The Maiden Voyage

Over the past few weeks I've realized that I need a project to work on. Unemployment has been making me stagnant and I haven't been doing the usual past times which are reading and writing. I was trying to find a way to incorporate the two in a creative way and Wednesday night I had trouble falling asleep because my mind was racing about a way to do so. I knew that I wanted my friends to be involved with this project (or whatever it was going to be) and I wanted to blog about it (I mean, it is the wave of the future, right?) Also, I didn't want the normal 30-something year old's blog that's like Bridgette Jones's Diary procreates with a Sex and the City episode. And then the light bulb went off and I decided to work on a reading/writing blog to help my creative juices flowing.
The next day I emailed 18 of my friends to send me 3-5 adjectives randomly. I didn't give them a theme or explain why I needed said words but most of them sent responses immediately and the words varied, oh how they varied.
Now the project beings.
I put all of the words in a Mason jar and every few days (or as often as I read a book) I am going to draw a slip of paper and find a book relating to whatever word I find. And then I am going to blog about said book while I am reading it and when I'm done. The main thing that I'm hoping for in this project is that I will pick up books that I don't normally read. I mean, Tim Sandlin, Dave Eggers, and Neal Pollock can only write books so quickly and I should branch out more and read more than contemporary fiction, right? Plus, I'm hoping that this will inspire a discussion about books and writing and just a general creative feel overall.
So with all this flourish, I give you post #1.

Word drawn out of the Mason jar: abusive
Courtesy of: Jen (and for that I thank you!)

Being the first book out of many (or so I hope) I had no idea where to even begin. I went to Amazon and searched for the word "abusive" and immediately lists of psychology books came up about dealing with formally abused children. I couldn't start the project with such a heavy topic or with text books. So I tried again using the Multnomah County library site and narrowed my search for just books at the Belmont location (thanks small library for helping) After sorting through a ton of self-help books I finally found Elissa Wall's Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs.
Do you remember last year when that compound of Mormons was busted into in Salt Lake City? Yeah, this girl was a part of them breaking free a few years prior. She testified in the trail against the leaders and actually lives in Oregon now. This book is going to be really interesting to me for the obvious reasons (never growing up with a religion, dating an ex-Mormon for over 3 years, fascination by cult mentality) and yesterday I wolfed down the first 50 pages without even realizing it. I am excited to read more before I go to bed tonight not just for this project but because I'm really interested in the subject matter and I am sympathetic towards the protagonist. Her described childhood (so far) is so far from what mine was and I'm interested in learning more about that and her.
So as I read on, I'll be posting updates and thoughts. I will never spoil a book in case anyone is interested in reading the same book that I am. And though I will take suggestions about further readings, I am only going off of the adjectives that were sent to me yesterday. Until then, read/write on my friends....