Ellen DeGeneres vs. Lemony Snicket

Continuing with my summer reading list, I have two books in this post. I was in the middle of reading Ellen DeGeneres’ book “Seriously…I’m Kidding.” I thought it would be a fun read after reading Mindy Kaling’s “Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me?” and Tina Fey’s “Bossypants” – kind of keeping in the genre of reading memoirs of comedic celebrities. Unfortunately, the humor and jokes were pushed a little bit too much in every section and it made it a bit hard to read. For example:

“Laugh. Laugh as much as you can. Laugh until you cry. Cry until you laugh. Keep doing it even if people are passing you on the street saying, "I can't tell if that person is laughing or crying, but either way they seem crazy, let's walk faster." Emote. It's okay. It shows you are thinking and feeling.”

But imagine that for everything single line of every single chapter. It just got tiresome to read and even though she has some really interesting stories and great lessons, it’s just hard to pick through all the fluff to finish the book.

As a result, I put that book down and I picked up “Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography” instead. It’s a companion to “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” a series that I loved reading and just re-listened to on audiobooks. Snicket’s series is really interesting because it actually incorporates the author (who is writing under a pseudonym) into the story. Revisiting the series really brought a lot of story elements to the light and the website http://snicket.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page really helped me understand a lot of things I missed as well. “Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography” is a relatively quick read and helps to fill in gaps in the original series. It is comprised mostly of transcripts and photos and reads like a scrapbook or a secret file.

My next reading venture is “The Accidental Billionaires” by Ben Mezrich. He’s best known for his nonfiction works that explore gambling and poker. His most famous work is “Bringing Down the House” which was adapted into the movie “21.” “The Accidental Billionaires” was adapted into the movie about Facebook – does “The Social Network” ring a bell? After beginning the book, it really reads how the movie plays out. I’ll update you more on my reading ventures as the summer progresses!

“Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?”

I just finished Mindy Kaling’s book, “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?” and I really enjoyed it. It was a relatively quick read, only 200 or so pages and it was filled with a whole lot of fun. It read a bit like a blog with a very distinct Mindy voice and after listening to a few chapters of the audiobook, her writing sounded even more like her, if that’s possible. I watched the entire first season of The Mindy Project during my dead week last semester and Kaling's character in that show mirrors her personality so well. It's a fantastic show, I highly recommend it!

I’ve been on this non-fiction reading spree lately: I read Tina Fey’s “Bossypants” before this so for my next book, I’m going to be reading Dan Brown’s “Inferno.” I’ve read all of Dan Brown’s other books and though he has a formulaic writing style, all his stories always fit together so perfectly, I can’t help but read his books. Next on my list is “And The Mountains Echoed,” another one of Khaled Hosseini’s books on Afghanistan and then perhaps after that, Ellen DeGeneres’ book. That one’s been sitting on my iPad for a while but I still haven’t gotten around to it. It’s going to be a reading filled summer.

I’m heading to Hawaii in a few days and I would love to take my iPad and read with it in the sun but I haven’t figured out a solution so that the screen isn’t just unreadable in the sunlight. I did find this article, however, and perhaps my problem can be fixed with some polarized lenses or passive 3-D glasses. I wonder if the glasses I get from the movie theater will work?