9 posts tagged “neil gaiman”
I have counted and there is precisely 20 weeks left in the rest of the year and I have thought and plotted the perfect way to challenge myself and it is to select 20 books to read by the new year. Wait, I can hear you all already, that is no feat because I read to the exclusion of all else anyway. But this is different. I chose books that I have been putting off reading and stuff that I have had laying around for years. I am going to try to read one of these challenge books per week and the Charlaine Harris books aren't included. So I'll be reading about 8 books a week to get my other goal of reading the Harlequin Blaze books out of the way. And now onto my list, and this is in no order.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Grey
Jonathon Stroud - The Golem's Eye
John Steinbeck - The Moon is Down
Christopher Moore - You Suck, a love story
Jeff Lindsay - Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Terry Goodkind - Wizard's First Rule
Kathy Reichs - Bones to Ashes
Herman Melville - Moby Dick
Sarah Dessen - Someone Like You
CC Humphreys - Jack Absolute
LJ Smith - The Vampire Diaries
Greg Behrendt & Liz Tuccillo - He's Just Not That Into You
Cassandra Clare - City of Bones
Charles DeLint - The Wild Wood
Amy Tan - The Kitchen God's Wife
Upton Sinclair - The Jungle
Robert Louis Stevenson - Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde
Ian McEwan - Atonement
Neil Gaiman - Coraline
Ellen Schreiber - Vampire Kisses
Charlaine Harris books to read... Club Dead, Dead to the World, Dead as a Doornail, Definitely Dead, All Together Dead, From Dead to Worse
As you can see I didn't really put things that I would naturally read for the sake of reading. Or I guess I did but it's been a weird compulsive time of it lately and I have been setting aside books that I would normally read. Tithe didn't even make the list so that will have to be something I actively search out.
The first book I'm going to read is Vampire Kisses. My plan is to pick the book on Sunday and then have it read by Tuesday night. This week will be my trial run. Of course some books like Wizard's First Rule and City of Bones are bigger than others so we will play it by ear. I am pleased with my plan and I am going to try to keep this frame of mind and not get into my whiny, self indulgent habits. It's because of them that this list was born anyway.
As for what I read today... I just finished Hope Tarr's The Haunting. It was a Harlequin Blaze book so one more down. The story was more than a little silly. I could have maybe gotten behind it were it not for the obviousness of the bad guy. I figured it out the second he was mentioned and was left wondering why they couldn't. Also there is one part where the bad guy was left wetting his pants by the good guys efforts of justice and then two pages later the good guy is sitting in the same chair. Ewwww much? I realize that this is a popcorn romance and not highly developed plot driven writings of the classics but still I think something a little more entertaining could have been issued. I have read good popcorn romances. I also think that I just don't like reading Hope Tarr books. I think the last book I read by her was silly too. I'll hurry up and read all hers so I can get them out of the way. Then wash them down with other authors that I like more. There is a plan.
This year Susan, Belle, D and I went to Anaheim to see an Angels and Blue Jays game. D surprised me because right in the middle of the park is a huge waterlandscape. Is waterlandscape even a word? It's a fountain, and I wish we were closer to it. It kind of gave me a water hazard feeling from putt putt. We had pretty nice seats, well in my opinion. We were on the field and up the firstbase line. Maybe if I watched any of the game I would have something else to say about things. It was a pretty okay place to sit for the fireworks and that was what really was important to me.
I, of course, have no idea what the score was... I read during the game. I wasn't the only one, because Belle, who was appalled by the lack of skill the Blue Jays were showing, read Fragile Things. She assures me it isn't any better than I thought, but she has pulled through and read much further than I did. I do know that the Angels won by a lot and they didn't play all of the last inning because of it. Baseball is not like hockey and I just don't really care to know the intricacies of it. I do wish Canada had a better showing. They probably let us win because of it being a holiday and all.
