Hobbit Day...

Happy Hobbit Day, fellow Tolkien fans!  Today is said to be the birthday of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, so pass around the cake and have an extra helping of Second Breakfast to celebrate.  If you're really ambitious, you could have a fireworks display in honor of the holiday, but that could be awkward to try to explain to your neighbors.  Maybe it's best to just go barefoot as a tribute.

We're only a few months away from the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, as well, so we've also got that to celebrate.  It's a great time to lend your copy of The Hobbit to a friend who's never read it so they can get up to speed for the movie release (if you're one of those people who's comfortable parting with their books).  At any rate, it's a great excuse to pay another visit to Middle Earth and revel in the glory of the stories that have come out of it.

Die Trying...

Last month (most likely in an attempt to transfer some of her book collection out of her room and into mine), my mom introduced me to an author named Lee Child.  Actually, the real reason was because I mentioned seeing a trailer for a movie called Jack Reacher that looked good even though it had Tom Cruise in it and she informed me that Reacher was one of her favorite literary characters.  But I think that getting rid of some books was also part of her motivation.  We've always had similar taste in reading material, so it was only natural that I would quickly come to love the series.

The first thing I want to note, since I've already brought up the upcoming movie, is that putting Tom Cruise in this role is possibly the worst casting I've ever seen.  And I'm a girl who's grown up being disappointed at big screen adaptations of books that I love.  I used to watch the Nancy Drew tv series, so this is really saying something.  In the books, Jack Reacher, the character Cruise will be playing, is described as an extremely tall (6'5", I believe), powerful, intimidating blond man who sticks out in a crowd just because you plain old can't miss him.  Does that sound even remotely like Tom Cruse to anyone?  No?  I didn't think so.  Re-watching the trailer after having read a few of the Reacher books only made this more clear.  Everything is wrong.  But that's beside the point.

I just finished Die Trying, which is the second Reacher novel.  In this one, he accidentally gets kidnapped because he happens to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.  It turns out that it's a pretty good thing he did because he plays a major role in saving the day at the end of the book.  I hope that's not too spoilery; I figured it was more or less obvious.  The kidnapping sets off a cross-country journey of events that leaves Reacher out in the middle of the woods.  It's out there that he seems to be more in his element than in any other situation his character has been in (at least as far as I've read).  The ending is quite a page-turner and I ended up staying up half the night to finish it.  I'm not kidding: it was 4 am before I finally went to bed.  It's funny how "I'll just read one more chapter" never seems to work out that way.

What makes Reacher a great character is that he's a thinker.  He's smart.  Sure, he's supremely capable when it comes to physical violence--he excels at fighting and was a decorated sniper, but when it comes down to it, he succeeds where others fail because he can out-think his opponents.  He manages to stay a step ahead of them and in the end, that's what gets him through the troubles he finds himself in.  Plus, once he comes across an injustice or someone who's doing bad things to innocent people, he won't rest until he eliminates the aggressor.  He's got the kind of black and white view of justice that's supremely entertaining in literature, even if it's a lot less practical in real life.

I definitely recommend checking out the Reacher books, especially if you plan to see the movie.  I'm an avid book-before-the-movie believer.  It might only serve to rile you up as you watch Tom Cruise try to play Reacher, but the books are well worth it.

Two Hours -- Two Libraries...

I was the weird kid who got excited about going to the library.  It was an exciting trip for me and was often granted as a reward for chores or just generally being awesome.  During the summers, I would load up a basket with almost two dozen Nancy Drew books at a time and finish them all within a week.  We spent loads of time there, checking out educational videos (you know, back when VHS tapes seemed cool) and browsing the bookshelves.  I used to think the adult section (not that kind of adult) was this mysterious other world where grown-ups gathered and the air smelled like old books.  I was also--and still am--a book sniffer.  I can't help myself; I just like the way they smell.  But I digress.  My point is that I've had a life-long love affair with my local public library.

A couple of years ago, citing budget cuts, our city council threatened to close the library.  I was heart-broken.  I was also defiant.  I come from a highly-educated suburb where the schools are fantastic.  I've seen (and joined) people lining up outside of the library waiting for it to open.  There are some afternoons on which it's hard to find parking.  And we have a large parking lot.  Good luck getting a study table on a Saturday afternoon.  We are a city that loves its library.  There was no way the council could shut it down and get away with it.  I was fully prepared to stage a sit-in if need be.  But part of me also panicked.  What if they actually did it?  Hundreds of childhood memories were tied up in that slightly-shabby, very 1970s-esque building.  Plus, it contained an almost limitless supply of my favorite passtime: books.  Sure enough, the city council ended up keeping the library going.  I visit almost every day now that I'm living back home.

