The It Girl: My Trashy Guilty Pleasure

Last week, I was thinking about what book I wanted to read next, but everything on my list seemed so serious. I wasn't in the mood for historical fiction or dystopian YA- too much thinking involved in both. I wanted something completely, purely mindless. So I picked up one of my old favorite series from my early teenage years- The It Girl.

Throwback Thursdays: Dear Mr. Potter...

It's been over two years since I spent an evening in a Spanish-language movie theater in Sevilla, crying over Harry Potter y las Reliquias de Muerte (Parte 2) and the fact that after twelve years of my life, the series was finally over. The Harry Potter series was and always will be my favorite series of books and movies, and it was such a huge part of my life growing up. Instead of writing an entirely new blog post about it, though, I decided that I would share my Dear Mr. Potter letter, which I wrote two days before the final movie came out.

Trying to get onto Platform 9 and 3/4 at King's Cross Station in London, Summer 2007.

For those of you who don't know, Dear Mr. Potter is a project run through the Harry Potter Alliance that collected letters to Harry about how the series changed their lives. So many people wrote letters, including other authors and actress Evanna Lynch, who plays Luna in the movies, and many of them were eventually compiled into a book. I wrote mine more for myself than anyone else, as a way to try and put into words what the series actually meant to me. I haven't really shared it because I was really emotional while writing it, but two years after the fact... I'm actually still emotional about it, but whatever. I hope you all enjoy reading it.

Across the Internet: Ryan Lochte, Catching Fire, and The Winds of Winter

The past couple of days have brought some exciting things in the world of the internet, so I'm going to talk about them, because that's the point of me having a blog!

The long saga of Ryan Lochte getting a reality show has finally come to fruition- E! announced on Tuesday at the TCAs that they will be airing a six-episode reality show starting in April titled What Would Ryan Lochte Do?.  I've heard a lot of people making negative comments about the show, saying it's going to be awful and it's going to be a complete failure and paint Ryan in a bad light.  However, I'm of the opposite frame of mind.  

First of all, when has reality television ever painted someone in a good light?  Reality TV is about vaguely scripted drama and generally always makes people think the subjects are idiots.  You don't watch reality television for hard hitting stuff, you watch it because it's hilariously ridiculous and entertaining.  And if Ryan Lochte is trying to pick up girls in front of a camera, I'm pretty sure it will be both ridiculous and entertaining.

It's also going to be a huge promotional boost for the sport of swimming itself- with World Championships in Barcelona this summer, what better way to get people excited for it than a reality show on national television airing a couple months before the championships themselves? People love watching swimming during the Olympics, it would be great if the general public would show the same enthusiasm for the sport during another event.  I'll watch Worlds regardless, but if the show can bring in more fans to the sport, I'm not going to complain.

My 2012 End-of-Year lists

I decided to make some lists to sort of sum up 2012.  Shows with stars next to them indicate favorites that I would highly recommend!

The Hobbit

On Thursday at midnight, the day I had been waiting so many years for finally came- I saw The Hobbit in theatres.  And not the creepy animated version, though I do own that- no, Peter Jackson had finally turned my favorite book into a movie, and he did it brilliantly.