The fireworks were really nice. I am going to go down nostalgia lane and talk a bit about what kind of magical wonderness fireworks mean to me. When I was a child my mom and I would go to Lake Ariel, that is in PA, and we would set up in the church yard by this big rock and we would get a pizza, from Kay's Pizza and we would 'ooo' and 'ahh' as the fireworks went off over the lake. A few times after I was married we went other places, one time was Lake Wallenpaupack and there was pizza there too. It was tradition in a world where there just wasn't any sort of traditions. This became really important to me. So now, as an adult, I have to re-enact this tradition to overcome this feeling of disconnection with that old life, that old me. Every year I have to go see the fireworks and remind myself that no matter how abnormal and warped my childhood was, I had this one normal thing. I had this one time when family was something. So fast forward 30 odd years and we come to this year. I was a little disappointed in my inability to capture the shots I wanted to with the camera, but as I got twenty some pictures, I need to get a grip and not cry too much.
You Can Dance for the performance show and results show this week and she wanted to know if I wanted to go. I sure as by golly did! I even channeled some Mary there. So I had to email Dr. Moore when I got home tonight about canceling therapy so that I can go on Monday. I am a little nervous about how I will go and deal with the crowd but I am really excited. Of course it is the week AFTER Matt and Kourtni were voted off though. Booo! I was disappointed because I still think Comfort and Jessica should have gone before Kourtni and Thayne should have gone rather than Matt. But it didn't go that way and I will have to watch Thayne and Jessica *ahem* entertain me on Monday. I wish it weren't so. The one thing I was happy and then disappointed by was seeing Lacey and Benji. Benji did a WCS for Joshua and Katee and it was really not impressive. Sad.
And lastly, Blood and Chocolate. After we got home from the game tonight I talked D into watching the movie with me. I had read enough criticism about the movie to know that it was vastly different from the book and that became apparent in the first minute of the film. I was mostly confused as I tried to figure out who was who and what was what. The adaptation was so horrible that it was a clusterfuck of lore and bits and pieces of the book with pure fabrication. I felt terrible for Hugh Dancy and fans of the book. Neither deserved the tripe this movie served up. It was no longer a coming of age story which was what made the book so interesting. They villanized one of the [heroes??] of the book. I didn't like him in the book but I really didn't like him in the movie. And then they defied one of the principle storylines of the book with Rafe and killed him off midway through. Hey sorry if I just spoiled you, but you didn't want to see this movie anyway. I want my memories of the mediocre book back... now I have this bad taste in my mouth and these horrible images in the back of my eyes. No wonder it only made 6million in the box office. Yes, six million. Everyone else was smarter than me and held off seeing it.
Today was Twilight Tuesday and Larry Carroll delivered some behind the scenes stuff. The first blog is about the Cullen Family Crest. The other is interviews and clips regarding the direction away from the book. Catherine Hardwicke talks about how the film can show in seconds something that might take the book 25 pages to say. The one clip is behind the scenes at the field trip to the green house and how Bella is trying to get Edward to tell her how he stopped Tyler's van. I have a little wibble with the delivery of Edward's line about it being adrenaline and how it's not uncommon, that she should look it up on Google. It just bothers me. I don't know if it's Rob there or the line itself. I do like the idea that they have this talk somewhere other than the hospital. I think that is what I think, for right now atleast. Who knows I'm fickle maybe it will bother me more later.
- October 2008: Twilight Collector’s Edition: This deluxe edition, housed in a slipcase, includes a ribbon bookmark, leather-like spine, cloth cover and newly-designed chapter openers. ($30.00)
October 2008: The Twilight Saga Collection:
This stunning box set contains “Twilight”, “New Moon”, “Eclipse” and
“Breaking Dawn” as well as four exclusive, limited-edition full-color
prints - the perfect gift for fans of the best-selling vampire love
saga. ($83.00)- November 2008: Twilight Mass Market Tie-In Edition: Available for the first time in a mass market paperback edition, featuring a striking movie tie-in cover with foil effects. ($7.99)
- November 2008: Twilight Trade Paperback Tie-In Edition: Includes a collectible full-color, fold-out movie poster! ($10.99)
- November 2008: Twilight: The Illustrated Movie Companion:
Designed as a celebration of the film, this lavishly illustrated
paperback edition is an exclusive behind-the-scenes guide featuring
full-color photos of the cast, locations, and sets, as well as
storyboards, interviews, details of the special effects, and much more.
