So the other day, Mari was talking about updating the About Us section for this blog. And I went to take a look at it, and I was going to delete what I wrote and write something new when I realized that I didn't want to get rid of it. The bio, although inaccurate now, show a snapshot of eleventh grade me, and I don't want to forget her. I think she's quite cute and has grown a lot. Instead, I've decided to preserve my previous writing, (because we really need to update our bios), we could kind of do some sort of post look at how we've grown, and making fun of all the ridiculous things we wrote. So, here it is! The original post follows this paragraph. Comments by me are in this weird teal colour, and Mari's are in magenta. Enjoy!

P.E. 

I'm a teen from Canada and I've always been a big reader. When I started reviewing a few years ago, I realized right away how much I loved it. I'm one of those people with millions of ideas and things to say so I found blogging an amazing medium to interact with like-minded people. Oh hey, this isn't terrible yet. Although I'm arguably no longer a teen (what the hell is an 18 year old?). Plus, where did those millions of ideas go? Ahh, the optimism. 

Beyond books and blogging, I'm a huge hockey fan. I enjoy watching games and as my twitter followers can attest, I can be pretty passionate about it, especially when it comes to the Sens. Some things don't change. 

Like every teen nowadays, I have a few TV shows I watch religiously. The Vampire Diaries and The Games of Thrones are my current favourites. I tend to enjoy dramatic stories with fascinating characters. I also like Supernatural, Veronica Mars, and Heroes. I dropped TVD because the storyline became terrible (I hated everything about the Silas storyline, and from what I've heard recently, I'm not missing much. I still watch Game of Thrones. I watch Supernatural in bursts, and I still fangirl about it as much as I did. I even converted Mari! I like Veronica Mars, but I don't watch it anymore. I stopped watching Heroes, and my tv list now includes How To Get Away With Murder, Orphan Black, and Suits. 

When it comes to music, my tastes are constantly evolving. As of this moment I listen to a lot of house/electronic type music. I like beats, strange melodies, and how everything blends together to create and dispel tension. Some current favourites include Fedde le Grand's remix of Paradise by Coldplay, and Swedish House Mafia. My music tastes have become less electronic and more obsessive. I will listen to only one song for weeks. Then I won't listen to new music for a while. I've gotten tired of the drops of EDM and house, and build ups don't affect me like they once did. 

Looking at all my interests, it's clear to me that I enjoy drama. This extends to books; I tend to enjoy stories with a lot at stake. Oooh, totally true. 

I'm very excited to start blogging with Mari because we both have such different styles. I hope you enjoy The Sirenic Codex and thanks for visiting! Now this is a timeless statement. 

I think I haven't changed too much from grade eleven me, except for internally. I have tried to really work on my frame of mind to be more positive towards myself and control the side of me that is a perfectionist. I'm trying to realize that I do a lot of stuff well, and even if I'm not living up to my harsh expectations, I'm not screwing up. This is especially important in writing because I'm becoming more comfortable in simply stating my opinion.

Mari

An avid reader and a teen from Canada. I was first introduced to reading by my mother for which I will be forever grateful. I have been a part of the book blogging community for the past few years and have come to adore it. Book are my passion and talking about them is my favourite subject, as most of my friends can attest. Yes, they can.

Outside of reading, I'm a web surfer. History is among my favourite subjects at school and I can be found searching on anything from China's Terracotta Army to Sparta and the 300, or watching a historical movie/BBC short series. I recommend North and South! I love how focused I was about emphasizing my love for history. This is a time where I thought about history seriously enough that I applied for a Politics + History double major as one of my degree options. Looking back, I don't regret not choosing it as my degree but I appreciate the passion I had and still have for the subject which led me to using it as one of my interests. 

Standing with the Canadian stereotype, hockey is among one of the things I love most in life. Specifically, the Pittsburgh Penguins much to P.E.'s despair. Lately, the Penguins have been performing to my despair...

