A Different Sort of List

This is the time of year to be making lists. Resolutions, things we'll change in the coming year, places we'll travel, etc. But towards the end of last year I came across a list of a different sort that I've been thinking about ever since.

It's this now-poignant list written by Nora Ephron of things she'd miss, from her book of essays I Remember Nothing, written about two years before her death. I don't mean to be morbid here, but I liked the idea of thinking about what you'd miss about life as a way to remember what you love in your life. And isn't that what resolutions push us towards? The good ones, anyway.

She first writes out a list of things she won't miss, like email, bad dinners, and taking off her makeup. What will she miss? Reading in bed, a walk in the park, butter, Paris... you can read the full list here, but the last two are my favorite:

Coming over the bridge to Manhattan

Pie


Photo by Stewart Mader

Life of Pi

Did you read the book Life of Pi? I'm late to the party, but my friend Megan recommended it recently and I loved it. The story is so fascinating, and crazy. I stayed up until 2 a.m. finishing it! (Plus, it had beautiful sentences.) The movie comes out next month and I'm so excited to see it. Doesn't the trailer look intense?

p.s. If you need a movie to see this weekend, Looper was awesome!

The Awesomest Book

The other night, my roommate walked through the living room with a book under her arm called "An Awesome Book." I, of course, asked if it was an awesome book and she stopped what she was doing to make me read it. By the third page, it was already in my mental Amazon cart. And halfway through, I had to start the book over and read it out loud to our other roommate, holding the book up like a librarian to show the pictures. Oh, and I was kind of choked up by the end.

Guys, it's that good.



"An Awesome Book" is by writer and illustrator Dallas Clayton, who wrote it for his son. I think it's a pretty big deal in the world of children's books, but as a grown up and a non-mom, I hadn't heard of it. It's about dreaming big, and how sometimes people stop dreaming big and instead dream of things like matching silverware (oops. guilty!).



You can read the whole book online here and I highly recommend that you do. I think this is my new go-to baby shower gift!

What To Worry About

In a letter written to his 11-year-old daughter, Scottie, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote out a list of what Scottie should worry about, not worry about, and a few things to think about. His list of things to worry about is very short:

Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship

Doesn't it give you such a sense of what he valued, just from what he thinks is worthy of worry? It's an interesting perspective to think about what's worthy of one's worry, when I think our tendency (my own, at least) is to worry regardless of whether or not a thing merits worry or not.

On the flip side, the list of what not to worry about is much longer. It includes dolls, boys, popular opinion, mosquitos, flies, and "insects in general." Ha! You can read the full list here.

Via What A Peach. Don't Worry print via Olly Moss, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrait via.

(A Hunger Games) Weekend in Pictures

Despite it being a three day weekend, I have very little to show you. Aside from Lady Liberty there (as seen from IKEA in Brooklyn) and some un-photographed giggle-y dinners with friends, my weekend looked like this...



I started The Hunger Games on Saturday, and finished the first book this afternoon after an impromptu sleepover (no talking, all reading) that turned into reading all day and not really leaving my bed a whole lot. Have you read the series? I'm totally hooked.

A Tale of Two Christmases

Before a flight home for Christmas a few years ago, I downloaded the audiobook of David Sedaris' Holidays on Ice. (I love his writing, but I love it even more when he reads it aloud.) It was definitely the best/most hilarious flight home I've ever had. I laughed out loud! By myself! On an airplane! Anyway, two of Sedaris' Santa-related stories have stuck with me and I wanted to share some of my favorite bits. Like I said, they're better when he reads them, so I've included audio links as well.



From SantaLand Diaries, when Sedaris worked as an elf at Macy's SantaLand:

Again this morning I got stuck at the Magic Window, which is really boring. I'm supposed to stand around and say, "Step on the Magic Star and you can see Santa!" I said that for awhile and then I started saying, "Step on the Magic Star and you can see Cher!"

And people got excited. So I said, "Step on the Magic Star and you can see Mike Tyson!"

