I #Read26Indy! (Books 24-26)

I know you were on the edge of your seat wondering - would I be able to finish all 26 books this year. It was down to the wire, and I still had a book to go. But I dug down deep, and read for hours and at the last minute, aka midnight last night, managed to finish my last book. Victory is mine. (Note: After writing this post and going to write out my full list of books, I noticed that I am terrible at math and actually read 27. Still, I thought I was about to hit that magical 26 number up until 5 minutes ago.)

It really seemed like a modest goal to read 26 books in a year. I'm a book person. I'll be honest, I've probably bought over 26 books this year, which is why I can't go into Half Price Books without a chaperone. And I've toned down my book-buying since I moved earlier this year and remembered just how heavy books are when you put a bunch of them in boxes. But life is busy - we're all so busy all the time and often I look back and can't remember just why I was so busy. It's easy to forget to read. Reading has always been important to me, ever since I was a little kid. It's a great way to exercise your imagination, and to put new information directly into your brain. It's like The Matrix, only, well, not.

So without further ado, here are the last three books I read for #Read26Indy:

24. The Immortal Class by Travis Hugh Culley

The longer you work out here, the sooner you begin to see yourself as somehow different, somehow exempt from the so-called universal laws of life and death. You become part of a class that, in order to continue, must believe itself unstoppable. This heightened feeling gives the messenger a confidence, a speed, and an agility of almost metaphysical proportions. 

This is one of those books that I bought a long time ago and always intended to read, but never cracked open. I bought it because I have all these ideas for stories and characters in my head, and one of them is a bike messenger, so I thought hey, I should read about bike messengers.

The Immortal Class is a memoir of Culley's journey from being a struggling worker in the art world, to being injured riding his bike, to becoming a bike messenger and sometime cycling activist, and eventually giving up messengering but keeping his passion for cycling. He observes the people he passes on the street and the city of Chicago as its own entity:

The city that once seemed so chaotic and wild to me now seems like a perfectly choreographed ballroom dance. I have learned to see in the city a distinct sense of order, a special geometry, a realm of necessity behind each unplanned lunge and skid. 

I alternately enjoyed and rolled my eyes at Culley's writing style. He is certainly the hero of his own story, and sometimes it was hard for me to see past his ego. He is always right. He painstakingly explains why it is totally fine for bike messengers to break all traffic laws, because their jobs would not be profitable if they had to stop like everyone else. He then gets furious with drivers for any perceived slight (though of course, any cyclist knows that some drivers are crazy so I will give him that). He explains that he was the top grossing bike messenger at his company, even with a bad knee, and tells the story of a messenger bike race that he won even against cyclists that are competitive the world over. It took me out of his storytelling sometimes and I wanted to tell him that yes, yes, you're the best, but that's not the interesting part of your story. That said, you must need a healthy dose of ego to make it as a bike messenger in a city like Chicago. I'm sure it would eat me alive.

25. Time's Arrow by Martin Amis

I have noticed in the past, of course, that most conversations would make much better sense if you ran them backward. But with this man-woman stuff, you could run them any way you liked--and still get no further ahead. 

I totally hated this book. I'll just start with that. It was chosen for my book group, and the only reason I even made it halfway through was because I love the discussions we have, even when I dislike the book we've read. Sadly, the meeting date got changed at the last minute and I couldn't go to the new one. But I'd made it more than halfway through, and it was close to the end of the year with my 26 book goal bearing down on me, so I was determined to finish it. It's not a long book, but it felt like it.

This book is built around the concept of observing a man's life in reverse. The narrator is somehow transported into a man's mind (we never know how or why, its not important), a man he has never met, and he watches as the man lives his life backward. He starts as an old man, and slowly gets younger as the book progresses. Instead of clipping his fingernails, he retrieves clippings from the trash and magically reattaches them to his fingernails with the clippers. You don't want to know how he eats. Conversations are had in reverse, which made the reading drag. The words of a sentence are spelled out in proper order, but the sequence of sentences is backward, so to understand what's being said, the reader has to read the conversation twice, once forward, and once backward. It gets frustrating because once in a while the narrator seems to be aware that he's observing this life going backward, but most of the time, even after observing this man for many years, the narrator still notes offhand the strange way that people return food to the store and receive payment from the cashier, as though he still doesn't get it. It's obnoxious - if your reader gets it, most of the time your narrator who is seeing the exact same thing should be able to get it too. I wanted to get up and yell - yes, we get it, get on with the story already!

