You are what you read

The other morning I rolled over and one of the first things my eyes landed on when they opened was the stack of books on my nightstand.

Now, I'm a big believer of the saying "You are what you read."  It's true.  What you read says a lot about you.  About your personality, secret hopes, fears, dreams, whatever.

I think it's certainly true in my case:

Let's evaluate, shall we?  What I've been reading (from the bottom up):

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
Vampire Academy: Last Sacrifice - Rachelle Mead
The Secret Holocaust Diaries - Nonna Bannister
The Secret - Rhonda Byrne
Full Dark, No Stars - Stephen King
Classy - Derek Blasberg
The New Yorkers - Cathleen Schine
Bogus to Bubbly - Scott Westerfeld
Audition - Michael Shurtleff

From this list I would think the reader was perhaps in their 20's with an eclectic taste.  Perhaps leaning towards the dark issues when the mood strikes but also with a whimsical outlook on life.  Someone that cares about their image and wants to improve in life.

Then again, I could just be projecting who I'm hoping I am.

Who knows. 

I do know that I have excellent taste in books.  Dragon Tattoo is a reread for me.  I am in love with the trilogy and was so disappointed when I read that Larsson's father and brother (who control his estate) won't be allowing the release of the 7 additional books that he wrote, intending the trilogy as a series.

Audition is a great, quick read for any actor.  I read it for my Auditions I class and thought it had some great info.

Who doesn't love Stephen King?  Fantastic storyteller.  He's one of the very few authors whose short stories I bother to read.  This one is a collection of 4 that a very dark.  

The Vampire Academy series I started reading because Mead is a Seattle author and it was her first book.  I go out of my way to support local authors when I have the cash to spend.  It turned out to be an interesting story with a slightly different take on vampires.

I read so much.. I probably spend far, far too much on books.  This is what prompted me to finally purchase an e-reader.  I once said I would never make the switch from actual books to an electronic device.

That was before I moved to one of the most expensive cities in the world.  With no space.

Yeah.  So after a few days of research I settled on the Kindle 3G.  It should be arriving in a couple days and I am extremely excited.  What really sold it for me was this 1 series that I've been longing to reread.  Unfortunately most of my book collection was left in WA due to the fact that if I brought all my books I would have had to rent a whole other apartment to house them all.  Because this series is packed away among the many boxes it wouldn't be feasible to ask my parents to go searching thru all the boxes for these 5 books.

I would love to just buy them again but bookstores no longer carry them.  I looked them up online and can get them but I would have to pay almost full price and shipping. 

The Kindle has each book for less than $5.  After seeing that I was sold.

Hard to beat that, no?

New Year's Resolutions

OK, OK.. I don't even want to know how many ladies out there have a New Year's Resolution of writing (and keeping) a blog but this year I am determined to do it.  I've roped my fiance, B, into this project to help keep me accountable.  He was super excited about that.  Heh.

I never know what to write on these first posts (yeah, not exactly my first blog..) so I suppose I'll go to the old standby and blabber on about myself.  That's interesting, right?

Anyway.

I'm a 20-something girl that sold everything to follow my dream to move to Manhattan and become a professional actor.  I auditioned for a highly competitive acting conservatory in March of 2009, was accepted and by end of July I had an apartment signed and we moved to NYC in August.

The fiance, B, was incredibly amazing and supportive throughout the whole process.  And when I was accepted he gave up our comfortable life in Seattle to follow me to NYC without a single complaint.  We sold our house, our cars, most of our furniture and possessions.  What we didn't sell, my parents graciously let us put into their storage warehouse that they own. 

One of the hardest things to leave behind was my collection of books.  I own literally thousands of books.  A rough estimate would be somewhere around 5,000 to 7,500 books. 

Crazy, I know.

But what is even crazier is selling a 2,300 sq ft home to move into a 550 sq ft, 2 floor walk up with 2 dogs. 

I've done crazier shit.  Believe me.