NOW WE ARE NINE: NEARLY A DECADE ON THE INTERNET (aka, Back to Blogging, and What I'm Doing Differently)

As of this afternoon, I will officially have been owner and operator of this blog for nine years. Nine years! And yet... this is the first time I've posted on here since May. To be very honest, if you had asked me what my plans were for this today a month ago, I would have told you, "I'm deleting everything." But, as you can see, I've changed my mind.

Here's how I started, what went wrong, and what I'm doing next... plus, some of the best things to come out of this blog, from nine years of writing. Happy Anniversary to me!

WHY I STARTED BLOGGING

My first ever post, in case you were wondering
what teenage Savannah was like.

I grew up as the eldest kid of four in my family, and learned to love reading, very, very quickly. A practice readily prompted by the Montessori school I grew up attending, driven by a personal desire to be left alone for as great a period in the day as possible, I made it a daily habit early on in my childhood.

The writing part came about a little differently: As a kid who could reliably be found agonizing over folded pieces of white paper, sketched over with design scribbles and articles I'd painstakingly transcribed from American Girl, it was only a matter of time before my magazine-oriented mind found its way into the blogging world as a teen.

I started my blog primarily because of how much I truly adored following them. I collected a handwritten list of urls in an old composition notebook, rife with notable fashion and food bloggers, including, over a decade ago, both Cupcakes & Cashmere and The Pioneer Woman (and they remain on my list today, as well!). I knew I wanted a space of my own, but my parents would never have agreed to support this sixteen-year-old's sartorial or culinary endeavors... what I could do, instead, was expand upon something I was already passionate about: books.

Within a few days, I had a domain of my own. (My computer-savvy Dad has remained the biggest supporter of this space over the years.)

But, let me bring you in on a secret: I didn't even follow a single other book blogger online until I was in college... and didn't get a Goodreads account until my sophomore year, in 2013. Before that point, I allowed a total of three people to follow my blog, all of  whom were family.

For a really, really long time, it was just me and the Internet. Until, of course, things got a little more social.

WHEN IT BECAME DIFFICULT

I've blogged through heartbreak, depression, and a college education. I've blogged for resume clout, putting that past runway interest to literary use in a book-inspired College Fashion column that ran for two years. Even when I wasn't reading anything particularly inspiring, I found that I could still scrounge up low-impact content: slump-beating tips, "haul" purchases, or even taking part in various memes like "Top Ten Tuesday," where I'd talk about books I'd read in the past.

In part, those kinds of ideas only came about, because they were already featured so prominently elsewhere. BookTube, as a concept, exploded during my college years, and I quickly found myself being drawn to big personalities with extensive industry networks and jaw-dropping bookshelf backdrops. Bloggers with fancier custom website designs than just my stock Blogger template became a reliable news source, taken in with my morning tea. Instagram and Twitter held their own sway with snarky soundbites and gorgeous visuals, leading me to eventually make my own Instagram account for this blog last summer.

Writing is all about building a community, reaching out into the ether, providing a sense of connection, right? I was finally connecting.

But after nine years of writing, the focus had begun to shift. As a sixteen-year-old, I served as lord and master of my corner of the Internet, but lived in terror of it ever being discovered by anyone I actually knew. It was important to me, because it was such a sandbox: I could build what I wanted here, and no one would know, or have anything to do with its construction, but me.

At twenty-five, I realized it had somehow become desperately important, somewhere down the line, that I really, really wanted people to read what I had to say... even if I wasn't actually saying anything worthwhile. I had started buying into the superfluous flotsam and jetsam that came with the "bookish Internet person" name tag, but was no longer thinking about whether this was truly motivating me to read or write more often, or with greater purpose. On the Internet, you're rewarded for posting frequently, with high click-through content, displayed alongside snappy labels and trendy tags, but the practice of generating this kind of material wasn't developing my authentic voice, or inspiring me to pursue challenging or interesting reading material.

I would regularly rack up more than 50 likes on a carefully stylized photo on my 450+ follower Instagram on multiple days a week, but the numbers felt somewhat soulless, especially when my own content on my preferred platform was only reaching about ten to fifteen people. My writing was floundering, with lackluster content only posted when I could drive myself to do so, widely inspired by formats created by online creators. I wasn't involved in this work, intellectually or emotionally... nor was I by my reading material. Reading fell out of practice as a daily endeavor.

So, I made my stand this past February, which, at the time, no one but me recognized for what it was: one last attempt. I redid the layout and color scheme based on what was trending. I painstakingly selected a relevant font to service the "unique audience" I made up in my head, after watching one too many "targeting your clients" videos on Skillshare. My content posting schedule had been lagging, but thanks to a coinciding SEO-booster that same weekend, I cobbled together a solo reading marathon dubbed "Readchella" back in April.

But it all still didn't feel like enough. I was putting a lot of effort into making the blog seem marketable, because that's what I thought my focus should be, and the numbers weren't yielding the kind of social reward I'd expected. Eventually I asked myself the question: If I was still that kid, back at sixteen, would my own blog have made my handwritten list? The answer was no.

I stopped writing my blog, and I stopped updating my associated Instagram, back in May. The system I had in place was not sustainable... I wasn't creating content I felt passionate about, and therefore, it was easy to stop trying so hard to create it.

I mulled things over, and tried to figure out where I would go from here. My ninth anniversary was coming up the very next month, and the only way I could think to honor that, was to shutter this project for good. At least then, I'd be able to switch the domain over into something I could use for professional writing projects, or a digital portfolio, right?

