In My Room

Really intrigued by photographer Rania Matar’s project, “A Girl and Her Room,” which features photographs of teen girls and their bedrooms from around the world. About her photographs, Matar says:

“I was discovering a person on the cusp of becoming an adult, but desperately holding on to the child she barely outgrew, a person on the edge of two worlds and trying to adjust to the person she is turning into.”

Since most of my characters tend to be teen girls, Matar’s photos made me think about their rooms and how their stuff reflects that balance between adulthood and childhood. Might be a good character exercise to write down all the things that are in a character’s room and why they’re there.

Incidentally, my bedroom as a teen was kind of a mess. I hated the pink wallpaper I’d had since I was five (not that I ever liked it) and tried to cover it up with movie posters, pictures of friends, collages I’d made, and lists of quotes I liked. Nothing came together well–probably a reflection of that childhood/adulthood dynamic.

(image: Rania Matar, via Newsweek)

Reading and Riding

In the great debate over e-readers, there’s one big con for me: you can’t see what people are reading on public transportation when they have an e-reader. Book spying is so much fun! Once I got on the T and saw a woman reading Tuck Everlasting. It made me giddy with literary companionship.

So I love the Underground New York Public Library, in which photographer Ourit Ben-Haim documents the NY subway reader-riders. It’s a fun reminder that, no matter what the panicked news articles say, there are still readers.

Click through to see more fun pictures of what subway riders are reading. Spoiler alert: The Hunger Games seems pretty popular right now. Good choice, guys!

(image: Ourit Ben-Haim, UnderGround New York Public Library)