Moving Day...Important Update!

Hey all ... just a note to let you know that my blog has moved to WordPress:

http://careysbookproject.wordpress.com/

Please be sure to update my new address in your list of blogs you follow!

Process details (for any who are wondering): I went to export in Blogger - settings, saved the export file to my computer, created my WordPress account, went to import in WordPress - tools, and imported my saved file ... and Presto Change-o ... there were all my posts with text, text color, spacing, pictures, comments, etc all in tact! My sidebar widgets and pages did not transfer, but I was able to set them back up with minimal pain. However, I was not able to keep my custom theme. WordPress.com requires that you purchase a CSS upgrade to be able to use custom themes while it was free at Blogger ... bummer! And, of course now I am in the process of updating all the links within my posts/pages because they still link back to the Blogger site ... which is painful ... lol! I think the dashboard will take some getting used to, but overall I think I will be very happy with the move (if not I can always move back to Blogger). There are certainly some much cooler features at WordPress!!

Checkin In...Bookstore Adventures...The Wilder Life...

I am currently reading Anne Sexton's biography. At times, I have felt a little bogged down (specifically at points when the author analyzes various Sexton poems and I am reminded of how much I have to learn about the mechanics of poetry), but overall it has been very interesting so far. Of course, I am a fan of books that deal with psychological issues. I am glad that I started with her letters as I already have a little sense of her background and a sense of her voice as I read through her more detailed story. I am equally glad that I decided to read her biography prior to delving into her poetry and would recommend this to anyone else interested in taking a look at her work.

Last weekend I picked up a few selections at the book store:

Next, I plan to read Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys since Jane Eyre is still fresh in my mind from last month. I picked up The Wilder Life on a whim because I was such a fan of the Little House series as a child and it appeared so was the author, Wendy McClure. I finished this book in a few sittings and found uncanny glimpses of myself in Wendy as she detailed how this series affected her as a girl, as an adult, and as she detailed her quest for "Laura World" while visiting the various Ingalls/Wilder sites around the country. I am still not sure I understand what Wendy was really searching for within herself on this journey, but this was an entertaining read never the less.

While reading other blog posts over the recent weeks/months, I have been contemplating what I am really searching for in my own reading project/blog journey. And...I have no idea really. I just know it is leading me somewhere. I sometimes question my style of writing posts (specifically those that relate to my thoughts after reading a project book), so I am wondering (in connection with my recent contemplation): What do you all feel my style actually is? What do you think about that style?

Hope you are all having a fabulous week!!

Becoming Carrie Bradshaw...Summer in the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel

I did not enjoy Candace Bushnell’s book: Sex and the City. It was a rare example of a book that was NOT better than the movie (or TV series in this case).  However, I am a huge Carrie Bradshaw fan, so when Bushnell began publishing a YA series about Carrie’s younger years I was willing to give her another try. This week I picked up the second book in the series: Summer and the City and finished it in one glorious sitting. The book detailed Carrie’s first summer living in NYC after her high school graduation and explained how she became friends with Samantha Jones and Miranda Hobbes. I enjoyed it, although I kept thinking that I should have written this book. Why didn’t I think of this?

The (slightly weird) truth is that I wish I was the fabulous Carrie Bradshaw rather than the ordinary Carey Ruscitto. I live in NY State, but I have only been to NYC twice: once on our senior class trip and once for a concert at Madison Square Gardens. I wish I would have had the courage to leave my small town for the big city. I wish I would have spent my first summer after graduation taking a writing class, shopping in vintage clothing shops and at the Strand bookstore, and going to fabulously exciting parties.

I wish all of this had eventually led me to writing my own column at my desk in front of my window in Carrie’s exact apartment, to a love affair with shoes, the NY Public Library and John Preston (AKA Mr. Big). Maybe someday I will at least travel to the city for my own private vacation in Carrie Bradshaw’s world…I long to do this, especially after reading Summer and the City and re-watching the Sex and the City movie for the 10^th plus time. The book was certainly not close to the caliber of the classics I have been reading, but it was a delightful light read!