And This Is Why I Love Social Media

Everyone knows I'm a fiend for a good paranormal romance. I make no apologies-- it's just one of my favorite genres, and I can't seem to ever get enough. I'm always on the lookout for a new, enthralling read, whether it be about vampires, werewolves, fallen angels, faeries, witches, ghosts, psychics... the list goes on. Vampire lit., YA or otherwise, will always hold a special place in my heart though, thanks to the summer of 2008, when I was introduced to the PNR genre. I read the entire Twilight series three times in a row back-to-back, I was that obsessed.

For the past week, I've been deep in Jeaniene Frost's world of the Night Huntress series, and it is chock-full of vampire goodness. I picked up the first book, Halfway to the Grave, with low expectations (the book titles of this series leave much to be desired, in my opinion), and I was quickly blown away. It took about 3 whole pages for me to decide that it's just my cuppa tea. The second book, One Foot in the Grave, is surprisingly even better. I've just finished the third book, At Grave's End, and now I'm jonesing for the next three. I'm excited that the 7th & final book of the series comes out this January, so I don't have to wait too long to see how it all wraps up.

Now, back to the title of this post, "And This Is Why I Love Social Media." Most Fridays, I use my Twitter account to post about my #FridayReads and #WeekendGoodReads. Yesterday, I tweeted about the Night Huntress series, and Jeaniene Frost herself actually tweeted me back. I love that I can connect and interact with authors of beloved books this way when I otherwise wouldn't be heard. Some people won't think it's much of a big deal, but it appeals to the fangirl within me.

Click the image to enlarge.

This post was supposed to be a short and sweet little screenshot, but it turns out I am feeling wordy today. Have a great weekend!

Sylvia Plath: A Few Favorites

Over the past six months or so, I've been sporadically reading an Everyman's Library Pocket Poets collection of Sylvia Plath's poetry.

 What a brilliant yet tortured soul. I studied and wrote about her work a bit during my undergrad days, but I honestly hadn't thought of her since. It was nice, perhaps even more rewarding than before, to read her poetry at my leisure without the pressures of academia breathing down my neck. In fact, I actually enjoyed her earlier works best, despite what most of her critics say. Here are just a few of my favorites:

Song For A Summer's Day
Through fen and farmland walking
With my own country love
I saw slow flocked cows move
White hulks on their day's cruising;
Sweet grass sprang for their grazing.

The air was bright for looking:
Most far in blue, aloft,
Clouds steered a burnished drift;
Larks' nip and tuck arising
Came in for my love's praising.

Sheen of the noonsun striking
Took my heart as if
It were a green-tipped leaf
Kindled by my love's pleasing
Into an ardent blazing.

And so, together, talking,
Through Sunday's honey-air
We walked (and still walk there---
Out of the sun's bruising)
Till the night mists came rising.

---

Letter To A Purist
That grandiose colossus who
Stood astride
The envious assaults of sea
(Essaying, wave by wave,
Tide by tide,
To undo him, perpetually),
Has nothing on you,
O my love,
O my great idiot, who
With one foot
Caught (as it were) in the muck-trap
Of skin and bone,
Dithers with the other way out
In preposterous provinces of the madcap
Cloud-cuckoo,
Agawp at the impeccable moon.

---

Metaphors
I'm a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.
Money's new-minted in this fat purse.
I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I've eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there's no getting off.

Literary Snobbery

My kitten has become quite the literature snob.

She took great satisfaction in systematically knocking over book after book on my vampire lit. shelf.

Hmph.