Cusp of Some Giant Change

I've had this strange feeling for nearly a year now. It's been in the back of my mind and I've been unable to shake it. I'm going to explore it here because that's what I do.

I feel like we, all of us, the entire nation & world at large, are on the cusp of something huge, some giant change caused & driven by the people tired of jaded complaints & hungry for solutions. Like I said, I've felt this for nearly a year. Something big is happening right now, underneath everything. We only see small hints of it every now and then but change is coming.

I read about things in the news, both on a national & global level, of people rising up, taking charge, letting their voices be heard, letting the world know that the way we have been doing things isn't working any more. They're shouting, crying out for change, for a new system of thinking and doing things. There are signs all over the place of civil unrest. There were the British student protests over a raise in tuition, the Rally to Restore Sanity to show the nation that extremism is not the answer & we need to work together, the ongoing protests in Egypt right now, President Obama's State of the Union address. Things are changing. People want change. And with everything in me, I want to be apart of that change.

I see videos of protestors, of people giving speeches, letting their voices be heard, providing solutions, taking a stand against discrimination & hate & the lack of common sense, letting the world know that they are "mad as hell and [they're] not going to take it anymore!" Every time I watch a video or read an article, I feel this driving force within me. I want to create change for the better. I am not content with sitting on the sidelines and watching this huge movement go on without me. I feel so passionate about being a part of this giant change that I know if I don't contribute to it, I'll have lived my life in vain.

Things are changing. And I am going to help make them change.

Love you.
Mean it.

#95: What are some of your good & bad qualities?

"Some artists shrink from self-awareness, fearing that it will destroy their unique gifts and even their desire to create. The truth of the matter is quite opposite."

-James Broughton

I think Mr. Broughton here is right. As I've stated before, I've dedicated my life to the pursuit of truth and sometimes that includes the truth about myself. I know I am not perfect but I also know I've got some good things going for me. So without further ado, here are some good and bad qualities about myself:

(Okay, here's a little more ado. I've been debating on how best to present these qualities. I could list all of the good & then all the bad (or vise-versa) but I didn't like having all of the bad clumped together (too depressing) or all the good clumped together (too conceited). So it shall be presented thusly: A quality that is preceded by a POS- is positive. A quality preceded by NEG- is (obviously) negative. If it is preceded by UNK- it means I'm still deciding if it's a good or bad quality. I'm going to try to switch between POS & NEG every other one. Okay, Ado is officially over)

POS-I'm intelligent & have a quick mind.

NEG-I am no good a forgiveness. 

POS-I have an incredibly soft spot in my heart for dogs, babies, and children.

NEG-I hate teenagers.

POS-I'm extremely passionate.

NEG-I give much too much weight to first impressions.

POS-I'm stubborn as hell.

NEG-I'm stubborn as hell.

UNK-I am a morning person.

POS-I don't believe in lying.

NEG-I put my foot in my mouth on a daily basis. 

POS-I try to be open-minded as much as possible.

NEG-I talk too much. 

UNK-The most productive part of my day (if I wake up for it) is between 5 a.m. & 9 a.m.

POS-I love adventure & trying new things.

NEG-I am easily bored & irritated.

POS-Nine times out of ten, I am incredibly reliable. 

NEG-One time out of ten, I will flake out on you.

POS-I believe in keeping my promises. 

NEG-I talk too loudly.

POS-I am fiercely loyal to my friends. 

NEG-I generally hate girls & have probably less than ten close girlfriends. 

POS-When it comes to my future career, I care more about helping people than about money. 

NEG-I will probably be poor my whole life.

POS-I have a really dorky side & apologize to no one for it. 

NEG-Once a person has lost my trust, it's nearly impossible to get back. 

POS-I will drop anything and everything if a friend needs my help. 

NEG-If I don't want to do something, there are few things on God's green Earth that can make me do it. 

POS-I'm prideful.

NEG-I'm prideful.

POS-I have a habit of remembering random details of an event or a person.

NEG-I am a harsh judge of character, even more so if it's a girl.

POS-I am inspired to create change for the better & help people.

NEG-I have no pokerface. 

POS-I am hilarious. 

NEG-I am sarcastic.