I have a broad horizon for visual entertainment, and will watch anything from Hollywood to Bollywood and the occasional anime and Asian dramas. But to be more specific, I watch Vampire Diaries, Revenge, Game of Thrones, and Arrow somewhat ritualistically. Now getting to the serious stuff: I no longer watch any of those shows with the exception of Game of Thrones. No ma'am, the real signs of my growth since the 11th grade till now when I'm going into 2nd year uni is my updated tv list: Game of Thrones, Orphan Black, Suits, Supernatural and Criminals Mind. 

Thank you so much for dropping by The Sirenic Codex. P.E. and I are excited to get started on this new adventure and we hope that you will come along as well. Two years and going strong!

I would agree with P.E., we haven't changed too much as people but we've definitely grown and learned much more about ourselves and our surroundings. We still twitter fight each other over politics and pretty much everything else. P.E.'s taste in articles has grown from long to never ending and my attention span of a pea has shrunk to size of a grain of sand, but otherwise all is well on The Sirenic Codex!

Thank you to all our followers for being with us these past 2 years. Some have been along for the entire ride and others have jumped on along the way. You are all amazing and have made us smile many times over with your sweet comments. We gobble them all up.

-MARI + P.E.

I wonder if I'm ageist.

It's quite possible I am, because I have absolutely no interest in books featuring characters too far in age or circumstance unrelated to my own. My friends at university will talk about a brilliant story about a lady that does blah blah blah and all I can think is that I really don't care.

Maybe I'm some kind of hybrid live-in-the-moment type, because for as far as I can remember, I read books about people in my age range. I always read a little higher, because the arrogant 'mature' asshole that I am, but not too far. So far, it has worked for me. I read about middle school while in elementary school, high school while in middle school, and yet this chain broke when it came to college because I struggled to find any book about the college experience that contained the same enchantment of YA.

This could explain my recent obsession with fantasy. In fantasy worlds, people are my age, and yet they do not live in my system. I don't need to read about high school, a period of my life that I actually enjoyed, but that I'm over. I don't know how to find books about college that are about magic and fun and saving the world, not about sex and romance.

I suppose the latter are important parts of this age, but I would like to see that they exist along with a whole new variety of books.

Maybe these books exist, and I don't know about them. I would like that to be true.

College has been an experience that, for the most part, I have lived rather than read about. It is awesome and scary, and yet the personal growth college demands has been so extraordinary and above anything else. It also means that to read about college, beyond some Gossip Girl type stories of debauchery (which I have nothing against, btw), I have to brave the adult section.

Fun fact: I have never braved the adult section. I've walked into the adult section and picked up a book I heard about in the YA world, but I've never actually looked at adult books and felt like I belong.

It's weird, this concept of an adult section. There are picture books, and MG, and YA, and all of these ideally cover less than a decade of life with the stories about these age ranges, or the themes prevalent in them. And then there's the adult section, which covers everyone else.

That is terrifying. It is utterly terrifying. How am I supposed to know where to look for the books I want to read?

This could plausibly call for an emergency phone call to Mari. Credit to acklesdean from Tumblr!

The teen section at my library is about three or four large bookcases. It is one of the better selection of books in the city, and I love it. And the adult section is probably larger than ten times this amount of books, and it is so incredibly daunting for someone simply trying to read more fantasies and urban stuff about people in their late teens or early twenties.

It's probably part of the reconciliation process of growing up to realize that there are people that will inevitably begin to have children and that's an important part of their lives, but as it stands, I can't imagine reading a book about having a child. I know those books exist in YA too, and I have avoided them. I also can't imagine reading about marriage as the major plot, because I'm jaded, and because that, again, feels so far away.

It was at this moment, staring at the shelves upon shelves of books designated for adults that I realized how much I need new adult. And by that, I mean that I need new adult to be about new adults. I want fantasies with new adults (Oh my god, thank you Sarah J. Maas), and I want paranormals. I want us to go to space. I want to read about internships, and oh my god a magical university, can you imagine it?

This is not me leaving YA. I am as addicted as ever to stories of magic and intrigue, and I still read about older teens. Like, I'm 18. I'm not a dinosaur.

