Weird week.
WARNING: There is a lengthy discussion/rant about books ahead. No spoilers, but it might not be interesting to those who aren't into reading.
First, Monday's no school 'cause of President's Day. Well, actually, maybe that's second. First is that Sunday I didn't go in to work because they decided to stay closed this Sunday -- what with there being no business and all. I understand why they didn't want to open, even though I wish they had opened anyway, so I could make my hours. (My paycheck's going to be piddling this week.) But then, Angelica's mom's day off is Monday so Angelica asked me to switch days with her so that she could hang out with her, so I ended up kinda making up my Sunday hours on Monday (although not all of them). So then Tuesday felt like Monday and it completely threw me off for the next few days.
In any case, I worked Tuesday night also (my regular day) and Angelica was nice enough to wait for me (I think... that was this week, right?), so we had dinner together. Then Wednesday I went home pretty early 'cause my classes end early on Wednesday and I don't work... that was nice. I got to start reading the fourth book (which I finally got in the mail!) in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. 822 pages. I finished last night at around 12:30am. I liked this one (Temple of the Winds)... better than the last one (Blood of the Fold) for some reason. I'm not quite sure why, either. And it's funny, because for the first 300 pages I kept thinking, "This is kind of boring, I'm going to put it down in a minute, just as soon as I finish this paragraph (or chapter or page or line, etc.)." And then I'd forget 'cause I wanted to know what was going to happen. And then I'd realize, again, "This is kind of boring... I'm not really in the mood to read this anymore... I'm going to put it down... just as soon as I finish this..." I've never quite felt that way before because... it really WAS a little boring!!! Nothing was really happening, no action or anything. I mean, I'm not a slave to action SF/F -- I've read lots of SF/F where I had to push through some kinda-boring technical explanations, or political intrigues, etc., that, while boring, are part of the plot and I'm so not the type to skim a part just 'cause it's boring. But with Temple of the Winds, it was the first time that I actually had the urge to stop reading and put it down, but then I'd forget.
I ended up liking the book very much. There are a few characteristics of Terry Goodkind's writing, though, that stand out in my mind and thus prevent me from naming him as one of my favorite authors (my fave SF/F authors are David Weber and Mercedes Lackey; not that their writing is perfect, I'm sure there's someone who doesn't like either of them for one reason or another). But in each one of Goodkind's books following the first one (Wizard's First Rule) annoys me just a little. There's always something in the next book that builds a new "problem" out of something that happened in the last book, while the last book's "problem" was completely solved by the end of the book. I read the transcript of one of Goodkind's interviews in which he says something about trying to make each book a complete story on its own, and also mentions not wanting to write cliffhangers because he wants the reader to read the next book because they want to, and not just to find out what happened after the end of the previous book. I guess I kind of like his intentions, but for me, it gives the book an "all wrapped up" feel that annoys the heck out of me. Even though I'm sure he plans out his plots so that the "problem" in the next book has its root in something from one of the previous books, it seems to me too much like the next "problem" was just plucked out of thin air. It's too neat and tidy, is what it is.
I guess I like books where the "problem" isn't necessarily solved at the end of the book. I mean, I don't want a cliffhanger that leaves you like... like... like Lara Croft hanging from the edge of that ledge in Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation with no idea what happens to her, if she's dead or alive, etc. But I don't like how each of the main "problems" in each of Goodkind's books is always solved completely at the end. Well, I guess that's not completely true. I suppose there is that overall problem of the war between the D'Haran empire and Emperor Jagang from the Old World, but since it's not the same type of direct conflict like in other books (mostly SF, I'd say), it doesn't have the same feel.
I guess this is really complicated, huh? I have to say that one of the things I like best about Goodkind is that he has great character development. From what I've read (and I think I've read quite a lot), male authors tend toward less character development and more plot development. I'm not saying this is how all of male authors write, just that from what I've read, this is the tendency. I like a good plot, but there deciding factor in the debate of plot development vs. character development is that I can read a book with a bad plot but good characters (and I don't mean good as in not-evil, but good as in well-developed and realistic), but I can't read ('cause I get too damned bored with) a book with a good plot but with badly developed (and very unrealistic) characters.