POS-I am sarcastic. 

That's all for now, I suppose. Let me know if I've missed any. 

Love you.

Mean it. 

Very Few Places

I usually don’t drink two nights in a row
but it’s Newlin’s birthday and

(debatably)
you only turn 27 once 

so I’ll make an exception.

It’s weird, almost surreal.
I work with these people every week

and have only recently stopped feeling like
the odd-man-out
I guess when you get a drink in you
and you relax enough
you become aware of privileged information

Like how conversations with Rob
always seem to be about something else
than what he really wants to talk about.
How Newlin, though guarded, is 

a genuinely nice guy. 

And no matter how much he drinks
and shrugs off my concerned glances,
J.R. is still that same gentle, kind person
I’ve only recently discovered.
Even if he tries to deny it 

and claim he’s no good for anyone,
I can still see it in his occasional look
and half-smile.

And even though most of the night is spent
with me not saying a word
and sometimes
not even listening to anyone else
there are very few places I’d rather be.

Love you.

Mean it. 

Some of my Favorite Quotes

Due to circumstances that were completely in my control, I didn't get much sleep last night. I was in a state of waking & sleeping from about 1:30 a.m. till 5:00 a.m. when I decided to wake up and really mean it.

What does this have to do with you, dear reader? Nothing really, except what I had intended on waking up and writing about (either why I started writing, how feminism & being a feminist is considered a bad thing nowadays or the mortifying awfulness that was my Wednesday night) will have to be postponed until I sleep and therefore make sense.

But fear not, faithful reader. I have not left you alone on this cold January morning. What you may or may not know about me is I am a collector of quotes. I have been since high school. I don't know why but I do. So here I present you with a list of some of my favorite quotes to help you jump start you day.

"Money can't buy happiness. But it can buy marshmallows, which is pretty much the same thing."

-Unknown

"A man can get along with any woman as long as he does not love her."

-Oscar Wilde

"Be careful to cast out the devil. You may be casting out the best part of you."

-Edgar Allan Poe 

"Women who aspire to be equal to men lack ambition."

-Timothy Leary

"Sometimes I feel discriminated against but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can anyone deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me."

-Zora Neale Hurston

"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

-Oscar Wilde

"People are always wondering how to get blood out of their clothes. I you have big blotches of blood on your clothes, laundry is the least of your problems."

"If you're robbing a bank and your pants fall down, I think it's okay to laugh. And let the hostages laugh too. Cause, c'mon, life's funny."

-Jack Handy

(Also my senior quote)

"Call me sadistic, but there is something great about watching Nazis get shot in the face."

-Chris Bodily about Inglorious Basterds.

"We read to know we are not alone."

-C.S. Lewis

"Doesn't reincarnation strike you as just another form of procrastination?"

-Chuck Palahniuk

"A good story should make you laugh and a moment later break your heart."

-Chuck Palahniuk

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars."

-Kahlil Gibran

"The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in its loyalty to each other."

-Mario Puzo

"He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done."

-Leonardo da Vinci

"I have loved to the point of madness, that which is called madness, that which to me is the only sensible way to love."

-Francoise Sagan

"Experience is a brutal teacher. But you learn--my God, do you learn."

-C.S. Lewis

"I have the choice of being constantly active and happy or introspectively passive and sad. Or I can go mad by ricocheting in between. 

-Sylvia Plath

"You begin saving the world by saving one may at a time; all else is grandiose Romanticism or politics."

-Charles Bukowski

"Do you realize that all great literature--Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, A Farewell to Arms, The Scarlet Letter, The Red Badge of Courage, The Iliad & The Odyssey, Crime & Punishment, the Bible, and The Charge of the Light Brigade--are all about what a bummer it is to be a human being?"

-Kurt Vonnegut

"If you don't stick to your values when they're being tested, they're not values--they're hobbies."

-Jon Stewart

"A free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it--basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them"

-Charles Bukowski

"A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.'"

-Douglas Adams

"I love deadlines. I love the sound they make as they fly by."

-Douglas Adams

"I had a teacher I liked who used to say good fiction's job was to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable."

-David Foster Wallace. 

That's all for now. It's now 7:41 a.m. and I need to shower. I have a breakfast date with my Numero Uno.