WHAT MADE ME COME BACK

Truthfully, part of the reason was my friend Kayla. She doesn't read my blog, but she does follow me on Instagram, and in turn, I follow her @readkaylaread account. She doesn't invest any time in aesthetic props or contrived filter settings... not even anything more than just the book's cover, accompanied by, hands-down, some of the most entertaining book reviews I've ever enjoyed on the Internet. She has no posting schedule, doesn't put any more effort into the visuals than a simple Google Image search, and only writes the things she absolutely feels like writing, when she wants to.

Kayla's writing is absolutely inspired, but by nothing more than personal reflection and her own inclination towards humor. After a brief scroll through her feed yielded several recommendations and a good belly laugh, It felt like just enough to inspire me to get back to... whatever this is.

I still don't think people read this blog, and to be clear, I really don't think this post is going to be what convinces them to. I think this is still as much of a shout into the void as I did back when I started, back when I refused to let people know that I blogged at all. But I'm trying to care less.

First and foremost, I need to get back to writing for me, back when I didn't want anyone watching. I want to keep writing, and I want to keep writing about books. And that's it! SEO-optimization, Pinterest-friendly shareable headers, labor-intensive photo editing, industry advantages and Advanced Reader Copies, and all that hullabaloo should have no bearing on something I'm not doing for anyone else... I'm just doing it because I like reading, and writing.

Here's the plan: from this point on, I'm only going to generate content that serves me. ME. I will write once a week, if I can, and the topics I cover will be a lot more interesting and in-depth, like some of the best content I've done in the past. That's it!

So, to celebrate this anniversary, I just wanted to tell you I'm back. I'm back to blogging, if not for good, than as long as it serves me, and gives me a reason to make something cool with what I can.

THE BEST OF ME

If you're wondering what kinds of content I'm talking about, let me highlight some of my favorite posts of the past. Here are eleven posts and two series from a total nine years of blogging here at Playing in the Pages, all of which I count as some of my favorites:

the "Reading Romance" series (2018) 

(intro // vintage // modern historical // modern contemporary)

Up until last June, I had never, ever read a romance novel. I decided to take the plunge by way of a structured program: I'd dedicate each month of the summer into exploring a particular subcategory, and report on my findings. Needless to say, the entire project was an absolute joy.

Getting Bache-literate: The Need-to-Read List for Fans of ABC's Bachelor Franchises (2018)

As someone who's been a rose-wielding member of Bachelor Nation since my college days, crammed onto a sofa with sorority sisters after weekly chapter meetings, it's a lot of fun to get a behind-the-scenes peek into the minds of popular show leads... and villains. I honestly hope more of these glossy-haired TV-lebrities start publishing memoirs; I'd read anything Rachel Lindsay has to say.

Book vs. Movie: Love, Simon (2018) and Twilight Reread: The Podcast, the Novel, My Brother, The Movie (2017)

I've mentioned my siblings on-and-off throughout the run of this blog, originally only referring to them in nicknames, due to my parents' fear of detailing too much personal info online. However, as this blog has gotten older, so have they... and they've been all too willing to add in their two cents, like when my family all saw Love, Simon when it premiered last year, or my teenage brother read Twilight for the very first time.

Best Books for a Boy: My Weird Struggle with Book Recs for my Teenage Brother (2017)

The only other member of my family with whom I share a comparable bookish appetite, is my teenage brother. However, not all YA is created equal... and this deep dive into why that is, including how a passion for reading has developed into a pseudo gender-distinctive trait, proves why I find giving him recommendations more than a little difficult.

Table for One: How to Speed Date a Stack of Books (2017)

As it turns out, this one wasn't as much an original idea on my part, than an expanding on various techniques that already exist, for how to sort through a large assortment of books quickly to find your next novel. Still, it's one of my favorite things to do on a slow afternoon... and has convinced me to read more than a few books I've loved!

Reading and Leading: What Arts and Education Have to Do with the Election (2016-17) 

(part one // part two)

Everyone reacted to the 2016 Election differently, in my family. My choice was to write about my feelings; in particular, how the values promoted in Arts, Education, and especially Literature, are more valuable now than ever before.

Plus Six Arcana: Why All Fantasy Fans Should Join a D&D Party (2016)

I played Dungeons and Dragons - in a party that included both my sorority sisters, and my actual sister - for about two years, starting in my senior year of college. That time served as not only two years of apartment- and sorority house-hosted eight-hour-long sessions, but a crash course in narrative development, compelling character creation, and collaborative world-building... the kind that any fan of Fantasy would enjoy!

Time is a Goon: Revisiting Jennifer Egan's Visit from the Goon Squad (2016)

In my Freshman year, I read Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad as a part of our mandatory Fall "Intro to English" credit. It became one of my favorite novels of all time. Three years later, I was severely depressed, had failed two classes, wasn't graduating on time, and felt like all of my friends were moving away from me... so I read it again. The context of these two reviews, to me, says a lot more than just their respective messages, as well as a lot about the power of this book.

Capstone Lite: The Paper That Allowed Me to Graduate College, Abridged (2016)

Anything you spent an entire Quarter carefully cultivating is bound to stick with you, especially when it's your key to graduation... but it wasn't just that. My mom asked me the question earlier this year, what I would spend my life doing if money wasn't an issue, and the answer was "Writing T.S.W.'s biography."