So, back to Goodkind: I like the fact that he has good character development and a good plot, even if it annoys me at certain times. Maybe part of the fact that his books seem to be "all wrapped up" in the end is because they are usually the length of two full-sized books. I really enjoy the fact that they're so long because long past the time when I'd have been finished with another book, one of his is still going (much like the Energizer bunny). But it makes me wonder, if he had split the books into two would it be more satisfying? Certainly, there'd be 14 books in the series now, instead of 7, which means double the amount of money spent buying those damn expensive paperbacks, but... would it have been worth it?
I think I'm thinking about this just now 'cause I just finished the 4th book (Temple of the Winds) and have just started the 5th book (Soul of the Fire). Now that I think about it, maybe that feeling like the next conflict just comes out of thin air is due to the fact that, more often than not, Goodkind picks up the next book almost exactly from where the previous book left off. It doesn't give the characters a chance to rest... and I understand that maybe he can't give them a chance to rest because they're being beseiged by evil, etc., etc., but it also doesn't give the previous book a chance to settle.
I wish I could be a book reviewer. (And get paid for it, that is.) Telling people what I think of books and getting paid to do so. What a dream.
So picking up from before the book rant, today is actually a UN holiday, so since I wouldn't be able to work there today, I skipped classes and went to work (at the UN) on Thursday and I'm working at GCS again today. It's been a few weeks since I stopped working Fridays at GCS, I didn't realize how much I missed it. Not that I miss working almost 12 hours straight with only a half-hour break for lunch every week, but I do miss coming in in the mornings, when the bosses aren't here and not many people come into the store. ::sigh::
But I told Yvette earlier in the week that if I come in today I'd only stay from opening until around 5pm. I don't want to stay the whole day when basically, it could've been a day off for me. But I decided I'm only staying until 4... I'm going out with Liz, Louie & Angelica after work to see Queen of the Damned. I've never read Ann Rice's vampire series, mostly because I picked up one of her books to read, Lasher, and it was so horribly boring that I couldn't bring myself to read anything else of hers. A few years later, I picked up Pandora and read it through, and it was good, but not anything that prompted me to go read more of Rice's stuff. Then when Vittorio came out, I borrowed it from the library and read half of it before I had to return it, and at the time I was too busy to read, so I ended up never checking it out again. So much for that attempt. I loved the movie, Interview with the Vampire when it came out in 1994, although maybe that's 'cause I was 14 and Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise looked (and still look) oh-so-scrumptious. But it was also a good movie, better probably, than if I'd read the book. From what I've heard of the series, it's something I'd like, but I just can't seem to make myself pick up one of the books. Maybe I will eventually, and then I'll go back to Angelica (who's read them all, or at least most of them) and say, "Wow, that's a really great series!" And then she'll look at me with murder in her eyes like she does when she sends me a good fic to read and I don't read it until a few months later and then I say, "Do you remember this fic? Well, I just read it and it was sugoi!!!" LOLOLOL.
Oh, so... after seeing Queen of the Damned (hopefully it won't be sold out when we get there), Louie will have to go home, but Angelica, Liz and I will probably stop by the arcade in Chinatown where Jason has promised to give us CD-Rs with the DDR 5th mix music burned on it. I can't wait. I felt like wearing my 5-inch-platform/high-heeled Mary Janes today, but I finally talked myself out of it. I think the most convincing reason was not the fact that I'd be on my feet for 8 hours at work, but that if I wore them I wouldn't be able to play DDR after the movie. It's been a while since I've played DDR (at least 3 months, maybe more), but I got back into it last Friday and I don't think I can resist anymore. I was sadly out of practice. It's sad, I think that piercing my ears had replaced playing DDR... at least the benefit was that the money I had been spending on DDR then went to piercing, instead of costing me even more money.
