The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones. - John Wooden

And in my world, "new" is a book that I haven't read yet!

Last Christmas I got a Kindle Paperwhite. It truly is a wonderful invention. I admit, I had a hard time converting, especially since, at times, just the weight of a book is comforting (unless it's a textbook!).

I didn't read as much as I wanted to, but I still got over a dozen. Not too bad, considering one was 800+ pages. :) Thank goodness for goodreads for helping me keep this all straight!

1. The Honest Trust About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone - Especially Ourselves - Dan Ariely
2. The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides
3. Beyond Illusions: A Novel - Duong Thu Huong
4. The Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
5. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
6. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
7. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Other's Don't - Jim Collins
8. One Day - David Nicholls
9. Ru - Kim Thuy
10. Running with Scissors - Augusten Burroughs
11. The Elephant Vanishes - Haruki Murakami
12. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
13. Wonder - R.J. Palacio
14. A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin
15. Bossypants - Tina Fey

If you compare to last year, you'll see I have some repeat authors (#2 and #11)

I think I slowed down a little because I started dabbling in my own creative writing. I've gotten a little behind on that because I started a food blog.

Why did I start all these side projects? The question really is, "why not?!"

"there is nothing to writing. all you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed" - Ernest Hemmingway

Alrighty, then...

And as much as I want to believe in that quote, I know it's not true for me. Not because typewriters are practically an endangered species (and let me tell you, I have many nostalgic memories from sitting at a typewriter, but I digress...), but because I'm logical to almost a fault.

Personally, I find creativity to be challenging. I am decent at taking other people's ideas and running with them, and at times, making them very much my own, but other times, I sit and think and come up with nothing inspiring enough to get me to sit in front of a computer and have verbal diarrhea that is worth sharing.

Nothing has really changed, except the willingness to share. On that note, I created another blog: Adventures in Kreativitee to do just that.

I have challenged myself to write a short story or narrative at least every 2 weeks for a year. They may not be long, and it's very unlikely that all of them will be good, but the goal is to force myself to wake up and rattle the creative side of me, since the left side of my brain is used so heavily at work.

So, here's an unofficial official invitation to join me on this adventure. Prompts and feedback are welcome. But just remember, my major was Animal Physiology and Neuroscience, not Communications or Literature. Ahem...