The unfortunate thing is that the book is incredibly boring. Minor spoiler here: the man is eventually revealed to be an Nazi doctor. This should be a big reveal, but there was no big moment of revelation. It was more of an, oh. We watch holocaust victims come backward out of the gas showers and it should be horrific, or invoke some emotion, but it just feels flat and at a far distance. The author wrote, in the afterward, that it had been his goal to write a novel about a man's life in reverse, that he only later decided to apply this idea to a story around the Holocaust, and that showed in the novel. He didn't really care about the man's story, only about the plot device. I'm fine with a writer using some unusual approach to write a novel, but the novel also has to be interesting. This one, well, it was not. It didn't offer any insights, we don't feel anything really for or against the man we're watching, other than mild dislike. I needed more.

26. World of Trouble by Ben Winters

I can't solve the crime unless I know everything and the world can't end with the crime unsolved, that's all there is to it, so I tighten my grip on her shoulders and demand that she remember. 

Here it is: number 26. It's appropriate that it's the third in the Last Policeman trilogy written by Ben Winters, since his class was the first writing class I took in years, back just last winter. I started #Read26Indy by reading the first in this trilogy, and I think they really get better as they go along.

It's impossible to write about the third in a trilogy without giving some things away, so if you're planning on reading this trilogy and you want to be completely surprised, you should probably close your web page now, even though I won't give away the ending of this particular novel.

We're back with our protagonist and hero, Hank Palace, who was a young policeman promoted up to detective after it was announced that an asteroid is going to hit the earth and probably will kill everyone on it. That's what makes the book unique - it's a micro-level tale. It's not about stopping the asteroid and saving the planet, though the book hints about that just enough to make you think that maybe it's going to change course and become some action hero Armageddon story. It's about Palace, who has been let go from his job along with many others, dealing with the impending catastrophe by trying to impose some sort of order, in some small way. Palace's little sister Nico is part of an underground group that believes they are privy to secret information about a way to stop the asteroid. Palace thinks the idea is idiotic, but he loves his sister. This third installment in the trilogy has Palace trying to find his sister, with less than a week until impact. He has two sidekicks - a little dog and a thief named Cortez.

This is the book where I realized that Palace is just as lost as everyone else. Before it seemed like he was being noble, trying to solve crimes when no one else cared. But in this book it becomes clear that everything is falling apart around him and the only thing keeping him sane is to follow the clues to find his sister. He has no real plans about what he'll do once he finds her. It's the journey that keeps him going.

I won't talk about the ending, but it felt right. I worried that at the last minute Winters would throw in some big hollywood ending, but he stayed true to his character. This was the first one of the three books that had me reading late into the night when I should have been asleep, and thus it was a fitting finish to my year of reading. I recommend reading this trilogy, and I think the kindle version of the first novel is on sale at Amazon right now though I don't know for how long - or support local and go get the books from Indy Reads Books instead.

That's it for my year of reading, but I feel happy about hitting that arbitrary 26 book goal. Finishing a goal right before the deadline, that's the stuff. Happy New Year everyone.

Forward (#ThinkKit Day 30)

#ThinkKit Day 30:

I stole this photo from Google.

A Single Word

What one word sums up the past year? Now: unpack, unfold, and uncover it. What does it represent? What events float to the top when you think about your word? And, okay, if you can't limit yourself to a single word...use a (select) few.

The word of my year was forward. Since the beginning of the year I've been moving forward in so many aspects of life - new job, new place, new habits, new hobbies. There's all this momentum, and I feel like I'm in the middle of heading somewhere great, though I don't necessarily know where or what that is. It's awesome and scary and exciting, and all I know is I'll keep going forward, until I get there, and then I'll go forward some more, or maybe sideways, or some other direction.

