coopik

Archive for June, 2014

Weekly Something #8 – “13 reasons why”

What time is it? – Adventure time!  No, it’s not. It’s time for my English version of posts. A lot of people asked me to write in English, because they don’t understand Russian, so here you go.

I’m a shy person in a way, so it took a lot out of me to get out of my comfort zone and write a post in English. Don’t get me wrong, I know English pretty well, I write a lot of English entries in my journals, but those are kinda private and no one is going to criticize my poor grammar there. But in here it is totally a different experience for me. I’m trying here. So don’t judge. Okay? Okay (See what I did there? 🙂 )

This week was pretty intense for me, in reading department I mean. And it’s not because I haven’t read much, it’s quite the opposite. I know, I drive some of you crazy by constantly talking about City of Heavenly Fire. But I can’t help it! I really wanted it, and when I got it, I became so sad, cause I realized that this is it! This is the end of TMI, like legit. For me it is the end of a Shadowhunter era, no more new books to look forward to, no more Jace, which is the most upsetting for me. So I took it slow, I read in tiny portions, savoring each word and each scene. But before I got CoHF I decided to reread one book I really love and this post is all about it.
So the book is “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher.

I read it for the first time a while ago and really enjoyed it. So I was sure I will definitely reread it one day, and that day has come.
So this book is narrated by Clay Jensen who received a box with 7 cassette tapes. Clay starts listening to them and finds out that the voice on those tapes belongs to his classmate and crush Hanna who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hanna explains why she killed herself and pretty much all of those 7 tapes contain 13 reasons why she did it, and if Clay received them, that means he is one of those reasons.
I get it, that it looks kinda strange, that I decided to reread this particular book exactly when the CoHF has been released and when I’m so vulnerable about it, but hey, I’m telling you don’t worry, I’m not gonna slush my wrists with pages of CoHF when I’m done with it. It’s not gonna happen, may be a lot of tears and very long mourning period, yeah, definitely, but that’s it. I promise 🙂

Truthfully, I reread “13 reasons why” simply because I love this book, I love the author’s style of writing, the plot. I love to feel those emotions that Clay feels, when he receives tapes and finds out that he is the one of 13 reasons why Hanna died.

13 reasons why I love “13 reasons why”:
1. Jay Asher’s style of writing
2. The idea of cassette tapes and how it’s portrayed in book for us
3. The story of Hanna dying and her reasons are very suspenseful, I might say
4. Clay’s reaction on tapes and how he deals with it
5. I just love love love contemporary books
6. Cassette tapes (so nostalgic)
7. The design of the book
8. Suicide (I read quite a lot of suicide oriented books and most of them are very good)
9. Teenage problems at school, home, with kids their age, with parents and teachers
10. The realization that  you need to have an old cassette player stashed somewhere for exactly these purposes if  some other “Hanna” decides to kill herself and dumps on you such a “great” surprise as old-school cassette tapes
11. This book got me thinking about how would I react if I found out  that I’m someone’s reason to die
12. There are no weird people, there are people who are misunderstood by others
13. You should never be indifferent to people and things that are happening around you
And as usual let’s talk about 7th reason in more details. Yep, this book is beautifully made and I’m glad I bought this edition and not the new silver one, cause this one looks much better and cooler to me.

The cover is very interesting, which I didn’t notice when I saw it on web-site, because the picture there simply doesn’t give it justice. In real life this cover looks very cool and suits the plot very well.

Did you notice that number 13 is incorporated into title instead of some letters?

The spine looks so great on my shelf, it’s so colorful, and perhaps it’s the only bright spot on this cover which is totally fine.

At the back of the dust-jacket is my favorite quote “You can’t stop the future. You can’t rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret is to press play”

Wanna see the book naked? So here it is without the dust-jacket. Simply black but that shining spine is so neat!

The inside of the jacket has a little surprise. I love when publishers do that.

The inside of the jacket is a map of that part of the town where Hanna told Clay to go to explore.

But the book inside is very well designed too.

I like how the chapters are done. The first and last ones are different from others.

The rest of the chapters consists of the number and side of the cassette which Clay is listening at the time.

No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people.

I like how the author made sure that we will be able to separate Hanna’s voice from Clay’s by putting “play”, “pause”, “stop” signs and using cursive for Hanna’s voice.

Usually I put some of my favorite songs that go alone with the book, but with this one I don’t necessarily feel any particular song playing in my head while reading it. Perhaps it’s because there are a lot of my own thoughts as well as Hanna’s and Clay’s in my mind. But I found vintage cassette tape specifically for this post’s photos 🙂

Well, it became my tradition to show you some pages from my old diaries in “weekly something” and for this post I chose my 2013th “lazy” journal. I made post about it when I first began to write in it, and know as it’s completed, I decided to share some ideas from it with you 🙂

It’s gotten really chunky because I put a lot of stuff in it, but I try to keep it under some heavier journals and it keeps it under control, kinda 🙂
Here is the good example of where to put all that memorable junk that we don’t want to throw out and don’t want to put in our regular journal. I hoard all of that stuff in my “lazy” journal 🙂

I love monthly pages because sometimes it’s easier just to write one or two words about my day and put some appropriate stickers and it looks fun and cool.

If I have a boring day and don’t have much to write then I put some pictures from magazines I like or quotes.

Another big advantage is that you can show these “lazy” journals to others because they are not so heavily packed with private stuff as our ordinary daily journals. I think friends and relatives will be curious to look through these journals, maybe even take some quotes from them.

I even put hand-made stickers of movies and series that I watch at the moment just to remember someday of what I watched and liked. And when I buy some really cool books (which happens a lot) I stick something that reminds me of this purchase as well.

I had the same style of monthly pages in my 2012 Pony Brown, which is so fun to write in.

After monthly pages go weekly ones where I write short notes about each day or some quotes, interesting information or paste something memorable.

I print a lot of stickers of pictures and photos I really like for my journals.

As you can see I put a lot of bits and pieces from my everyday life such as postcards, receipts, tickets, etc.

What caт I say, I love “Love is…” gum and collect these cute inserts 🙂

I have friends who like to travel a lot and they always bring or send me something from foreign countries and I like to glue parts of foreign packaging and envelopes in my journals.

It was supposed to be the end of the world and I made funny note about it just to remember that day 🙂

Here I wrote the first name that I wanted to choose for my blog “I Prefer Vodka Better”  but then I decided to call it Coopik’s Blog instead 🙂

I found this idea a long time ago on WeHeartIt and decided to make something similar about my husband and how I love him more than anything I really like in my life. It’s kind of romantic 🙂

I made this pocket from some clear plastic so I can seethe contents through it.

I think I put too much of a washi tape over it but that plastic had an ugly lettering on it so I had to cover it. And you know what they say…there is nothing that washi tape couldn’t fix 🙂

I still from time to time add the new pieces in this pocket.

Well, guys, that’s it for now. I hope you liked this post, this book and journal. And I would like to say that no matter how tough and unfair our lives can get sometimes, we have to remember that if we give up, it’s never going to be better. And I think this book “13 reasons why” teaches us exactly it. And we have more than just 13 reasons to live. When it gets unbearable just pick up your journal and write a list of all things that make you feel good, that you enjoy, love and appreciate and that will be your reasons to live, to go on and there will always be more reasons to live than die.

Here is where you can stalk me on other social media 🙂
Instagram: coopik
Twitter: @kcoopik

Thank you, guys, for everything!!! You are the best!!!
I will try to post more English posts and rewrite old ones in English too 🙂
Love you all! Hugs and kisses!***
Laters, babies!!!***
P.S. Angry Pancakes is still so cute 🙂