Things a nerd must do before she dies

Via the awesome Jill the Nerdy Bird, I have decided it is now time to make my very own Nerd Bucket List. Here's my top five so far (I fully expect that this list will grow and change as my life as a nerd goes on):

5. Get a STAR WARS tattoo. I have a whole slew of nerdy tattoo ideas in my noggin (Yggdrasil, a lioness rampant, a Willendorf Venus, among others), but the crowning glory will be a STAR WARS themed one. Perhaps the Rebel Alliance insignia? Perhaps a Death Star? I don't know yet, but it will be awesome.

4. Create and carry out my own literary traveling tour. Think the UK by way of The Dark Is Rising--that would be Cornwall, Buckinghamshire, Wales, and the Salisbury Plain, in that order.

3. Step inside the TARDIS. Of course it would Most Best to get inside the one they film with, but I'll take a replica. Of course, this would necessarily include a photo of me grabbing the dashboard and leaning to one side like they do when in transit.

2. Get Neil Gaiman to reply to me on Twitter. I'd probably start crying. So hopefully if when it happens, I won't be illicitly reading my feed at work.

1. Meet Tamora Pierce. Honestly? It might not be that nerdy and it will almost certainly never happen, but if there is one celebrity I'd do a lot of illegal things to meet, it's her. I've been sticking money in a "Meet Tammy!" jar since I was twelve.

Note: Jill, my posin'-with-Spike pic would be that one too. :B

You might be addicted to books if...

(ganked from Bahnree)

1. You buy your purses based on how many books you can fit inside. [Oh yes. The smallest purse I own can fit a a hardback or two paperbacks; the rest are tote bags. One even says "I like big books and I cannot lie."]
2. The Fed Ex and UPS carriers, know you by name. [Well...no. I am rarely at home during the day to receive packages.]
3. Your family refuses to buy you books because they don't want to support your habit. [My family rarely buys me books. The only one who does with any consistency is my manfriend's mother, who choose things from my Amazon wishlist. I love her best.]
4. You own multiple versions of the same book. [A few, including The Awakening, Heart of Darkness, and some plays of Shakespeare that are separate from the collected edition I have.]
5. You dream about books. (Getting them... meeting the authors that write them.) [I have definitely dreamt about meeting authors! I can't recall a dream ABOUT a book, though. I think I've dreamed about being in a book. I wish I could remember which one.]
6. You always have at least one book on you at all times. Even if it's just a quick trip to the dollar store. [Yep. You never know when you're going to be in a line, or in traffic, or what have you.]
7. You usually help shoppers at the bookstore, because you are more knowledgeable than the staff. [This does not apply. However, since I am a librarian, it sort of does in my work. At least, when someone actually decides to look at a book. Which are the best days ever!]
8. You've been known to skip family functions or outings with friends because you can't stop reading. [When I was a kid this was definitely an issue. I also got in trouble for reading at the dinner table. At Christmas with my family this year, my youngest cousin immediately began reading the books I gave her and ignored everyone, even when there was dessert available. I love HER best.]
9. There are books in every room of your house. [Actually, yes. There are even books on the back of my toilet.]
10. If you are within five miles of a bookstore, you find yourself drawn to it like a homing device from the mothership. [Well, duh.]

Meme-in' makes me feel good

'Allo, dear readers. I have spent the last few days in snowy Cleveland, OH and am pleased to report that not only is it a charming city, but my dear manfriend has been accepted into its podiatry school. More on that when the time comes.

For now, a meme! Because it is Sunday and I am eating dougnuts!

What do you read? Mainstream, genre, Young Adult?
I read...whatever appeals to me. I read lots of genre fiction, mainly science fiction and fantasy, I read tons of YA of all kinds, I read graphic novels and comics. I love literary "classics". When I read nonfiction it is likely to be feminist prose or something anthropological.

What do you never read?
I don't much care for romance novels.

Morning reading, Afternoon reading or Nighttime reading?
Afternoon reading is the best. I also like reading before bed.

Bed, Bath or Bus?
Bed!

Hardback or Trade Paperback or Mass Market Paperback or eBook?
Definitely not e-book! I prefer trade paperbacks, but I have lots of mass market because they're less expensive. Some hardbacks are nice, but they do take up a lot of space.

Bookmark or dog-ear?
Bookmark these days. Used to be I could just remember where I was in the book, but my memory is going in my old age. Dog-earing makes me sad.

Alphabetize by author, title, or random?
Depends on what bookshelf. The nonfiction is organized by topic and then author last name; the sci-fi and fantasy shelf, kids books, and classics are alphabetical by last name,

Keep, Throw Away, or Sell?
I used to keep EVERYTHING EVER. I've been paring things down. If I buy something and don't Love It, I donate it or give it away. I usually don't buy things I haven't read, which keeps the library under control. The only books I resell are textbooks.