Nearly Nancy: Failed Attempts at a Multi-Media Nancy Drew (2016)

For some reason, this three-year-old blog post feels even more relevant today, after the most recent attempt at revitalizing the girl sleuth went under, as Ellen DeGeneres' produced movie was sent straight to DVD. Nancy Drew will be one of my favorite literary fixtures forever, and her utter inability to successfully translate to screen - with one extremely notable exception - is, to me, a part of her magic.

Honorary mention: the poem I wrote for my HS graduation!

Girls in Space: This Year's Nebula Award Winners (2016)

I'm not as up on the Science Fiction genre as I'd like to be - despite a whole college class to the contrary - but as I've started to explore more recently-published titles, it's started to improve... in part, thanks to more diverse authors being published in the past few years. However, that wasn't exactly welcomed within the given audience of these kinds of books, as evidenced by the 2015-2016 Hugo and Nebula award drama.

End of an Era with College Fashion (2014)

Anyone who went to high school with me would probably be shocked to no end, that the girl who wore a North Face and jeans to school every single day of both Freshman and Sophomore year, ended up writing for an internationally-read fashion website for two full years in college. It still surprises me, too.


I hope you take the time to explore some of my past work, and maybe leave a comment on one you've particularly enjoyed. Nine years is a lot of time to dedicate to something, and the potential of having a specific place for generating this kind of content in the future is part of the reason why I'm refusing to let it go just yet.

If you've visited my blog, at any point, during the past nine years, thanks so much for being a part of something so important to me!

College Fashion Link Up: The Phantom Tollbooth

Well, we're finally at the end, my friends, and what more fitting for a final blog post for College Fashion's "Looks from Books" column, than one of the first books I was ever read as a kid? 

Just like my last post dealt with The Little Prince - the first book my Mom ever recommended I cover as a part of the column - my final post, ever, will be featuring the first book my Dad recommended I use as inspiration: The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, and illustrated by Jules Feiffer. 

I had a really good time rereading it. As you might remember, I also reread it my freshman year of college as well... in fact, shortly before embarking upon my journey with College Fashion!

I had been feeling uninspired, homesick, and more than a little paralyzed - not with fear, or confusion, or anything, but more of like that feeling when you're too comfortable to bother change anything while also feeling like you haven't really done anything at all worthy of feeling that way - and the Phantom Tollbooth and Norton Juster cleared out all the cobwebs in my brainspace, and made me able to work again.

Revisiting it again for the purposes of a College Fashion redux came from much happier origins, and as a final laurel to rest my head on, I'm fairly happy with the results.

Here's my favorite look from the post, featuring two of my favorite figures within the story: the princesses - naturally! - of Sweet Rhyme and Pure Reason:

CHECK OUT THE REST OF THE LOOKS FROM THE ARTICLE HERE!

The Big Announcement: An End to an Era with College Fashion

"Gatsby Green and the American Dream," The Great Gatsby

It's been a long time coming, this grand reveal, but with the very last day of 2014, I finally feel ready to make my next move: with this afternoon's new College Fashion post in my "Looks from Books" column, I will be ending my time spent as contributor editor for that website.

For the past two years - since January 2nd, 2013, when my first article, on Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, went up  - I've worked diligently to put forth a quality post every other Sunday. That's evened out to fifty-three articles having been published on College Fashion... and today's is that 53rd.

First thought: I mean, YIKES, right? I've put a lot of labor and love into this thing, and I'm not really moving on to another ingenious plan just yet. There's no exit strategy for my departure; it's just the culmination of so much work, saying, "I think it's time to go now."

"Follow the Star," Stardust

"Timeslessly Trendy," Nancy Drew

"Havisham's Desk," Great Expectations

I applied for this position not just before I knew who my Big was, but before I even knew who my friends in college really were, or even who I really had the potential to be. College Fashion was something to beef up my resume and take up space in my newly lackluster schedule. For a while, it's been something I've kind of had to built my lifestyle around, and now, it's something I'm leaving behind.

Second thought: Let's look at alittle simple arithmetic, here: between brainstorming themes, creating outfit ideas, researching novels and their respective histories, and writing the whole damn thing - not to mention reading the books they're based off of in the first place! - I spent at least fifteen hours every two weeks reading and writing and clicking before submitting. Now that I don't have to fit all of that work into my schedule, look at how much more time I'll have to spend on books!

"It's Okay to Spill Tea on This," Fangirl 

"Summertime Sadness," Gone Girl

"Gimme a Beat, Boys" On the Road

But seriously: the last time I've spent more than a couple of days ruminating over a book outside of school - regardless of its themes or origins or even how much I really, really liked it - was when I read Anna Karenina. I spent about three weeks carving out a hole in my brain for that book to live in, and when I was done with it, I knew it had been worth it. It became my first College Fashion post.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to read a book like that since then... even though Gone with the Wind, Madame Bovary, and The Brothers Karamazov are all sitting on my bookshelf as we speak, and have been waiting patiently for me for so long.

"The Horseman," Sleepy Hollow

That doesn't mean that I haven't been learning from it, however. Between finding AP teachers who have linked their class blogs to my posts - like one did to Wuthering Heights - as well as getting my participation grade bumped up by an especially enthusiastic professor, by doing a post on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales while taking a course in that subject, I've had plenty of grades to show for my hard work.