($16.99)
- December 2008: The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide:
This must have edition is the definitive encyclopedia reference to the
Twilight Saga and provides readers with everything they need to further
explore the unforgettable world Stephenie Meyer created in “Twilight”,
“New Moon”, “Eclipse” and “Breaking Dawn”. With exclusive new material,
character profiles, genealogical charts, maps, extensive
cross-references, and much more, this comprehensive handbook is
essential for every Twilight Saga fan. ($19.99)
Tonight I think David and I are going to watch Enchanted. Last summer was hard with me always being in the hospital so I didn't get to see it then. It's weird not having hockey to watch anymore. I miss Vesa. I guess this just gives me more time to read.
I am a creature of habit and those habits sometimes are bad. I picked up a book to read today and because it's a romance, I've been self loathing all day. I am talking myself up to admitting it on my Facebook, but I feel so shameful when I read romances. Like it makes me a second class citizen. It's not enough that I read, I feel I should always read more substantial things then I do. I can never read something for the fun of it without this self ridicule. It's such a little thing but it drives me crazy. No one cares what I read. I shouldn't let such things bring me down. Right? *sigh*
Tonight was a movie night and I saw two movies, The Happening and The Incredible Hulk. I had really low expectations for The Happening and that turned out to work in my favor. The last M. Night Shyamalan movie that I liked was Signs and since then he has failed me, but not so much tonight. I really liked Mark Wahlberg, I think he made the movie. Zooey Deschanel was rather one note and I got over her making faces in the first scene and the rest sort of sat on me wrong. I liked the story as much as I could as I found it to be a little monotonous, like Zooey, I kept wanting a climax or a twist and this movie doesn't have one. The one thing with impact is the death scenes. Gruesome and some are sheer nightmare-esque. Some of the cinematography is impressive but they didn't take it far enough to really wow. But I wouldn't have minded reading the book, if this had been one, which it's not, but that is one of the better compliments that I could pay a story.
I have nicer things to say about The Incredible Hulk. I really enjoyed this movie. I loved Ed Norton as Bruce Banner. I don't care if people think he's pretentious, I will go out of my way to see him in a movie anytime. I liked the storyline and the locations were nicely done. I think that William Hurt played the asshole military guy perfectly. Tim Roth was exceptional, if not a little overtly near naked. I don't mind that from Edward but on Tim it didn't fit as well. He looks as if he has the world's shortest neck, it weirds me out. He needs to keep his clothes on. Back to the point... Liv Tyler, who cries so very prettily, did a good job as Betty Ross. I thought she acted very well and she had excellent chemistry with Edward Norton. The one almost love scene is just hot even though it fizzles out into comedy. I loved the Tony Stark cameo and the wrap up that opens The Avengers movie. I am really looking forward to it, I just hope that they will be able to keep all these big name actors, Robert Downey Jr. and Edward Norton on the bill. Actors sometimes get temperamental with these multimovie deals. The one thing I did not like was the CGI... it was really cheesy and the monsters were ugly. I like my comic book movies to look a little less like they are comics and more like the effects are natural. But it made me excited for Iron Man 2 and The Avengers so I consider it a success.
Tonight was also the last episode of Battlestar before their haitus. I am not a fan of the final four storyline... I find it tedious and convoluted. I got my hopes up when Lee was going to offer cylons some airlock love because it would have ended that arc and made me a happier fan. I do love Deanna, no matter how hardassed she is. I love that she came back and took charge of the cylons. I just wish she had airlocked the president. I find that a lot of the characters that I used to like have been polluted in the last season. It makes me sad because the only 4 characters I really can say that I've liked no matter what are Lee, Kara, Helo and Sharon. And to be honest there isn't enough of them on the show lately. I want more than I've been getting. And tonight... Kara figures out that the viper has the navs to Earth and when everyone is celebrating, they only show a brief second of her. Augh... Someone should have been thanking her, congratulating her. I did think the punchline was good though. I love what they find on earth. Ba-dum-bum.
