So three things.

1) I went to Barnes and Noble today because I have a $35 gift card to spend and left feeling extremely discouraged, in part because they didn’t have the one book I was looking for (WP has requested Catholicism for Dummies because he is a darling dear) and mostly because there’s such a narrow selection of books available there. I KNOW there are many more (good) books in the world than what’s represented at B&N (why oh why is the Paranormal Romance section so large), but if it’s not a classic, recent release, or bestseller (the latter two of course are absolutely no recommendation of goodness), it’s not there. I’d rather go to a used bookstore because I know there will be a bigger selection and I can pay a more reasonable $1-5 for a paperback instead of $8. But I also know that I have developed an almost crippling case of new-book wariness. I can never find the YA books y’all talk about, and the ones I do see don’t appeal to me, and as far as “adult” fantasy book/series go I’m never sure where to start and whether or not I’m going to get what I actually want from it.

And there’s a lot a lot a lot of hack writers out there, or mediocre writers with pretty good plots who have churned out book upon book because they keep selling (R.A. Salvatore), but it’s been so long that I’ve had lots of time for pleasure reading that I’m not as open to just taking a bazillion books home from the library and blasting through them, maybe loving one or two and not caring about the rest. I’m going to join the library in Savannah as soon as I get some mail to my name and hopefully that will help—I’ve fallen out of the habit of library-going. Anyway the point was that since I’ve had so little time for reading, I’ve wanted to find books that I know I will enjoy, which are beautifully written, and I have no idea where to start looking. I AM AFRAID TO TRUST.

And the longer I go without reading, the longer I go without writing, because the two feed each other.

Help. (Right now I’m in the mood for a bit of the mythic, I think? Unnamed queens and dragon-fighting heroes. Quarkie, I looked for the Riddlemaster books but haven’t found them yet. I also looked for Curse of the Chalion and they didn’t have it either.)

( 2) I am reading a book now! )

3) This leads me into what was going to be a comment on beth_shulman’s journal and is getting too long and is probably going to keep being long so, here you go. She was talking about not liking science fiction, and then Quark commented about having no idea where to start in science fiction (like me and all books it seems these days), and so I was like okay look guys I think we need to do some redefining.

REPLYING TO THIS BECAUSE why make my own comment when I can just piggyback off Quark.

So first I think what we have to do is make a difference between "science fiction" and "space opera" because the two are different things. The original Star Trek generally falls into the former while Star Wars is squarely in the latter. I mean yes in recent years books have come out with schematics of SW ships and the like, but my parents have old from-the-seventies books of Trekkies trying to work out the actual science of warp drive. People are Star Wars fans for the Force, the story, the epic battles; people are Star Trek fans for the technology and the struggle with big questions and ideas and the limits of humanity.

(also I am having SO MANY IDEAS brb jotting things down)
(oh boy settle in for the long run. This sucker is almost ten whole pages in Word, FYI.)

Disclaimer: Keep in mind that I have been meaning, for years, to do a more academic exploration of this, beginning with just reading everything in terms of the development of sci-fi. I own a few mid-60s copies of a couple of the Science Fiction & Fantasy-type magazines (I bought one that has the last installment of Dragonrider by Anne McCaffery--until then I had no idea that the book made its debut in serialized form) and I've read several short stories, but I'm woefully lacking on Asimov and Anthony and Clarke and pre-sex-with-myself Heinlein and the like. For years I considered myself a sci-fi fan just because I've read over 100 Star Wars books.

(Halfway through this is occurred to me that sartorias could show up at any time and blow this whole thing to bits with things like “actual knowledge” and “having read all these things”—LET ME KNOW IF I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK.)

Suggested accompanying music.

Also I don't even remember what the OP was about. I'm just going to go with it now.

So, really, we have two different things going here--"science fiction" and what I'm going to call "space opera." I think most of what people end up reading falls more into the latter than the former.

onto the definitions!

or, alternate title, Still Not the Graduation Post

anyway I have read some books since coming home! None of them are the books I meant to read. Some of them I read years and years ago (heading into that scary "ten years ago" category that is starting to take over my life), some of them were new to me! One was even a translation of a French YA fantasy novel. They were all weirdly similar, as you will see by the cut tags.

I have discovered that I have trouble picking books off the shelves in the library unless I know the author or have heard good things about the author. This multiplies times a thousand bazillion when I leave the YA section and head for the adult fiction section. (Also, the adult fiction section seems to have more disguised-cover romance novels than previously expected.) I hit the jackpot yesterday--the little itty bitty library near my house had both How to Ditch Your Fairy and Liar, which I have been looking for FOREVER. Now, if only one of the branches would get in some of Maureen Johnson's books...

Anyway, Books I Have Read This Summer, Possible Spoilers Ahead, I Will Try to Warn You

( Zel: Girl gets locked in tower )


( The Book of a Thousand Days: Princess and maidservant get locked in tower, people die )


( Quest for a Maid: Girl has manservant, princess and girl-turned-attendant spend lots of time in boats, people die )


( The Princetta: Princess and maidservant runs away, spends lots of time in a boat, people die )


( The Shining Company: Boy has manservant, boy becomes shieldbearer, more people die than in both previous books combined )


I did take a detour, as part of my I Will Get My History From Biographies quest, and read
( Notorious: Sometimes it is hard to be impartial when talking about Ingrid Bergman who makes everybody gaga )


I also got about forty pages into
( The Ruins of Gorlan: Somewhere in my high school notebooks there is a generic apprentice YA fantasy that I really ought to bring back to life )


phew that took a long time.

on my to-read list are the aforementioned Justine Larbalestier books, Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin (overall I am wary of the books my mom checks out, novelizations famous women in history/literature, because they usually turn out to be giant sexfests, but I trust LeGuin--see, cannot pick a book up off a shelf anymore), and Lauren Bacall and Steve Martin's autobiographies (see: Biographies Quest). Oh and I picked up Allegiance because it was made of love and I felt like reading a SW book I knew ended well. Oh and I should read The Great Gatsby. And Jane Eyre. And maybe work on my own novel.