Maybe I should stop here before I overload the server.
First, Monday's no school 'cause of President's Day. Well, actually, maybe that's second. First is that Sunday I didn't go in to work because they decided to stay closed this Sunday -- what with there being no business and all. I understand why they didn't want to open, even though I wish they had opened anyway, so I could make my hours. (My paycheck's going to be piddling this week.) But then, Angelica's mom's day off is Monday so Angelica asked me to switch days with her so that she could hang out with her, so I ended up kinda making up my Sunday hours on Monday (although not all of them). So then Tuesday felt like Monday and it completely threw me off for the next few days.
In any case, I worked Tuesday night also (my regular day) and Angelica was nice enough to wait for me (I think... that was this week, right?), so we had dinner together. Then Wednesday I went home pretty early 'cause my classes end early on Wednesday and I don't work... that was nice. I got to start reading the fourth book (which I finally got in the mail!) in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. 822 pages. I finished last night at around 12:30am. I liked this one (Temple of the Winds)... better than the last one (Blood of the Fold) for some reason. I'm not quite sure why, either. And it's funny, because for the first 300 pages I kept thinking, "This is kind of boring, I'm going to put it down in a minute, just as soon as I finish this paragraph (or chapter or page or line, etc.)." And then I'd forget 'cause I wanted to know what was going to happen. And then I'd realize, again, "This is kind of boring... I'm not really in the mood to read this anymore... I'm going to put it down... just as soon as I finish this..." I've never quite felt that way before because... it really WAS a little boring!!! Nothing was really happening, no action or anything. I mean, I'm not a slave to action SF/F -- I've read lots of SF/F where I had to push through some kinda-boring technical explanations, or political intrigues, etc., that, while boring, are part of the plot and I'm so not the type to skim a part just 'cause it's boring. But with Temple of the Winds, it was the first time that I actually had the urge to stop reading and put it down, but then I'd forget.
I ended up liking the book very much. There are a few characteristics of Terry Goodkind's writing, though, that stand out in my mind and thus prevent me from naming him as one of my favorite authors (my fave SF/F authors are David Weber and Mercedes Lackey; not that their writing is perfect, I'm sure there's someone who doesn't like either of them for one reason or another). But in each one of Goodkind's books following the first one (Wizard's First Rule) annoys me just a little. There's always something in the next book that builds a new "problem" out of something that happened in the last book, while the last book's "problem" was completely solved by the end of the book. I read the transcript of one of Goodkind's interviews in which he says something about trying to make each book a complete story on its own, and also mentions not wanting to write cliffhangers because he wants the reader to read the next book because they want to, and not just to find out what happened after the end of the previous book. I guess I kind of like his intentions, but for me, it gives the book an "all wrapped up" feel that annoys the heck out of me. Even though I'm sure he plans out his plots so that the "problem" in the next book has its root in something from one of the previous books, it seems to me too much like the next "problem" was just plucked out of thin air. It's too neat and tidy, is what it is.
I guess I like books where the "problem" isn't necessarily solved at the end of the book. I mean, I don't want a cliffhanger that leaves you like... like... like Lara Croft hanging from the edge of that ledge in Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation with no idea what happens to her, if she's dead or alive, etc. But I don't like how each of the main "problems" in each of Goodkind's books is always solved completely at the end. Well, I guess that's not completely true. I suppose there is that overall problem of the war between the D'Haran empire and Emperor Jagang from the Old World, but since it's not the same type of direct conflict like in other books (mostly SF, I'd say), it doesn't have the same feel.
I guess this is really complicated, huh? I have to say that one of the things I like best about Goodkind is that he has great character development. From what I've read (and I think I've read quite a lot), male authors tend toward less character development and more plot development. I'm not saying this is how all of male authors write, just that from what I've read, this is the tendency. I like a good plot, but there deciding factor in the debate of plot development vs. character development is that I can read a book with a bad plot but good characters (and I don't mean good as in not-evil, but good as in well-developed and realistic), but I can't read ('cause I get too damned bored with) a book with a good plot but with badly developed (and very unrealistic) characters.
