Being Geek Chic is a blog for stylish geeks, sophisticated nerds and people who enjoy the musings of a complete dork. Join us as we dream of driving the TARDIS, cuddle with our eBooks and test out an iPad sleeve. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi and a team of brilliant lady nerds. Meet the team.
Meet Emily Farquharson (aka Frogmella, @frogmellaink on Twitter). She’s the co-founder of Geek Girl Pen Pals, a wonderful online community of geeks who write letters to other geeks. On the 15th of every month, Emily and her comrade Leslie match all participants with a pen pal so they can write, tweet, and bleat to each other.
Farquharson also makes up one half of House of the Fickle Queen, an über cute jewelry and accessories store inspired by pop culture. Using a combination of upcycled old jewelry she’s been collecting for years and armed with her wits, some pliers and access to a laser cutting machine and the Internet, Farquharson and her pal Ms. Firth create whimsical and charming pieces, totally fit for a chic geek.
So read Farquharson’s interview with Being Geek Chic and discover her passions, advice, memoir title, and geeky crush…
Q: What led you to your passion?
A: Oh so many things! From a very, very young age I read whatever I could get my hands on. By the time I was 8 I had read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Hobbit and pretty much everything Roald Dahl wrote for children, which set my imagination off and opened up so many other doors. I also loved art a lot as a young one, particularly Dali and Picasso, which lead me to painting, drawing and generally being crafty. I am very lucky to have wonderful parents who did nothing by encourage me to explore, learn, read and it is something I have taken with me through my life. I am passionate about so much, not just books and art, but music, fashion, films and television, comics, science, baking and food, travel, ancient history, animation and more. I could fill a book with the things I am passionate about, because they have all shaped me into who I am in some way!
Every May I start loading up my bookshelf, or rather my Kindle these days, with my summer reads. I always start out really ambitious and then somewhere along the way some books get read and others don’t. However, I’ve tried to keep my list tight this summer so I can get it all done. Here’s what I’m reading:
Attempting Normal by Marc Maron
Confession: I already started reading this one this weekend. I’m a religious listener of Marc’s WTF Podcast and I’m one of the few that apparently doesn’t fast forward through his intro. Don’t judge me, but I’m really not a fan of cats. Love Marc anyway. I even love hearing about his cats. Yeah, he’s that funny.
Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer
The folks at Twelfth Planet Press sent me this book and I’m eager to read it. They’re an independent publishing house specializing in speculative fiction. I’m happy to report that independent publisher’s seem to be alive and well.
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye
My fellow Baker Street Babe wrote this book last year and I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m just getting to it now. If you love Sherlock Holmes stories, you need to check out her books.
Positron: Episodes 1-3 by Margaret Atwood
Do I even need to say anything? Atwood is a goddess. With all three Positron episodes now available as a set, I’m jazzed to check these out.
The Savant by Jack El-Hai
Jack is one hell of a writer and a great friend of mine. If you love real science stories that SEEM like they could be science fiction, then you need to check out his books.
What are you going to be reading this summer? Have you read any of the books I’ve listed here?
P.S. Tidal Wave Girls was featured on Jezebel yesterday. Yes, I did a big of a jig.
After years of occasionally flirting with the Kindle app on my iPad, I’ve officially moved on to the Kindle Paperwhite. Let’s just say, my eyes have never been more pleased. Oddly, I’m also relieved. Here’s why: I don’t think paperbacks are sustainable for my lifestyle anymore.
I wish it wasn’t the case. There’s something beautiful and romantic about the tactile experience of holding a new book in your hands and turning those pages. Somehow, I know I will mourn the loss of it in my life. Unlike CDs, which I have never missed since getting my first mp3 player in 2004, the physicality of a book seems personal. But practicality ultimately wins out for me and here’s the three key reasons:
1. I don’t own a McMansion. As a city dweller, I just don’t have the space. When you choose to live closer to the city, your home is ultimately smaller. There’s no “study” in my place and the number of bookshelves one home can accommodate has reached its maximum. In fact, my most recent storage effort involved “stacking” the books in a corner, but when the books got to be four and a half feet tall, I realized it was also a safety hazard.