Short story or novel?
Novels. I prefer to WRITE short stories, but I rarely read them. Funky.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
I try to do chapter breaks, but that doesn't always happen, depending on time constraints or dozing off while reading.

Buy or Borrow?
I would rather buy. Acquisition of a book usually goes like this: read something at the library or something borrowed, and then if I like it enough I'll buy it. I do buy books by certain authors--Tamora Pierce, Neil Gaiman--because I am generally quite sure that I'll like them. I don't like borrowing because I don't like lending; if people don't give me my books back, I am sad.

Buying choice: Book Reviews, Recommendation, or Browse?
Oops, I guess I answered that one above! How about, reading choice: I don't really read book reviews. I take recommendations from friends and blogs I read online, and I am a big fan of browsing, in libraries and bookstores.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger?
Cliffhangers are ok in serials, but I prefer things to be reasonably wrapped up in a one-off.

Standalone or Series?
I like both! Many genre books are serial, so I have a lot of series at home. But I also have plenty of standalone novels. My favorite books can be found in both.

Favourite book of which nobody else has heard?
The Snow Walker by Farley Mowat.

Top 3 favourite books read within the last few years?
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey
The Body Sacred by Dianne Sylvan

Top 5 favourite books of all time?
Admittedly this list grows all the time. But there are a few constants: The Once and Future King, 1984, The Blind Assassin, most of Pierce's entire canon, and American Gods.

Love, love, love

It ain't all gloom and doom around here, peeps! The weather is gorgeous here and I am tired of thinking about Grave Topics. Let's have another edition of Ten Things I Love, shall we?

1~ My new tattoo: Yep, here it is, in all its literary-snob glory! For those who aren't lifelong fans of T.H. White, the text says "rex quondam rexque futurus" which is the epitaph on Arthur's tomb and says "the once and future king". I luffs it so. And yes, what you have heard is true--tattoos are addictive in the extreme! I am already planning more. :)

2~ Rereading favorite books. Relatedly, introducing them to other people: In this case, American Gods is the book. I am reading it for about the 8th time with my boyfriend, who has never read ANY Gaiman. I know, I know, why do I keep him around? See the next point for the answer.

3~ My man: Partner, boyfriend, lover, whatever you want to call him. I am actually getting a bit sick of "boyfriend" seeing as we've been together for five years and have no plans to split. Anyway, he's awesome. Evidence: he brought me Boston Market when I was working late last week. Ah, young love.

4~ Dr Who: A dear friend recently made me start watching Dr Who and o, I am grateful. Awesome-bad villains (o hai Daleks!) or just awesome villains (small boy with gas mask, I am looking at you. Actually I'm hiding my eyes in fear), spunky ladies, dashingly dorky Doctors, dashingly omnisexual spaceship captains, long-dead literary heroes, wrenching parting scenes--Who has it all! It also had this fellow, who I am dressing up as for Halloween:

(mm mm MM DAVID TENNANT IN NERD GLASSES)

5~ Halloween movies: I love Halloween, period, but man are horror movies one of the best aspects of this holiday. I like straight-up thrillers, such as The Shining, Let the Right One In, and all of Hitchcock's ouvre; I like over-the-top gore like The Descent and Hellraiser; and I like films that swerve between scary and fun, particularly The Craft and Practical Magic.

6~ Autumn: As stated before (...somewhere), I love autumn. Though it's probably more accurate to say that I love "Florida winter", because let's face it, FL doesn't have autumn and its winter is closer to other states' autumn than Real Ultimate Winter. In any case, whatever you want to call that bite in the air and the way everything smells clean and ancient, even in smog-choked Tampa...that's my season.

7~ My job: Guess what I'm doing today at work? Creating genre spine labels! OMG so much fun; there's a unicorn for fantasy, and a speech bubble for graphic novels, and a Trojan helmet for classics. I also just ordered a ton of new materials and can't wait to catalogue them! Haters please note: I am not being sarcastic. I really love my job.

8~ Naptime: Someday when I rule the world, naptime will be mandatory. You won't necessarily have to SLEEP, but there will be an hour around lunchtime during which quiet will be enforced. Read, measure out a Tarot deck, snooze, have a margarita, whatever--just do it quietly so us nappers can get some Zzzzzs.

9~ My furry bastards: Yes they are furry and yes they are bastardly, but I love them. Life is not complete without cats.

10~ Blow 'em up movies: ORLY DIANA? you say. We would never have guessed! But really. I saw RED last night and laughed my head off. Sometimes the only cure for urban malaise is a lot of gratuitous gunfights and car chases.

