to a bunch of lawyers who didn’t even know my name or care to learn it, or even care that at least half the temps showed up on Monday morning still buzzed from the weekend.

Later that spring, my future ex-husband and I saw Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead in Anaheim, a decade after my first Dead show and years after I stopped counting how many shows I’d attended.  It was a great evening of music, but I remember sitting in the passenger seat on the drive back to San Diego, a cool sea breeze coming through the open windows, wondering if this was going to be the story of my life: Dead shows and dead end jobs.

I’d left Rutgers 6 credits shy of graduating.  Classic overachiever, I planned to graduate with a B.A. in English in 3 years so attended classes year round just as my mother did back in the late 50s.  Mom made it to graduation; her daughter burned out just shy of earning a diploma.  Throwing books, clothes, record albums, stereo, and Honda motorcycle in the back of a UHaul trailer (which is illegal by the way), that future ex-husband and I set off to sunny southern California to avoid coursework and responsibility.

That move also got me 3000 miles away from my family and to this day I still live 1/2 a continent away from my parents.  My one wish today would be to go back to my 23 year old self and explain just how much her parents would come to mean to her in later life.  My mother is now my closest friend and with each new health issue she faces, I become more and more frightened of what life will mean without her.  Perhaps moving so far away wasn’t the best long range plan, 23 year old me.

In July of 1987, my Mom called to tell me that Dad had been transferred to Plano, Texas and they would be moving in March of 1988.  She invited me home for a visit in late August during Dad’s vacation and, after confirming that the future ex-mother-in-law would pay for a plane ticket for the future-ex, accepted the invitation.  The return to my parent’s house in New Jersey was also a return to all the plans and dreams I had when I graduated high school.  Somehow, I’d taken a wrong turn, and as I sat on one of the last People’s Express flights back to LAX with the ex chain smoking next to me, I knew what I had to do.

We would move back to Jersey, and I’d finish my degree.  I might even start graduate school.

The ex was fine with that.  He hadn’t found steady work the entire time we’d been in southern California, and at the time he had a much healthier relationship with his family than I did with mine.  The future ex-mother-in-law agreed to let us live in her house for a few months while we got some money together.  We eventually moved into her second husband’s apartment after they were married in the spring of 1988.  I got my B.A. in English in June of 1988 and started graduate school for the first time in 1989.  Once again, my education was interrupted, this time when I became pregnant with our daughter.  It was her birth that sparked the reconciliation with my parents, so that break in education was well worth it.

Would I change anything from the year I was 23? Probably not, because all those events brought me to where I am today, the mother of two fantastic kids, the daughter of two supportive parents, and a job that allows me to do what I love while providing time for me to see the people I love.  So 23 year old me, it’s unfortunate Working Girl didn’t come out soon enough to save you from that experience, but it did create the life now led by the 48 year old me.

And it’s awesome!

[image credit]

I’ve had the idea for this blog post in my head at least since last summer when my son and I discussed how much more it meant to him to read American Psycho than Catcher in the Rye.  Recently, after he finished The Stranger, I asked a few students if they read that at the school where I teach.  They don’t, and out of the conversation that ensued, I realized that there are certain books everyone should read in their later teens and early 20s that form not only the literary canon but provide a basic understanding of western culture in the second decade of the 21st century.

When I read the prompt above at approximately 5:40 a.m. this morning, I knew today would be the day I write that post.

23 Books to Read Before You Turn 23

(post 1900)

1. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
   
2. The Stranger by Albert Camus
   
3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
   
4. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
5. What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George
6. Wind-up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami
   
7. On Writing by Stephen King
   
8. The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie
9. Ulysses by James Joyce
   
10. U.S.A. Trilogy by John Dos Passos
    
11. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
    
12. 1984 by George Orwell
    
13. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man by Marshall McLuhan
14. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
    
15. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
    
16. Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss
    
17. The Stand by Stephen King
    
18. The World According to Garp by John Irving
19. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
    
20. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
    
21. The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud
    
22. Necromancer by William Gibson
    
23. The White Plague Frank Herbert
    

Here’s a bonus:

23 Movies To See Before You’re 23

(apologies to @NJ_Film)

1. Fight Club
2. Donnie Darko
3. The Graduate
4. Klute
5. The Visitor
6. American Graffiti
7. Rebel Without a Cause
8. Ferris Buehler
9. The Outsiders
10. Reality Bites
11. Bella
12. Slumdog Millionaire
13. Terminator 2
14. Gran Torino
15. Norma Rae
16. Reign Over Me
17. Almost Famous
18. Better Off Dead
19. Repo Man (“Let’s go get sushi & not pay!” – spent the ’80s saying that)
20. Die Hard, Die Hard with a Vengeance or Live Free or Die Hard
21. Factory Girl
22. Breakfast at Tiffany’s
23. Kinky Boots (my students know this is my favorite movie to show teenagers)

Feel free to comment upon my choices in both lists as well as make your own suggestions; I’m always looking for new ways to corrupt the young.  If you’re unfamiliar with any of the movies, go to imdb ’cause it’s Monday, and I’m too lazy to link each one!

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