Love you. 

Mean it. 

Sensitivity, A Confession.

I wish I could tell you that I’m a tough kind of girl, that I’m able to withstand anything that comes my way. I wish I could tell you that nothing phases me, that I’m not the stereotypical kind of girl who gets all weepy and emotional about things. I really wish I could honestly tell you all those things. But I’m not, and I’m slowly realizing it. The truth of the matter is I’m pretty sensitive when it comes to human suffering.

Over the weekend, my class and I went up to Salt Lake City to view three documentaries on Saturday and one on Monday. For the most part, they were rather interesting. But, on occasion, there would be some archival footage that shook me to my core. There were non-violent protestors being brutally beaten by the police or having mace forcefully rubbed in their eyes. There was footage of heroin babies screaming non-stop. There were civil rights protestors, again, being tackled and beaten by the police. There were child soldiers in Africa shooting guns and being shot at. And each time footage like this flashed upon the screen, I’d instinctively and involuntarily clutch my chest, grab my necklace, or, during two screenings, grab Rob’s arm who was sitting next to me and bury my head in his shoulder. I couldn’t take it. Each time I was surrounded by the sights and sounds of pain and human suffering, I was overwhelmed with heartache. It was a very powerful and emotional response, and something I could not control no matter how hard I try.

This is a side of me that I’ve always known existed but never to what degree. It’s strange to admit because, besides my pride in not being a stereotypical overly-emotional girl, I watch extremely violent movies all the time. I love action movies with guns, explosions, fighting, etc. and I’m able to stomach all of that, even revel in it. However, I will not watch war movies. Any movie that is based upon a real war and has scenes of combat, I cannot watch. It upsets me too much. I see the pain, the fear, the stress, it’s all just too much for me to take. It’s because what I’m watching, though it’s staged and not real, did happen to real people. The suffering that the actors are portraying happened to actual people. Men with families at home, mothers, wives, children, fathers, all waiting for them to come home safely. Each man had dreams of the future and had stories from their past. Yet here I am watching their fear and pain being acted out on the screen before me, even if it is just acting. In most action movies, I know it’s fake. I know it’s not real. But in war movies, that shit did happen to real people.

That’s why watching archival footage of actual human suffering upset me so much. I can’t handle watching people in pain, especially if the pain is pointless and unnecessary. I feel like a wuss to admit it but I’m extremely sensitive to suffering of any kind. Every time I see something like that, I feel like my heart is going to break. I don’t know any of these people and probably never will, but their senseless suffering breaks my heart. And part of me really wishes it wouldn’t. Part of me wishes I could be stoic and unemotional when seeing such horrific things. I wish I didn’t feel this way. It’s too painful.

Love you. 

Mean it. 

#27: What book changed your life?

I can think of three books off the top of my head that have changed my life. I'll save the book that changed my life in the funniest way for last. Stay tuned. 

The first book is Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. 

The first time I heard of this book was my junior year of high school. I had American Literature I with Ms. Elizabeth Gleason (one of the most influential teachers I have ever had). One day before class started, this guy in our class named Kyle asked her what her favorite book was. She said Anna Karenina. She brought out a copy and showed it to us. She told us it was written in series installments between 1873 & 1877 in Russia. She told us why she loved it so much, but I had stopped listening. The book was a thick sucker. Add in the fact it was written in Russia (a country I knew next to nothing about) and nearly a hundred years before I was born, I lost interest very quickly. I remember thinking to myself, I am never going to read this book. 

Flash-forward nearly four & a half years. I am 20 years old and living in St. Petersburg, Russia. I'm there  with a volunteer program to teach children English and I'll be there for nearly five months. I had finished all of the books I had brought with me (I didn't bring that many) and had no idea how I was going to pass the time during my 45-minute metro ride commute. In my head-teacher's apartment, I stumbled upon a copy of Anna Karenina. I thought back a lifetime to that English class with Ms. Gleason and how it was her favorite book. I decided to give it a whirl. 