Some people in the other line, the line to sit on Santa's lap, got excited and cut through the gates so that they could stand on my Magic Star. Then they got angry when they looked through the Magic Window and saw Santa rather than Cher or Mike Tyson. What did they honestly expect? Is Cher so hard up for money that she'd agree to stand behind a two-way mirror at Macy's?



From Six to Eight Black Men, recalling a conversation with a Dutch man about the Saint Nicholas celebrated in the Netherlands:

Unlike the jolly, obese American Santa, Saint Nicholas is painfully thin and dresses not unlike the pope, topping his robes with a tall hat resembling an embroidered tea cozy. The outfit, I was told, is a carryover from his former career, when he served as a bishop in Turkey.

One doesn't want to be too much of a cultural chauvinist, but this seemed completely wrong to me. For starters, Santa didn't use to do anything. He's not retired, and, more important, he has nothing to do with Turkey. The climate's all wrong, and people wouldn't appreciate him. When asked how he got from Turkey to the North Pole, Oscar told me with complete conviction that Saint Nicholas currently resides in Spain, which again is simply not true.

If you have 15 minutes to kill, listen to him read Six To Eight Black Men, it's worth the time.

Images via the Google Life collection.

Fictional Crushes

Speaking of books, have you ever had a crush on a character in a book? It's happened to me loads of times, but the one that comes to mind is Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind. Partially because I pictured him as Clark Gable (and, I mean, talk about tall, dark and dashing!), but I also loved his character and how he saw right through silly, juvenile Scarlett.

Any other fictional character crushes worth noting? (My, this was a bookworm-y, girly tangent!)

Book Obsession

I'm currently completely and totally obsessed with The Book Thief. Have you read it? It takes place in Nazi Germany and is told from the point of view of Death (like the grim reaper, but not exactly, as he explains). Which I know makes it sound dark, but it's the kind of darkness you can handle because there's beams of light all throughout it. Does that make any sense? The writing is so achingly beautiful, I want to put in my pocket to keep forever.

My friend Murph recommended it to me during our cabin weekend a few weeks ago when the conversation turned to favorite books and I am so, so glad she did. Do you have any favorite books? I always love to reread The Great Gatsby in the summer.

Nan Lawson

A little bit after the super fans, but excited nonetheless, I'm seeing the final installment of the Harry Potter movies tonight. Since I have a bit of Potter on the brain today, I'm loving the Potter-inspired illustrations in illustrator Nan Lawson's Etsy shop.





She does lots of great literary/film-inspired illustrations, too. I think the children's book characters would be cute in a literary-themed nursery or kid's room.

The Sixth Borough

"The children of New York captured fireflies in glass jars, which they floated between the boroughs. The bugs would slowly asphyxiate, flickering rapidly for their last few minutes of life. If it was timed right, the river shimmered..."



A lovely illustration of the Sixth Borough by Danie Drankwater (via I Love Charts).

Have you ever read the story? The Sixth Borough is a short story by Jonathan Safran Foer that originally appeared in the New York Times, then in his book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (side note: have you read that book? If the answer is no: run, do not walk, to the nearest bookstore and get it). Like everything he writes, the story is magical, a little sad, and totally beautiful. It's one of my favorite short stories.

Mail a Penguin

How great are these Penguin Book postcards? I happened upon them today during some rainy day browsing at Anthropologie and I've been thinking about them ever since. I'd love to frame a few of them on my wall, or have them around to send a friend a note on a postcard of her favorite book.

Jonathan Safran Foer

Have you read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer? It was the first book of his I read, and it totally blew me away. It's too bad I had a library copy, or I would have been underlining just about every other sentence. It also includes this great story about how Manhattan once had a sixth borough that delights me each time I reread it. One really interesting part of Extremely Loud is the design - it's mostly text on a page, but not entirely, and it's the "not entirely" parts that make it an even better read.

So I am thrilled to see that he's not only coming out with a new book, but that it's (not surprisingly, coming from him) completely unlike any other book I've ever heard of. He started with Bruno Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles and "carved" a new story out of it using a die-cuttting technique. Totally brilliant. I can't wait to read it - heck, to touch it!

via Co.Design