The library is close enough to my house that it's become a vital part of my exercise regimen.  I hate walking or running in circles around my block.  I like to go somewhere.  The library, a 1.57 trip from my front door is a great solution.  As long as it's not raining (or, soon, snowing), it's the perfect destination for a walk, jog, or bike ride.  Sometimes I have an errand to run there: picking up something on hold, dropping off something that's due, stocking up on audio books so I don't lose my mind on an 1100-mile solo roadtrip.  Sometimes I just take a book with me and chill out in the lounge for a bit or browse the shelves, mentally adding to my "to-read" list before I head back home.

I've attended two major universities during my academic career, so my exposure to libraries only got grander after leaving home.  You know what I mean: enormous old buildings stuffed to the brim with what seems like every book ever published.  Buildings you could get lost in and not find your way out until you've spent a week sustaining yourself by gnawing on old leather bindings.  What I'm trying to say is that I'm used to great, big libraries that are teeming with people.

This afternoon, I had to have a test proctored at a library in the city next to mine.  Before leaving to take the test, I swung by my library to drop off a book that was due.  Then I set out to this other library.  I walked in and stopped at the entrance.  Looked around.  Blinked.  It was tiny.  I never visited the youth section, but I knew instinctively that the whole collection wouldn't have had enough Nancy Drew books to sustain one week of my childhood summer reading habits.  The computer lab was tiny and filled with monitors old enough to not be flat-screens.  It was...sad.  Two communities, right next door to each other, and their entire library could fit into the youth section at ours.

I can't imagine growing up without a library like mine.  I think about all of the stories I would've missed out on, all the ideas I might not have had, the journeys my imagination wouldn't have taken if I hadn't had immediate and almost unfettered access to all of those books.  Something like 98 or 99% of our city's public high school graduates go on to college.  I don't know this other town's exact stats, but I know that their numbers are a lot lower.  Maybe that has something to do with it.

The Spies of Warsaw...

I love spy novels.  A lot.  I don't care when or where they're set, there's something about a lone operative working through tremendous danger to fight for their cause that hooks me every time.  I've had a bunch of highly acclaimed spy novels on my "to-read" list for a while now and I recently checked one of them off thanks to David Tennant.

Not literally, of course.  I don't mean to say that he sat down and read me the book; I'm not sure I could've handled that.  I did, however, watch an interview with him in which he talked about his upcoming BBC mini-series based on The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst and think to myself, "Hey! I've been meaning to read that book for ages!  I need to go to the library right now."  I'm a avid believer in reading the book before the movie/tv adaptation (hence my week-long Hunger Games trilogy binge prior to the movie release earlier this year and failure to keep up with the Game of Thrones show) and as I wouldn't dream of missing a period spy drama staring my favorite Doctor, reading this book was suddenly an urgent matter.

The book was awesome.  I love exciting and suspenseful stories.  I love books that are well-written.  The Spies of Warsaw was both.  I've already checked out two other Furst books from the library since I finished Spies.  The best part of the book was the way Furst manages to immerse the reader in the setting.  There's nothing better than being in the middle of a book and feeling like you've been transported to its world.  I've never been to Warsaw or any of the other European cities the characters visit in the book, and I certainly didn't experience the 1930s, but I felt like I was there with them.  I wanted to be a part of their world and help them out.  There are parts of the book in which I want to reach through the pages and shake the characters by the shoulders and warn them about what Hitler has in store for them.  ("You idiots! He's going to invade through Belgium and make your stupid Maginot Line irrelevant!)  As far as I'm concerned, that's the mark of a great book.

The book focuses on a French military attache named Jean-Francois Mercier (Tennant is going to be great as Mercier [duh].  I could really picture him in the role as I read the book.) who is stationed in Warsaw and is set a bit prior to the German invasion of Poland that started WWII.  These were the murky years just before the war in which Hitler was already beginning to menace the rest of Europe.  Mercier struggles to turn up information that could give the French government clues as to Germany's intentions, but the leaders in charge don't necessarily want to listen when his intelligence contradicts what they believe the Germans will do.  It's a classic problem that we can all relate to even today.

I'd definitely recommend picking up a copy of Spies.  It really is a great read, and I've loved every bit of Furst's writing so far.  I'm currently working my way through The Polish Officer which is one of his earlier novels.  One of the smaller characters from Spies is also in this book.  It's a little less polished than Spies, but it's still a great read.  I also picked up Red Gold and I'm anxious to start that one.

