Reading? What?
Well, now I've had my computer science midterm and oh my god, what a sad waste of 18 pages. We had two hours to do it, and I handed it in just after one. I went out, grabbed an iced cappuccino and waited for my friends to get out. Seriously, I just owned that test. I'm probably going to end up failing it, just because that's how these things work.
So, that was 7-9pm, and by the time it was over I had a pretty big headache and just wanted to go home. With no one to drag me out to do stuff, I just stayed at home and read. Yeah, Hallowe'en was pretty damn boring for me this year. I didn't even put a costume together - and after my high school glory as the Pirate Whore, it was pretty disappointing.
So yeah, the reading. My mom loves book stores, and we happened to go to one in St Jacobs on Sunday. I picked up two books, one on her recommendation and one because I was sort of interested (and she assured me that she'd heard of some of the authors). The first was The Big U by Neal Stephenson, who my mom says is reknowned for his later science fiction work or something. The personal interest one was Powers Of Detection, a collection of mystery stories set in fantasy settings, edited by Dana Stabenow.
Over the course of the day, I read Powers Of Detection in its entirety. It was kind of hit and miss, but there were a few that stood out to me. Simon R. Green's The Nightside, Needless To Say is a short story set in the setting of a good number of his novels, the Nightside, the "secret, sick, magical heart of London." Although the writing was occasionally a bit gimmicky and the plot wasn't the greatest, I have great faith that a full-length novel could make for much better reading. The first book of the Nightside novels is Something From The Nightside, which I may one day check out. Charlaine Harris' Fairy Dust was another intriguing short, exploring the interactions between races when vampires came out into the open and declared their intentions of living peacefully with humans through the exploits of one Sookie Stackhouse. I like her writing style as well as the premise, so the first place to go for more would be the first book starring Sookie, which is Dead Until Dark. The final story that particularly entertained was Laura Anne Gilman's Palimpsest, starring Retrievers Wren and Sergei. A Retriever is basically another name for a magically-gifted thief. This short describes one particular mission, and the interaction between the characters and the extremely satisfying ironic ending made it a pleasure. Gilman released her first novel starring Wren and Sergei last year, Staying Dead.
You know, it's funny. Two of the 12 stories take place in a magical academy, and even if there aren't any other similarities to Harry Potter, you just can't help but be reminded of it. J.K. Rowling has managed to associate the entire wizarding school premise with Harry Potter so strongly that I'd say it's pretty much off limits to other authors. There just isn't a way to distinguish your school enough from Hogwarts, nor could you easily convince others that it isn't a ploy to take advantage of HP's enormous popularity.
It's been a while since I've read a book. Not since Jack Weatherford's Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World have I really sat down to read a novel, so it's been even longer since I've read fiction. The desire to write and the desire to read, for me, tend to go hand in hand however, so it's no surprise I suddenly found myself wanting to read. I've also started The Big U, and from the looks of it it's going to be an... interesting read, at least. Well, it's good to read, of that I'm sure. My mom has recently rediscovered books after a 5-10 year abscence. I still remember when I was a kid and she would be reading all the time. She had great, monumental lists of all the books she wanted to read, not to mention the record of every book she'd ever read, dating back to the late 60s.
I'm actually pretty tired for once, so I may even try to go to bed instead of staying up all night. I tell you this though, I'm really, really looking forward to lunch tomorrow. Mmm, chinese food at the DC...
So, that was 7-9pm, and by the time it was over I had a pretty big headache and just wanted to go home. With no one to drag me out to do stuff, I just stayed at home and read. Yeah, Hallowe'en was pretty damn boring for me this year. I didn't even put a costume together - and after my high school glory as the Pirate Whore, it was pretty disappointing.
So yeah, the reading. My mom loves book stores, and we happened to go to one in St Jacobs on Sunday. I picked up two books, one on her recommendation and one because I was sort of interested (and she assured me that she'd heard of some of the authors). The first was The Big U by Neal Stephenson, who my mom says is reknowned for his later science fiction work or something. The personal interest one was Powers Of Detection, a collection of mystery stories set in fantasy settings, edited by Dana Stabenow.
Over the course of the day, I read Powers Of Detection in its entirety. It was kind of hit and miss, but there were a few that stood out to me. Simon R. Green's The Nightside, Needless To Say is a short story set in the setting of a good number of his novels, the Nightside, the "secret, sick, magical heart of London." Although the writing was occasionally a bit gimmicky and the plot wasn't the greatest, I have great faith that a full-length novel could make for much better reading. The first book of the Nightside novels is Something From The Nightside, which I may one day check out. Charlaine Harris' Fairy Dust was another intriguing short, exploring the interactions between races when vampires came out into the open and declared their intentions of living peacefully with humans through the exploits of one Sookie Stackhouse. I like her writing style as well as the premise, so the first place to go for more would be the first book starring Sookie, which is Dead Until Dark. The final story that particularly entertained was Laura Anne Gilman's Palimpsest, starring Retrievers Wren and Sergei. A Retriever is basically another name for a magically-gifted thief. This short describes one particular mission, and the interaction between the characters and the extremely satisfying ironic ending made it a pleasure. Gilman released her first novel starring Wren and Sergei last year, Staying Dead.
You know, it's funny. Two of the 12 stories take place in a magical academy, and even if there aren't any other similarities to Harry Potter, you just can't help but be reminded of it. J.K. Rowling has managed to associate the entire wizarding school premise with Harry Potter so strongly that I'd say it's pretty much off limits to other authors. There just isn't a way to distinguish your school enough from Hogwarts, nor could you easily convince others that it isn't a ploy to take advantage of HP's enormous popularity.
It's been a while since I've read a book. Not since Jack Weatherford's Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World have I really sat down to read a novel, so it's been even longer since I've read fiction. The desire to write and the desire to read, for me, tend to go hand in hand however, so it's no surprise I suddenly found myself wanting to read. I've also started The Big U, and from the looks of it it's going to be an... interesting read, at least. Well, it's good to read, of that I'm sure. My mom has recently rediscovered books after a 5-10 year abscence. I still remember when I was a kid and she would be reading all the time. She had great, monumental lists of all the books she wanted to read, not to mention the record of every book she'd ever read, dating back to the late 60s.
I'm actually pretty tired for once, so I may even try to go to bed instead of staying up all night. I tell you this though, I'm really, really looking forward to lunch tomorrow. Mmm, chinese food at the DC...