You know, life as usual.

so! to clear up any confusion, biopsy turned into synovectomy but they only took out the part of my synovium that was causing problems, so HOPEFULLY once I'm all better from having stitches in my leg I will be really all better. Shirley the scooter is mine until May, though, so, uh, THINGS I WILL BE USING TO GET TO THE LIBRARY.

Am still laid up, but on ibuprofen today and so feeling less grumpy and more human. Which, alas, means I ought to actually do some homework today, woe.

Also I started posting a new fanfic about a month ago. Um, you don't have to know the storyline to follow it, at least I don't think so? Anyway it is called Falling Slowly and I wrote it like over a year ago but, uh, if anyone feels like reading something I've written that's actually complete, well, there you have it.

Time to go read the last fifty pages of A Room with a View, then reread bits of The Voyage Out, then start looking at actual criticism, le sigh...

First of all like why is it every summer there’s some big song about unrequited love? Last year it was “Realize” and this year it’s “You Belong with Me” GAH TAYLOR SWIFT WHY. WHY. (answer: because it is fun to belt in a country accent.)

(yes I know songs about unrequited love happen all the time...maybe it's more a question about why there's always one that hits me.)

(OH MY GOD I actually watched the Taylor Swift music video BAD PLAN.)

Anyway, just a couple thoughts on Graceling, which I am currently plodding through.

( musings that include spoilers up to halfway through the book, i.e. all the most important ones unless there's a huge twist that I haven't yet arrived at, you have been warned )

I guess at this point I’m enjoying it well enough (or I was, before say the last two chapters), and I definitely admire the author’s imagination and vision (and map-drawing skills), but the whole thing has been a bit mis-firing, and occasionally strays too close to clichés that push my buttons. It just seems like this book could have been so much better than it actually is. (And I guess it actually is pretty good? So maybe I should just lower my standards…

…or go reread The King of Attolia.)

( footnote )

( edited to add )

OH MY GOD

IT HAS BEEN OVER A YEAR SINCE I READ THE QUEEN OF ATTOLIA

( brief mutterings about 'strong' female characters )

Also, this time around? The parallels of Gen's and Attolia's insomnia. Will be trying to form some sort of thoughts about this.

TIME FOR NOTORIOUS

GOD DAMNIT ARTEMIS.

That pretty sums up my feelings about the whole book, as penguinkye will testify.  I loved it, obviously.  It was a lot like the last one in terms of last-minute wait-what-the-hell-oh-God-no-you-can't-be-serious plot twists (and not too last minute, I mean I could physically see how much more of the book there was to go, but geeze).  It is an incredible, fun, fast-paced novel, just like all the others, and the characters...the characters...

GOD DAMNIT ARTEMIS

the characters are, as usual, awesome.  I love the Artemis Fowl books because they're well-written (the occasional comma splice, but you get used to it), incredibly funny (including potty humor which, at this point, has become funny because of sheer character connection), and guaranteed to take you for a fun ride.  I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend going to the library and getting them and reading them.  Or, heck, buying them.

Also, I still want to know where Eoin Colfer gets all this time to travel and stuff.  rowana, if you ever meet him again, ask him for me, okay?  Or...wait...*scurries off to website*

See, I bought The Time Paradox right after it came out.  I paid $17.99 for this book.  I never buy books wholeprice unless I have a giftcard to (damnit, I did have a giftcard to burn, I just now realize) burn, but I love Artemis Fowl THAT MUCH.  A brief listing of my affections for them:

Artemis Fowl is love.  Just pure, twelve-year-old genius vs. fairy love.
Artemis Fowl:  The Arctic Incident is CRAZY TIMES IN SIBERIA love.  Also Holly is pretty in a black-widow kind of way.
Artemis Fowl:  The Eternity Code was, for the longest time, the last book, and it is such a satisfying last book too, which says a lot for it.  (Also I got it while waiting for Goblet of Fire to come out.)
Artemis Fowl:  Opal Deception was the surprise, the HOMG WHAT NEW BOOK?  It is not as good as the previous three, because Eoin Colfer (who is the author, btws) had a bit of trouble with the two different kinds of Artemises he had.  I have only read it once (versus multiple times on all the others).
Artemis Fowl:  Lost Colony is HOMG SUPERFANTASTIC OMG LOVE.  I was a bit wary of getting it after the disappointment of Opal Deception, but in this one, Artemis is back in all his glory.  I LOVE this novel.

Which leads me to Artemis Fowl:  The Time Paradox
( cut for spooooooooooooooooooooilers )

Actually, this is just a long list (mostly for loquaciousquark's benefit, since she's the only one who's shown any interest got half an idea of what I'm talking about) of Neverwinter Nights 2 fanfiction that I like.  Some of it's better than others, but there's a surprisingly large (proportionally speaking) amount of good fanfiction (at least that I read--and I didn't read half the stories simply because they weren't what I was looking for at the time) in the NWN 2 section (which is a subsection of the NWN section, under "Games" in the directory, that mostly takes up the most recent four pages).




Anyway, um, fanfic.  Here we go:


Cheers, all!