And there have been plenty more than teachers who've been with me for the journey: whether it was friends of friends at UW expressing their appreciation, or engaging commenters online with interesting discussion points, there's been plenty of bookish buddies found through this column!

"A Different Point of View," Alice in Wonderland

So, don't be glum, chum. It's a fond parting for me and College Fashion, and I'll always be happy to have spent such a long time with such a great website. It's helped me develop my voice, my style, and my portfolio, and I am proud of the work that I've done there. I hope you've all enjoyed the journey as much as I have! 

Now, for the fun part: since I'm parting ways with the column, I thought it would be fun to take a little trip down memory lane, and pick out some of my very favorite outfits from my very favorite posts! (Hint: You're looking at them!)

And, of course, stay tuned for my last College Fashion "Looks from Books" Link Up post, coming this afternoon!

"Perfect Match," Emma

College Fashion Link Up: The Little Prince

The very first book my mother insisted I had to cover for my "Looks from Books" column, as soon as I had been informed of my position writing for College Fashion back in November 2012, was The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. 

However, it's taken til the second-to-last post of 2014 to actually cover the classic source material for an upcoming big-screen adaptation, whose trailer was released just earlier this month, to international excitement. While the French version of the teaser is the only one available right now, I knew it was going to be making waves worldwide, and quickly got to work on translating it to some cool fashion looks. 

I hadn't read the book in a while, but it wasn't long before the whimsical philosophies and heart-touching truths covered by the short novel were zooming around in my head once again. If the movie does the book any justice at all - which it looks like it's going to - I'm going to be walking into that theater next year with a whole box of Kleenex shoved under my arm. 

But I don't need to tell y'all any of that. In fact, being that it remains one of the most-printed books worldwide, chances are you've already read it... and are probably as excited about the adaptation as I am. 

Here's my favorite look from the article, based around two of the novel's most interesting characters: the pilot who narrates the story, as well as the snake who brings about its climax. 

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE! 

College Fashion Link Up: Grimm's Fairy Tales

Alright, so I've been pretty strapped for time recently.

With NaNo and Panhellenic and prepping for Finals - btws, I rocked the heck out of my English Final today, guys! - I've been dying to get just a couple of pages for myself, but there just hasn't been the time. So with a College Fashion article due November 30th, you can understand how I was feeling a significant schedule crunch this past weekend! 

Luckily, the Cheerleader has been singing the two lines she knows from "Agony" from Into the Woods around the house since the marketing has been ramping up for the film adaptation - "Dwarves are very upsetting!" -  so I was easily able to find a good source of inspiration for the article. 

I couldn't really give Into the Woods the kind of attention the Cheerleader would have necessarily liked, but I did get the chance to focus on some of my favorite fairy tales, including "Red Riding Hood," "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves," and "Rapunzel." Even though I'm pretty sure the curriculum covered all of these tales during my Fairy Tales class last Winter Quarter, I was more than happy to revisit each of them, and remember exactly how messed up the original colloquial versions were! 

The outfits turned out to be just as whimsical and woeful as Into the Woods, with as much winter-y wonder punched in as I could. Here's my favorite outfit from the post, featuring the naturalistic elements and luxe happily ever after of Rapunzel:

READ THE ARTICLE AND SEE THE REST OF THE LOOKS HERE! 

College Fashion Link Up: A Series of Unfortunate Events

I mean, I was a pretty big fan of The Series of Unfortunate Events growing up. Then again, so were more people my age. After The Grim Grotto came out, I remember one particularly malevolent 5th grade counterpart attempting to sway us all to eat great green globs of wasabi as a part of her interactive book report.

(I was bullied into it. While I still hate spicy food, I think I developed a certain affinity to wasabi simply because of the accompanying subconscious "Screw You.")

It's also probably worth noting that I fell into The Series at around the same time I developed a love for Tim Burton and Edgar Allen Poe, not to mention Hot Topic, Scary Tales to Tell in the Dark, and the artistic stylings of Gris Grimly.

I wasn't goth, but I wanted to be, very badly. But after staring a little too longingly at a skull-print black scarf at Limited Too, my mom stamped that dream out pretty quick. It was pink hoodies from there on out, but you could always count on me carrying books like R.L. Stine's Dangerous Girls series, and The Spiderwick Chronicles, in the darkest depths of my Jansport.

Still, there are parts of those older leanings that still make me smile today. And while it's still going to take a while for the ill-effects of the 2004 Jim Carrey film to wash out of my brain, that lingering sensitivity to gothic romanticism and the fear of the wide, weird world is always going to be a part of me. That's why when my media-obsessed younger sister shot me a news piece about Netflix picking up the rights to the novels to develop an independent series, I was more than happy to buy into the hype that was giving a childhood favorite new life.

And, of course, give it an accompanying College Fashion post. Duh.

Here's my favorite look from the post, inspired by the grandiose nature, theatricality, and dynamics of an author who served as part of the inspiration for the mock-gothic stylings of The Series, Edgar Allen Poe:

SEE THE REST OF THE LOOKS FROM THIS ARTICLE HERE!
(Especially if you're a follower of the series... because if that's the case, I've got some special shoutouts hidden in there for the real fans!)

College Fashion Link Up: A Wrinkle in Time

 My Dad is incredibly proud of the books he got us kids to read back when we were really kids, making us susceptible to his recommendations without really understanding the significance of what we were reading. He instilled in us, from a very young age, an appreciation for things like fantasy and science fiction, genres with which I might not view with such passion today if not for my Dad's early coaching. 