I'm just enchanted with the excitement of being 18, and knowing that anything can happen, and getting a real taste of independence, and the fear and excitement all this brings. I think the sense of possibility, of coming into your own when you are 18, of the world expanding and contracting depending on your mood that day, when you realize your decisions have consequences, and you start to realize that you can actually make it, when you stop dreaming about who you will be and start deciding who you are, well, the romantic in me loves this.

I want these stories, and I don't know how to find them. Please help me and recommend books you recommend for eighteen year olds, or about college-aged people.

Merci.

-P.E. 

A discussion with P.E. and Mari.

P.E.: I watch so much tv nowadays. More than I ever used to. I would say this is common for most college students, if the number of yaks praising Netflix are accurate. What would you say Mari?

MARI: #NETFLIXISLIFE and I understand why. With all the textbook reading it's no wonder there are not many braincells left that are willing to read; even for fun. Netflix kicks in at this point and offers fun without the use of brain. Nevertheless, I'm always pleasantly surprised on my bus rides to school where I see a great many people reading, digitally or using a hard copy book. Readers are a small community and we always go back to reading despite pit stops on Netflix and youtube.  On the other side of the spectrum, there are many more college students who have never picked up a book for fun and so to me that explains the yaks.

Gimme Netflix

P.E.: I think the fact that my commute is walking kills my time to read, because now I'm constantly going from campus to rez. And c'mon, these are college students. Have some faith. For me, it's really like you said. I  just read seventy pages of political science readings. I can't look at another word on the page. I can't. I need my brain to shut down. 

I'm starting to miss books though, like you said, to the point where I'm considering trying just ten minutes before bed. Having that other world to be excited about is so important for who I am. 

MARI: On the bright side, I don't think it's all sadness and dying kittens (I like puppies). People find other passions in university. I wouldn't pick up an economics book if you were to hit me over the head with one before I took economics. But now I find that I am fascinated with the subject and would appreciate reading more about it.

Similarly, I think you've come to find some academic reads that you enjoy. As long as your reading, I don't think it matters what your reading.

P.E.: You are seriously missing out. I did like 1/4 of a unit on monetary relations and now I feel like the shit when I read an article about currency and what that means for exports/imports/capital controls/interest rates and stuff. It's one of those things that is so easily applicable to day-to-day life. /end of P.E.'s economics love rant

And I disagree. Academic reading is different. I never realized how stylistically dry it was until I read an academic text that had metaphors and imagery and fun word play. Goddamn it academia, make your writing more interesting! I think fictional books that you pick for yourself are just so nice. School is making them novel, like little treats too, and I'm so psyched for next week when I get back home and raid the library.

Mari: Rein it in there buddy. My experiences have not been so terrible and I read books to procrastinate still :) I have experienced only two super dry textbook and those were both university custom edition. Overall, I understand others' struggle. I'll keep you in my mind when I go back to reading Mortal Heart by Robin Lafevers! (It's so good!)

Has College put a damper on your reading? 

and most importantly 

What, if anything, are you reading?

I'm going to college soon and I've had some difficulty finding books about starting college or even about college life. So, naturally, being the blogger that I am, I decided to make a list of books about college that I've read. I've asked Mari to help because this is quite a difficult reading list to make.

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

How in the world do you have a college reading list and not include Fangirl? Frankly, you don't. This is probably my favourite book of this list and stuff like move-in day really resonates with me. It's a book I'm going to keep in mind when things go wrong, and I think it's a must read for any college bound student.

Congratulations! You have been admitted to the most prestigious university in the world. Now what are you going to do?

Callie Andrews may not have money or connections or the right clothes, and she may have way too many complications in her love life, what with

Gregory
the guy she loves to hate ...

Evan
the guy she'd love to forget ...

Clint
the guy she'd love to love ...

and Matt
the guy she really should love ...

all vying for her attention.

But she has three fantastic roommates (best friends or her worst nightmare?) and a wholesome California-girl reputation (oops) and brains and beauty and big, big dreams.

