And I Know This Is the Book I Write

I had to sign up for a blog/Google account in order to do this project for my Mass Comm class. I don't really need to use it, since I already have a LiveJournal, 2 Xangas, a personal journal, a MySpace, and an old, defunct Blogspot, but I couldn't very well just pass it up. I'm a blogger by nature. I love to blog.
So what could I possibly do with this one? Not another journal-type thing: if I have something worth sharing to write, then in goes in the LJ, and if I don't want to share it, that's what I have my personal journal for. So what in the world will be done with this one?
Well, I'll tell you.

If you know me at all, then you probably know that stories are a very integral part of my life. I see everyone as a character. Sometimes, I'll formulate sentences to describe them in my head, like I'm mentally writing the Story of My Life. I share stories about everyone I know with everyone else I know because I want them to know the same characters I do.
I see every event in my life as a plot point.
Every time I see a new film or read a new book, if it impresses me even a little bit, then I absorb its characters and their stories so that they become a part of my own. So I'm not just Grace McClellan. I'm Grace McClellan, and I'm a bit of Jo March and Elizabeth Bennet and Jack Sparrow and Peter Pan and Bridget Jones and Pam Beesly and Ferris Bueller and Sabrina Fairchild and Jiminy Glick and Edward Bloom and Lorelai Gilmore and Hermione Granger...does that make any sense? Every time I meet new characters and learn their stories, it helps to make me just a little more complete. That sounds fruity, doesn't it? I can live with that.
It's the same thing with music, really. Because most songs have a story, and if they don't, then you can usually create one, because hearing is one of the senses that is best at evoking memories. So even if you don't have a story for a song when you first hear it, you may hear it ten years later, and one will pop into your head because of what was happening in your life when you first heard it. There's a story in everything, I'm telling you.

So, what I'm saying, and what this has all been leading up to is that I am going to use this Blog as a film/literature/television/music recommendation site. I want you all to be inspired to read and see the things I do, to have these experiences, and know these characters. I wouldn't write these things out for me--I've experienced them; it would be pointless. I just really hope that one of you will read a recommendation and say, "Hey, that sounds kind of amazing, maybe I'll have a go at it." And if one person reads one book or sees one movie and really falls in love with it, then that would just make my life. And I would be proud of myself, and proud of the person, and all would be well with the world.
So that's what this is. My mediocre attempt at making the world a better place by imposing my views on film and literature upon others. : )
I'll probably start posting tomorrow or the next day, so keep a weather eye.

(P.S. Just so we all know, I did, in fact, steal this reviewing idea from one Mr. Christopher Fox, and his Fox Books Xanga site. Sorry, pal.)

And, in case you were wondering, the title of this blog comes from the closing lines of "Stranger Than Fiction," a fantastic film about which I will probably write at some point.
"As Harold took a bite of Bavarian sugar cookie, he finally felt as if everything was going to be ok. Sometimes, when we lose ourselves in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can thank God for Bavarian sugar cookies. And, fortunately, when there aren't any cookies, we can still find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin, or a kind and loving gesture, or subtle encouragement, or a loving embrace, or an offer of comfort, not to mention hospital gurneys and nose plugs, an uneaten Danish, soft-spoken secrets, and Fender Stratocasters, and maybe the occasional piece of fiction. And we must remember that all these things, the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties, which we assume only accessorize our days, are effective for a much larger and nobler cause. They are here to save our lives. I know the idea seems strange, but I also know that it just so happens to be true."