There have been very few times in my life when a book has so thoroughly engrossed me. I could not put it down. I was immensely invested with the two stories and with the characters involved. To read this book reminded me why I love to read and why I love literature. It rekindled my love affair with classic literature and sparked my intense love of Russian literature. After I had finished reading it, I found a book store on Nevsky Prospect that sold books in English. I bought novels not only by Tolstoy, but also Dostoevsky (I've read nearly everything that man ever wrote), Pushkin, Gogol, Gorky, and others. I am still fascinated by Russian literature and with literature in general. I bought two copies of Anna Karenina--one in English and the other in Russian. In the English copy, I wrote the following on the inside:  

"This copy of Anna Karenina was purchased at "Дом книги", (House of Books) in St. Petersburg, Russia on March 15th 2008 by Kelly Cannon."

Below that, I wrote a quote that summed up my feelings toward the book:

"There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love."

-Christopher Morley

The second book that changed my life is actually a trilogy. It's The Millennium Series, which consists of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, & The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, all by Stieg Larson

I read this books over the summer. Okay, in all honesty I didn't literally read them. I listened to them on my ipod. I enjoy listening to books on tape way more than music. I listen to them when I commute to school, to work, to wherever. (Yes, I am that big of a dork that not only do I read books for school and for fun at the same time, but I also listen to books while I drive. I regret nothing.) The books are insanely addictive and engrossing. I found myself truly invested and worried about the characters. Again, these were books I could not put down (or, more accurately, turn off).


How they changed my life was during the time I was listening to them, I had begun working at the UVU Review. I was in this odd place in my life where I wasn't positive what I wanted to do as a career. I was (and still am) an English major, but my desire to go to graduate school had recently diminished significantly. At the same time, I was really enjoying working on the paper and doing "journalism." In these books, one of the main characters, Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist and a publisher of his own independent magazine. His passion for writing, and writing the truth was inspiring. He never compromised his values and truly believed in exposing corruption and wrong-doing. I found myself constantly wanting to be him. These books helped me make the decision to become a writer and a journalist.

The last book that changed my life is actually a children's book. My mother bought it for me when I was quite young. Apparently, I had this tiny little problem of telling lies. My mom had tried everything to get me to stop but nothing worked. Finally, she went to the bookstore to get a copy of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. However, while she was there, a very helpful sales associate told her about this new book that just came out that has the same moral. It's by Hilaire Belloc and is called, Matilda, Who Told Lies & Was Burned to Death.

The American "Politically Correct" title is Matilda, Who Told Such Dreadful Lies but the above is the original titled. It's a poem that was included in Belloc's book of Cautionary Tales for Children. Essentially what happens is Matilda tells lies all the time. She lives with her old aunt who is shocked by her behavior. One time Matilda calls the fire brigade and says her house is on fire. The firemen come and douse her whole house with water, despite the fact nothing is on fire. As a punishment, Matilda has to stay home while her aunt goes out. But then the house actually does catch on fire and when Matilda tries to call the fire brigade, they don't believe her. She then runs to the window to solicit help, but in vain.

"For every time she shouted 'Fire!'
They only answered 'Little Liar!'"

The last line of the story/poem drives the point home:

"And therefore when her Aunt returned,
Matilda, and the House, were Burned."

Yep, you read that right. The girl BURNS TO DEATH!

Needless to say, that stopped my lying problem right quick. Even to this day, I have a strong aversion to lying, not telling the whole truth, or even bending the truth slightly. My mom's plan to stop me from telling fibs was uber effective. I still have the book and as if the poem wasn't morbid enough (which you can read the whole thing here) the drawings are in black, white and different shades of red, with the fire being brilliant shades of red and orange. If you ever stumble upon a copy, pick it up.

Love you.
Mean it.

How to Name Some of My Favorite Books/Stories/Poems, a Handy Flow(ish) Chart

The other day, someone asked me my least favorite question:

"What is your favorite book?"

Honestly, how can I answer this? It'd be like choosing my favorite reason for existing. It just can't be done. Whenever I am asked this question, I usually list a bunch of "groups," such as Classic Russian Literature, American Realism, etc., and then throw in some specific names of writers (Chuck Palahniuk, Kurt Vonnegut, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, David Foster Wallace, etc.) for good measure. 

