Maxigumee

My sister, my mother, and I went to Barnes and Noble this afternoon to search for a college book for my sister. Ana had seen a book that our friend Cecilia had purchased from Barnes and Noble that listed a kagillion different colleges, their majors, the percent chance you will get in, and a whole bunch of other collegic tidbits. I’m not really sure what my sister’s obsession with higher education is all about. I’ve said it before, and it’s probably not the last time you’ll hear me say it, anything relating to academia terrifies me. I seriously think it’s the design of educational books. Seriously. All of those PSAT, SAT, Regents, etc. review books are so butt ugly, I can hardly stand to look at them. When I see something like that, I immediately associate it with some disgusting, overachieving, school-is-my-LIFE, reeking of body odor and sweat from STUDYING HARD, school freak. (No offense, school freaks, I’m sure you’re not really like that.)

But seriously, when we finally did find the educational review, college section in the book store, I got way too excited about a book on graduate schools that actually was really well designed. I was all, “OHMIGAWSH. Ana! BUY THIS!” I hate to admit it, but I’m totally a judge-a-book-by-its-cover kind of person.

Before finding the whole exam review, collegy section of Barnes and Noble, Ana and I raided the magazine section. Lately, my sister and I are being magazine junkies. Along with being subscribed to such magazines as In Style, GQ, The New Yorker, Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart Kids, and Nickelodeon, we’re also buying a ton of them off the newsstands. Yesterday and today, my sister and I purchased Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Details, Vogue, Bizarre, and Vitals. Some people might say that we’re be obsessed. Yesterday, my sister told me that she has a magazine fetish. I think she might be right.

After picking up our pile of magazines, we searched for the exam review, collegy section. Once finding it, my sister went right to work trying to find the exact same college book that Cecilia had purchased. She was unsuccessful. I, however, did find something interesting. A series of teen novels created by SparkNotes and published by Barnes and Noble that use SAT vocabulary on each page. With good design, and a good sense of humor, I think this is a very, very clever idea for SAT review. The titles in the series include Sun Kissed, Vampire Dreams, Busted, and Head Over Heels. I bought Vampire Dreams because of its funny tagline thingy: “A thirst for blood, a taste for brunettes… and an unusually large vocabulary.”