To Count as a Classic or Not?

     So far this year I have read a lot of books that are easily defined as a classic: Emma by Jane Austen, Crime and Punishment, and even Watership Down, though its author is still alive. Of course there are many, many others. I've read a lot of books that are called classics, but are they truly? Can a book be a classic if its author is still alive? Perhaps if 50 years had gone by I could understand. But just 20 years? Or TEN?
     If Ender's Game is a classic, is Speaker for the Dead? Is Game of Thrones a classic? What about The Help? Is that, too, already considered a classic. Can I count these books as part of the 50 classics I seek to read this year? I even struggled putting Ender's Game into the count, and when I did that, I wanted to count Speaker for the Dead too, especially because I feel it was the better of the two. Yet I didn't. I don't know why. I also didn't count The Time Traveler's Wife, which many would claim as a classic without a doubt. Same with The Notebook. I plan on reading The Help, Water for Elephants, The Thirteenth Tale, Stardust, and the rest of the Song of Ice and Fire series and Ender's Game series. Would you count these as classics? Would you have counted Speaker for the Dead, Game of Thrones, The Time Traveler's Wife, and The Notebook?
     If I count all these book as classics, then I must make my goal higher. At the same time I feel I must make distinctions between the solid classics and the newer classics. And then what of contemporary classics like One Day and Perks of Being a Wallflower? Or Hunger Games? Or... Well, there seems to be no limitation nor does it seem to be very hard to qualify as a classic. Where is the line drawn? Why is it that we have such low standards or to be so quick to call something a classic? There used to be a time as a young girl that I thought a book was only a classic if it was written 100 years ago. Then as I got older that 100 became 50. Now it seems to be 20 or 10 or less than that! So long as the sales are high, it's written with high quality, and it's well loved, we are quick to call it a classic. Yet how many will stand the test of time?
     With technology advancing and the world flinging along quicker and quicker, it makes sense that we are so quick to call something a classic or to be assured that it will be a classic. With all honesty, there are many books that will be immortalized because of our technology. Likewise we do not have all the great books from long ago because of the lack of technology. But does this mean our new books are classics? I understand and even join along in quickly labeling a book a classic, but I find it hard to place all these new classics on the same shelves as those written hundreds of years ago. I see classics written between 50 and 100 years ago to be bridging the gap between the ancient classics and those that have been released recently which we already labeling as classics. What are your thought on all these ideas?

1. What books from the past 25 years would you consider solidly a classic to be counted in my 50 classics?
2. Would you consider the rest of a series classics if the first book is? Even if the rest of the series is still being published? (Game of Thrones, Ender's Game, The Giver)
3. If an author still living wrote a classic and is still publishing books, are all their books classics as well? (Lois Lowry- The Giver, J.K. Rowling- Harry Potter, George R. R. Martin- Game of Thrones, Richard Adams- Watership Down)

P.S. It is a lot of fun to guess what books will be classics in the future. What are some of your favorites?

Wishing on a Dream Room, Summer, and a Few Fun Things

Lately I've desired to do or have quite a few lovely little things (not all of them are little though). I've been dreaming of summer, how I want my room to be, and a few fun things to do. So here's my late winter wish list!


Summer: I absolutely love winter. As in very much so. Not to mention I haven't had the chance to go skiing yet! But this year more than ever I can't wait to feel the warm sun on my skin, to swing in a hammock on a warm, breezy summer day, and to sit in a sun room that's not ten degrees. I can't wait to wear shorts and tank tops on a super hot day with perhaps an iced latte using my mom's new machine for it while lounging by the pool or in the hammock, reading a nice big book. I refuse to be stuck inside this summer. Therefore, I need to bust my butt with schoolwork so that I don't have too much to do this summer (because it's looking like my whole summer might be playing catch up).


To make my dream room: There's so much I'd love to do but almost all of it is little things in my eyes. Basically I need to do some major thrift shopping to find the perfect items!

1. Paint my room, preferably a light vintage pink- this is a pretty big project, but my mom said it will be done!
2. Taller, bigger bookshelves- this is kind of a must since my bookshelves are very full and half my shelves are make shift from cardboard boxes. Those books need to be placed on a real, nice shelf!
3. My reading chair- just recently I saw on a booktuber's channel her reading chair, and the more I think about it, I would love to have one of those big, comfy armchairs as my reading chair rather than the butterfly chair I have right now. This won't be too big of a deal until I paint my room, and my current chair won't match. So I'll be looking around at the thrift shops for the perfect chair! :)
4. The floor- all right I'm not actually planning on replacing the blue carpet anytime soon because it's quite expensive to do that, but I hope that in the next three or so years that it's done.
5. A side table for my reading chair- I have a box with blankets in it that I was thinking of using as a makeshift side table, but I would love to go thrifting to find a really great side table. That will also mean that I'll need a...
6. Vintage stand up lamp!- It'd be super cool to have this next to my future spiffy armchair. Another thrift item (unless Mom lets me steal the one from downstairs haha!)
7. Candles- I've been itching to be allowed to light candles in my room, beautiful fragranced candles. It just seems absolutely dreamy, and easy!
8. Curtains- This is going to be so hard! I would love to have lacey, light and airy curtains, but I also need curtains that are thick enough so no one will see through them from outside. Hm... I'll thrift around for a bit on these, but I may end up also looking in department stores. :(

Things I want to do in the near future!


