I think I might have to give up trying to make post titles.... Clearly I suck at it.

So I'm sitting here at Starbucks with my significant other and he passes me a note that says that the kid at the table next to us is playing Pokemon, he can tell by the sound effects. In case there was any doubt that I was dating one of my own kind (nerds), that's officially gone now.

I was really worried I wasn't going to make my two book mandate this month. The past four months have been so crazy at work that I was working 12 hour days, but the past two weeks have slowed down and have been the easiest weeks at work since I started. Only 8-9 hour days now. So I got a lot of reading time in.

In case I didn't mention it in a previous post (and yes, I'm too lazy to go and check) my second book this month was Veronica Roth's Divergent, recommended to me by Debby With a Y. I am giving her full credit because she mentioned it to me a few months ago, but since then other people have mentioned it online and I saw it in stores all the time, but she was first, so she wins.

I am mostly really glad that I had this book to read the past two weeks. It was a great escape from my life. A little over a week and a half ago my grandfather suffered a medium sized stroke and for those of you who don't know me, I have a pretty bad anxiety problem. So that wasn't good. I think I would be okay if he passed away. I'd cry and be really very badly upset, but my grandmother already passed and he misses her. So that's not the root of my anxiety about this. My real problem is that my dad, who was on a business trip up north and was close enough to get to the hospital in Michigan that day, is kind of alone up there.

Sure, lots of family drops in and his sister is up there, but those people aren't his support network. I'm a caregiver and it is driving me up the wall that there is nothing I can do from here. I can't go get food or coffee for anyone staying up all night. I can't give anyone a hug from 13-14 hours away. I don't like knowing that my family is having to deal with this all on their own. We are all split up.

So instead of caring for anyone, I read a book.

Divergent's plot is really, really good. I'm in love with the story line. The writing leaves a little bit to  be desired though. There were times where I didn't understand the physical things going on in the book because the movements weren't as well described as they could be or because the writing was just awkward. But other than that I really, really loved it. I almost bought a shirt that said DIVERGENT on it today.

It was so good in fact that I went to three different Walmarts in one night to get the second book in the trilogy because I was worried I'd finish the first book by the end of the night and would need to immediately jump into the second one. Unfortunately none of the Walmarts had any. Even though they looked it up in the system for me and said that the other ones did. By the time I got home it was really late any way and I fell asleep almost immediately, so I didn't finish that night anyway.

I've decided that writing a blog post in Starbucks is way better than writing one at home. No kitties climbing on my laptop or scratching my fingers because the act of typing looks like I'm wiggling my fingers at them.

I'm still trying to decide on my next book. I know some books I'm going to read this year, but not which one is next. I'm thinking either The Lost World by Michael Crichton or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I need to also pick out my next non-fiction book. I went over to the non-fiction section of the book area in Target and they were all of the spiritual variety, which isn't my cup of tea. I'm spiritual, but I don't like reading other people's thoughts or opinions on that kind of thing because it's just too personal for me I guess.

Any suggestions?

This is mostly just me on a tangent in the middle of talking about a book. Then I started bleeding.

I know, I know... It's the 11th and I still haven't finished "Hyperbole and a Half." It's not that it's a slow read or I don't like it or anything like that. The fact is that it's a really fast read. It's broken up into humorously illustrated essays, which makes it easy for me to just read one or two a day. This way I can prolong the enjoyment of the book as a whole. But hey, if I finish the book in the next three days, I'm still on track. Right? Right??

The past two weeks have been pretty rough for me. If I look back on the last two weeks, I can see clearly that I should by no means even be writing a blog post right now. I should be sleeping. But I'm not. Let's face it, I usually only sleep from 5 a.m. to noon. My schedule really sucks.

All in one day this week I dealt with a fire alarm at work and firemen that didn't even have the decency to be good looking. I'm serious, I wouldn't buy a calendar of them even if it was for charity. Well.... I probably would because in 6th grade my apartment burned down and I know how hard it is to get your life back together after that kind of ordeal. But the point stands. They were not hot. Later that night, I arrived home from work only to find that the latch on my door had somehow latched itself due to a Christmas light fiasco. So even though I had my keys I was still locked out. Did I mention this was the unbearably cold day/night that the American Media blew up into a big huge event? Because it was. It was super below freezing out, and I'm locked out of my apartment in the cold, sobbing. After calling the courtesy officer who called a dude with an electric bolt cutter, I make it inside my apartment and fall asleep at 5 a.m. At 6:30 a.m. the building's fire alarms went off and there was pounding on my door by even more firefighters. There was a fire on the third floor of my building and a water pipe burst. I know what your thinking... what temperature were THESE firemen? They were not hot either. Then I got sick. Thank you for letting me rant.

Anyway, Allie Brosh (author and main character of "Hyperbole and a Half") is an extremely talented person. Her purposefully crappy drawings just add to the humor of each essay. One thing I don't like is that I always read in front of other people, or at least in the same room as other people. So there I am just laughing hysterically at something and they ask me what is so funny, and I try to explain, but of course I don't do it justice, so then I have to hand over the book so they can read it for themselves. Dude, get your own. I'm on a tight reading schedule.

My cat just scratched my fingers so hard that I am now bleeding on the keyboard. I'm gonna have to stop now. I'm just rambling anyway.

The commencement of a resolution with the potential of deterioration then termination

What's going on?

I'm a 25-year-old recent(ish) college grad who moved 5 times in the last year. Don't know why that's relevant, but I thought I'd tell you anyway. Despite being one of the few college grads who actually gets to work in their field, I find my life lacking. I work 60 hour weeks, so I don't have the time to do all the things I used to love doing. So I came up with "The Resolution" to try and solve that problem.

"The Resolution":

In discussing this with family and friends, I've decided that this resolution comes in multiple parts. At first it was just a reading goal. Two books a month. A few years ago, I attempted to read 100 books in a year. I got to about 86. I was a student and had a ton more free time than I do now, so that was pretty easy. Even though I didn't make it to 100, I still count that as a win.

Then after discussing my current case of writer's block with a friend I decided that the best thing to do was to just write something, even if it is really stupid. So that got added to the resolution too.

So here's the deal. I'm going to read 24 books in a year, two a month, and write about them and other stuff. These will be in no way reviews. Let me be clear about that. The posts may not even have anything to do with the books I read. I'm not sure yet. They will, however, be progress reports, my thoughts on the books, things or stories that the books remind me of. The books are just an excuse to get me writing again... plus I like books.

Why did I name this blog the Dewey Decimal Damsel? Because it forces me to leave the world of fiction. I have to read things other than fiction in order to truly be the Dewey Decimal Damsel.

What's next?

The first book on my list was a Christmas gift I bought for myself. Yes, I bought myself a Christmas present... I even wrapped it...

The book is called "Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened" by Allie Brosh. This is a collection of essays, well technically they are a collection of blog posts, by one of my favorite bloggers. Despite being a favorite of mine, I've never truly been able to keep up with her sporadic posts. So this book/collection is a great way for me to read some of her essays I missed over the past few years and to read new ones.

Confession: I already read the first two essays and couldn't stop laughing.

Credits:

My dear friend Bre thinks I am witty enough to pull off blatantly verbose, yet silly blog titles, so I'm attempting to do that in honor of her and the great Emma Stone.

A talented writer/designer (James) I know came up with two thirds of the name of this blog. It has been decided that if this blog ever gets a Saturday morning cartoon deal he gets 18% of the profits of those cartoons. What??

My significant other's mother, Debby With a Y, who will be forced to answer the question "What should I read next?" multiple times over the next year because I trust her judgement. Also, she can help me find non-fiction books I might like.