Boredom Busters

Merry Christmas Eve!

As strange as it sounds, I have to admit that I sometimes get bored on holidays. Like on Thanksgiving after the feasting is over, or on Christmas after the present-opening and feasting is over. Then you’ve got the rest of the afternoon to . . . sleep?

So if you’re browsing blogs and sites looking for something to relieve the boredom, here are a few ideas!

Shannon Hale mentioned in her blog post this week that read.gov has put together an adventure story where each chapter is contributed by a different young adult author. So far there are seven chapters up, the last of which is Shannon’s own. I read it a couple days ago, and I can tell you it’s bizarre in a hilarious way.

I wish my kiddos were just a little older, because I think 6–10-year-olds would be rolling on the floor laughing with this story. And all the writers are so clever that adults will be captivated, too. Plus it updates every two weeks, and how awesome would that be to have a tradition of reading it together as a family whenever there’s a new segment?

Click on the photo to link straight to it. I’ve also put a link in my sidebar to remind me (and visitors) to keep checking for new installments.

The other suggestion I have for busting boredom is to check out all the fascinating articles about reading and writing to which the internet provides such easy access. I’ve been reading a lot of articles especially because my intermediate comp class informed me that our textbook is worthless, and they told me I’d be better off giving next semester’s class “real” readings — as in New York Times articles and such that we can analyze to see what factors make for good writing.

I hope spring’s class won’t mind that several of the assigned readings will be about young adult lit.

Okay, maybe I won’t actually assign all of these, but they’ve been super interesting to me, so any of you fellow readers and writers out there who might also be interested, check out Lev Grossman’s “Good Books Don’t Have to Be Hard” from the Wall Street Journal; Publishers Weekly‘s “What Do Teens Want?” survey about reading trends; Alan Rinzler’s “9 tips for successful author readings”; and Joseph Finder’s “The 14 Biggest Mistakes Even Best-selling Writers Make.” 

[UPDATE: Almost forgot! If you’re still bored after that, check out freerice.com. Anybody who loves words can get addicted to that and spend hours quizzing themselves on vocabulary. Um, I know from experience, as nerdy as that makes me. Plus, it’s for charity.]

Again, Merry Christmas! And if you’ve got any great links to share, or Christmas tips, or just whatever you feel like leaving a comment about, please do. You know, in the spirit of Christmas spirit and all. 😉

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