I'm currently in CA, near San Francisco. My good friend Usakeh's mother has just died, so I have come out here to offer moral support. It's quite a blow for anyone, and harder when your mom is so young. millari is here, too, and it's been nice to spend time together. Things I like about it here: it's so sunny and mild; the gorgeous countryside of ( Read more... )

•Ran two Magic tournaments at the store this weekend. Was hoping for 32 people to play today, but only got 29. Still our biggest one yet, and I think everyone had a good time ( Read more... )

One of my goals this year was to read 50 books.  I think I made it, but I'm not sure, as I haven't kept track this year and I'm trying to remember everything I read.  Let's see, looking over my LJ, I see that I have read the following:

I started the year by reading Christopher Paolini's regrettable Eragon, and Mark Smylie's excellent Artesia books ( Read more... )

Yesterday M and I went back to Andover and celebrated the holiday with my family and hers together at the LANAM club.  It was all buffet style this year, and it created a relaxed atmosphere that made it the best Thanksgiving meal in many years.   It didn't hurt that we got there on time, for once.

Afterwards, I watched most of 2001 with my brother ( Read more... )

After some thought, I believe I know why I found the epilogue to Harry Potter 7 disappointing.  (Many others have told me that they hated it, too, but no one who's explained their dislike to me feels as I do.)  Nineteen years after defeating Voldemort, Harry (when he would be only a year younger than I am now) and his friends is seeing his two sons ( Read more... )

In 2006, I read some books, many of them at work.  I don't recall them all, but here's a list of the one's that I do:

The Translator by John Crowley. 
The Dark Tower book 7, the Dark Tower by Stephen King.
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Blankets by Craig Thompson
Why We Buy by Paco Underhill
Call of the Mall also by Underhill
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Kill the ( Read more... )

This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club.  (Not that you should take their words for it.)  Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.

1. The Lord of the ( Read more... )

When I was younger, from when I learned to read into my mid twenties, I read a lot.  Science Fiction and fantasy mostly, but I read a fair bit of history, some science fact, and other fiction, too.  I noticed last week that I don't read much prose anymore.  I read a lot of the stuff that comes into the store, of course, and unlike
( Read more... )

The Destroyer gave me two great gifts on my birthday--a brief case/new gaming satchel, and a book, The Translator by John Crowley.  It's an excellent book, and Crowley writes a suggestive book, both allusive and elusive, in which not much happens, and it's all on the small scale of a girl's life, and yet it is a deeply moving and engrossing book.  ( Read more... )