Camp NaNoWriMo: I've created a novel, but I'm still a bit undecided whether I'm going to even do Camp NaNoWriMo. I'm terribly behind in schoolwork. I'm incredibly ahead for my reading goal of 50 classics this year (15/50), so taking a month where I only read two or so wouldn't be that big of a deal. It's the schoolwork that determines this one. Even if I do Camp NaNo, my goal won't be to finish a novel but rather to just write everyday in April on this idea I have. The writing could be planning out events, rambling about anything from the point of view of different characters, or legit writing chapters. Whatever I feel like as long as I'm writing.


Doing my hair: I want to do my hair more often. I've been loving braids and buns, so we'll see. It's nice to actually do my hair every now and then rather than just brush and run! :)


Weeding my clothes: I desperately need to get rid of everything I don't really wear. In return I'd love to buy some basic clothes I find I'm lacking like white and plain black shirts.


Listening to soft jazz music playing in the background while I read late at night: the only thing missing is the candles! :) It's an absolutely dreamy, lovely thing to do. I really enjoyed it last night. Almost like I was on vacation for a bit.


So there it is! My wish list right now. There's a lot that I can do easily. I'm so excited to get started! This time of year when we've been given a taste of Spring only to have Winter claim the throne again is just the time of year everyone starts dreaming up things and going on Spring Cleaning mode. I can't wait for Spring and Summer! We've had a rough winter that is beginning to overextend its stay. I'll enjoy the beauty while it lasts though because come summer I'll be dying for fall and winter. Ciao!

Listography

     I love lists. I mean absolutely love making lists! If you've seen much on my blog, you'll know that I attempted (and still am attempting) to make a list of 1000 things I'm thankful for on a day to day basis, the little things I notice every day. It's the little things I love to be thankful for, because they always add up and they keep me focused on God throughout the day. :) So today when I was at Goodwill, I noticed a small little book called Music Listography: Your Life in (Play) Lists, and my heart fluttered a little. The event was maximized by the fact that my mom had just left me at Goodwill alone so she could go home and turn the oven off which she had forgotten about (my oh my!).
     So there I was, all alone, a grown up girl shopping at Goodwill, and suddenly, a little treasure is seen tossed into a box with Christmas gift bags. It's part of a journaling series involving writing lots of lists, which I mentioned I love, right? ;) I quickly snatched it up, hardly believing my eyes. The unbelievable part was that it was brand new- absolutely no marks in the baby. I continued around the store, eventually finding an adorable tea pot candle holder and a little box featuring ladies and gentleman out on a lawn wearing wonderful hoopskirt gowns and suits. These last two items are part of a bit of myself I lost back in Austen land.
     But the adventure wasn't over yet. Oh no, it had hardly yet begun! Upon looking once more, hopelessly at the book section in our Goodwill, which any citizen around here will tell you is lacking good books, I found, believe it or not, another Listography book unscathed! This time I barely sighted it as it's shy, bland spine was hidden amongst all the large magazines. It was Listography: Your Life in Lists. Basic but still thrilling to me. Upon walking back to my mom, elated with the day's discoveries, I eventually, somehow, made my way back to the pitiful book section of our Goodwill and... found another Listography book sitting face up on the middle shelf! This was the prize and glory of all the ones I had found thus far. It was My Future Listography: All I Hope To Do In Lists. The reason this particular one is my favorite comes from the joy I have in writing out ideas for the future in the format of our beloved lists. It seems it was meant to be. Of course whenever I find a great part of a series, I always wonder if I missed the rest, but in this case I don't think I did.
     It is quite exciting, and I can't wait to start writing some lists. I have a list from each journal that I have marked top priority, kind of: Top Soundtracks (Music), Things I Want to be Knowledgeable About (Future), and Professions I Would Love to Try Out (Life). I'm really into activity kind of books right now, for teens and adults. This Christmas I'm asking for a lot of Kerri Smith books. Remember Wreck This Book, Explore the World, ect.? Those are the ones. They look like loads of fun for whenever I get bored to just kind of pick one and go with it. Tell me if you know of any other fun activity books! I would love to hear of some more!
     Some last few notes. I discovered 52 Lists earlier this year and forgot to keep printing them out. I plan on doing some sort of project with those as well, only I need to keep them in a binder seeing as the ones I do have are all wrinkly now. :( Another quick note: my mom actually ended up telling me she had bought me one of the Listography books from Goodwill for Christmas. Turns out there were duplicates. I felt so bad, but at the same time it felt like Christmas early. I felt so loved from my mother who had known just the sort of thing I would like. Suddenly the list books I own feel like a heart felt gift. I could see she had been so excited about giving it to me, and then here I pick out the same ones when the two of us go shopping. So sad, and yet so thrilling to know she was thinking of me and knew me so well and loves me. It wasn't the gift that mattered, it was the heart, and getting just the heart and not really the gift made it so much more pleasant and enjoyable. :) My heart flutters with joy every time I think that she knew I would want these.
     Perhaps next post I will post my Christmas list, which is almost entirely books. ;)

