GeekMom discussion

Here are the questions for week 1:

In the early chapters, Jenny tells various stories about her childhood in the tiny Texas town of Wall. I related most to the stories she made up to try to make Wall more interesting. Did any of her childhood stories remind you of something that happened in your childhood?

Have you read Jenny’s blog, The Bloggess, before? Where you a fan before reading this book?

I like so many people came to The Bloggess after her "metal chicken" post and have been a fan ever since. I preordered the book and love every moment of it.

Some aspects of "living in the middle of small-town-south nowhere" definitely struck a chord as my hometown wasn't on a single state map until the 90's. Though, my thoughts and imagination wasn't nearly that twisted... at least not until I went through high school. :)

I, too, became a Bloggess fan after the Metal Chicken story. How could anyone resist her after that??

I can totally relate to her stories. I grew up in the redwoods of the CA coast in an unusual situation as well. Town was nearly 10 miles away. Half of those miles were dirt road. We had no electricity, no plumbing at all, not even an outhouse, crazy father, but crazy in a different way. My dad wasn't big on bringing dead animals home, he was more interested in tempting death himself.

My mom has already finished the book and said I should write my story. I am not sure my stories are as wild as the Bloggess' though.

I've been reading Jenny's blog off and on for the past 4 years or so. I think it was right after some sort of BlogHer conference incident where she embarrassed or mocked Dooce.

While I didn't have that same "growing up in a small town and everyone knows your business" experience because I was a military kid and we moved a lot, I did come from a large family from a small Southern town. So people that had known my parents since they were in diapers felt it necessary to tell me all sorts of stories that started out with "I remember when your momma/daddy..." as if a 7 year old really cared about those things. The only thing more fun than those are the comments about how people remember when I was just in diapers. I still get those, 40 years later, on Facebook.

A friend pointed the blog out to me earlier this year, ironically more for the depression/anxiety support than for the humor. But the humor is unbelievable. I can't read anything by her without laughing out loud at least once. Even her serious posts.

This was the first-- and so far only-- strictly "fun" book I bought for my Nook, and immediately regretted not buying a hard copy, because hard copies are much easier to share, and I keep wanting to push passages on my husband.

I read a review of it the other day that referred to how she used to go swimming in the pig-washing cistern as one of the unbelievable events of her childhood. Which made me laugh, because JUST LAST WEEK my kids totally went swimming-- well, wading-- in a farm cistern. Though that one was used mostly for cows to drink from. I appreciated the backwoodsy nature of the childhood stories, because although MY parents had come from the city so my particular homelife wasn't that, er, redneck, our town and general area was, and I don't see a lot of that culture portrayed in books and media. Well, accurately. BTW, my high school had a renowned ag/hort department, too. I never took any cow-impregnating classes there, though.

I have to admit that no, I can't really relate to her stories. I grew up in England where we simply don't have the rural backwoodsy areas where Jenny grew up, nor do we have the same culture regarding hunting etc. A lot of the upper classes go pheasent shooting but that's about it since the fox hunting ban was introduced. Instead I found her stories amazing because they are so far removed from my own childhood. The idea of swimming in a farm cistern boggles my mind, my high school had it's own private pool!

I could totally relate to making up crazy stories though. Not so much about my town which was pretty much everywheres-ville but about my school. There was a shed in the playground what was always locked and we were all convinced here was a ghost in it. We'd take turns peering through the key hole and convince ourselves we could see it.

Oh, and I also came to the blog with the metal chicken story. I've read it several times since and still ended up unable to breathe. I tried to read it aloud to my husband once and almost ended up needing an ambulance.

Yes, I lived in a small town (pop 1,000) ages 10-18 so I definitely get the backwoods feeling and odd characters. Fortunately, my parents didn't belong in the odd bin (my dad is a retired Boeing engineer and my mom is a M.Ed.) so I'm not quite so scarred.

I had never been to the Blogess website before, although I recognized the picture of the metal chicken so I'd heard the story somewhere from someone.

I have had the BEST time reading this!! Sharing some parts with my GeekHusband & laughing so much, we teared up & that made us laugh more.
I have never heard of The Blogess or the metal chicken. I feel like I might be missing something important in my life.
We do live in a rural area with approx 6,000 other people. I have not had any experiences like hers, yet. Something tells me I might not be the "cool cucumber" she is during some of her experiences.
Thank you for the recommendation!

I'm glad you found the Bloggess through us, Joan! She is really a hoot to read