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle, is one of my favorite books, and it's because I first read it when I was maybe eight. The novel follows Meg Murry, a twelve-year-old, self-conscious outcast, who is busy coming to grips with the disappearance of her father and protecting her precocious younger brother, Charles Wallace, from the bullies at school. When a mysterious visitor named Mrs. Whatsit appears in the middle of one "dark and stormy night," and makes her mother faint with the enigmatic words "There is such a thing as a tesseract," Meg finds herself thrust into an adventure across the Universe, to save her father... and maybe the world?

This book was a great source of comfort to me as a kid, because it was nice having someone to read about who wasn't necessarily the smartest, coolest, or most "special," but who was definitely still the hero of her own story. It's one of those things that I still find comforting to read today, that even supposedly ordinary people can also have great adventures (especially when I come back from a class leaving me feeling about as dumb as Meg felt about school, too). 

More impressive is the fact that A Wrinkle in Time was one of the first popularized science fiction novels to make a significant culture impact AND have a young, female protagonist, something virtually unheard of at the time of its first publication in 1962. It's remained continuously in print since then, which is a pretty significant accomplishment in itself, but the fact that L'Engle is essentially responsible for raising the people who write strong female characters in YA fantasy and science fiction today, is pretty damn cool. 

Here's my favorite look from the post, inspired by the droll, doll-like qualities of the people on Camazotz, ruled over by the dark and oppressive "IT." 

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE ON COLLEGE FASHION HERE!

College Fashion Link Up: Sleepy Hollow

Alright, so to answer the question that many who know me well began to ask as soon as they saw the title of my most recent College Fashion article - Did I blatantly use my position as a contributor for College Fashion as an excuse to pimp out one of my Fall favorites?- I answer with a resounding, "You bet I did!"

It's one of my favorite television shows on right now, and it's one of my favorite Halloween movies (no, not the Time Burton one, ya lunk, the Disney musical short!), so why wouldn't I have good reason to make this year's spook-tastic holiday-themed article based around one of the best baddies to ever hit American Literature: The Headless Horseman, and Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"! 

I mean, it also helps that it's the perfect example of one of my favorite literary movements: Romanticism, with its naturalistic elements and focus on the supernatural, with Gothic literature also falling under its umbrella, makes for the perfect kind of reading material to match with this gloomy Seattle weather. While I'm wasting away studying for midterms as the rain starts leaking through the ceilings of our old Sigma Kastle, at least I've still got one better than that superstitious, flighty Ichabod Crane!

Here's a sneak peek of the article, integrating the spooky characteristics of that good ol' Headless Hessian, into a look that's chock full of riding basics and fall knits, but short one missing head! 

SEE THE LOOKS FROM THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE!

College Fashion Link Up: Gone Girl

This book didn't just provide the chills and thrills as promised by hyped-up fans and movie-trailers alike... it made me more excited about the concept of an unreliable narrator than I've ever been before. 

A narrative we've seen spelled out too many times splayed across spreads of tabloid pages, a cause championed by media blowhards like Nancy Grace, the twisted tale of a seemingly idyllic marriage cracking like a mirror, played out in cliche's that rip through Facebook news feeds like buzzsaws. After all, who doesn't love the spine-tingling reality and grim thrill of tracking down a Dead Wife... and who better to pin her disappearance on than a Deadbeat Husband? Nick, what did you do to Amy? 

I don't have to pretend that most of you don't know the plotline for this epic best-seller of a novel. It's maintained a spot on the New York Times list since its publication two years ago, in 2012, so it's a pretty big deal in Bookworld (and now, Movieworld, too!). The very idea of a wife's mysterious disappearance and her husband's inability to account for his actions is already a harsh situation, especially when even the narrator himself seems to be unable to explain his motives...

Alright, I know I shouldn't say "narrator," because the novel itself is a study in perspective. Part One alone flips between the modern-day observations of Nicke Dunne, while Amy's diary pages make up the rebuttal... the entire novel displays the chasms of disconnect built from the years of their relationship, only to bridge the gaps with flashes of strange commonality.

Also, to make this point clear - especially to my Dad - I refuse to tell you what happens. It's a holy mindf*** of a situation, and I went and ruined it for myself by reading the Wiki synopsis before I'd even gotten to page two, so I won't tell you, but be wary: like I said above, it's a study in perspective. So keep your eyes open. 

When it comes to construction, the characters are so well-rounded, it's astounding. Both Nick and Amy are incredibly relatable, even for their faults and foibles and differences and destructive habits, there were aspects of their personalities I viewed with close familiarity. Without giving away too much, I'll just say that we can call killers and psychos "monsters," dehumanizing them to create a discernible breach between Us and Them... but I recognized pieces of myself, my friends, my family, etc. in each of the characters of the novel.

I'm immensely impressed with Flynn for being able to craft such a monster of an interconnecting story. Trying to sift through the plot of this book was like untangling the contents of a mixed-up jewelry box... trailing along endless knots, criss-crossing story lines, coming across glinting, sharp edges of cutting commentary and recognizable views of the world, but all muddled together in an addicting mess you are determined to see through to the end. Just like I was determined to wear my long pendant tassel necklace to the first day of school, even though I had to spend a good hour extracting it from the mauled mess of my other necklaces, I was determined to find out what happened to Amy Dunne.