Oh, I forgot to mention it on here last night but I am so happy that I
have completed a little goal I had for myself. Kelmett-Happens is
having a bear drive for the LA Children's Hospital and yesterday I
finally went out and bought 4 bears to donate. The bears will be donated in the name of Kellan Lutz. And for the 'why bears?' it's because Emmett has an affinity for grizzly. It's really a cute idea and it's for kids.
Chelsea T. and Thayne. I voted the most for Matt and Kourtni and they were the first couple in the bottom three. And I feel bad because they keep telling Matt that he has no personality. I think he's conservative but I don't really think he's boring. I like him more than Chris and Gev. So week one is done and Jamie and Rayven found themselves going home. I wasn't too surprised with Jamie but I thought Jessica should have been cut before Rayven. I just can't stand her face and her dancing bores me, when it's not stunning me with it's badness. Let's hope for next week that she will go home. I want her to go home more than I want Susie to go home and I think Susie is some lame gimmick. So in short... YAY that Kourtni and Matt stayed, Twitch Rules, Jessica is heinous and Katee can dance even if I don't respect her after auditions.
Tomorrow is movie day and I'm going to see a double feature of sorts... The Happening, because M. Night is going down hill but I don't ever learn from my mistakes and The Hulk, for some Edward Norton love. I'm hoping that in going to see The Happening first I will get the bad out of the way and then mend my fences with my sense of movie pride by seeing Ed second. I hope that the CGI effects in The Hulk aren't so ridiculous that it ruins the movie for me. I already am holding a 15' Hulk against them. I don't think he grows a whole other man in height bigger. These superhero comic book movies need to hold a bit more with the comics in my mind. Just because it can be done doesn't mean that it should be done. Both the movies have a good female lead. The Happening has Zooey Deschanel and The Hulk of course has Liv Tyler. I like them both and I hope that they live up to their past performances. It's been a while since I came home from a movie with a girl crush... maybe tomorrow is the day.
I never read any further in Fragile Things. I think I'm really pissed at Neil Gaiman because I would rather read nutritional facts than read another sentence of the short story I was reading, October In the Chair. I keep saying that I will read a bit farther but I keep reading other books. Maybe I will take D's suggestion and read Anansi Boys instead. I'd rather read Sandman comics... but that would be an expensive habit to get into now.
I used to be more clever than I am these days. I used to write very interesting entries and these days I am living through my interests. This post won't be different. I just have to marvel at my former wit and wonder where it all went. It's like I've had a lobotomy. I was more fun before. I had edges. *sigh*
Today was Twilight Tuesday and Stephenie Meyer announced that she would be doing the Breaking Dawn Tour in conjunction with Justin Furstenfeld of Blue October. She will be in LA at UCLA's Royce Hall, 7 August. I am just one who doesn't learn, I wasn't so blown away with the last signing and yet I am bound and determined to go to this one. And it's more expensive too. She's really not worth it but I am compelled to go. It's like I'm a domestic violence victim and I keep going back.
I had hoped that we would get more about Twilight the movie on Twilight Tuesday. I really don't think Breaking Dawn touring dates count. I don't think I can be convinced that that was worth my full attention. You could give me Taylor Lautner and it would be better. Oh hell, I'm rarely happy on Twilight Tuesday. I like them beefy with Rob and Kristen. I have yet to have one that gave me a Kellan fix. That would be awesome. There are many Tuesdays between now and 12 Decemeber though. There is still hope. C'mon MTV, give me a Kellan Tuesday.
Last night D got me to watch some season 1 Veronica Mars. Jason Dohring is so perfect as Logan Echolls. We watched the Pilot and Credit Where Credit's Due and it was as good as I remember. We found a map with all the locations on it and there are a few that we have never seen. Maybe if we are down there in SD for Comic Con we can scope out some of the new places. New to me. I guess the fangirl in me is still die-hard. Atleast I'm not staying up all night reading Logan fanfic and stalking Jason Dohring. Although that experience made me really deluded about how celebrities react to fans. He was way too nice to us. It is too bad Moonlight got cancelled. I'm sure he'd have been at Comic Con otherwise. Okay I'm scaring myseld with where this line of thinking is going. I can only fixate on one celebrity at a time and I have to choose Rob for the time being. I say that after mooning over Kellan.
