my relatives obviously don’t know me February 2, 2009
Posted by Jess in books.trackback
My 17th birthday is in exactly one week. Yay for me. Sure. Whatever. The only thing I am looking foward to is getting books as presents.
Well.
My first gift arrived today. As a matter of fact, it arrived about half and hour ago. It was a gift from some relatives that I haven’t seen since I was like ten. Apparently, they were told that I love to read. The brief note that was included in the package said, “These are my daughter’s two favorite books.”
Can you see where this is going?
Probably.
If you know me anyway.
Lo and behold. There was this:
And then there was this:
Wow. Just wow.
I mean. I’m not trying to sound ungrateful. I just find this altogether hilarious. My relative was trying to be nice, and for that I am thankful. It was very nice of her to send me books as a gift even though I haven’t seen her in seven years. I just love the irony here. I got a book I loathe and a book I utterly refuse to read.
Sigh.
Now I own two copies of Twilight.
And now I own a book that I will not read. Ever. No matter what. I don’t care how good anyone thinks it is. Cassandra Clare stole Jace’s name. Poor dear still hasn’t recoverd. I still haven’t recovered. And I never will.
So.
What should I do? About City of Bones? Should I read it because someone was nice and sent it to me? What if my relative asks what I thought of the gifts she sent? I’ll have to say, “I hate Twilight, and I will not read the other.” My goodness. I can’t do that. That would so rude. (But very true.) I really don’t think I can bring myself to read City of Bones though.
So.
Do you think I should at least attempt to read it?
P.S. Sorry the Twilight picture is so big. I was too lazy to find anything smaller.
If your kind-but-mistaken relative asks, just say that you really appreciated the thought and you love books.
*starts laughing* Well, this is sort of like what happened to me at Christmas. I had been asking for permission to read Twilight, and I got it for Christmas. Now I utterly loathe it and refuse to open it again.
Re: City of Bones, I wouldn’t read it. You shouldn’t have to change your views on books just because you want to give a fair answer to them in case they ask whether you liked the books or not. It *was* nice of her to send the books, but I honestly think you could do away with both.
You could give away both of them. A book giveaway. There. And if they ask, just say that the books were “interesting”. Or you could thank them again — and avoid the question that way.
My point — if you don’t want to read it (which you don’t), then don’t read City of Bones. They might not even ask.
Oh my goodness. That is way too funny.
If you want to be generous, you could donate the books to a library or hospital. I’m pretty sure that you need a receipt now to return books to a bookstore.
I would be grateful to have a second copy of Twilight. I would spend hour upon hour amusing myself to death by adding snarky commentary and ideas for improvement in red pen.
And then if they ask if you liked the books (they thought that just maybe you hadn’t read Twilight?), you can safely say that you greatly enjoyed Twilight. They don’t have to know that you enjoyed ripping it to shreds.
About City of Bones….That’s harder if you refuse to read it. What if you go through and White-out “Jace” and rename him something ridiculous (like Doria?)? And then go through and add snarky commentary?
And oh! A year, a week, and a day until WJMJ?!?! *squee* Can’t wait!
LOL, Anilee!
Ripping it to shreds. Actually, on second thought, Jess, ditto Anilee. I’d like to have a second copy that I could mark up in red. Oooh, there’s so much I could do… 
Who needs a second copy when you can mark up your only copy? *laughs wickedly*
I know, Q. I know. But I just don’t like to write in books unless it’s for school or I have a “reading” copy. Even if it’s a book I’ll never read again. Mentally, it’s something I’m unable to do.
*laughing* You guys are so awesome.
Anilee, I think I really will use this second copy of Twilight to mark up to my heart’s content. I really think I will. And then when we meet one day, I will show you.
I love the whiting out Jace idea! I really do. I would so fill it in with Doria. I would actually read the book for that….
Eeek! WJMJ is so soon!
Thanks for all the advice Q, Maya, and Anilee. Very appreciated.
*cackles evilly as she goes to hunt out a red pen and some white out*
Since I figured your only objection to the book was his name…Erase the name…erase the problem. Plus, you’re good at living in denial.
Although, I’m seriously surprised that you didn’t see the second copy of Twilight and immediately think, “Where is the nearest red pen?” That was my first thought.
And yes, you definitely must show me the marked up book someday.
The first anniversary of WALJ is coming up too…I’ve got a plan to celebrate, but I’m not sure how possible it is…
Don’t read the book!