2. My library is digitally accommodating. If you haven’t asked your library about their digital loan program, you really should. Sure, the selection may be smaller and occasionally the wait times are longer, but it turns out that most libraries know they need to offer this service and are eager to talk with patrons about how to make it work to everyone’s benefit. I’ve even asked my local library if they could get certain books and they’ve been able to acquire them for me. It never, never hurts to ask. On top of this, just think of the possibilities when it comes to interpersonal loans as well. With Amazon, I can lend a book to a friend without the fear that I’ll never see it again.
3. Research has never been easier. I’m in the very beginning of stages of a new documentary project and while I never thought this would be a key reason why I ultimately made the jump to 100% digital reading, it has actually been the turning point. Keeping notes, saving key phrases and sharing important passages is easier and simpler than my previous process. The idea of sitting with a book, highlighting passages, writing notes on a post-it and then scanning everything to send as a PDF in an email seems ludicrous to me. Now, I simply read and save a bunch of passages as I go and export them to my email when I’m done.
Have you made the jump to exclusive eReading? What are the key reasons whys? Is it the environmental impact? The low eBook prices?
Every summer, I pile a stack of books next to my spot on my beloved couch. This becomes my “summer reading list” of sorts. Most summers, I stick to that pile. This summer, I took a weird left turn.
I intended to read Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir) By Jenny Lawson aka the Bloggess, The Magician King: A Novel By Lev Grossman and Imagine: How Creativity Works
I know this is an unpopular method, but hear me out. There are HUNDREDS, no THOUSANDS, of brilliant books that will capture your heart and mind. There is no reason to keep reading a book that you don’t love. I know, I know. You’re in a book club. Well, SKIM.
I was a little bummed that I didn’t love taxidermy stories as much as I thought I would - but it ended up being OK, because I had other books to read. Just as I was about to move onto The Magician King, Nora Ephron died. I was suddenly ashamed of myself… My friend Jeff had given me one of Nora’s books months ago and I still hadn’t cracked the cover. So, The Magician King would have to wait.
I inhaled I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections. It was funny and honest and not my usual “type” of read, but it was brilliant. I started working backwards from there. Despite the fact that I don’t actually feel bad about my neck (yet!), I still loved I Feel Bad About My Neck. This passage, in particular, was like discovering a nugget of gold. I already knew it - I just hadn’t held it before. It was real to me. It was now my truth.
“Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. Reading is the unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that’s all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is bliss.”
I had always loved Nora’s movies, which is why it’s so baffling that I didn’t dive into her books sooner. If for no other reason than because she so thoroughly understood what I loved about reading books (including hers) in the first place.
So now I’m back at The Magician’s King. (Admittedly, I took a minor detour this weekend and read Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, because I can’t ever seem to get enough Gaiman…)
I’ve decided to toss out Jonah Lehrer’s book, because if you’re going to make shit up, call it fiction. It’s really that simple for me.
How’s your summer reading going? Do you have rules for when you will stop reading a book? Has your reading list taken any detours?
Carolynn Duncan (@hundreddollar on Twitter), our Lady Geek of the Week, packs an impressive resume. She’s the CEO and Marathon Program Facilitator of Portland Ten, an education company which runs and licenses financial literacy programs for entrepreneurs and business leaders across the country, AND she’s the CEO of Founder Training Center, a business education company which helps emerging entrepreneurs and business owners sharpen their business skills.
She’s got a lot on her plate, but she took some time to answer some questions about her work, geekiness, dreams, and schemes.
Q: What has led you to your passion?
A: Continuously making conscious, focused choices about how I spend my time daily and annually, in order to grow in areas that make effective use of my abilities in ways I hope result in good outcomes within my life and toward the networks/people/circles/organizations I’m connected with & have responsibilities toward serving. This approach has gotten me through transitions like starting as a liberal arts undergrad to finding my first jobs in social work to teaching ESL to learning business management to studying high growth entrepreneurship to working in venture funding to teaching tech entrepreneurship to now working in social venture/philanthrocapitalism, in a very short period of time (6 years), and I think it was the decision to explore a variety of interests rapidly while building skills along the way, until I found things I am totally enthralled by that are also core to my lifelong interests/mission.
Q: What inspires you in the world?
