Assignment 2 - Cat Lucier

I have always been an avid reader. As a child, I had perhaps a thousand books. We had to sort through and get rid of a majority of them before the move from Utah to Kentucky, but we kept the best ones and have built up a not unimpressive collection again. I also love any library and was delighted when my mum introduced me to Powell's City of Books, a 7-level bookstore in Portland, Oregon, with easily over a million books.
And now for a list of book and reflection upon them.
The Teenage Brain by Frances E. Jensen - required, but really not painful to read.
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan - quite enjoyable. The tone and everything...all the awards it received make sense.
Four Past Midnight by Stephen King - a set of four short stories: "The Langoliers"; "The Library Policeman"; "Secret Window, Secret Garden"; and "The Sun Dog". I technically did not finish the entire book: I didn't read The Sun Dog because I got the book from the library and there was a request for it and therefore I could not renew it to extend the deadline. Regardless, I think of "The Langoliers" on probably a weekly basis, as well as "The Library Policeman". I don't remember "Secret Window, Secret Garden" very well, but I just read the synopsis and I do know that I enjoyed it - it was the sort of story that leaves you unsettled because of the lack of finality in the ending.
The Stand by Stephen King - I have been reading it for at least six months, and am about 3/4 of the way through, but simply have not had enough chances to really sit down and read for a few hours.
The entirety of the Game of Thrones series by George R. R. Martin - I got hooked on this series near the beginning of my sophomore year by Mr. Wise, and it consumed my reading time for pretty much the entirety of that year. I am halfway through A Dance with Dragons, which is the fifth or sixth book (I can't remember). I got kind of bored because it became thick with battle strategy and got a little boring. It was also right around that time that I had a birthday and got The Stand and a gift card to my favorite tiny second-hand bookstore in chevy chase, where I bought The Running Man by Richard Bachman (Stephen King), Firestarter by Stephen King, and The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. Those are still sitting on my "to be read" shelf.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is a bit of a cliche, I know, but reading it creates this sense of peace in me. It is a collection of letters from Charlie about his freshman year of high school. His tone is so precise, unjudgemental, and mellow. The thing that gets me, though, is that I find that I can identify with him. It may not seem like it now, because I am thoroughly medicated, but I am in reality a significant wallflower. I watch, and I listen, and I keep secrets, and I know so many things. This is one of two books that if I have a particularly bad day, I sit down and read it in one sitting.
The other book that I do that with is Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. She appears, works magic, and then is gone. I think about that book all the time.