Because I have committed myself to tracking the books I've read this year, I'm going to count the eBook I just finished moments ago. I'm asking for no judgment please based on the title as chick lit books tend to have rather ridiculous names. Never judge a book by it's cover or it's title, I saw. Unless it's about mad chicken eating men from outer space, in which case judge away.
It's hard to find good chick lit eBooks on the public library's website. Sure there's a fair amount of them but they're always unavailable. I took the plunge and went for Adventures of an Ice Princess. Usually I find that books like that tend to be surprisingly entertaining and that's why I choose them for my work day reading. They're light, fluffy, and passably entertaining. In the interest of honesty, however, I'll just let you know that this book was terrible. Terrible. Really awful. Just... not very good at all.
The premise was completely absurd, three girly girls going to Antarctica to get over the points they're all experiencing in their lives in an effort to bounce back from bad breakups/getting fired from their various jobs. It's cool, I figured, Meg Cabot has written about 14 year old princesses and washed up pop stars and gotten away with it, why can't this author? Well, she didn't. The plot was terrible, the story was poorly written, and there was a seal on acid in it. I wish I was joking right now but that seems to have been one of the book's supposed highlights. There were a lot of weird inconsistencies in the story too that I can't be bothered to get into.
I kept thinking that it would improve, that there had to be some sort of rising action and real, interesting conflict, but there really wasn't. It read kind of like a long, boring narrative of random happenings. It could have been funny, though, it really could have. The author set up all the characters at the Antarctic base to be oddly quirky, likely from spending so much time in Antarctica. There was so much that could have been so much better.So you know how I said that judging books by their titles was kind of unfair? Feel free to judge this really really terrible book by it's painfully embarrassing cover and title. Don't read it. Ever.
I will give this book some credit, though, because it made me look up some stuff about Antarctica. At one points it's only about -1° Celsius out and I thought that was completely absurd. Isn't Antarctica the land of ice and death and frozen penguins? Well, according to Wikipedia it can get relatively warm on the coasts and, little did I know, there are actually a fair number of bases/stations/settlements or whatever they're called on the continent. Crazy. Naturally, because this book was terrible and you could tell she didn't do a ton of research on the area, she never even mentions what base they're on or where it is in relation to the rest of the world. You know, stuff that anyone smarter than the feather and glitter loving (I kid you not) main character and her friends would know. Because really, who goes to Antarctica to find a quality guy?
Well, now that I'm done ranting about my latest work day distraction from boredom, although it was hard to get into so it took me a good couple weeks to plow through, I'll share with you the latest Douglas street sighting. Get ready.
We share a building with Sleep Country and a few other companies. Lately I've noticed that, what I assume is a sleep country employee, has been taking a lot of smoke breaks. He must be new because he takes three or four smoke breaks a day and does so outside of my massive wall of Douglas-facing windows and I've only just started noticing him. In other words, I basically get watch him sucking on cigarillos more than I would like. It's hard not to, though, because he's just so clueless. Sometimes he sits almost out of my vision on a planter smoking and reading or playing with his phone. Sometimes he sits on the stairs right outside our door. Sometimes he leans against the window directly in front of me.
Now, surely, he must realize that the signs that say he's not allowed to smoke within three meters of a doorway are telling him not to smoke on the stairs. I mean, I could get out a ruler and maybe, just maybe, he'll be far enough away but let's be honest, he's treading a fine line. Thankfully my door doesn't let his smoke seep in and blocks out a lot of street noise otherwise I'd probably tell him to go smoke somewhere else. I'm powerful like that. Lounging on the building stairs and smoking really makes the building look less professional and inviting to customers, I have to say, though. But whatever, we don't rely on walk-ins.
The reason I find this guy so fascinating, though, is because I'm not sure he knows I'm here. Our windows are great; they're large, they're clean, and they give passersby a really good look at their reflections. I find a great deal of entertainment in watching people check themselves out all the time as they walk by. I get it, it's tempting. I too have been tempted to check myself out in the windows here as well. But I don't because I know people might be watching. This guy, however, likes to get his face up real close to the window and check it out, making sure his hair looks good. I have never seen someone look so intensely into these windows before. It looks like he's trying to look into the office he's so close but I can tell that he isn't. That would just be creepy, anyway.
Oh, Douglas, you're more entertaining than a poorly written book on Antarctica.
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