Home is where the ink is.
17 Of The Best BuzzFeed Books Essays We Published In 2014
Exploring subjects from skateboarding to Sylvia Plath, and attempting to write your first novel to jumping into the sea, these are some of our favorite essays we published this year. *Ranked in no particular order*
Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed
This Is What Happens To Your Heart When You Dive Into The Sea — James Nestor
James Nestor, author of DEEP: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves, takes us on a transformative journey into the ocean.
Jenny Chang / BuzzFeed
Try To Leave Me If You Can — Katherine Faw Morris
Katherine Faw Morris, author of Young God, on returning to her impoverished home in Wilkes County, North Carolina.
Justine Zwiebel / BuzzFeed
Not Here to Make Friends — Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay, author of An Untamed State and Bad Feminist, on the importance of unlikable female protagonists.
The Fictional Suicidal Girls I Loved, But Had To Let Go
“There was something familiar about wanting to haunt a story rather than tell it.”
Justine Zwiebel / BuzzFeed
There exists a photo of me as a teenager kneeling on my friend's living room floor wearing a white nightgown, holding a kitchen knife with the sharp end halfway in my mouth. A coral bra is visible under the nightgown and I look into the camera trying to be both provocative and frightening, but not managing to pull off either one entirely. I was at a The Virgin Suicides–themed party, one of many offbeat parties my friends and I would host in our late teens, each theme an attempt to one-up our last party's strangeness. It was a time when I was both a virgin and, for the first time in my life, suicidal.
While I spent my entire childhood entertaining generally self-destructive thoughts, this was a decided turn from thoughts to impulses. Hypothetical escape routes from my life emerged in my mind as I entered the early phases of adulthood. Peculiarly, my literary fascinations regressed from the melancholy adult women I had admired as a child to a very particular kind of suicidal teenage girl. While literature is awash in young women who end their own lives in dramatic final chapters, my preoccupation was with girls who committed suicide early on in their respective stories. To end one's life at the end of a story is usually because all other options have been exhausted. To commit suicide in the beginning or the middle of a story was to radically refuse to participate in the narrative as anything but a ghost. There was something familiar about wanting to haunt a story rather than tell it.
BuzzFeed
My first fixation on this character type was Cecilia, the youngest of the five Lisbon sisters in Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides. Though the book brims with dark moments, there was something especially enticing about a 13-year-old that only successfully commits suicide when she tries a second time. Because suicide is often attempted by young women but most often completed by men of middle age, there was a decidedly grim adult conviction to her suicide. When Cecilia succeeds in ending her life with the assistance of an open window and an iron fence, it means that she meant it all along. In the sickness of suicidal ideation that was only beginning to wander to that place, I saw a resoluteness in Cecilia's despair at the world that I lacked. As the mind betrays itself so cruelly, there is a brutal kind of comfort in comparing yourself to a child who is better at misery than you.
43 Of The Most Romantic Lines From Literature
“My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.” —Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice.
Suggested by susiem424348d09.
Frau Böb (buuusyyyy) / Flickr: frauboeb
2. "He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking."
—Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina. Suggested by Vivi Hyacinthe on Facebook.
3. "Whatever our souls are made out of, his and mine are the same...If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger."
—Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights. Suggested by Alex Zrenner on Facebook.
4. "You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever."
—Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice. Suggested by Giovana Draghi on Facebook.
5. "You and I, it's as though we have been taught to kiss in heaven and sent down to earth together, to see if we know what we were taught."
—Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago. Suggested by TXBluebonnet.
Suggested by Rajina Shrestha on Facebook.
Kevin Dooley / Flickr: pagedooley
16 Hilarious One-Star Reviews Of Children's Books
“Dr. Seuss was an evil genius, bent on traumatising children.”
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
"It is like this book was written for a baby or something. Anybody looking for enlightened literature should look elsewhere." (source)
Random House / Via amazon.com
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
"The description included a pair of bunny slippers which it did not come with. The book was cheesy and so not worth it without the slippers" (source)
HarperCollins / Via amazon.com
Are You My Mother? by Dr. Seuss
"A CURSE! AN UTTER CURSE!"
"Many of you, 'Parents', have exposed this book unto your families. Same thing with my mother. She exposed this story to me. But you know what I see in this book of evil? Scary images and ideas. Look at the dog for instance. Does he look like a 'nice' dog to you? He didn't to me. He scarred [sic] the buttons of [sic] my shirt. Everytime I look at his eyes I fill with fear." (source)
Random House / Via amazon.com
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
"Ruined My Life"
"I purchased this book for my little brother because this was my favorite book as a kid. He makes me read it to him no less than 20 times a day. We took a 3 hour road trip and he had me read it over and over again nonstop the entire time, I want to burn it, but he would probably set the house on fire to spite me." (source)
Philomel / Via amazon.com
27 Clever Calendars To Help You Stick To Your Resolutions All Year
These beauties will keep you on track.
