Computer! Sims! Books! OMG YAY!
I am coming to you LIVE from my new laptop notebook! Woooo!
Because I am a total technophobe, I have thus far mostly admired her beauty and sleekness. Her name, btw, is Sabrina. I am just now sort of kind of exploring her innards.
And last night, I played The Sims. OMG SIMS. First I did the tutorials, and lemme tell you it is v.v.v. difficult to move the camera around to keep your Sim in sight. "Send Joe outside for a newspaper" -- Okay, but where's the damn door? Now he's outside but um, standing in the road! How do I see the front of the house? ARGH. Um, yeah, I did that tutorial three times. I am soooo lame.
Also, the build a house tutorial? So hard. I don't think I'll ever be able to build my own house. :(
Then I played with the Goths. I think I kept on top of things pretty well -- eg. nobody peed their pants or vomited. However, Mortimer Goth seemed to get into a spate of uncontrollable weeping that I couldn't stop. I did marry off Cassandra Goth to Don (marrying him was one of her Wants, and got me lots of points) and then Don - the cad - kept spinning up wants to woohoo with other Sims. So, well, I had him invite Nina over. And flirt with her. Which is exactly when Cassandra showed up from work and kicked his ass out. Heh. I LOVE THE SIMS.
Soooo anyway, hopefully now I'll be able to rejoin my flist and actually actively comment, instead of saving things and going back a week later to throw in my two cents. As long as the Sims don't eat my life.
Also?
18. Weaveworld by Clive Barker
Re-read. It's hard to explain Clive Barker's work, because any explanation sounds like the biggest crackfic you've ever read. This one is about a subset of humanity who have what us normals would call magic, and who are persecuted by both us and a paranormal entity who is determined to wipe them out. In near-defeat, they work a final magic that imprisons them in the guise of a rug until such time as their guardian determines it is safe to unweave the magic. But it's never safe, and when the unweave happens they are thrown back into being hunted. The magic of Clive Barker is that he makes this scenario sound utterly plausible. His characters, male and female, are always strong yet flawed. I think he's one of the best storytellers in the world today.
19. The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
Re-read. This is actually more of a young adult book. I re-read it in one shift at work, and then was reminded why I hadn't read it more than once when I got it. An easy read, but a great way to start out a youngster on Clive. Gonna donate this one to the yard sale.
20. Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs
This was lent to me by my friend Jehn, who said she knew I'd love it. She was right. Now, I don't know anything about Augusten's life -- well, I know that it was harrowing but I haven't read "Running With Scissors" yet, so don't spoil me! -- yet he's able to write about it, and his subsequent alcoholism, with such wry humour. I'm sure it must be this humour that enabled him to survive it. I'm definitely going to pick up anything else he's ever written.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Found out just after I read this that it had won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. Which makes me really wish I'd liked it more. I didn't find the style jarring -- except for the lack of quotations marks, which annoyed me because there seemed no reason for it -- but I did find the stupidity (for lack of a better word) of the main character jarring. And that's not to say that I didn't understand it (his fears, his need to protect the boy, his sense of loss all conspiring to cloud his judgement) but I just felt that the whole thing was so heavy-handed. "Look, dear reader," it seems to say, "see how the boy is so much more astute/compassionate/clear-headed than the man." I had the same problem with some of the "shocking" moments, which honestly did seem as though they were there simply to shock and for no other reason. And lastly, well... this is going to seem horrible. But I tended to look at things, um, practically. But there is one scene where the man finds an old dried out fowl and the inside flesh is still good, and they eat it. And you know, I'm thinking there's lots of dead bodies in the city. ... What? They're ALREADY DEAD. Hunting/killing/stalking/imprisoning live survivors - wrong. Treating an already long dead body the same way you would an already long dead fowl and staying alive to live another day in a nuclear blasted world -- pretty much okay in my book. Probably that soccer team that crashed in the Andes would agree with me. :D (Actually, if it was me, I'd kill myself. Who'd want to live in that world?)
