There’s a few standard lodging options while traveling: booking a hotel or motel room, crashing on a friend or family member’s couch, pitching a tent at a campground, and sleeping in your car at rest stops. After nixing the last two (Matt was a proponent, and I was very firmly not), I started looking into finding Air…
1. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, to satisfy the “read a Pulitzer Prize winner” assignment for the Read Harder Challenge (note: this was also on my Summer TBR, but I never got around to it!) 2. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, to satisfy the “read a sci-fi book” assignment…
1. Because true intellectuals can use proper grammar. 2. Because I can’t tell how much of this is a lie and how much is the truth. 3. Because Asa smokes kittens. 4. Because I have no idea what’s going on in this bio. 5. Or this one. 6. Because Shane makes unnecessary acronyms. 7. Because I don’t use people for their Costco memberships. 8. Because Sean’s…
1. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I know, I know. I should read them. Everyone my age has read them. I’m missing countless references and the joy of a Harry Potter-filled life. But 7-year-old me couldn’t get past the second book and I’ve never returned. 2. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. …
Back when I was doing my Vancouver travel series, I wrote a post called The 10 Best Things About Vancouver. The final post has nice headings, brief written explanations, and multiple photo galleries. The prewrite version? Well. Here it is: an inside look into my writing and thought processes. 1. The architecture. Urban decay, blah. 2.…
1. Lemony Snicket/Daniel Handler (14 books) I’ve read the entire 13-book Series of Unfortunate Events, plus Why We Broke Up. 2. Andrew Clements (9 books) One of my favorites in my early novel-reading days. I’ve read Frindle, the Landry News, The Janitor’s Boy, The School Story, A Week in the Woods, The Report Card, The…
1. Mr. Penumbra from Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore 2. Liesel from The Book Thief 3. Anne from Diary of Anne Frank (I realize she’s not exactly a “character” but she loved words) 4. Alison Bechdel from Fun Home (also not exactly a character but she’s on the list anyway) 5. Piper Kerman from Orange is…
Vancouver has a unique feeling of both excitement and relaxation, but every so often it’s also quite strange. Here are the 5 strangest things that happened to me in British Columbia’s largest city: 1. Nobody asked how long I’d be staying in Canada. I was extremely nervous on my way in to Canada. I’ve never driven…
1. Where’d You Go, Bernadette. Around Christmastime, my friend and her sister asked if I could do a photoshoot of them so they could turn the images into a gift for their parents. I agreed, and they were nice enough to give me a gift in exchange, including this book (which was already on my…
For me, no trip is complete without a walking tour. Here’s why: It orients you. Especially if you do the tour early in your trip, it establishes some sense of direction in an unfamiliar place, which will be immensely helpful when you inevitably take a wrong turn later. It introduces you to people. Tours are made up…
Victim to Charm 