(What has two thumbs and can't resist Dame Mirren and John Crazyface Malkovich?)

Book Meme: Parts 20, 21, and 22

Yesssss it is the meme that will never die. Well, it WILL die. It will just take about four more entries to do so. Like the most long, drawn-out, theatrical, melodramatic stage death ever. Like a shitty Polonious.

Part 20--Favorite kiss: Hm. I must not read very many romantic books. I can think of a few goodies from some recent YA reads--the dream sequence in the Caves of Sighs between Kartik and Gemma in The Sweet Far Thing is pretty damn sexy. I always liked the wake-up kiss Satsu gives Buffy in Wolves at the Gate (as well as their love scene. HATERS TO THE LEFT, as Cleo says). Kel and Cleon's first kiss in Squire is fairly excellent; Kel thinks, Oh my, which is exactly what my first kiss inspired.

Part 21--Favorite romantic/sexual relationship: This is sort of a similar question as the previous BUT OH WELL. Queen of Shadows by Dianne Sylvan has a wonderfully developed romantic relationship between the two main characters, Miranda and David and the pay-off is...excellent. As noted, I liked that Satsu and Buffy got it on, if only that one time. Maurice and Clive's initial relationship in E.M. Forster's Maurice is very sweet and moving, but the decline and fall-out are heartbreaking. Jessica and Marcus in the Jessica Darling books by Megan McCafferty are sexy and smart and fun. Oh and let it be known, please, that this here blogger ships Harry/Ginny all the way and was very happy that they worked out. And had oodles of oddly-named children. It's not really about Harry; I just really like Ginny and am glad she's happy. Haters, please see Cleo's aforementioned evacuation strategy.

(Yeah, Dracula is back. Buffy's banging him, too! Or is she...?)

Part 22--Favorite non-romantic/sexual relationship: Oh friends are so much easier than lovers! Scout, Jem, and Dill from To Kill a Mockingbird, Jimmy/Thickney/Snowman and Crake from Oryx and Crake, Aziraphale and Crowley from Good Omens, the four mages from Circle of Magic, Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...there are so many. Writing great friendships is something I admire in authors. It's so easy to get lazy and make one half of the friendship a token, especially if the other half is the narrator or main character.

Book Meme, Parts 18 and 19

Part 18--Favorite opening scene: This is a toughie. Let's see...the first pages of Howards End, with Helen's letters to her sister, are pretty awesome. Bridge to Terabithia's beginning, with Jess running in the wee hours, is a practically-perfect setup to the whole story. The opening to The Yearling, with Jody watching the smoke rise from his home's chimney, about to skip out on his day's work and run off to the spring, is about as evocative as they come.

Part 19--Favorite book cover: Favorite book cover ever? Ever-ever? HOOM. Well, I do love the cover of Atonement by Ian McEwan.

Anne of the Island has many editions and covers, but this one is my favorite:

...whew. Sort of a slow day here at the blog. HOWEVER. Thursday I shall have a concert review for you, dear readers, as my favorite band will be in town tomorrow and it should be even more interesting than usual, since the lead singer took sick and will be replaced for the tour by someone else. o.O

Book Meme: Parts 16 and 17

Part 16--Favorite poem or collection of poetry: Hm. I am not much of a poetry fan, that is, I don't actively seek out collections, but I do have definite likes and dislikes. I like a lot of older poetry--Yeats, Keats and Shelley, both Brownings. I also love Billy Collins, who was poet laureate a few years back. I love Gwendolyn Brooks. And I love Thomas Hardy's poems--that's right, he wrote poetry! Not just insanely depressive-yet-transcendent novels. After Jude the Obscure was published, he was so shaken by the general reaction that he stopped writing novels and wrote poetry until he died. This is one of my favorites of his:

"The Voice" by Thomas Hardy

Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me

Saying that now you are not as you were

When you had changed from the one who was all to me

But as at first, when our day was fair

Can it be you that I hear? Let me view you, then

Standing as when I drew near to the town

Where you would wait for me: yes, as I knew you then

Even to the original air-blue gown!

Or is it only the breeze in its listlessness

Traveling across the wet mead to me here

You ever being dissolved to wan wistlessness

Heard no more again, far or near?

Thus I, faltering forward

Leaves around me falling

Wind oozing thin through the thorn from norward

And the woman, calling.

My favorite poem, PERIOD, is "Merlin" by Geoffrey Hill:

I will consider the outnumbering dead

For they are the husks of what was rich seed.

Now, should they be gathered together to be fed,

They would outstrip the locusts' covering tide.

Arthur, Elaine, Mordred: they are all gone

Among the raftered galleries of bone.

