comp lit and mediaphilia
(My link on Pinterest apparently doesn’t work anymore, so I no longer know where this is or who took this photo. If you know, I’ll happily credit.)
I still don’t feel totally at home in any of the bookstores here. That’s probably a good thing, because now I don’t buy books in quite the quantity I used to. (Not that it’s not still a problem.) But it also means that I’m missing one of my main third places – the other one being my bathtub, which isn’t all that great here, either (I have to cover the drain with duct tape in order to fill the tub). I still go to them happily, but they’re just places where I look, not places where I know where things are, where I get the culture of it, where I recognize the cashiers (except that at one of the nearby bookstores, half of the employees went or still go to my graduate program). I want a comfy place again, but I guess that just comes from spending 22 years going to the same store, so maybe it’s not all the Greater Boston bookstores’ fault.
Still, though, when I don’t think about the fact that I have next to no business training, no money, and lots of fear, I want my own bookstore. Continue reading →
Posted in books
Tagged books , bookstores , boston , prague , wishful thinking
Jan · 16
Waiting to be written… (Photo credit: smoorenburg)
This is my second-ever-in-life autumn , and it’s already wonderful. The Tucson desert has its own charm, to be sure, but experiencing autumn has probably been the best part about relocating to Boston. Fall is so cool, you guys! It’s also a little frustrating and can’t make up its mind, but that seems to be part of its charm.
Also, like I think I’ve probably noted before, all of the magazines I’ve read my entire life that talk about things like “sweater weather” and “layering” make sense now, and I am celebrating my new understanding by buying blazers, oversize cardigans, and other things that will keep me warmish without overheating. I love it. Even with my little fashion savvy, I always thought my style was more suited to autumn and spring weather than winter and summer, which are the only two seasons we have in Tucson (though nothing beats Tucson monsoons or those few summer nights when it’s breezy instead of still hot). I like sundresses and long skirts in the spring, and I absolutely adore that they now make skinnyish jeans that look attractive on my body type for fall. Also, hi, boots. Boots are my favorite. My feet hurt in just about every kind of shoe because they’re so arch-less, but boots are my besties. Never met a pair I didn’t like. Continue reading →
Posted in writing
Tagged boston , fashion , seasons , tucson , writing
Oct · 03
I hate on Greater Boston a lot, and I think I have reason to, but there are some things about it that are awesome, and one of those things is Harvard Square. It’s the place that looks and feels like the reason I always wanted to move to the East Coast and be a city girl when I was young. Lots of independent businesses, students everywhere but not bro-y ho-y students, tons of ways to get there via public transportation, etc etc. Basically it’s where things I like are, and it’s where I feel like myself.
Curious George store! Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
One of the biggest reasons I adore Harvard Square is that there is not one bookstore that I like to go to, but many. Strangely enough, for an intellectual city that’s chock full of students and professors and writers, there really aren’t that many good bookstores. I haven’t the foggiest if there’s even a Barnes & Noble that’s not in, like, Newton or Watertown, and I just don’t love the feel of most of the bookstores I’ve tried. They’re okay–I’ll go to Brookline Booksmith if I have time to kill in Coolidge Corner, and I think it’s interesting that they have both new and used materials; Brattle Book Shop let me unload a bunch of books I wanted to get rid of, and that was nice, even if their trade ratio is way, way low compared to Bookmans . Meh, book-selling establishments in Boston. Meh, I say to (and about) you.
So it’s incredibly refreshing to cross the Charles and check out Harvard Book Store or Raven Used Books or Porter Square Books (not in Harvard Square, but just one stop farther on the Red Line–also the ONLY place in Greater Boston that agrees that soy is gross and bad for you and has other options for coffee drinks, like rice and almond milk) and Continue reading →
Posted in adventures
Tagged books , bookstores , boston , cities , grad school , language , procrastinating , shopping
Sep · 10
I have never really been a comics person or a superhero person, but I’m finally fed up enough, and have lived in Boston long enough to know that this is a real problem, not just me having trouble transitioning, to decide that Greater Boston desperately needs the appearance of this superheroine: Ball-Buster Girl.
Her origin story: So. ( Beowulf begins that way, guys, at least according to Seamus Heaney). Pretty normal and average twentysomething girl is leaving the Copley branch of the Boston Public Library. She kind of hates Copley because it’s confusing, its librarians are almost all incredibly rude and unhelpful, and the pretty part of the building is actually no longer the real library, and the part with the more current resources is actually a spectacularly ugly edifice. But still, since it’s the first public library in America and all, she wants to support it, and also, hello, how can you not use your library at least sometimes? People gotta read. Anyway, she’s wearing, like, normal clothes that you wear when you’re in your twenties and don’t have to be working on that particular weekday, because either you’re in graduate school or you’re a product of the economy and only work part time, or you’re independently wealthy, or you’re living off an inheritance, or you just can’t find work. Whatever. She looks put together and nice, not like she’s trying too hard, not slutty, not uptight, just clothes, folks.
So she’s leaving the library and walking towards Copley Square, which means she’s walking by the benches that line the periphery of the library like a wraparound porch, when she hears a wolf whistle (face it–in real life the fewest of even the crappiest people do this, but it makes for a better comic convention than kissy sounds, which is what she would be more likely to hear). Continue reading →
Tagged boston , comics , feminism , identity , men , sexual harassment , superheroes , wishful thinking
Aug · 21
My parents have been visiting, and I’ve been taking three different classes, and a fourth starts on Tuesday, hence not writing or doing anything, really. Aside from being crazy stressed about things, I’m actually really enjoying summer. It’s pretty amazing to be in a part of the country where summer means you can actually go outside and do cutesy, twee things that previously I only knew to be possible in books and movies. I have walked around MIT’s campus and around the Charles; I’ve sat on a swan boat in the Public Gardens; I’ve been to Newport, RI; I know where all the good bookstores are now; I’ve been to Concord and learned about the Revolutionary War; etc etc.
I’ve spent a lot of time saying I don’t like it here, and I still don’t want to make my life in Boston. But all of a sudden I’m again more open to just about anything in my future, and I’m a lot more comfortable with the idea that I currently live here. It’s like I needed my parents to see me living here and being a grownup and being okay before I could believe it myself. Continue reading →
Tagged boston , family , happy , identity , life , nothing
Jun · 17
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