(no subject)
Rant first: I am really very bored of reading apparently seminal books about middle-aged men who are ruled by their dicks and imagine sex with every woman they encounter between the ages of 15 and 50 (once past that the woman is apparently no longer a sexual object). It's not pretty and it's not clever. Yes, I'm looking at you, Zadie Smith, Richard Ford, Philip Roth and Jonathan Franzen.
I'm reading On Beauty, and Zadie Smith is extremely frustrating. Yes, she does wonderful things with words sometimes. But I wish she'd stop talking to the reader - it throws me out of the story every time. Also, see above note regarding men. I couldn't get through White Teeth, which bored the hell out of me, but I'm persevering with this one, because she has managed to get me interested in the characters, and she's very good on culture/social observations.
Our bookcase, which has been on order since mid-January, arrived this week! It's got six shelves, fits perfectly in the corner of the living room, and it's lovely. I keep wandering up just to gaze at it in a haze of bookpornish happiness. It's also full, which is quite an achievement given that I arrived in Australia with precisely two books. Now I have no excuse to buy more second-hand books, because I have an entire shelf-ful that I haven't yet read. Mmm.
Mad friends project
I know I've been dropping little hints about this here and there. I had this mad idea before Christmas that I might write a drabble or ficlet for each person on my friend-of list (excluding journals that I'm pretty sure are dead), based largely on their interests. The current status is that I've drafted about 3/4 of them, although some of them are so crappy that I'm going to have to try again. There were about a hundred of you then, but now there are another thirty of you, and I'm starting to feel as if I'll never catch up, especially with Deathly Hallows coming out sooner than I anticipated. And I'd really like to start posting and get the majority of them out there before they're canon-shafted.
The other thing is that I don't want to impose fic on people and make them feel obliged to read it. A few people on my friendslist don't read fic, and I don't want them to feel they have to - this was intended as a challenge for me (could I write a wide variety of pairings and subjects) as well as a gift for you all. Obviously, you should never feel obliged to read anything, but adding a dedication is clearly going to guilt people.
So. If you definitely do not want a ficlet or drabble dedicated to you, please say so - or you can email me at my LJ user address. Comments are screened, and I promise I won't be offended. If you have anything else to say on the subject (even just that you think it's a stupid idea), then this is your chance - anonymously or signed.
I'm reading On Beauty, and Zadie Smith is extremely frustrating. Yes, she does wonderful things with words sometimes. But I wish she'd stop talking to the reader - it throws me out of the story every time. Also, see above note regarding men. I couldn't get through White Teeth, which bored the hell out of me, but I'm persevering with this one, because she has managed to get me interested in the characters, and she's very good on culture/social observations.
Our bookcase, which has been on order since mid-January, arrived this week! It's got six shelves, fits perfectly in the corner of the living room, and it's lovely. I keep wandering up just to gaze at it in a haze of bookpornish happiness. It's also full, which is quite an achievement given that I arrived in Australia with precisely two books. Now I have no excuse to buy more second-hand books, because I have an entire shelf-ful that I haven't yet read. Mmm.
Mad friends project
I know I've been dropping little hints about this here and there. I had this mad idea before Christmas that I might write a drabble or ficlet for each person on my friend-of list (excluding journals that I'm pretty sure are dead), based largely on their interests. The current status is that I've drafted about 3/4 of them, although some of them are so crappy that I'm going to have to try again. There were about a hundred of you then, but now there are another thirty of you, and I'm starting to feel as if I'll never catch up, especially with Deathly Hallows coming out sooner than I anticipated. And I'd really like to start posting and get the majority of them out there before they're canon-shafted.
The other thing is that I don't want to impose fic on people and make them feel obliged to read it. A few people on my friendslist don't read fic, and I don't want them to feel they have to - this was intended as a challenge for me (could I write a wide variety of pairings and subjects) as well as a gift for you all. Obviously, you should never feel obliged to read anything, but adding a dedication is clearly going to guilt people.
So. If you definitely do not want a ficlet or drabble dedicated to you, please say so - or you can email me at my LJ user address. Comments are screened, and I promise I won't be offended. If you have anything else to say on the subject (even just that you think it's a stupid idea), then this is your chance - anonymously or signed.