exceeds expectations.

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up? The ones I have read are in bold:

THE ALCHEMIST
ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND • Lewis Carroll
ANIMAL FARM • George Orwell
ANNA KARENINA • Leo Tolstoy
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES • L M Montgomery
ARTEMIS FOWL • Eoin Colfer
THE BFG • Roald Dahl
BIRDSONG • Sebastian Faulks
BLACK BEAUTY • Anna Sewell
BLEAK HOUSE • Charles Dickens
BRAVE NEW WORLD • Aldous Huxley
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED • Evelyn Waugh
BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY • Helen Fielding
CAPTAIN CORELLI’S MANDOLIN • Louis de Bernières
CATCH 22 • Joseph Heller
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE • J D Salinger
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY • Roald Dahl
A CHRISTMAS CAROL • Charles Dickens
THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR • Jean M Auel
COLD COMFORT FARM • Stella Gibbons
THE COLOUR OF MAGIC • Terry Pratchett
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO • Alexandre Dumas
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
DAVID COPPERFIELD • Charles Dickens
DOUBLE ACT • Jacqueline Wilson
DUNE • Frank Herbert
EMMA • Jane Austen
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD • Thomas Hardy
GIRLS IN LOVE • Jacqueline Wilson
THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS • Arundhati Roy
THE GODFATHER • Mario Puzo
GONE WITH THE WIND • Margaret Mitchell
GOOD OMENS • Terry Pratchett
GOODNIGHT MISTER TOM • Michelle Magorian
GORMENGHAST • Mervyn Peake
THE GRAPES OF WRATH • John Steinbeck
GREAT EXPECTATIONS • Charles Dickens
THE GREAT GATSBY • F Scott Fitzgerald
GUARDS! GUARDS! • Terry Pratchett
HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS • J K Rowling
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE • J K Rowling
HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE • J K Rowling
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN • J K Rowling
HIS DARK MATERIALS • Philip Pullman
THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY • Douglas Adams
THE HOBBIT • J R R Tolkien
HOLES • Louis Sachar
I CAPTURE THE CASTLE • Dodie Smith
JANE EYRE • Charlotte Brontë (SO MANY TIMES. favorite.)
KANE AND ABEL • Jeffrey Archer
KATHERINE • Anya Seton
THE LION,THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE • C S Lewis
LITTLE WOMEN • Louisa May Alcott
LORD OF THE FLIES • William Golding
THE LORD OF THE RINGS • J R R Tolkien
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA • Gabriel García Márquez
THE MAGIC FARAWAY TREE • Enid Blyton
MAGICIAN • Raymond E Feist
THE MAGUS • John Fowles
MATILDA • Roald Dahl
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA • Arthur Golden
MIDDLEMARCH • George Eliot
MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN • Salman Rushdie
MORT • Terry Pratchett
NIGHT WATCH • Terry Pratchett
NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR • George Orwell
NOUGHTS AND CROSSES • Malorie Blackman
OF MICE AND MEN • John Steinbeck
ON THE ROAD • Jack Kerouac
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE • Gabriel García Márquez
PERFUME • Patrick Suskind
PERSUASION • Jane Austen
THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH • Ken Follett
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY • John Irving
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE • Jane Austen
THE PRINCESS DIARIES • Meg Cabot
THE RAGGED TROUSERED PHILANTHROPISTS • Robert Tressell
REBECCA • Daphne du Maurier
THE SECRET GARDEN • Frances Hodgson Burnett
THE SECRET HISTORY • Donna Tartt
THE SHELL SEEKERS • Rosamunde Pilcher
THE STAND • Stephen King
THE STORY OF TRACY BEAKER • Jacqueline Wilson
A SUITABLE BOY • Vikram Seth
SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS • Arthur Ransome
A TALE OF TWO CITIES • Charles Dickens (i believe i was supposed to read that one in high school...)
TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES • Thomas Hardy (definitely made me want to DIE)
THE THORN BIRDS • Colleen McCullough
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD • Harper Lee
A TOWN LIKE ALICE • Nevil Shute
TREASURE ISLAND • Robert Louis Stevenson (
THE TWITS • Roald Dahl
ULYSSES • James Joyce
VICKY ANGEL • Jacqueline Wilson
WAR AND PEACE • Leo Tolstoy
WATERSHIP DOWN • Richard Adams
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS • Kenneth Grahame
WINNIE THE POOH • A A Milne
THE WOMAN IN WHITE • Wilkie Collins
WUTHERING HEIGHTS • Emily Brontë

so...22. i may not be the most well-read person in the world, but at least i more than tripled BBC's expectations. and now i've got some good ideas for my reading list in between summer and fall terms.

the grand canyon state welcomes YOU!

so this past weekend, in honor of pioneer day, i got the heck out of utah. grace, russell, and i all took a little voyage down to the motherland (actually grace's motherland is kansas but we'll just pretend here) for some good times in the searing sun.


this is where we got really lost after missing the turn-off for the 20 (cough, russ, cough). and then grace went to get directions from the lady at the gas station which we misinterpreted in thinking that the left turn coming out of the gas station counted...but it didn't. thus this picture was born where we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere developing theories about how the lady at the gas station was probably trying to kill us.


lucky for us though, the detour afforded us some very spectacular scenery.