Living the Dreamy Life

     A year ago all I wanted was the awesome lifestyle of the artsy people. You know, the one where people listen to indie music, make some of their own, make art all day, and drink lots of coffee/tea. Maybe write some poetry, go to lots of concerts, and wear bohemian style clothes. Some things, like tea, I drank because I wanted that crazy eclectic lifestyle. Although, I must say tea was always in our house for when we were sick, but I have been drinking more often because I actually love some kinds of it. There's just something about drinking a cup of tea in the morning or when it's really cold that makes the day oh so much more romantic. So, drinking tea is something I actually like. As is indie music, but that's another story for another day.
     This past year has been a huge growing year of becoming myself and living a lifestyle that is amazing. I don't want to live a fun, eclectic lifestyle just to be different. I just want to be me without thinking of how others want me to be me, if that makes sense. I've noticed over the past few years that it isn't doing the things that makes life so dreamy. One can pass through life and not notice how amazing it is that we get to do things like drink tea while snuggled in a pile of blankets. ;) It's noticing those things and being thankful that brings the real joy. I've realized that though I've sought after all my life to live that dreamy life, I have one right here, right now!
     We just recently moved to a new house, and all those rooms I would dream of romantically are here in this house! We have a lovely cedar sunroom that is just a touch too cold right now, though I look forward to sitting in it lots come spring. As I wait for spring, I'm trying to use the sunroom as often as possible. I had devotions out there the other day when it wasn't quite that cold, and it was so quiet, set apart from the rest of the house. The sunroom is quite large (300sq ft!) with lots of light. :) It's exactly what I've dreamt of all my life.
     A fireplace room also adorns our house. It's so cozy down there, though the fireplace is gas so not much heat is given off. :( We could switch it to the original wood fireplace, if we wanted to, and my parents have talked about doing that. We also have a formal dining room. And I have my own room again! It's quite large, with a very big closet that stretches across an entire wall. The exciting thing is that I can have all my books in one room. All of them on display across one big wall. (sigh with happiness). So now I have the sunroom I always dreamed about doing devotions in while sipping tea, and a fireplace to read books by in the winter. Our piano is going to be tuned, and Christmas is coming up! :D
     A few months ago, I certainly felt like I was living the dreamy life, with the music I was listening to, and the art I was making. But I realize that even now I have so much to be thankful for! And I am indeed living a rather dreamy life. Homework has been going splendidly. Each night I get to curl up and read a bit more of the Inferno by Dante. I've been reading far more classics (says the girl that just took a few weeks break from them to read a bunch of YA romancs :P haha). In all honesty, I'm very excited for the coming months. My biggest focus is my school work, but I also just recently won NaNoWriMo (!!!!!!!!!!!), which I will talk about some other time. :) My job has been going splendidly. I'm slowly getting back into wearing dresses and skirts more often (I took a break from those as well, wearing jeans all the time :P).  I have been building new friendships, and spending more time with the ones that matter.
     I took a few short months break from everything I really love  (the music, thanking God for everything :(, wearing loads of skirts, doing lots of homework, reading good books, ect.), and became incredibly lazy just relaxed. It was nice, but now I'm ready to attack everything with far more vigor. It is much more exciting and enjoyable to be living with the mindset of thanking God for everything. Therefore, I will be continuing my forgotten list of One Thousand Gifts. I won't put them up here but do know that I am in the 800s, hence why I won't attempt catching up for the world (or my nonexistent readers haha).
     The biggest thing I've learned this year is that living a dreamy life isn't about doing all those things that are considered dreamy or romantic, but it's how we view life. We are so blessed, and if we only train our mind to look at life that way, then we would be rather happy. Of course, I slip up all the time and don't live according to how I know I will be happiest. Meaning I don't always live entirely for God, and as a result, when I'm not, I'm in a rather sour mood.

     So over all it isn't doing things differently, it's just the way you paint the picture, just the way you view it. :)