And be forewarned, oh future readers: this is the kind of book where people ask, "What part are you at?" then immediately follow up with the ominous, "I want to talk to you when you're finished." If you don't like having others' opinions impressed upon you unbidden, then maybe keep this title to your Kindle, so nobody gets any crazy ideas about approaching you while you're reading.

This maybe is going to sound a little heavy-handed, but honestly, it makes me reaffirmed in my desire to be a writer, that there are still people like Gillian Flynn out there writing.

So, I did a College Fashion article on this one, though inspiration didn't exactly come to me as easily as I would have like, but I'm still proud on how it all turned out. Here's my favorite look from the piece, depicting the summer Southern setting, juxtaposed against its dark and bleak tone:

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE! 

Also, this amazing 8Tracks playlist by user "alihendrix" definitely helped get me into the mood for writing this post... with numbers like a low-key Sky Ferreira rendition of Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang," and indie rock The Neighborhood's smoldering "Baby Come Home" I was sucked right back into the mindsets of Nick and Amy Dunne. Definitely recommended for those who like music to accompany their reading habit!

CF Post Link Up: The Maze Runner

I hate hype, usually because I just can't get behind the thing that everybody else is so jazzed about, and this book was a really great example of why. 

Let's make one thing clear from the outset: a lot of people like this book. Like, enough to make it into a movie with some of the brightest and shiniest young things on the scene in starring roles. A lot of people think this book is thrilling, adventurous, and dystopian enough to rival The Hunger Games. I am not one of those people. I am not one of those people at all. 

The Maze Runner, written by James Dashner, follows the story of a young boy named Thomas, who wakes up in a strange place with no memory of who he is, except for his name, and the vague familiar feeling that he has been in this place before. "This place" turns out to be an idyllic scope of green at the middle of a winding and unsolvable maze, home to terrifying creatures... and an all-knowing entity pulling the strings. Will he and his new compatriots ever escape?

Alright, let me just explain why I didn't like it too much, before everyone gets all upset with me: some of the most particular sources of pain for me, when trying to get through the novel, was the pacing (which, when something is lauded as the "Next Best Thing" in YA, better be wound tighter than the strings on a violin). Instead, I found it to be tedious. It was dystopian, which obviously involves a bit of world-building to make a complete picture, but where the novel tried to avoid info-dumping, it did so in an obtuse and deliberately confusing way, where even moments that were built to give clarity instead just emphasized the rest of the bare-bones plot structure. It didn't feel like there was some big conspiracy waiting to be unraveled, it seemed more like Dashner sent in a book proposal to his publisher, only to realize he didn't have a full story yet, and tried to string things together as he went along.

Also, I'm down for any kind of maze or labyrinth you can throw at me; it makes for some interesting mythology - when you're getting Greek about it - Harry Potter had one, and I'm always down for David Bowie in high-waisted leggings. However, The Maze Runner makes an interesting concept dull by making a maze, sure, but not making it worth traveling.

Even the only things that really peaked my interest in the duration of the book - the weird telepathy some of the Gladers shared, the mysterious Changing - weren't fully fleshed out or explained, which is probably why they're being scrapped for the big-screen adaptation (sorry to you fans so pumped for the movie, but that's not the only discrepancy).

Still, just because I thought it was a bad book doesn't necessarily mean it was bad fashion. Here's a look inspired by the Grievers, the treacherous monsters that roam the Maze during the night, and whose stinging needles embedded in their furry, twisting bodies will cause death to the Gladers they come in contact with. (Great fashion inspiration, I know, but it's Fall, and I need a lot of black and fur in my wardrobe right now...)

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE AT COLLEGE FASHION! 

College Fashion Link Up: If I Stay

I'm just going to get right to it, with Unpopular Opinion time: I absolutely hated Gayle Forman's If I Stay. 

The novel follows the story of Mia Hall, a young cellist about to graduate high school and move away from her boyfriend, after the car her family is driving in is involved in a collision, and are grievously injured. With her mother and father dead, and her younger brother nowhere to be found, Mia follows the after-effects of the crash in an out-of-body experience, watching those she loves gather and contemplating whether life will really be worth living. 

I had made the decision to read the novel specifically for the benefit of my College Fashion "Looks from Books" column. Thankfully, for me, the book is barely novel length. I'd actually call it a novella. Either it was the extraordinarily short length I thought it was, or the reading level for the words involved in its construction were at such a low comprehension setting that I was able to soar through it with extraordinary speed. I've finished books in one sitting before... but never in one hour.

The concept behind the narrative, I also found, was a holistically unproductive, and maybe even a little damaging, one: the entire novel promotes the idea that while Mia is in the hospital, she has complete control over whether she lives or dies. Even as she lies unconscious, in a coma, she is broadcast as having the choice of sustaining her own life... after her "spirit" even considers the possibility of passing on, her health is shown as failing. As  the daughter of a hospital administrator, I call super-shenanigans on that shit. That is not a healthy way to approach something as serious as death... if someone in a coma dies, it is not because they've consciously made that decision, "given up," or chosen to leave. It's because their body was no longer able to sustain itself or function properly.

And this may count as a spoiler, but the reason she ultimately considers life, is a stupid one, as well. 

