paperbackgirl.

Some snapshots from my recent trip to Cinque Terre, Rome and...

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:44:54 -0400

Some snapshots from my recent trip to Cinque Terre, Rome and Venice. What a beautiful country, what delicious food and wine…

"DiCaprio and Mulligan, meanwhile, don’t seem like star-crossed lovers so much as a delusional man in..."

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:37:03 -0400

“DiCaprio and Mulligan, meanwhile, don’t seem like star-crossed lovers so much as a delusional man in love with a bauble of a woman. Maybe that’s intentional?”

-
People Magazine’s review on ‘The Great Gatsby’

(via brucewaynes)

READ A BOOK

(via lexcanroar)

Say what you will about the movie, this is hilarious.

(via laughterkey)

Venice, Italy. I stumbled on this gem on my last day there. This...

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:23:00 -0400

Venice, Italy. I stumbled on this gem on my last day there. This bookstore has everything: guard cats, a fire escape down into the canal, Venetian masks, gondolas, personal problems: causes and solutions.

Sunday perfection. The Interestings and behind the ear...

Sun, 12 May 2013 14:45:00 -0400

Sunday perfection. The Interestings and behind the ear scratches.

Venezia

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:13:53 -0400

Venezia

theparisreview: “I am not very successful as a little girl.” A...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:48:02 -0400

theparisreview:

“I am not very successful as a little girl.”

A passage from the diary Mary Karr kept when she was ten.

I <3 Mary Karr.

"He liked food, people, talk, but reading was an inexhaustible pleasure. What the joys of music were..."

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 09:54:00 -0400

“He liked food, people, talk, but reading was an inexhaustible pleasure. What the joys of music were to others, words on a page were to him.”

- James Salter, All That Is.

"If you liked that book you’d love The Kite Runner. It’s about this Palestinian..."

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:40:00 -0400

“If you liked that book you’d love The Kite Runner. It’s about this Palestinian kid…”

- Overheard in the coffee shop.

"If your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything."

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:34:10 -0400

“If your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything.”

- David Foster Wallace (via explore-blog)

Photo

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 10:52:00 -0400

A great disappointment in my life

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:35:53 -0400

is that I can’t read and knit simultaneously.

Warm spring air, where are you? I am ready to burn all of my...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 10:42:00 -0400

Warm spring air, where are you? I am ready to burn all of my coats.

March Reading: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien In Praise of Messy...

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:13:13 -0400

March Reading:

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
In Praise of Messy Lives by Katie Roiphe
Not pictured: 500 pages of the 700 page The Agony and the Ecstasy

March Writing:

Some good days, some days of avoidance.

Amazon Buys Goodreads

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:15:38 -0400

Amazon Buys Goodreads:

Ugh, just ugh.

28th and Lex

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 23:10:00 -0400

Tonight I found myself in the east 20s off Third Avenue for the first time in several years. On my hike back to the subway after dinner I decided to make a small detour and walk past my first NYC apartment on 28th between Lex and 5th. I lived in this apartment for eight weeks, a sublet I found on Craigslist on a three day kamikaze apartment finding mission prior to moving out east from San Diego. I moved into the fifth floor walkup on a Thursday night, attended work Friday and woke up on Saturday, St. Patricks day, to people throwing up in the blackened snow outside the building. I was horrified that I’d left carnitas burritos, a backyard pool and pristine weather for this. Walking toward the subway that day I remember a distinct feeling of certainty that I would probably never find my apartment again.

Last week marked six years since that terrified 22 year old made her way toward Lexington to take the subway on her own for the first time and tonight I felt like I was seeing the neighborhood with virgin eyes. The closer I got I searched the building facades for familiar landmarks: the McDonalds outside the subway exit, the specialty spice market, the Indian food buffet I substituted for my 3am California burrito hangover food. I examined each bar for signs that it housed the smokers perpetually lingering outside our old doorway. Pretty soon I had crossed 28th and Lexington, then made my way past Park without latching on to any markers unifying the blurry memory of the entryway with the addresses I was ticking off in my head as I passed by them. After thinking every building was my old building for avenues on end, finally I intersected with Sixth Avenue and it hit me that I hadn’t lived on 28th Street at all. It had been 29th or 26th, but I couldn’t remember which.

The Hobbit

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:31:00 -0400

I’m waiting for someone to break down my apartment door at any moment and confiscate my bookworm card. I finally read The Hobbit and felt very meh about it. I don’t even know who I am anymore.

My writing partner is a tough customer.

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 20:49:31 -0400

My writing partner is a tough customer.

Amen.

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:53:17 -0400

Amen.

Pop lexicon

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:14:59 -0500

Last night my therapist was advising me on keeping a more neutral, approachable look on my face and I started to laugh and said, “Dr. __ are you telling me I should smize more?” He had never heard of the smize and said it sounded too much like schmooze, that he thought Tyra should have gone with smeyeling. I don’t think smeyeling has quite the same ring but it was entertaining nonetheless.

"It was that impossible thing: happiness that does not wilt to reveal the thin shoots of some new..."

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 18:13:46 -0500

“It was that impossible thing: happiness that does not wilt to reveal the thin shoots of some new desire rising from within it.”

- George Saunders, Tenth of December.