Eating Without Meat (#Read26Indy Books 22 and 23)

I'm borrowing this joke from a friend's Facebook page:

An atheist, a vegan, and a Crossfitter walk into a bar. I only know because they told everyone within two minutes. 

I always tried to not talk about being a vegetarian. I just wanted to be left alone to eat what I wanted, without having a discussion about why, or having people assume I was giving them the side-eye because of their dinner.

When Jonathan Safran Foer's book Eating Animals came out, I didn't want to read it. Mainly because I read an article where the actress Natalie Portman's promoted it and compared eating animal products to rape:

I say that Foer's ethical charge against animal eating is brave because not only is it unpopular, it has also been characterized as unmanly, inconsiderate, and juvenile. But he reminds us that being a man, and a human, takes more thought than just "This is tasty, and that's why I do it." He posits that consideration, as promoted by Michael Pollan in The Omnivore's Dilemma, which has more to do with being polite to your tablemates than sticking to your own ideals, would be absurd if applied to any other belief (e.g., I don't believe in rape, but if it's what it takes to please my dinner hosts, then so be it).

I went vegan a couple months back, and I've been vegetarian since high school. I'm probably one of the more sympathetic people to discussions of what we eat. But compare something to rape, and my entire consideration of your point is gone. I've turned off my brain. I think you're a jerk. If you have to compare something to rape, to slavery, or to the Holocaust, you've already lost the argument. Something can be awful, truly awful, but only rape is rape. Find a new metaphor to make your point, because you're not winning any converts with this one.

That aside, when I decided to eat vegan, I wanted to read some books. That's always my first reaction to something new - I go to the library's online card catalog and see what topics there are on the subject. I chose these two books - Eating Animals and Main Street Vegan. Eating Animals to learn about why we as humans eat like we do, and Main Street Vegan as more of a how-to book. I'll start with the latter one.

Main Street Vegan was obnoxious. It's the kind of book that, if read by a non-vegan, would only serve to enforce the idea of vegans as self-righteous. It compared dairy to "white slavery" (p. 93). It claims that eating vegan makes you hotter ("Eating whole plant-based foods makes people attractive" p.232) and will fix almost every health woe (heart disease, impotency, prostate cancer, and that's just on p. 232-233). Some of it could be seen as tongue-in-cheek, but ultimately it didn't seem like she was just having fun with her readers. Let's cut the crap: eating healthy is good for your health, yes. But I'm not going to claim that eating vegan is a magical cure-all. You can eat like crap as a vegan, be unhealthy as a vegan, suffer from disease as a vegan. Eating healthy does not necessarily equal eating vegan.

I didn't choose to eat vegan for my health, though I know many people do. I'll admit it, I'm a lazy vegan. I should eat more fresh veggies and fruits, but that takes time, so sometimes it's pasta or a microwaved veggie patty. Today I ate a veggie loaf TV dinner for lunch because I was in a rush. I don't think that makes me any more healthful than anyone else.

That's not to say that the book doesn't have its valuable parts. Some of the recipes look pretty good, though I haven't tried them yet. And I appreciated the chapter on vitamins and supplements - the gist is that vegans can get most all vitamins and minerals in their food just fine, except for B12. So on my next trip to Whole Foods I bought some B12 supplements. But overall, this probably isn't the book I would recommend to someone curious about veganism, or to most new vegans. And people who have been vegan for years likely know this stuff already.

Much more interesting was Foer's Eating Animals. Like I said before, I was skeptical, but the book was quite good. I wish I could get my meat-eating friends and family to read it, just to get their thoughts. I would love to have a genuine conversation, without finger-pointing or anyone telling anyone else what they "should" be dong.

One thing I noticed right off is that Foer never says he's a vegan. He's a vegetarian. The book rarely discusses dairy, and only touches on egg production a little. And he admits to struggling to give up meat. He links food back to tradition, like the traditional turkey at Thanksgiving, or the meals your grandparents made, and wholly admits to wondering if the he can fully revere those traditions without preparing the meals that go along with them.