Will it be enough to help her survive freshman year at Harvard?

I'm hoping against hope that this isn't what college will be like. It's fun to read about, (and I did give this one to a friend a while back) but I wouldn't want to live like Callie does. Except, well, going to Harvard sounds super cool. I'm just not too crazy about the party lifestyle, although my future school does have a bit of a reputation seeing as the legal drinking age is 18... I guess I'll have to remember that four boys is way too many. I'll be reasonable and pick three. :)

For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions--it's her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family's racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin's college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter . . . so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment?

Then, on the day she's sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He's joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin's heart with longing. Now she's not just imagining what might have been. She's writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter. . . . except this story could come true.

This book is strange in the sense that it's exactly what I would want: a business major that is paid for, but I guess Erin would rather write. There's nothing wrong with that, except that I'm incredibly jealous of her. Ahem. Anyway, this one is much more of a romance, and I liked it when I read it. It's not a story very relevant to my situation, so it may not be all that useful for college.

After everything that happened—my first boyfriend, my first time, my first breakup—jumping back into the dating game seemed like the least healthy thing I could do. It’s not that I didn’t want to fall in love again, since that’s about the best feeling ever. But as a busy college premed still raw from heartbreak, which is the worst feeling ever, I figured I’d lie low for a while. Of course, as soon as I stopped looking for someone, an impossibly amazing—and devastatingly cute—guy came along, and I learned that having a new boyfriend is the quickest way to recover from losing your old one.
The moment we got together, all my preconceptions about romance and sex were turned upside down. I discovered physical and emotional firsts I never knew existed. I learned to let go of my past by living in the present. It was thrilling. It was hot. It was just what the doctor ordered.
But I couldn’t avoid my future forever.
In Daria Snadowsky’s daring follow-up to Anatomy of a Boyfriend, eighteen-year-old Dominique explores the relationship between love and lust, and the friendships that see us through.

This one is for all those pre-med wanna be's out there (I'm one). This one is a fun look at university from the perspective of a freshy after she gets past the introductory lessons and heart breaks. This one focuses a lot on the sexual relationships that arise as the characters depart from their parents and grow into adults who can decide for themselves and then also pay for the consequences on their own. An interesting outlook and a fun read.

When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a breakup two months into sophomore year. After two weeks in shock, she wakes up to her new reality: she's single, attending a state university instead of a music conservatory, ignored by her former circle of friends, and failing a class for the first time in her life.
Leaving a party alone, Jacqueline is assaulted by her ex's frat brother. Rescued by a stranger who seems to be in the right place at the right time, she wants nothing more than to forget the attack and that night - but her savior, Lucas, sits on the back row of her econ class, sketching in a notebook and staring at her. Her friends nominate him to be the perfect rebound.
When her attacker turns stalker, Jacqueline has a choice: crumple in defeat or learn to fight back. Lucas remains protective, but he's hiding secrets of his own. Suddenly appearances are everything, and knowing who to trust is anything but easy.
This was the first and one of the only NA novels I loved. Easy is set in a university environment and captures many details of university life which makes a curious Mari very happy. There are dorms and lectures and TA's! I really enjoyed this one not only does it tell an interesting story with some darkness in the edges but it also highlights university life in a way not many other books do.

Allyson Healey's life is exactly like her suitcase—packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem. A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson’s life.
A book about love, heartbreak, travel, identity, and the “accidents” of fate, Just One Day shows us how sometimes in order to get found, you first have to get lost. . . and how often the people we are seeking are much closer than we know.
The first in a sweepingly romantic duet of novels. Willem’s story—Just One Year—is coming soon!

Just One Day isn't my favourite of Gayle Foreman's work but it does stand on its own. I really liked seeing the healing and growth process that the main character went through after her initial "day". Also, one thing that I think this book carried through quite well is that everything doesn't always go as planned because life cannot be lined up in a perfect row and planned out. Things change, people change and we have to be able to see that. (So deep :P)

What's On Your College Reading list?

-P.E. and MARI