"oh the glories of nature! what are men compared to rocks and trees!"


hello arizona.



grace also was shocked and horrified to find out that scorpions live in arizona. here's a direct quote: "there are scorpions here?! this is a civilized country! if you can eradicate malaria you can definitely eradicate scorpions!!" ooh kansans...

missions are cool...

but it's even COOLER when your friends get back!

here are two of the reasons freshman year at BYU was one of the most hilarious years of my life. i'm so glad they're back.

funny.

no clever title. i just love harry potter.

so harry potter 6=best one yet. seriously, it was really good. normally the movies are dumb and you only get excited because it's fun to go at midnight and it reminds you of how much you love the books. but this one was actually quite satisfying! witty dialogue, over-acting not quite as prevalent as in the others, generally accurate plotline, and great special effects! i want to go see it again and again! (ok maybe minus the second again. that might be pushing it.)

oh and don't worry. we dressed up and waited in line for 4 hours. because we're just that cool.

tri-wizard tournament at BYU. because everyone loves harry potter.


hermione, sexy ron, draco malfoy, and harry.


susannah casting an unforgivable curse. shame on her.


we thought it was appropriate to read harry potter while waiting for harry potter.


sweet victory and an aisle seat for the handicapable!

color update!

hey everybody, look at my gross ankle! 360 and aerial perspectives for your viewing pleasure.

i get by with a little help from my friends.

so today. aah, today. i woke up dreading the day because i knew it would involve gratuitous crutching. (i am so already not a fan of crutching.) Oral Proficiency Interview at 1:00, crutching to the library to check out a book to study, crutching to the BYU bookstore to buy a blue book, and then (the culmination of my dread and horror) crutching across campus to the testing center--the building that is quite possibly the farthest away from any building i ever go to on campus. but i am blogging now to tell you that i survived. and i know it sounds super cheesy, but as i was reflecting on my day, i realized how much i really was blessed throughout it.

first off, grace gave me a ride to school. she got done with class at 10:00 and didn't have anything to do for the rest of the day. then, i went to go have my interview and when i got done, i crutched my way down to the outside of the building where i had to take a little rest on a bench. then i started thinking, oh my gosh. how am i going to make it to the bookstore and up those stairs to buy a blue book? i didn't want to call grace and make her come all the way back to campus just to buy me a blue book. cue hopeless despair. but then, low and behold as i get up and start crutching my way over, i see grace and her shining face riding towards me on her bike. apparently her friend had called her and asked to have lunch on campus. hello answer to my prayers.

then, i went to the library to study. and i studied with the black cloud of the epic journey to the testing center over my head, wondering how i was ever going to accomplish it. a few hours later i finally got up the courage to start crutchin' again. the first leg of my journey consisted of the library to the courtyard of the JFSB. then i sat down, feeling discouraged. i decided not to look quite so pathetic by pretending to go over flash cards when all of the sudden someone sits down next to me--my good friend phil! he always makes me laugh. like, really laugh, not just polite laugh. so we had a funny little conversation and my spirits were boosted enough to make the second leg of the journey over to the SWKT where i sat my sorry little butt down on a bench and pretended to study again.

as i was sitting there again, i see another one of my friends (who, by coincidence happened to be named phil as well) who took pity on me and stopped to talk for a little bit. after this, i started crutching again. i made it to the JSB and decided it was a good place to rest my pathetic self. and not even a minute later, this random girl comes over and sits by me and starts talking, asking me if i'm going to the testing center, how i hurt my foot, telling me about how she broke her ankle awhile back and how much she hates crutches too and understands that it's super hard, and then even offering to quiz me for my test. seriously, one of the nicest random people i have ever met.

and that's when i realized, on every single leg of the horrifying journey i was dreading all day long, there was someone there to help me, to talk to me, to cheer me up, to make me laugh. and that's how i know god loves me.

america's next top model: handicapable edition

so...apparently i actually did break a bone. look how cool i am with my boot.

amy's deep thought of the day.

wouldn't it be really great if people could go to the bathroom for you? like, for example, you're sitting on your bed with your computer on your lap and you're really comfortable and don't want to move because that would require hobbling over to your crutches and then crutching your way to the toilet while your armpits and seriously over-worked left leg painfully protest. instead of doing that, you could just be like (to the person nearest you), "hey i have to pee, could you go for me? thanks!" and then, problem solved.

how to not successfully jump over a fire.

so some people and i had this really great idea to have a bonfire in the canyon and sleep outside under the stars. great idea right? right. but then we also had this really great idea to jump over the fire to get some cool pictures, because nowadays everyone thinks in terms of facebook albums. good idea too, right? wrong.

exhibit a: christian, successfully jumping over the bonfire.

exhibit b: amy, more or less successfully clearing the bonfire but then pulling a kari strugg on the landing, without the gold medal.
i was then carried (literally, princess style) to the nearby provo river in which i soaked my ankle and happy helping friends gathered around for a happy photo opportunity.

i was obviously super excited for the photo shoot.
and then people continued to cart me around like the good little handicap that i've now become.
say hello to my body's newest appendage.

and did you know that provo urgent cares are only open till 10 pm? yeah. neither did we.

ingredients for the perfect day.

1. waking up without an alarm clock.
2. laying in bed till i decide i want to get out of it.
3. eating lemon meringue pie for breakfast.
4. harry potter by the pool.

basically doing whatever the heck i want whenever the heck i want.