Going Places...

My little sister had a soccer tournament about six hours away from hour house this weekend.  It was in a place called Rockford, IL, which, while appearing to be a decent place to live, isn't exactly a hopping tourist destination.  Nevertheless, I decided to accompany my family on their journey.  I don't particularly care for soccer, and Rockford has never even come close to making it onto my Top 50 list of cities I want to visit, but I went anyway.  I just like going places.  I want to see the world; not just the Londons and Parises and New Yorks, but also the corn fields and the small towns and the little local restaurants.  There is almost nowhere in the world that I would turn down a trip to.  So I went.  And I had a good time.

I have officially deemed the weekend a success because I read over 500 pages between the car rides, sitting at the soccer fields not paying much attention to the games, and hanging out at the hotel.  I was well-prepared, as I brought three different books with me.  I started out by finishing the last 100 or so pages of Shada on the ride west.  I recently printed and "laminated" some Doctor Who bookmarks, so I fittingly marked my spot with one of these.

I always travel in style.

Eventually it got dark and I had to read by flashlight for the last 300 miles of our trip to Rockford.  I ended up killing the battery completely on the way back and had to finish my last chapter using the flashlight app on my phone.  I started The Polish Officer by Alan Furst as soon as I finished Shada, and read that for the rest of the drive out and most of Saturday at the soccer games.  It's not as good as The Spies of Warsaw, but I'm enjoying it.  I've read the first 240 pages of it so far.  Saturday night, I started in on Die Trying by Lee Child because I needed a break from WWII era Europe.  I'm now over 200 pages into that one too.  Like I said: it was a good weekend.

Saturday night, my sister's team had a dinner at a local Italian restaurant called Nunzio's.  When we pulled up, we were slightly concerned to discover what looked like tombstones out in front of it.  I didn't take it as a particularly good sign.  It turned out that the marble slabs were actually a war memorial for men from Loves Park who had died in wars.  That was decidedly less worrisome.  They also had an eternal flame in a little fenced off area, but the flame had gone out.  It was kind of awkward.

I briefly considered trying to light it with the matchbook I inexplicably found in the pocket of the sweatshirt I hadn't worn since the winter.

 Anyway, the food turned out to be delightful and even though it took us about ten years to get served, I think it was a pretty good stop.

The only downside to Saturday was that I had to DVR the new episode of Doctor Who.  "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" aired in the United States over 27 hours ago and I still haven't seen it.  This is a truly terrible fact.

On our way out of town today, we stopped at this awesome little restaurant called The Machine Shed.  It was basically a family-run Cracker Barrel.  I loved it.  We got pumpkin bread and cottage cheese with our meals.  And their mashed potatoes were heavenly.  I'd definitely go back if I ever find myself in Rockford again.  After we ate, we browsed through their little gift shop briefly and I found this dinosaur footprint-shaped baking pan that makes little cupcakes shaped like dinosaurs.  I wanted to buy it more than anything I've seen in months.  Unfortunately, it was $32 (!), and my common sense kicked in and I just took this picture.

Dinosaur-shaped cupcakes.  Think of the possibilities!

 After leaving Rockford, we headed toward Chicago.  My little sister was very insistent on finding the Bean (a large, reflective piece of public art that's shaped more or less like a bean) and taking pictures of it.  She informed us that it was located at Navy Pier.  Even though we live only five hours away from Chicago, none of us had been to the city in ten years.  Nobody thought to question her about its location.  We navigated to Navy Pier and my dad waited with the car while my mom, sister, and I headed onto the pier.  There were many highly entertaining things there, but there was no giant, shiny artwork.  I googled the Bean.  It was not located at Navy Pier.

At least the view was nice.

 We then found our way to Millennium Park, where the Bean is actually located.  We made sure to give my sister a lecture about checking directions before she goes places and researching destinations.  When we got to the park, she and I got out and wandered in until we found it.

Expelliarmus!  The camera flash makes it look like I'm casting Harry Potter spells.

Then, because taking normal pictures just doesn't cut it for me, I decided that it would be a good idea to lay down on the sidewalk in Chicago.

This is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

After our hour in Chicago, we hit the road again to head home.  On the way there, we stopped for a quick bite at Steak'n'Shake.  I got this giant s'mores milkshake of awesomeness.  It was delectable.  Everyone should have at least one.  Or three.  You decide.

This milkshake will change your life.  And also probably your waistline.