The trouble is I can't recall a time when I wasn't reading. Most parents have to drag their kids kicking and screaming to get them to read a single book. My parents had the problem of getting me to stop reading. In elementary school, I would often be reading four or five books at once. My mom once asked me why I read so many at a time. I told her that when I get bored with reading one, I can switch to another until that one becomes boring and I switch again. My mom then asked me why I didn't just do something else when my book became boring. She told me I gave her a look like the thought had never crossed my mind. 

Today, my friends are also annoyed by how much I read. Once I was over at a friend's house with my small close group of friends. We sat down at the kitchen table and the newspaper was lying on top of the table. I casually pulled it closer to me when it was suddenly snatched away from me by Paige. "Kelly, no. Every time you read something, you get lost in your own world and are lousy at conversation," she explained and took the rest of the newspaper into the other room. 

After being asked that stupid question of my favorite book for the umpteenth time, I figured out  a system, a process of elimination where I could name my favorite book/story by trying to narrow down the pool of options. It goes as such:

1. Is the Author American or European?
1. American 
1. Is the Author Living or Dead?
1. Living
1. Is the Author a Man or a Woman?
1. Woman
1. Sloane Crosley
1. I Was Told There’d Be Cake
2. Alice Walker
1. The Color Purple
3. Harper Lee
1. To Kill a Mockingbird
2. Man
1. Chuck Palahniuk
1. Fight Club
2. Survivor
3. Stranger than Fiction
4. Diary
5. Lullabye
6. Choke
7. Tell-All
8. Rant
2. Dean Koontz
1. Odd Thomas
2. Forever Odd
3. Brother Odd
4. Odd Hours
3. David Sedaris
1. Naked
2. Dress Your Family in Jeans &  Corduroys 
4. Alan Moore
1. V for Vendetta
2. Watchmen
3. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
5. Cormac McCarthy
1. No Country for Old Men
6. Stephen King
1. The Green Mile
2. The Shinning
7. Frank Miller
1. All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder
2. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
3. Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again
4. Sin City
5. 300
8. Max Brooks
1. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
2. Dead
1. Did the Author Die by “Natural Causes” or Committed Suicide?
1. Suicide
1. Ernest Hemingway
1. A Farewell to Arms
2. The Old Man & the Sea
3. “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” 
2. Sylvia Plath
1. The Collected Poems
3. David Foster Wallace
1. Consider the Lobster
2. Up, Simba
3. “Ticket to the Fair” (essay)
2. “Natural Causes”
1. Kurt Vonnegut
1. Slaughterhouse Five
2. God Bless You Mister Rosewater
3. Breakfast of Champions
4. Bluebeard
2. Nathaniel Hawthorne
1. The Scarlet Letter
2. Collected Short Stories
3. John Steinbeck
1. East of Eden
2. The Grapes of Wrath
3. Of Mice & Men
4. The Pearl
5. The Winter of Our Discontent
4. F. Scott Fitzgerald
1. The Great Gatsby
2. This Side of Paradise 
3. The Beautiful & the Damned
4. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” 
5. “Babylon Revisited” 
5. Allen Ginsberg
1. Howl and Other Poems
6. Charles Bukowski
1. Run with the Hunted (poetry)
2. Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (poetry)
3. Love Is a Dog from Hell (poetry)
4. What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire (poetry)
5. The Night Torn Mad with Footsteps (poetry)
6. Slouching Toward Nirvana (poetry)
7. Come On In! (poetry)
7. Pearl S. Buck
1. The Good Earth
8. Truman Capote
1. In Cold Blood
2. Breakfast at Tiffany’s 
9. J.D. Salinger
1. The Catcher in the Rye 
10. Mark Twain
1. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
2. Life on the Mississippi
3. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
4. The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson
5. “What Is Man?” (Essay)
11. Edgar Allen Poe
1. “Lenore” (poem)
2. “The Raven” (poem)
3. “To Helen” (poem)
4. “A Dream Within a Dream” (poem)
5. “Annabel Lee” (poem)
6. “The Bells” (poem)
