What I Happen to Be Reading At the Moment
"A thirteen-year-old is a kaleidoscope of different personalities, if not in most ways a mere figment of her own imagination. At that age, what and who you are depends largely on what book you happen to be reading at the moment.”
While not 13 anymore, the desire to read almost anything and everything in order to read for fun and for experience is still around. I'm currently working on my PhD in a physical science, but I love to read and books are one of my non-science hobbies.
How to Build a Girl
The introduction tried to make it obvious that the main character, Johanna, is not the author (Caitlin Moran), but frankly, it's just the same difference between Nancy Mitford's novels and her own family's biography. There are parts so heavily lifted from Moran's young life (growing up poor on a council estate and a juvenile love of "self abuse") previously discussed in her other books, [b:How to Be a Woman|10600242|How to Be a Woman|Caitlin Moran|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405909800s/10600242.jpg|15507935] and [b:Moranthology|15726395|Moranthology|Caitlin Moran|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1340899303s/15726395.jpg|21403525], that it's obvious where a lot of the inspiration comes from. The Johanna's voice is even startlingly similar to Moran's tone in her columns. That being said, where art fails to imitative life might be some of the more interesting parts. Really, this novel boils down to the expression of a fantasy that every young, awkward, plump, nerdy girl has: finding your niche and also trying on being someone else for a while. It's interesting in that regard, but, as with Nancy Mitford, I prefer the non-fiction to the fiction (even if that line is throughly blurred).