Even outside the novel, the comments made by the star of the movie - Chloe Grace Moretz - also ticked me off, in the same way that it ticked off a lot of people who love to read and enjoy YA novels. The sheer fact that that Moretz thought of the novel as anything "above" or "better" than the regular level of this kind of fiction is a sheerly laughable concept... the blurb on the cover compares it to Twilight, for crying out loud!

So, in total, my experience in reading the book was not a pleasant one. At least the College Fashion article turned out okay. Here's my favorite look from the article, based around the conflicts of future between Mia and her boyfriend: 

READ THE WHOLE COLLEGE FASHION ARTICLE HERE! 

College Fashion Link Up: The Giver

 I've been on a bit of a re-reading kick lately, partially because I feel like summer always leads to a bit of nostalgia to the long, lazy days in reading chairs from my youth, but also because I'm still struggling to get out of the Summer Slump that I've been talking about recently. While returning to some of my favorite stories doesn't earn me many points in knocking down that bordering-on-disastrous TBR pile currently terrorizing the top shelves of my bookcase, it's definitely a fun trip to see just how much you hang on to from when you last read a great novel.

Which brings us to an oldie-but-goodie, with a brand spankin' new movie coming out, just begging for its own College Fashion post: Lois Lowry's seminal sci-fi-for-kids book, The Giver.

When I first read The Giver, it was a part of the disastrous kinds of "challenge" books placed on many a middle school reading list. However, unlike most of those kinds of reading material, I was able to look beyond the fact that it was required for school, and really enjoy it! And, like many who've read the story of Jonas and his community, I found the story itself enthralling, but hated the ending... but maybe because of a different reason than you would think! I was such a stickler for rules and regulation - and, in many ways, still am - that when I first read the novel, I loved the idea of a society where everything is equalized, sterilized, and taken care of for you, providing you followed directions.

Obviously, I grew out of that. In fact, when re-reading, I had to stop myself time and again, and just ruminate on the steady suspense being built within the narrative. I didn't catch it so much as a kid... I was more focused on the utopian side of things, than the slow erosion of the facade of comfort and contentment built up in the community. On first reading, I was focused on the composition of the setting, the rules, the construction of the plot; on second reading, the sinister undercurrent running through the novel was basically hitting me in the face with every turn of the page.

If anything I'm most happy, after revisiting the novel, that I really felt like I experienced it more completely than I originally had. I got the best of both worlds: the "reader response" kind of comprehension when I was twelve, and the scholastic side of comprehension now, with eight more years of dystopian literature knowledge under my belt. It's so impressive to see not just the things Lowry was able to convey in her writing, but how the book has affected those that came after it in the YA dystopian canon, like The Hunger Games, or Divergent.

Which is funny, because my favorite look from The Giver's "Looks from Books" post, had everything to do with railing against the dystopian regularities, with colorful chaos, called "Experience." It really brought together the things I love in fashion, as a contrast to the Sameness of the Giver quartet.

CHECK OUT THE REST OF THE LOOKS FROM THIS CF POST HERE! 

College Fashion Link Up: Outlander

When it comes to choosing novels to adapt for use in a College Fashion article, I have some general criteria I follow: the novel should be accessible and well-read, it should be pertinent to the lives of twenty-somethings, and it should be at least a little bit timely and relevant to contemporary pop culture, so that I have something to go off of in comparing it to its depiction in other forms of media.

It seems that this grading scale has come to the attention of some of my more regular readers, because recently, one put forward a new series for contemplation based on its coming adaptation for Starz television network: the Outlander novels, by Diana Gabaldon (printed as Cross Stitch in the UK). A historical romance, you say? Alright, I can dig it.

Oh Lord, I was not prepared. I was not prepared at all. 

Outlander, the first novel in the series, follows Claire Beauchamp, who served as a field nurse in WWII, vacationing on a second honeymoon with her husband, Frank Randall in Inverness, Scotland, when a rift in time at the Craig na Dun transports her back in time to the time of the Jacobite revolution; in fact, she lands right in the middle of a skirmish between the British and Scottish highlanders! Taken by the clansmen to Castle Leoch, Claire desperately tries to find a way back home... but when she suddenly finds herself married to handsome Jamie McTavish, will she ever want to go home again? (Not with all the raucous sex they're having.)

Historical romance, I was prepared for. A historical romance EPIC, I was not. Topping out at over 800 pages, I was questioning what I had managed to get myself into with this hefty tome.

It wasn't so bad. But it might have gone down easier with me if it hadn't been so much of a romance... it leaned pretty heavily on the side of a bodice-ripper with enough cultural history pumped in to keep it anchored into the realm of not-so-distinctly-pink bookshelves. It reminded me of some kind of hybrid between Game of Thrones and The Secret of the Pink Carnation... the former, because of its length, sex, and near-sadistic bits, and the latter for its distinctly female audience and tendency for snatches of history lessons mixed into all that gooey material.

Well, it's over now, and though writing the CF article for it was a little bit hard without entire outfits composed out of plaid or lingerie to sum up exactly how MUCH of a Scottish romance it was, I think it turned out well.

Here's my favorite outfit from the article, based around Claire's status as a nurse, and later, a healer for the Castle: 

FOLLOW THE LINK TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT COLLEGE FASHION!

College Fashion Link Up: Nancy Drew

Junior Year of High School, I wrote a research paper for my AP English class, about "Nancy Drew and Her Ties to Female Empowerment in the '30s and '60s." The assignment called for six pages of size 12 font, regular-margins typewritten exposition. My teacher, Mrs. Wyma, commended me on my work in front of the class, being that she loved Nancy Drew as well as I did. What she didn't remark upon, was how when I turned the paper in, I had paper-clipped to the back a second copy... this one twelve pages, with "My Best Work" written across the top in red pen.