Books... they don't usually petition for restraining orders. I finished This Lullaby last night and I really liked it. I did have some minor issues with it like the time frame, it felt like things were a little rushed and that the time period given wasn't enough for the events that take place. Of course I was put out by the main character, it's not a book if I don't like the main character. The girls always drive me crazy and Remy Starr was no different. She's inflexible and pigheaded and a little too know-it-all for me. Dexter, the love interest, on the contrary, is quirky, bumbling and adorable. I don't think there was a line by his character that I didn't like. He's easily relatable and his faults aren't annoying to anyone other than Remy. I really found the pacing good up until nearing the end when there are long periods of Remy with everyone but Dexter and this was tedious. The pay off was a drop in the bucket when I wanted a deluge. It felt a bit like an afterthought. But in the end for all my complaints I did like it. It was a quick read and I really want to read Dessen's new book now. I also BookMooched How to Deal which is Someone Like you and That Summer together. I hope to read a lot more Dessen. I approve.
So after I finshed This Lullaby I started Fragile Things and so far I'm barely into it and already remembering that I hate Neil Gaiman's short stories. I just never like these compilations. I am going to try to read to page 50 and see if I don't enjoy it more but as of now I am really in hell. I like Neil Gaiman, I really do. His short stories always bore me though. I don't find them a draw like I did with Neverwhere, Good Omens, Stardust or American Gods. A part of me just thinks that there is a good reason why none of these are full books. These are the cast offs that he couldn't make work. Someone is going to be a huge Gaiman fan and feel really insulted by that, but it's how I feel and I won't apologize for not liking crappy stories. When I get a Gaiman craving I would be better off reading something I've already read than to read Smoke and Mirrors or Fragile Things.
Back to Ben Barnes, I also finished Prince Caspian. It was a quick and sometimes pedantic read. The voice that the entire book is written in is so obviously masculine that sometimes it feels rather cardboard. I don't know how to actually describe it. It's just a shallowness. Like if a male is telling a story where you aren't really described the situation, but you are getting a summation. I am looking forward to the movie at the end of the week. I am hoping that I find this more memorable than The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe movie. I just can't say that I recall a whole lot of what actually happens in the first. This is the bane of being un-fan-like about something.
I am hemming and hawing now, whether to read The Host or A Sweet Far Thing. I have missed Kartik this last week without him. I even found Gemma Doyle fanfic and I couldn't read it without spoiling myself. Of course, because it is my way, I did manage to spoil myself some anyway. It's not as bad as last time where my nosiness spoiled me for the end of Rebel Angel's. This is more of a 'and after everything that happens, this happens' thing. I will stop talking about before I write it out and spoil Belle. So I guess I just made my decision. I will be reading, A Sweet Far Thing next. I wouldn't be sad if that got made into a movie. I don't have a clue as to who would play Gemma or Kartik. I would love for Kate Winslet to play Miss Moore. I don't know who I would have play Gemma's mother or father. Could I pick Charlie Cox to play Thomas though? And Pippa, Felicity and Ann... *sigh*. Too hard. I have one person cast in my version of A Great and Terrible Beauty. I will have to keep it a work in progress.
Today it is only 18 days until the 31st. I am hoping to be awake and coherent at 10AM that day to go to the bookstore and read the Special Edition Version of Eclipse for the Breaking Dawn chapter 1. I have tried to talk D into buying me the new version but as I want the paperback versions too, he's not as convinced to buy every version that comes out. So I might be living at the bookstore reading and rereading the chapter until 2 August. How pathetic. But it can't be helped. I feel like I've been waiting for this forever and it hasn't been a month. I can't imagine how those who read Eclipse when it came out feel. They are probably heavily medicated.