And though I am somewhat opposed to the marking of Twilight, I still think it would be amusing. I just personally wouldn’t do that because I don’t hate those books… (almost the opposite…) yeah.
* hides *
Sorry. To each his own! Mark to your hearts content!
Gah! Well this post gave me a huge laugh.
Those have to be the most ironic gifts ever. For cereal. With milk.
And don’t read it, dear. Wouldn’t make you torture yourself.
I’ve been given tons of books that I haven’t read. My grandma seems to think that I like bad romances. Don’t know where she got that idea….
Oh, and I’m totally going to mark up my copy of Twilight.
We should all have a marking up party!
I would mark up my copy . . . but though I suggested marking up my only copy . . . it still feels like heresy to mark up any book.
Maribeth, that’s sad and funny
Q, I so know what you mean. But like I said I wouldn’t mark up Twilight anyways….
Yeah. Even if it IS Twilight, I wouldn’t mark it up unless it was a spare copy. And also, I’d need the ORIGINAL copy just so I could quote from it and get a good laugh
It just feels weird to mark up a book. But I would do it if I felt like it — and if I had to. What SHOULD have happened — Twilight should have never become a book. Then it’d just be copies of a manuscript, which we’d all mark up to our hearts’ content without feeling guilty. Hey, it would work! *hides with Danielle in case anyone laughs*
And Jess, I hope you don’t mind that we’re carrying a conversation here.
Maribeth, re: a marking-up party, shall we all fly to your house?
Sigh. I suppose this is what I get for actually liking Twilight.
Maya you’re welcome to hide with me!
I never write in books. Ever ever. Unless…. And here is where my rule breaks, it is Jane Austen or C.S. Lewis book. Those are the only books thus far that I have made exceptions for. Usually if it’s a bad book I want to get it out of sight as soon as possible, and if it’s a good book and a good line then I’ll most likely add it as a quote on goodreads
Write in it. No.Write in one and burn the other one. That way you have one for entertainment and one for… loathing . I’m telling you, it feels so good. Even if it scares your neighbors when they look over the wall (sneaks) and see the flames lighting up your gleefully malicious face as the book burns.
Like I said, I’ve written in school books. I bought a second copy of Jane Eyre so that I’d have a copy with no marks. The Scarlet Letter I didn’t care about; I’m never going to read that again unless I have to.
But it’s like I bought a copy of Looking For Alaska because the book just SCREAMED to be written in, but I can’t. I want another copy of it. And the comments in Looking For Alaska would actually like be good comments.
Oh, and then there’s the matter of as of Christmas, my cousin had yet to read the series and I said that she could borrow mine…of course, that was over a month ago, so she might have read them already.
But maybe I will. I mean, I write in them and if it truly annoys me if I ever want to reread them, then I can buy another copy. *shrug* Probably won’t, but if I do.
Confession time: I’ve abused a book before. I ripped up my copy of TotC and colored it with red pen.
And I’m pretty sure that I wrote in a book before….just not one of my books, one for school.
And of course, I write in my textbooks ALL the time.
^ Who doesn’t write in their textbooks?
If they’re mine, I do. If I’m borrowing them from the school, then no.
*thinks about her chemistry textbook* Now that was fun. *evil laughter*
It is SO much fun destroying school and textbooks of any sort
Revenge-against-textbooks time
I love doing it to the school ones. I have a lot of random stuff drawn in mine.
In our World History book where it was talking about Mongolia and khans I wrote: I love Khan Tegus.
Hehe, and on the spine is says “Shannon Hale” and “Josh Groban”
And then there’s a drawing of a unicow!
I drew a little girl that had lost her kite as it was floating up to the sky today. That was fun
I usually just draw mad faces in my mathbook. Because it’s the only subject that involves a textbook and I get in trouble if I write snarky comments (Which is weird, because in high school my parents were total smartmouths. My mom wrote a five paragraph essay on why five paragraph essays were stupid and showed no good examples of great writing, and in Driver’s Ed my dad answered the question “What would be a very unusual but serious car collision on a highway” with “Blue whale.”)
So it’s silly I get in trouble for being my parent’s daughter.
Maribeth, I’d like to see your Shannon-Hale-and-Josh-Groban textbook. Then, on top of it, I’d write Shannon-Hale-and-Carrie-Underwood. Of course, I wouldn’t EVER get rid of Joshie…so I won’t write OVER him, you know…
I’ve actually never written in a textbook. I mean, I have some years to go in school, so I figured I’d leave the vandalizing for then. It’s just too hard to get away with that kind of stuff.