7. “The Fall of the House of Usher” 
8. “Never Bet the Devil Your Head” 
9. “The Oval Portrait” 
10. “The Masque of Red Death” 
11. “The Pit and the Pendulum” 
12. “The Tell-Tale Heart” 
13. “The Gold-Bug” 
14. “The Black Cat” 
15. “The Tale of the Ragged Mountains” 
16. “The Premature Burial” 
17. “The Cask of Amontillado” 
12. Raymond Carver
1. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (collection of short stories)
13. Willa Cather 
1. O Pioneers!
2. My Antonia
14. Stephen Crane
1. The Red Badge of Courage
2. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
15. Betty Friedan 
1. The Feminine Mystique
2. European
1. Is the author from the United Kingdom or continental Europe?
1. United Kingdom
1. Is the author alive or dead?
1. Alive
1. Terry Pratchett
1. Good Omens (co-author)
2. Neil Gaiman
1. Good Omens (co-author)
2. Coraline
2. Dead
1. Oscar Wilde
1. The Picture of Dorian Gray
2. An Ideal Husband (play)
3. Lady Windermere’s Fan (play)
4. The Importance of Being Earnest
2. James Joyce
1. Finnegan’s Wake
2. “The Dead” 
3. Rudyard Kipling
1. Tales of Horror & Fantasy (collection of short stories)
4. Bram Stoker
1. Dracula
5. Jane Austin
1. Pride & Prejudice
6. Aldous Huxley
1. Brave New World
7. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
8. Thomas Hardy
1. Jude the Obscure
9. Douglas Adams
1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
10. Beatrix Potter
1. “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” 
2. “The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin”
3. “The Tale of Benjamin Bunny”
4. “The Tale of Two Bad Mice”
5. “The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle”
6. “The Story of Miss Moppet”
7. “The Tale of Tom Kitten”
8. “The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck”
9. “The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies”
10. “The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse”
11. “The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse”
2. Continental Europe
1. Is the Author Russian or Other?
1. Russian
1. Dostoevsky
1. Crime & Punishment
2. The Brothers Karamazov
3. The Idiot
4. The Devils
5. Notes from Underground
6. House of the Dead
7. Poor Folk
2. Leo Tolstoy
1. Anna Karenina
2. War & Peace
3. The Death of Ivan Ilyich
3. Vladimir Nabokov
1. Lolita
4. Maxim Gorky
1. The Lower Depths (Play)
5. Alexander Pushkin
1. “The Bronze Horseman” (Poem)
2. Other
1. Hilarie Belloc (French)
1. Matilda, Who Told Lies & Was Burned to Death
2. Franz Kafka (German)
1. The Metamorphosis 
2. The Trial
3. The Grimm Brothers
1. “The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was” 
2. “The Twelve Brothers”
3. “Rapunzel” 
4. “Hansel & Gretal” 
5. “The Fisherman & His Wife” 
6. “The Valiant Little Tailor” 
7. “Cinderella” 
8. “The Riddle”
9. “The Seven Ravens” 
10. “Little Red Riding Hood” 
11. “The Singing Bone” 
12. “The Girl Without Hands” 
13. “The Elves & the Shoemaker” 
14. “Sleeping Beauty” 
15. “Little Snow White” 
16. “Rumplestiltskin” 
17. “The Golden Goose” 
18. “The Gold-Children” 
19. “The Peasant’s Wise Daughter” 
20. “Snow White & Rose Red” 
21. “The Glass Coffin” 
22. “The Peasant & the Devil” 
4. Hans Christian Anderson (Danish)
1. “The Little Match Girl” 
2. “The Little Sea Girl” 
3. “The Emperor’s New Clothes” 
4. “The Ice Maiden” 
5. “The Princess & the Pea” 
6. “The Red Shoes” 
7. “The Snow Queen” 
8. “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” 
9. “Thumbelina” 

*Titles italicized are books/novels/collections unless otherwise stated. 

**Titles in parenthesis are short stories unless otherwise stated. 

This was a complicated little piece of organization to create. I know I've left a large number of authors/writers but it was all just too much. I don't even know if I could honestly get through all of it when that stupid question is brought up in conversation. Maybe I should laminate it on some handy index-sized cards and pull them out whenever it is necessary.

And yes, I am that big of a literary dork that I made a chart that uses the process of elimination to identify some of my favorite books/stories/poems. I regret nothing.

Love you.
Mean it.