My Favorite Books: Part 3. The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Well, dear readers, I’m back! And within exactly the allotted fortnight, to everyone’s surprise I’m sure. I actually wanted to update much sooner than this, but this week has been generally ridiculous. It’s Symphony Week as well as the first week of classes at my university, which meant exhausting rehearsals every night starting this last Sunday as well as classes (and homework, although thankfully not much) starting this last Wednesday. In addition, on Tuesday (my supposed last day of freedom before the new semester) our Symphony played 4 Education Concerts, spanning from 9 that morning to 2:30 that afternoon. Along with the rehearsal that evening, it meant I’d been with the symphony eight hours - eight mentally and physically exhausting hours - that day alone. Now, I’m the first to support the necessity of Education Concerts; I think that without these, the younger generation is never going to develop an interest in classical music, and the one we played this past Tuesday was expertly planned and much more engaging than others I’ve played in the past, which is only a good thing. But just because they were successful and hopefully rewarding doesn’t mean that they weren’t also exceedingly tiring.

Also, on Thursday my best friend, known as the Senator on this blog, left to go back to his college, meaning that I was spending every bit of my free time (as if I ever have free time) with him before he left. So, basically, this was a very long week. But hey, I’m updating on time! So at least there’s that. And as soon as I post this, I’m heading off to the final concert of the Symphony this week. (Admittedly, I’m looking quite forward to it. Our featured soloist, Conrad Tao, is mind-blowingly incredible. Google him and you’ll understand exactly what I mean.)

But onto the reason you probably clicked on this post in the first place. This is, in fact, the long-awaited third segment of my seven part series, My Favorite Books! If you’re fairly new to the blog, here’s a handy link to the first two posts, which detail the Honorable Mention stars and the beloved Harry Potter series.

A Eulogy for Logic in the "New Adult" Publishing Industry

Surprised, dear readers? I’m keeping my promise to you and updating this first weekend of January! Although some of you may have been looking forward to my latest book report, you’ll have to wait just a little bit longer; I recently read an infuriating article to which I had to respond, just like in my post about the concert hall.

Unlike that blog post, this one has absolutely nothing to do with orchestra and everything to do with my other personal passion: Young Adult literature. As a genre, critics usually deem Young Adult as inferior to other published novels because it is tailored to the younger generation - readers ranging from 12 to 18 or about 25 (no definition is exactly the same). However, the most popular novels published in this genre, such as the Harry Potter books, the Twilight series, and the Hunger Games trilogy, have become international phenomenons read by adults and children alike. I definitely fall toward the upper end of the “intended” YA reader set as I’m currently in my 20s, but I still enjoy reading YA novels as much or more than novels for the “adult.” Appropriately, I read a few blogs about the subject as well, in order to find the latest YA stories with great reviews.

A few weeks back, one of my favorite book blogs, Forever Young Adult (which caters to adults well out of the readership range who still appreciate a well-written YA novel), posted a link to a New York Times article titled “Beyond Wizards and Vampires, To Sex.” This article discusses the apparently groundbreaking genre publishers have dubbed New Adult. If you’re intrigued, like I was, read it and report back here!

The Blog is Back!

Happy New Year’s Eve, dear readers!

So I’m sure y’all never expected to see a blog update from me again, especially after a ridiculous many-month hiatus. But I’m here to say that I’m back, and I’m back for good this time. You may not believe me, but I’ve got reasons (not fabulous reasons, but reasons enough) for my absence from the blog universe, but this next year is going to be different. I’ve got a lot of posts already planned and mentally outlined, and I’m ready to go, if you’ll still have me. 2013 is going to be a better year in hopefully every way possible.

But let me start with an apology. Dearest readers, I never meant to go this long without an update. The next post was constantly in the back of my mind, but despite that, I could never quite get it to go to the tips of my fingers. Because if I was to write a normal blog post, like the next Book Review or some such trivial thing, I would feel dishonest, and y’all would probably feel gypped without a proper explanation of my absence. I hate offering excuses, which is what all these are, but sometimes simple but meaningless excuses are all that you have. And so I am sorry about that, and about my absence from you dear readers as well.

The Truth Behind the Concert Hall

Dear readers, I cannot believe it’s been so long since my last update! Time passes so quickly here, and I have been working on this post diligently, because it addresses an issue close to my heart.

Right before I left for a trip to Prague (the Czech Republic was just as amazing as I remember from last summer) I read an interesting article on the Huffington Post. I advise you to read it, as this post is a direct response to that one. The link is here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-dare/classical-music-concerts_b_1525896.html

Read it? Good. Now let’s begin.

My Favorite Books: Part 2. The Harry Potter Series

Greetings from Roma! This is my fifth full day in Rome, Italy, and I’m finally updating this blog, and more specifically, my long and laborious 7 part post on my absolute favorite books! In case you’re dying to know why I haven’t posted about Italy on this blog yet, since I have been here a full five days, I shall kindly direct your attention to my Fraternal-Twin-Blog (it’s not really a sister site, since I am the sole contributer to both of them…) at 

www.juliaromesitalia.blogspot.com

I know, I know. I misled you in the previous post. Well, if you’re my friend on Facebook, you’re aware that I mislead people about blog posts all the time. I keep promising specific updates and then I ignore my self-imposed deadlines and update at other, sporadic moments. For this, I apologize. In a perfect world, I would follow through on my promised updates in a timely fashion, but apparently I cannot blog in a perfect world and the world keeps getting in the way. I am sorry about this, though, since I don’t like breaking promises.

Going to Italia

I can’t sleep.

There are several factors contributing to my temporary insomnia; one is that I feel terrible about not updating in so long, particularly after I promised you all multiple updates! I could cite multiple factors leading to this failure, such as Hell Week after Hell Week of papers being due, nightly symphonic rehearsals, getting ready for juries (oh God, the angst in getting ready for juries), and preparation for finals…or I could just apologize and move on.

And move on we shall, for the next several weeks for me and for you, dear readers, are going to be a whirlwind of excitement. At 5:45 in the morning, I am going to wake, shower, clothe myself, and drive to the airport. Once there, after going through security and waiting through terrible lines in the ever-busy airport (note the intended sarcasm) of the delightful town At-Least-It-Ain’t-Alternating-Between-105-Degree-Weather-and-”Small”-Tornado-Storms-Within-Just-Three-Days-Like-Two-Weeks-Ago, I will be boarding a flight and heading off into the great blue-ish sky toward the place I’ve been longing to go to for the last five years—Italia!!!

That’s right, I’m flying to Italy. Tomorrow. Maybe (just maybe) that’s the reason I can’t sleep…

Quick Update

Hey guys! Thanks so much for being so supportive and amazing with the blog so far! Any time I see someone has commented, or someone mentions it in conversation, my mood is instantly brightened (and that's something I've needed this last fortnight.)

I finished all my research papers and presentations, and now, about 20,000 words and a great deal of sleep deprivation later, I'm all caught up until Juries next Thursday, and all my finals (starting from tomorrow til next Saturday.)

Unfortunately, I'm a little swamped right now with getting ready for all of that, in addition to Professional Symphony Orchestra rehearsals that take up my entire evenings all this week, and so I'm not quite finished with my next post.

However, I promise to have it uploaded sometime on Saturday! And, in addition, I will have an additional post up sometime that next week, so you don't have to wait an entire fortnight until the next post!!!

Sorry about the delay! I haven't forgotten about everyone reading this blog! Your patience shall be rewarded soon!

Until then,

Julia