Last night I watched a terrible show with Robert Pattinson and Julian Sands in it called The Haunted Airman. It was confusing and really quite boring. It was about a chain smoking, paranoid, war veteran and in the end... well I won't give it away. Someone might be sad enough to want to watch it.
Tomorrow D and I are going to Torrance to pick up my tickets to the Stephenie Meyer book signing on 22 May. I am hoping to get my Twilight book signed while we are there. I paid the money they should let me get whatever book I want signed. I plan to ask tomorrow while we are there. I also want to ask if they plan to do a book release party for Breaking Dawn in August. It's kind of far to go at midnight. I would rather go to one up here but I haven't been able to find anyone with thoughts for a book release party then.
I have so many things I want to write about today that I just don't even know where to start. I finished Rebel Angels this afternoon. What can I say, I really love Kartik. I loved how his character was developed in book two of the trilogy, although I was a bit disappointed about how things end between him and Gemma. The action was great in this book. The twists and turns were diabolical. All those things you sort of thought you were right about you find out you are, but you no longer think you are. It's tricky. I liked Gemma more in this book than in A Great and Terrible Beauty. She was still terribly immature at times but she isn't as blindly naive. I was ambivalent up to a certain point about Simon Middleton and then flat out didn't like him. Not to mention I measured him up to Kartik the entire time and he doesn't compare. I think Bray is doing an excellent job of defining the taboo and the expectation of the society. I just wish that Kartik wasn't taboo. I'll take him if Gemma can't make it work.
I went and bought The Host and A Sweet Far Thing today. I am currently torn because I don't know if I should read either one of those or Stardust. Stardust, I could probable read by tomorrow. Okay I have to study so maybe not. But I could read it quickly. The Host is 600+ pages and A Sweet Far Thing is 800+. Those are real commitments. With how fuzzy my head is at the moment I just don't know which is the better book to start. And I'm reading Twilight again with Jason and I told him I would be ready to discuss chapter 5 by Thursday. So many books and so little time.
While at the bookstore I took note of the display for Twilight. It is so big and always in flux. Sometimes stocked, sometimes not so much. The woman who checked us out gave me a small happy when she noticed that I was buying The Host and asked me if I was waiting for Breaking Dawn to come out. I admitted, shyly, that I was and told her how many days until 2 August. I mentioned the movie coming out in December and she surmised that it was going to be huge. She thinks the sequels won't be a problem. It made me feel good about the whole situation. Random bookstore clerk who sees popularity of the books, thinking that the franchise is a go. *sigh* Happy thoughts.
Speaking of Twilight, today is Twilight Tuesday and MTV released the official movie poster. I'm not that excited about it. I think it could have been better. Edward looks disjointed to me, not like he's looking over her. I think she looks soft and he looks too dead. Maybe he should look dead, but it just makes me not like it. I do like one thing. His eye looks topaz. Score points there. There was a fan poster made by Loleia that I liked, I'll post that too. If I had my choice between this and the cast photo I would pick the cast photo. I think the teaser trumps them both. Although with some time and space I can recognize that the teaser caters too much to those who already know and love the books and were going to see the movie anyway. It could have been catered more toward a more diversified audience.
Tomorrow is my second exam in Art History and I am not, exactly, looking forward to it. I am sort of dreading it. But to save me from real dread, the class is at the Getty. I hope to go in early and be able to look at one statue in particular. I want to do my paper on it. It's called the Venus Genetrix. She's very much in the style of the Winged Victory of Samothrace. I hope to compare them to one another. It will also give me time to study a bit before the exam. Of course I don't think we will have a tour tomorrow. Since we have so much to make up after last weeks class fiasco.
After class it will be a comic book day. Angel: After the Fall, Buffy and Lords of Avalon are all coming out tomorrow. It will be a nice reward after the exam. LOA left off at the place where Seren is stabbed by Kerrigan. It's one of my favorite parts of the book and I loved seeing it done in comic. D told me that after Angel: After the Fall that they are going to do a Spike: After the Fall. I am interested in that. I still can't get into the Buffy comics. I don't like the legions of slayers. It was hard enough for me when there was Faith. I hope that there could be a Twilight Manga. That would make for good adaptation.
