I'm feeling much better today, and so my big blogging challenge has turned into a mini-challenge. Plus, I am doubting whether my challenge was a real challenge since the flu happened to hit during the time when I was on an upswing with what I like to call "The Reading Challenge Cycle." The Reading Challenge Cycle seems to last for six weeks: 4 weeks where things feel normal, natural, and relatively easy, but not necessarily effortless; followed by about a week where I hit a serious wall and feel like I don't want to read anymore, and probably never will again, and I really struggle with writing the blog entries; followed by one week where I feel reinvigorated about the challenge, and am practically euphoric with the excitement I feel about the project. Last week I had hit a serious wall, and felt like the blog was flying completely off the rails (shocking that I would be so dramatic about things, isn't it?) but this past Saturday was when the wall came down and reading/blogging became incredibly fun and exciting again. I am still in this euphoric state now, and it seems to be counteracting any difficulty that might come from reading and blogging while sick. I am really looking forward to seeing what will happen once this year is up and I continue to blog but at a slightly less hectic pace. Will the Reading Cycle continue? Will all of my entries improve? Will I be excited about reading and blogging all of the time? So many questions which I am looking forward to finding out the answers to.
Today's book, "No one likes listening to smug hippies brag about how they don't use toilet paper or lecture about the evils of plastic bags and SUVs. But most of us do want to lessen our ecological footprints. With this in mind, Vanessa Farquharson takes on the intense personal challenge of making one green change to her lifestyle every day for a year, to find out what's doable and what's too hardcore."
Shallow thoughts:
- The book description failed to mention that the author of today's book originally wrote about this project on her blog, before turning it into a book, and so naturally I had to check it out because I am fascinated by all blog-to-book projects. Although reading about such projects makes me feel like I am attempting to get into some corny trend which will most likely die out before I even manage to finish writing the "A Book a Day" book. Nevertheless, I continue to read, with fascination, about those who have already successful made the blog-to-book leap - as I also continue to be deluded enough to believe that writing this blog will somehow land me on The Today Show. Can't you just imagine it dear readers - me sitting on The Today Show next to Meredith Vieira (whose last name I just now learned how to spell correctly), with a book in front of my face?
- The author of today's book didn't stop at mentioning her own blog. No, it also mentioned a few other green blogs, one of which I am going to check out based on the name alone. It is written by a man who refers to himself as Greenpa, who writes a blog called Little Blog in the Big Woods. How could I not visit a blog that has a name like that? It's out of my hands, I must go and visit the blog of the man who finds Little House-related jokes amusing. And maybe while I'm there I will share with him my tips on making jokes about baked potatoes, how to incorporate Little House jokes into the holiday season, and how to make everything funnier by putting the word "prairie" in front of it.
- Favorite passage, "When I was a kid, I went through a pig phase. I just decided out of the blue that I really liked pigs and went around telling people why they were my favorite animals as well as writing school projects on subjects like truffle-hunting pigs or the cleanliness of pigs, sketching Piglet and Wilbur and Porky over and over, and collecting various porcine paraphernalia from pig stickers to pig figurines to pig key chains. Eventually, I got sick of them, but it took years to undo the reputation - every birthday, every Christmas, any gift-giving occasion whatsoever, the only present people ever thought to give me was pig stuff." - Oh how I wish I could tell you that this paragraph didn't resonate with me. But, unfortunately dear readers, I went through a bunny phase, which involved everything from stuffed bunnies to hideous bunny wallpaper (which took several weeks to scrap off once I recovered a proper sense of shame and decided that I couldn't be a healthy, full-functioning human-being while staring at bunny wallpaper every day.) The bottom line here is, enjoy your collections, revel in them, fill your house with them if you must, but under no circumstances should you ever let your collection/obsession spill over into your wallpaper choices. I can absolutely guarantee that you will come to regret it if you do.
And, in conclusion, I definitely would recommend today's book. It was amusing and fun, and I actually learned a few things from it (for instance: there's such a thing as vegan dental floss.) And, just so I don't end up getting a desperate phone call from my sister later today, no, regular dental floss does not contain any kind of meat product in it.