Foer frames the book as an exploration of why we eat meat, where our meat comes from, and the process it takes to turn animals into meat, borne from a desire to be able to explain it to his newborn son someday. He visits farms that are focusing on raising animals for meat in ways that cause as little pain and stress as possible. He tries to visit larger, factory-style farms, but no one will let him in, so he goes on a midnight trip with an animal rights activist. And his conclusion is that the people trying to raise meat the "right" way are doing good work, but he still can't bring himself to eat it. But its still better than the status quo. He does make the good point that the people who eat more sustainably-raised meats typically also eat factory-farmed meat as well, so their good intentions still put money in the bank accounts of those they claim to not agree with.

Some of Foer's descriptions made me feel queasy, and I suspect he was holding back. Learning how chickens are butchered and prepared for sale grossed me out, and made me glad I hadn't eaten it for years because I would not be able to put it in my mouth after that. Reading about how many cows aren't actually knocked out by the machine that is supposed to stun them was horrific. I'm not going to go into detail about all of that, because I feel like it's a stereotype of vegans that they are constantly trying to shock people by showing them videos and photos of the horrible conditions in factory farms. The truth is that people don't want to see that. Show them the images and they will shut off completely. I don't know how to open the conversation, because the way we treat living things is important. We don't have to see a chicken as equal to a human, but as humans I think we are expected to have some compassion for them, to at least respect them as living creatures, even if we eat them. You could laugh at the idea of being nice to your food. But when your food had a heartbeat, is that such a crazy idea?

I've struggled with the idea of even writing a blog post about being a vegan, because people tend to roll their eyes when they even hear the word. But then I realized, it's my blog, and no one has to read it if they don't want to. I'm not attacking anyone. I want to have a dialogue about it. I don't want to have an argument, throwing words at the other side like weapons. No one wins that kind of battle. But food seems to be one of those topics that we just can't talk about, like religion and politics. It's too heated, too divisive. How did it get to be that way?

Eating meat is normal, common, expected. Humans have been doing it forever. So it's easy to say that we always will. Sometimes I think that I'm not actually making any sort of difference by sticking to my plant-based food. But even if it made no difference at all, I still couldn't eat  meat. It doesn't feel right. It doesn't look like food. I don't want it in my body. But maybe it will make some tiny, imperceptible impact. And as Foer eloquently puts it:

It might sound fantastic, but when we bother to look, it's hard to deny that our day-to-day choices shape the world. When America's early settlers decided to throw a tea party in Boston, forces powerful enough to create a nation were released. Deciding what to eat (and what to toss overboard) is the founding act of production and consumption that shapes all others.

#putyourphonedown (#ThinkKit Day 29)

#ThinkKit Day 29 asks:

Shout At The World

If you could make a # (hashtag) take off...what would it be? What conversation do you want to have with the world? Who are the five people you'd want to hear from first...or last? Is your trending topic personal? Political? Lyrical? Or just random? 

I'm as much at fault as anyone else at pulling out my phone to poke at any time I feel slightly bored. It's very rarely something important, but it's so easy to do. Yet I get incredibly annoyed when I'm sitting across the table staring at someone while they type away with their index finger. It keeps us from being there in the moment with the people we're next to. We're always worried about whoever is not there, about whatever is going on in the world outside our immediate vision.

I want to talk to people, find out what makes them tick, tell stupid stories, anything but be type type typing all the time. So what do you say, next time we're all together, #putyourphonedown, and I'll #putmyphonedown, and we'll be ok, I swear. The rest of the world will wait and we can tweet about it later.

#ThinkKit Megapost (#ThinkKit Days 23-28 all in one)

#ThinkKit Days 23-28:

I got a way behind on blogging around Xmas. I just couldn't find the motivation to write, and the next thing I knew I was nearly a week behind. I wanted to blog every day, so while that clearly didn't happen, I'm going catch up now with a megapost, blogging in succinct (for me) style on all the topics from the past six days. Carry on.

