The proper name is football

Finished How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer today. Got sidetracked with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson, I'll talk about that later. (SO AMAZING)

Soccer was quite interesting, I liked how each section was titled "How soccer explains..." then subdivided into five smaller sections. I like nonfiction writers who organize their work in a way that works with my obsessively organized mind. He also had firsthand experience in the stadiums of many of the clubs; he took a leave of absence from his job at the magazine New Republic and traveled the world and experiencing rabid soccer fandom up close. He went to Brazil, Bosnia, Italy, Iran, England, Scotland, Bulgaria, making one shocking discovery after another. There was the blatant anti-Catholicism in Scotland, the sex segregation in Iran, and the promoted fan violence in Serbia.

What Foer does is use soccer to examine the greater problems of the world through soccer and how many cultures use soccer as their release and as a channel for their frustrations.

I could go into lots of detail, but to be honest, while I found the book interesting while I was reading it, I find that many things, mainly the little details, left my brain after I stopped reading. I'm not saying that I didn't learn anything, because I did. I just couldn't tell you names and dates with any accuracy. At all.

What the book did inspire me to do was to educate myself about some of the issues Foer brings up, such as the Balkan Wars in Europe and power of Silvio Berlusconi. I don't know much and still don't, so I want to learn more and reading this book is what piqued my interest. Any book that actually makes me want to learn more is very okay by me. Isn't that the point of all books?

China Bound

So I found out this week that the summer abroad program I applied for in China has been confirmed and I have been accepted. This means I will be spending a MONTH in China studying art, religion, food, and culture....I cannot put into words how excited I am to go! This will be entirely different than any other place I have ever gone and I am just giddy with pure happiness. I can't wait to take a million photographs, eat delicious food and see everything there is to see....

Not So Possessed

So I started reading Possession by A.S. Byatt a few weeks ago before spring break, and I'm like 200 pages in and I just don't like it. I hate that. It just has not gripped in the way a good book is supposed to. And that makes me sad because I wanted to love this boo SO much...I am usually always game for a period love story, especially one that involves investigation and intrigue. But this just didn't have it for me.


I don't want to be too critical of Byatt, because she IS a very well respected author, and I've never read her before, but I felt she spent WAY too much time describing details that I felt weren't necessary, like every room in Maude's flat. In general, I also felt that her descriptions were dry, and lacking a certain pizazz that I desperately wanted. It also didn't help that she had an extremely long chapter consisting of nothing but letters from the 19th century between the fictional historical figures the two main characters, current day scholars Maude (oh, and I HATE this name!) and Roland, are concerned with. The letters are supposed to illustrate a love affair, but they start off so BORING, and even in the end, the passion and love are still so restrained and repressed. Maybe I'm just too American for this book. I wanted more passion, intrigue, and excitement.

So now I'm switching gears, going to read some nonfiction. I just started How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer...I'm only about 40 pages in, but I'm loving it! More later as I continue to read.

Not much else planned for this weekend; I'm home in Marin with my papa, going to the Asian Art Museum tomorrow, gonna do some homework, laundry and catch up on some Lost, Bones, Chuck, and Modern Family as well. Hope all y'all enjoy your Easters!