A: Ideas, people, places, problems - injustices to, and suffering within, vulnerable populations in particular, possibilities, barriers (how they can be overcome), music - all great/lovely forms of music, growth, opportunity, and most importantly, my close friends & family (and cat!). Taking whatever’s available within close proximity and trying to make more from it, or of it, than it is currently or can become without some imagination/effort.
Q: First time you realized you were “geeky?”
A: It’s sort of a continuous realization that happens when I compare/contrast my favorite/usual activities (working on spreadsheets, analyzing data, researching interesting ideas, hacking on projects, obsessing about learning new things in my technical areas of expertise - finance, investment, software, business, technology, etc.) with the majority of others a) in my age group (31) and/or b) in the US at large: hanging out, going to dinner, going to the movies, watching TV, shopping, etc. It’s not that I don’t enjoy those activities as well, it’s just that given the choice, I literally would rather spend 3 days in a row doing exclusively geeky things, and everything else seems like an interruption to when I can get back to doing things I enjoy the most. As a young girl, my obsession first reading (any book I could get access to) then music (piano, then violin, then singing, then viola, then cello); as a teen it was language (first English literature, then Spanish, then Russian, then German), etc. So this has been a lifelong trait… ;)
Q: What would you tell you 13-year-old self?
A: Pace yourself. You’re on a wild, epic rollercoaster of life and the next several years may not be the best of the whole experience overall, but you definitely won’t want to miss what comes next, so stay tuned. And try to care a little less about what the assholes in your junior high class think, about anything/everything, as they’re totally wrong on all levels.
Q: “I admit it—I’ve never seen/read/experienced: ____”
A: I’ve never traveled abroad - yet! That seems unusual because I work with many people who are 1-3 decades older than me, who’ve all traveled to many interesting places - Egypt, Israel, Samoa, England, Russia, Denmark, Ireland, India, etc. - and I’ve yet to do so. Look forward to remedying this one in the near future!
Thanks to Edward Borasky for nominating this week’s Lady Geek! Do you know someone worthy of Lady Geek of the Week? Send her name and her website (or blog or Twitter account) to emma@beinggeekchic.com.
(Photo credit: Devon D’Ewart Hyatt)
Post by Emma Bauer, who works as BGC’s official intern. Clearly, she’s got great taste. She is a PR enthusiast, history scholar, tea drinker, fashion devotee, and of course, aspires to Be Geek Chic. On twitter: @emmalynnbauer
After the better part of a decade, I just found out that a good friend of mine is cousins with my high school English teacher. Whether it is the coincidence itself that is stranger, or the fact the revelation just occurred to us, I can’t decide. Either way, it inspired this post.
Books to re-read after high school
Note: if you did not read one, or more, of these titles in High School stop reading this blog immediately and go to the library, read the book, and then write a letter to your local representative urging them to fix the educational system in this country.
I do believe I am the only person alive that didn’t get that Holden Caulfield is crazy. Then again, that could be because I read it when I was 11.
Because it’s hilarious and the fact that you’ll pick up on the jokes without your English teacher drawing a map will make you feel super smart.
I hated this book (I know: bad English major, bad). When I read P&P at 15 it was easy for me to scoff at the supposed plight of Elizabeth Bennett and the “tragedy” of not finding a husband. At 22 (having been forced to re-read it for a class), with a little more history, in terms of academics and years, I was able to realize that it wasn’t about a husband, wedding, or even marriage. Landing a man at the time the book is set, was often the only way to have a home. I still hate the book, but the re-read helped me appreciate the prose and the plight.
Reading this for the first time is a lot like losing your virginity; it’s awkward, complicated, and doesn’t quite meet your expectations. Read it again and it’s still complicated and heavy, but the imagery, symbolism, and themes are like the big O you were waiting for.
Whatever your favorite book was
Chances are, if you’re reading this blog, you’re a reader (see how I worked that one out all on my own?) so think back to whatever was your favorite, or your first, book that didn’t have pictures in it. For me, I re-read That Was Then, This Is Now
What’s your MUST re-read?
Miss Mollie Estelle is a smart cookie and you really don’t want to take her on when it comes to crossword puzzles. She is addicted to thinking, reading, fashion, friends, nail polish and french fries. She puts pens in her boots and, in search of the world, carries a big purse. She has been a devoted reader of BGC since its birth, and is constantly working at Being Geek Chic. You can follow her on Twitter: @mollieestelle