Day 23:

Apple Of Your Eye

You've ranted. You've raved. You've freestyled, soapboxed, and even waved a magic wand or two. Today, let's keep it positive. Who (or what) is doing something good? Share a story of your positive action, whether it's a favorite charity, foundation, or nonprofit – or just an individual whose penchant for do-goodery makes you feel all warm and fuzzy.

Over the years, I've been on the hunt for a really good nonprofit organization. My experience with a lot of nonprofits has been that they have great ideas, but once I get to know them, I get discouraged by the way they handle their finances, or the way they manage their programs. But a few years back, I had the pleasure of working on a food recovery program with Second Helpings and I fell in love.

Second Helpings recovers food from grocery stores, events, restaurants, and other places that would otherwise be thrown in the dumpster. This is perfectly good food - it's not the leftovers sitting out on the buffet line. It's the stuff that was prepped back in the kitchen but was never needed. It's the stuff that would expire soon in the grocery store, but is still perfectly fresh. And they take this food and turn it into healthy meals, which they then distribute to schools, day cares, and all other kinds of places in the greater Indianapolis area that feed hungry people. The staff is both pragmatic and caring, and they keep their eye on their mission. I encourage anyone looking for a year-end nonprofit to support to look their way.

Day 24:

A Dash Of Thanks

What are you thankful for? Maybe it's from this year – or maybe it's something in your past that resonated with you recently. And – we hold people, places, and things in equal regard: a sense of gratefulness can take many forms. 

Goal for next year: get out of the backpack

I am thankful for so much that's it's impossible to choose just one. I have amazing people in my life, and I live comfortably working a job I like. That's something not everyone has, and I know I'm a lucky duck. I've also been thinking lately about how lucky I am to be healthy, and have a functional body. I ran a marathon this year. And recently, thanks to a friend who is amazing at it, I've discovered a new love of aerial silks. I'm lucky that my body can try these new things, that it can move and bend and get stronger. I've taken, and will keep taking as long as I can, these opportunities to test my physical limits, and I appreciate that every day. I don't get to see my friends as often as I'd like, but I love this tradition, and I love spending time with them. 

Day 25:

What's Your Tradition?

Hanging out with Millie the goat. We are tight.

Today we'll keep it short and sweet. Share a photo from your year that highlights giving, thankfulness, traditions or finding peace. What does the photo represent to you?

My tradition for the past three holiday seasons is that a couple weeks prior to Christmas, I go out to visit my friends Erin and Nick, who live a good hour away from Indy, to help them package and make boxes for their awesome wooden toys. They have a business called Imagination Kids Toys, where they make all kinds of animals and stackables, and I love going out there to be their "elf" for the day to help in my small way with getting the orders out. We talk nonstop all day and evening, visit with their chickens, pony, and goat, hang out with their kids, and get dinner from the truck stop Indian restaurant. 

Day 26:

Goin' Places

What place stood out for you this year? Outdoors or indoors; a huge gathering or a tête-à-tête? Where were you? Who were you with? What feeling did you have when leaving? Were you inspired? Refreshed? Or...confused and glad to be gone? Whether it was exciting...or awkward: give us a hall pass out of our own room for a few minutes.

A winter wonderland in July

Like so many of these posts that say choose just one example, it was hard to choose just one place that really stood out this year, but when I looked back through my photos, this one stood out. It's from the Awards Night party during the Indy Film Fest at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in July. Our fearless leader and president, Craig, worked with the resourceful events people at the IMA to have these giant snowflakes hung from the ceiling on the stage behind the screen in the Toby Theater, to go with the winter theme of that night's featured film, Kumiko the Treasure Hunter. When the film ended, Craig said a few words and gestured his arms dramatically as the screen rolled up to the ceiling to reveal this swanky party. It truly looked and felt magical, and it was a highlight of the time I spent on the film fest's board, which I formally stepped down from just last week. I look forward to going again next year as a volunteer and spectator to see what new things they will have in store for us.