I can call to mind the details of where I was and what I thought on the day I received my first Nancy Drews: we were in the dining room, I was sitting on the ground in front of the couches that were laid out parallel to our large front windows, and all I could look at were the large rectangular presents that I couldn't wait to tear apart. However, when I did, I was surprised: stack upon stack of shrink-wrapped yellow covers, all with an unfamiliar name - Nancy Drew - stamped across the tops of the spines. I remember feeling ambivalent at the time, but my mother and three aunts wouldn't stop cooing over my new collection.

I elected to stay in from recess at the Montessori school my sister, The Cheerleader, and I attended, to read on a daily basis, so that was nothing unusual; I just curled up on one of the mats in the corner and read. However, the day I brought in my first Nancy Drew was different: my reading was interrupted. Every time I saw an adult headed towards me, I groaned inwardly, knowing I would have to listen quietly while they talked to me about how much they loved the books I was, well, trying to read.

I remember just this past year, when my mother and I were attending the Bi-Annual Puyallup Antique Show at the Fairgrounds, and walking up to my favorite vintage bookseller's stand, I see the most heart-breaking sight ever: a middle-aged man, placing that distinctive cover of my much-sought-after, precious 1930s copy of The Secret of the Old Clock into his tote bag. If I had been five minutes earlier, I would have got it.

What I'm hoping to impress upon you, was not just how much I love Nancy Drew, but how much she has affected my life and the way I read, in general. It's because of Nancy that I'm obsessed with collecting Agatha Christie novels, and why I pressured my Dad to help fund the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign (we saw the movie in our matching tee shirts). I DVR the '70s television show whenever its on some flashback channel, even though it isn't very good; the 2007 version is continually downloaded to my iPod, even though that wasn't great either. It's just because it's Nancy. 

So let's just say, that this "Looks from Books" post was a long time coming. 

(And because it's kind of what I do, as if you needed another reason to click over, here's my favorite outfit from the post, oriented around updating old sleuthing favorites!) 

College Fashion Post Link Up: Anne of Green Gables

I've already displayed some of my mother's more agonizing habits in recent posts - like her distaste for one particular book of my choosing, with The Devil in the White City - but don't let me lull you into thinking that her displeasure is strictly reserved for the scandalous. She has a pretty sharp disregard for what you'd assume would be innocent and innocuous things as well, like Micheal Cera. And, as it was recently revealed to me, L.M. Montgomery's childhood classic, Anne of Green Gables. 

Her argument lies in the declaration that Anne is too saccharine and chirpy for her tastes; however, despite the fact that I was raised to dislike the main character, I somehow found the book - and its sequels - in my possession when I looked among the family bookshelves, and after more than one request from CF readers, I figured, why not actually see if it's as bad as she says?

All in all, I found myself to be pleasantly surprised.

Perhaps I'm a bit of a sucker for the whole "moralistic pastoral children's stories with strong heroines thing" - that's totally a thing, right? It's totally a thing - but I really enjoyed it. I loved the setting of Avonlea, and I wished I grew up with a friend like Diana Barry, and yes, even Anne, came off as a very smart and capable girl (once she finally stopped talking). I actually plan on reading her further adventures once I've quite recovered from these recent ones.

And, you know, the fact that the novels were Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton's favorites growing up, that didn't sway my opinion by any means.

Check out my favorite outfit, inspired by Anne's affinity for flowers, as well as plenty more floral and fun summer looks in my latest College Fashion "Looks from Books" article!

College Fashion Post Link Up: Mrs. Dalloway

So, my latest "Looks from Books" post came out on College Fashion this past Wednesday, and while I wouldn't usually double back to do individual posts about past material, I enjoyed the inspiration for this paticular post so immensely, I thought it would be completely remiss of me to ignore it. After all, I did name Mrs. Dalloway as one of my Top Reads of Sophomore Year, so it merits a little more attention from me, I think.

It isn't all that frequently that you read a book where the words just kind of make you lean back and *thunk* against your chair, and say, "Wow." That, for me, was the result of reading the expertly crafted prose, courtesy of Virginia Woolf, that flows circuitously throughout the jumbled narratives of one brief June day in London, chronicling the intermixed lives of many, including the titular party hostess Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway, an ex-lover named Peter Walsh, Dalloway's daughter Elizabeth and the latter's teacher Mrs. Kilman, and, of course, the doomed WWI veteran Septimus Warren Smith (my favorite character).

The novel itself is a modernist classic, and one of the many new works I experienced this past year in my "Early 19th C. English Literature," alongside Ford Maddox Ford's The Good Soldier and E.M. Forster's Passage to India. If anyone's looking for a solid read for the summer, replete with beautiful descriptions and an easy-to-read style of writing, you should definitely give Mrs. Dalloway a try. It's one of those books that you discover new things in every time you reread, as well, so you can bet I'll be giving this one another go once I've done a suitable amount of damage to my currently-towering TBR pile.

Here's a brief preview to the looks inspired by this work, with an outfit that pays homage to my favorite part of the novel, the winding and wandering fluidity of the narrative, unimpeded by changes of consciousness and character, and realized in the form of luxe layers and flowing fabrics.

See the rest of the looks here!