Book Count: 21 of 50
.
Because I am a total technophobe, I have thus far mostly admired her beauty and sleekness. Her name, btw, is Sabrina. I am just now sort of kind of exploring her innards.
And last night, I played The Sims. OMG SIMS. First I did the tutorials, and lemme tell you it is v.v.v. difficult to move the camera around to keep your Sim in sight. "Send Joe outside for a newspaper" -- Okay, but where's the damn door? Now he's outside but um, standing in the road! How do I see the front of the house? ARGH. Um, yeah, I did that tutorial three times. I am soooo lame.
Also, the build a house tutorial? So hard. I don't think I'll ever be able to build my own house. :(
Then I played with the Goths. I think I kept on top of things pretty well -- eg. nobody peed their pants or vomited. However, Mortimer Goth seemed to get into a spate of uncontrollable weeping that I couldn't stop. I did marry off Cassandra Goth to Don (marrying him was one of her Wants, and got me lots of points) and then Don - the cad - kept spinning up wants to woohoo with other Sims. So, well, I had him invite Nina over. And flirt with her. Which is exactly when Cassandra showed up from work and kicked his ass out. Heh. I LOVE THE SIMS.
Soooo anyway, hopefully now I'll be able to rejoin my flist and actually actively comment, instead of saving things and going back a week later to throw in my two cents. As long as the Sims don't eat my life.
Also?
18. Weaveworld by Clive Barker
Re-read. It's hard to explain Clive Barker's work, because any explanation sounds like the biggest crackfic you've ever read. This one is about a subset of humanity who have what us normals would call magic, and who are persecuted by both us and a paranormal entity who is determined to wipe them out. In near-defeat, they work a final magic that imprisons them in the guise of a rug until such time as their guardian determines it is safe to unweave the magic. But it's never safe, and when the unweave happens they are thrown back into being hunted. The magic of Clive Barker is that he makes this scenario sound utterly plausible. His characters, male and female, are always strong yet flawed. I think he's one of the best storytellers in the world today.
19. The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
Re-read. This is actually more of a young adult book. I re-read it in one shift at work, and then was reminded why I hadn't read it more than once when I got it. An easy read, but a great way to start out a youngster on Clive. Gonna donate this one to the yard sale.
20. Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs
This was lent to me by my friend Jehn, who said she knew I'd love it. She was right. Now, I don't know anything about Augusten's life -- well, I know that it was harrowing but I haven't read "Running With Scissors" yet, so don't spoil me! -- yet he's able to write about it, and his subsequent alcoholism, with such wry humour. I'm sure it must be this humour that enabled him to survive it. I'm definitely going to pick up anything else he's ever written.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Found out just after I read this that it had won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. Which makes me really wish I'd liked it more. I didn't find the style jarring -- except for the lack of quotations marks, which annoyed me because there seemed no reason for it -- but I did find the stupidity (for lack of a better word) of the main character jarring. And that's not to say that I didn't understand it (his fears, his need to protect the boy, his sense of loss all conspiring to cloud his judgement) but I just felt that the whole thing was so heavy-handed. "Look, dear reader," it seems to say, "see how the boy is so much more astute/compassionate/clear-headed than the man." I had the same problem with some of the "shocking" moments, which honestly did seem as though they were there simply to shock and for no other reason. And lastly, well... this is going to seem horrible. But I tended to look at things, um, practically. But there is one scene where the man finds an old dried out fowl and the inside flesh is still good, and they eat it. And you know, I'm thinking there's lots of dead bodies in the city. ... What? They're ALREADY DEAD. Hunting/killing/stalking/imprisoning live survivors - wrong. Treating an already long dead body the same way you would an already long dead fowl and staying alive to live another day in a nuclear blasted world -- pretty much okay in my book. Probably that soccer team that crashed in the Andes would agree with me. :D (Actually, if it was me, I'd kill myself. Who'd want to live in that world?)
Book Count: 21 of 50
.