So, back to Goodkind: I like the fact that he has good character development and a good plot, even if it annoys me at certain times. Maybe part of the fact that his books seem to be "all wrapped up" in the end is because they are usually the length of two full-sized books. I really enjoy the fact that they're so long because long past the time when I'd have been finished with another book, one of his is still going (much like the Energizer bunny). But it makes me wonder, if he had split the books into two would it be more satisfying? Certainly, there'd be 14 books in the series now, instead of 7, which means double the amount of money spent buying those damn expensive paperbacks, but... would it have been worth it?
I think I'm thinking about this just now 'cause I just finished the 4th book (Temple of the Winds) and have just started the 5th book (Soul of the Fire). Now that I think about it, maybe that feeling like the next conflict just comes out of thin air is due to the fact that, more often than not, Goodkind picks up the next book almost exactly from where the previous book left off. It doesn't give the characters a chance to rest... and I understand that maybe he can't give them a chance to rest because they're being beseiged by evil, etc., etc., but it also doesn't give the previous book a chance to settle.
I wish I could be a book reviewer. (And get paid for it, that is.) Telling people what I think of books and getting paid to do so. What a dream.
So picking up from before the book rant, today is actually a UN holiday, so since I wouldn't be able to work there today, I skipped classes and went to work (at the UN) on Thursday and I'm working at GCS again today. It's been a few weeks since I stopped working Fridays at GCS, I didn't realize how much I missed it. Not that I miss working almost 12 hours straight with only a half-hour break for lunch every week, but I do miss coming in in the mornings, when the bosses aren't here and not many people come into the store. ::sigh::
But I told Yvette earlier in the week that if I come in today I'd only stay from opening until around 5pm. I don't want to stay the whole day when basically, it could've been a day off for me. But I decided I'm only staying until 4... I'm going out with Liz, Louie & Angelica after work to see Queen of the Damned. I've never read Ann Rice's vampire series, mostly because I picked up one of her books to read, Lasher, and it was so horribly boring that I couldn't bring myself to read anything else of hers. A few years later, I picked up Pandora and read it through, and it was good, but not anything that prompted me to go read more of Rice's stuff. Then when Vittorio came out, I borrowed it from the library and read half of it before I had to return it, and at the time I was too busy to read, so I ended up never checking it out again. So much for that attempt. I loved the movie, Interview with the Vampire when it came out in 1994, although maybe that's 'cause I was 14 and Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise looked (and still look) oh-so-scrumptious. But it was also a good movie, better probably, than if I'd read the book. From what I've heard of the series, it's something I'd like, but I just can't seem to make myself pick up one of the books. Maybe I will eventually, and then I'll go back to Angelica (who's read them all, or at least most of them) and say, "Wow, that's a really great series!" And then she'll look at me with murder in her eyes like she does when she sends me a good fic to read and I don't read it until a few months later and then I say, "Do you remember this fic? Well, I just read it and it was sugoi!!!" LOLOLOL.
Oh, so... after seeing Queen of the Damned (hopefully it won't be sold out when we get there), Louie will have to go home, but Angelica, Liz and I will probably stop by the arcade in Chinatown where Jason has promised to give us CD-Rs with the DDR 5th mix music burned on it. I can't wait. I felt like wearing my 5-inch-platform/high-heeled Mary Janes today, but I finally talked myself out of it. I think the most convincing reason was not the fact that I'd be on my feet for 8 hours at work, but that if I wore them I wouldn't be able to play DDR after the movie. It's been a while since I've played DDR (at least 3 months, maybe more), but I got back into it last Friday and I don't think I can resist anymore. I was sadly out of practice. It's sad, I think that piercing my ears had replaced playing DDR... at least the benefit was that the money I had been spending on DDR then went to piercing, instead of costing me even more money.
Maybe I should stop here before I overload the server.