S.B. Howell

Author: sbhowell

  • The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

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    I don’t know how to describe this book other than to say that it’s very, uh… Vonnegut-y. If you’ve read Slaughterhouse 5 or Cat’s Cradle or ”Harrison Bergeron”, you’re familiar with Kurt Vonnegut’s unique combination of satire, pacifism, and accidental time travel. The Sirens of Titan, one of his earliest novels, features the seeds of…

  • Productivity Updates – How I’m Writing Every Day

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    I’ve been working on building the habits I started during NaNoWriMo into a daily writing practice and I’d like to show you how I’ve been keeping track of my writing goals for the month of January:

  • Ars longa, Vita Brevis: NaNoWriMo 2016

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    I did NaNoWriMo this year! Well, I participated, at least… I didn’t get to the 50,000 word mark but I did get 10,000 words down. I started off really strong the first day, slowed down on day 2, and then got bogged down for two weeks with Comp Sci homework (and then dropped that class)…

  • Trich Tips (BFRB week, pictures)

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    It’s the very end (actually the last two hours) of BFRB week. For those of you that don’t know, BFRB stands for Bodily Focused Repetitive Behavior. BFRBs include trichotillomania, an issue that I’ve struggled with since I was about seven years old. Trichotillomania is a condition of unknown origin (not sure if physical or psychological)…

  • It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

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    Mental-health memoirs are my guilty-pleasure reading for 5 reasons: Reason 1: They’re relatable. It’s comforting if you have a mental illness (or even if you just get moody sometimes) to know that someone else has had the same experiences. Reason 2: They provide insights into how to deal with mental illness. You get to follow…

  • Weekly Update #3

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    Again, not much done this week because of wedding planning and job stress. ^^; However, I got through 3 chapters of A History of Western Philosophy: The Rise of Science Francis Bacon Hobbes’s Leviathan (and a little bit into Descartes but I’ll leave that for next time…) “The Rise of Science” summarizes the work of Copernicus,…

  • All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

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    Rating: ☆☆☆☆✮ January 2016   I’ve been following Charlie Jane Anders’ career for a couple of years now, and so I was super excited when I heard that she released a science fiction/fantasy novel. She was a writer and editor at i09, a science, science fiction, and pop culture news blog. Charlie Jane Anders is also the host…

  • Weekly Update

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    Another week, another, uh… 25 pages. Oy this book goes slow! I’ve been reading A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, slowly, a couple of pages every morning. It’s kind of relaxing but I wish I could read faster and I don’t know how much of it will stick. I’m taking notes and I’m planning to…

  • But Why is the Blog Dead?

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    It’s not dead, it just looks that way…  I realize I haven’t posted in a while, and this is for two reasons: Life Stuff – I’m engaged! And we bought a house! Unpacking boxes + decorating has taken a significant chunk out of my reading time. Also Fanime happened and my parents came to visit…

  • Why do you study Japanese?

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    If you’ve ever studied Japanese at university or you’ve applied to a job that involved knowledge of Japanese, you’ve probably been asked some variation of this question: “Why did you decide to study Japanese?” On its face it seems like a simple question, but as most people who have taken Japanese in school know, the…