BuzzFeed
Resolution: Get Through Everything In Your Ginormous "To-Read" Stack
Warner Brothers / Via misstanwyck.tumblr.com
Necessary Calendar: Great American Authors by 1canoe2
Resolution: Learn How To Mix Cocktails
HBO / Via boltboy843.tumblr.com
22 Things That Happen When You Get Into Knitting
I can listen while I knit, I swear!!
When you first learn to knit, you're like a baby foal taking its first shaky steps.
It's a mess. There might be crying.
RKO Radio Pictures / Via tumblr.com
And it takes you about 100 years to complete a row.
And even then, there are a bunch of mistakes. But it's fun!!
Square Fish / Via giphy.com
You become attached to an assortment of online how-to guides.
(Like this one!)
And sometimes you give up on something in seething frustration.
IT'S FINE, I WANTED IT TO LOOK LIKE THIS.
NBC / Via papermag.com
19 Welcome Mats That Explain Your Feelings So You Don't Have To
Set the record straight.
If you're going out...
Check yourself. Get it here.
If you don't want company...
Make them think twice before knocking. Get it here.
If it's Girl Scout season...
Show that your priorities are on point. Get it here.
If you hate your neighbors...
Send robbers to their house. Get it here.
instagram.com / Via uncommongoods.com
19 Times "The Boxcar Children" Covers Summed Up Why You Hate Kids
For when they make you wish they were orphans.
When people won't stop uploading pictures of their damn kids to Facebook.
Albert Whitman & Company
When you have to hang their "artwork" on your fridge.
Albert Whitman & Company
When they sneak upstairs to investigate the "noises" in your bedroom.
Albert Whitman & Company
When they touch filthy animals in public like they WANT to get rabies.
Albert Whitman & Company
15 Inspiring Quotes By Writers We Lost In 2014
“I have failed at many things, but I have never been afraid.”
Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014)
American poet, author, and essayist. Her works include seven autobiographies and the poem And Still I Rise.
Olivier Douliery / Abaca Press / MCT
Gabriel García Márquez (1927 – 2014)
Colombian author and Nobel Prize winner, his works include Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Edgard Garrido / Reuters
Sue Townsend (1946 – 2014)
British comic author, and creator of Adrian Mole.
Michael Crabtree / AP Photo
Harold Ramis (1944 – 2014)
American actor, screenwriter and director of films including Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters and Animal House.
Donna Ward / Abaca Press / MCT
16 Yik Yak Messages From Your Favorite Literary Characters
It was the best of Yik Yak, it was the worst of Yik Yak.
Charles Scribners Sons / Colin Heasley for BuzzFeed
Middle Earth – The Fellowship of the Ring
Colin Heasley for BuzzFeed
West Egg – The Great Gatsby
Colin Heasley for BuzzFeed
District 12 – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Colin Heasley for BuzzFeed
What's Your New Year's Resolution For Reading?
Resolve to read more in 2015.
It's time to make New Year's resolutions!
The CW
So why not resolve to read more books in 2015?
TriStar Pictures
Maybe you want to read a certain number of books.
20? 50? 100?!
Walt Disney
Or perhaps you want to try reading a new genre.
Relativity Media
This Gay Couple's "Doctor Who" Wedding And Honeymoon Are Amazing
In August we were delighted to share this Dallas couple’s Doctor Who themed engagement photos. Since then, they married and spent the perfect honeymoon in the UK (partly aboard the TARDIS)!
You may remember this couple...
TJ & Timmy Mundell-Patterson
Shaun Menary Photography
Their Doctor Who themed engagement photos went viral in August throughout the fandom, even reaching BBC studios and Steven Moffat himself!
#ThatEyebrowTho
Shaun Menary Photography
Well, this past November, they finally tied the knot!
Shaun Menary Photography
With a little help from some friends, of course...
Shaun Menary Photography
Are You A Jessica Or An Elizabeth?
Which Sweet Valley High twin fits you best?
Ira Madison III for BuzzFeed / Via Bantam Books
15 Incredibly Satisfying Space-Saving Furniture Designs
Warning: desire to want all of these WILL happen.
Tables and chairs that fit into a shelf:
Orla Reynolds / Via orlareynolds.com
Sofa bunk bed:
Bonbon / Via bonbon.co.uk
Dining table and chairs:
http://antarescompany.ru / Via antarescompany.ru
http://antarescompany.ru / Via antarescompany.ru