Day 27:

Show & Tell

Time to show off your handiwork: what did you make this year? Share something personal, like a song or art. What inspired you? Was the finished work what you initially imagined? Or a work project – what was the process? The end result? Share your vision...and your work!

My main crafty hobbies these days are quilting and knitting, though this year I have let them fall by the wayside somewhat. I made this quilt for my mom's birthday in February, and I was really proud at how it turned out. Quilts take hours upon hours of work, and I love being able to give someone something that tells them that's how much I care. I hope next year to make some more quilts, but looking back on this year, I'm proud of this one. 

Day 28:

One Small Step

Set your sights on the next year: what's one step you can take to support a goal you have for 2015? Whether it requires a written plan, a list of supplies or ingredients, or even a flowchart: getting your plan down in words should help spur you into action.

A couple weeks ago I signed up to ride my bike in the Tour de Cure next summer, and I posted a link for anyone who wanted to donate to my fundraising goal of $200. Frankly, I felt a little uncomfortable asking for money, and I didn't really expect anyone to donate. But they did! One friend donated immediately, and I was overcome by her generosity. Then a Facebook friend who I've never actually met but know through online running discussions pitched in, and then a friend who cycles more in a month than I will in the rest of my life. I was so impressed with their willingness to pitch in. I see requests to donate to this cause or that so often that I feel guilty that my modest income doesn't allow me to donate what I'd like. So in the past, I've rarely donated. But my friends made me realize that it's ok to donate what you can - every little bit helps. So as we go into next year, it's my personal goal to donate every time I'm asked, even if it's only $10 or $15 that I can part with at that moment. It all matters, and feeling supported is worth more than the cash itself. Thank you everyone for your support! I promise to pay it forward and then some.

I've Got Friends (#ThinkKit Day 22)

#ThinkKit Day 22 says:

Chef's Choice

Today, we're keeping it wide open – we want you to write. Write the thought ringing in your head this morning. Write what you can't forget. Write what you want to remember about _____. Write the everyday and the extraordinary. Let Frank O'Hara be your guide.

I woke up this morning thinking about friendship. I had an awesome weekend spent with friends, and it made realize how truly fortunate I am. The photo above was taken on Sunday by my friend Greg. We met the first year of the roller derby, back when I was playing and he was photographing the bouts. And he's been one of my best buds ever since. Even when we don't see each other for a few months, it's still the same when we hang out. We take photos, goof off, do random things, have fun.

I spent my Friday with my gardening friends having a super fun dance party. It was glorious. We played everything from disco to Beyonce and rocked out. Saturday I had lunch with a newer friend who surprised me by giving me great running shoes. It was wholly surprising and unnecessarily generous, but also amazing. I've been on a pretty strict budget this year and new shoes weren't on the horizon, so the sweet gift really made me smile. Then Saturday night I went to a Christmas party with one of my roller derby teammates from back in the day and sang live band karaoke. I got to pretend to be a rock star for the span of one song, and had a total blast.

I've had several conversations this year about how hard it is to make friends as you get older. And I still believe that's true, but I've been fortunate to make some great new friends this year, and to keep the amazing friends I've met through the years as well. Everyone feels alone sometimes, but next time I feel that way, maybe I'll just read this post and remind myself that I have great people in my life, and they have my back, and we have a blast together.

Surprise Jams (#ThinkKit Day 21)

#ThinkKit Day 21 asks:

Ooh! Aah!

What surprised you this year? Was it a jump-out-of-your-seat shocking moment? Learning something new that really flipped your wig? A moment in time that left you speechless? A friend or stranger's actions that really blew your mind? Leave us slack-jawed and standing silent...or at least thoughtfully quiet for a few seconds!

Here's something that shocked the hell out of me this year: I learned that I actually like Taylor Swift's music. I like to think I have decent taste (don't we all?), but I wholly admit that I love some terrible songs, in addition to the "good" stuff. I had considered Swifty to be a little beyond what I liked to jam to, but all right, it's catchy. We played this song at a dance party over the weekend, and it was super fun. So I give up, and give Taylor Swift one more number in her quest for world domination. But seriously, play the song and try not to dance in your seat.