By the long barrows of Logres they are made one

And above their city stands the pinnacled corn.

Part 17--Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellettes, etc.): This is a bit harder. What comes to mind when I hear "story" and "story collection" is kids' books--Winnie the Pooh, The Wind in the Willows, Brambly Hedge, etc. And I do love a number of those--especially animal stories, obviously. As far as "adult" stories go, a favorite collection is a selection by Kate Chopin, collected in one of my editions of The Awakening (yes, I have two). It includes "The Storm", "The Story of an Hour", and "The 'Cadian Ball". Also in the mode of idiosyncratic editions, my copy of At the Mountains of Madness also contains some of my favorite Lovecraft stories: "The Dreams in the Witch House", "The Shunned House", and "The Statement of Randolph Carter". The Compass Rose is an excellent collection of Ursula K. LeGuin's stories; The Adventures of Alyx collects all the disparate Alyx tales by Joanna Russ. And of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention Neil Gaiman's fabulous Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things.

(the "tales of terror" bit ain't just a tagline)

Book Meme: Parts 13, 14, and 15

Part 13--Your favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA (or both!): Ok. As we know, I was a consummate reader as a child and continue to be. I read a lottttt of weirdo things as a kid; I pretty much read everything I could find. That said, my childhood favorite that is neither The Once and Future King nor The Yearling would probably be This Island Isn't Big Enough for the Four of Us! by Gary Greer and Bob Ruddick. It's hysterically awesome. I read my copy--which I "borrowed" from a teacher, as I recall--until the front cover fell off. Basically, these two tweenage boys go camping on what they think is a deserted little island. They meet two girls who proceed to kick their asses in every way possible--fishing, pranks, cross-country running, everything. Bonus: the boys have a cute little Hansel and Gretel tent. Current favorite YA book is easy; I just got around to reading A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray and IT IS AWESOME. As, hell, I knew it would be, like five years ago when it came out. Now I have Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing on my hold list at the library. Please come in soon, books! I HAVE TO KNOW IF GEMMA AND KARTIK GET TOGETHERRRR.

(girls'll getcha every time)

Part 14--Favorite character in a book (either sex/gender): Hmmm. This is a toughie...there are so many awesome characters throughout literature! Hard question fail. Here are a few of my faves:

+Guenever (the T.H. White version); she is really, REALLY well-written for being...Guenever. Mostly she is boring and/or irritating, right? White gives her the time of day and more, and does a great job with her character.

+Keladry of Mindelan (Protector of the Small, Tamora Pierce); she's the best of Pierce's heroines--in the Tortallverse, anyway--being cool-headed, very self-controlled, funny, hardworking, compassionate, and many other fine things. Her interior monologue is excellent and relatable.

+Lily Bart (Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth); so sorrowful! So full of life! So misunderstood! Tragic.

+Bathsheba Everdene (Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy); the quintessential Hardy heroine--headstrong in ways that society can't comprehend, beautiful, hardworking, tragic but ultimately transcendent.

+Maurice Hall (E.M. Forster, Maurice); I must just love tragic figures (der). Maurice is the tragicest of the tragic--a gay man as closeted as only a late Victorian could be, who finds love and then loses it and finds it again. A beautiful, sad character and story.

Part 15--Your "comfort" book: I have a few. A couple have already been mentioned, and so I will not belabor them. A few more are The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (not exactly COMFORTING but her prose is so lovely), The Awakening by Kate Chopin (again, not comforting in its themes or plot, but gorgeous and one I love to reread), 1984 (why are all my comfort books depressing??), Saturday by Ian McEwan, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Many--maybe most--of my comfort books that aren't kids/YA are things I read in high school. I wonder if that means something.

Book Meme: Parts 10, 11, and 12

Part 10--A book you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving: This is an easy one--Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens! I read this for a Victorian literature course my sophomore year of undergrad and at the time I was under the (sad, false) impression that I HATE Dickens (for reasons detailed in an earlier post). O how wrong was I. I came away from that course obsessed with Victorian lit in general and a die-hard Dickens fan in particular. A good teacher armed with a good Dickens book is a magic charm and cure-all for every student who comes into college loathing Great Expectations. Dombey and Son is, along with Bleak House, the very best Dickens turned out: hilarious, tragic, layered, modern.

Part 11--A book that disappointed you: Also an easy one. The answer here is The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. Really, really disappointed by that book. I'm not even sure what I was expecting, but it didn't deliver. The anachronisms bothered me (characters use adjectives and other words that weren't coined yet or that they would've had no way of knowing--"sexy" and "clairvoyant" come to mind), as did the deus ex machina-y occurrences throughout the plot, and most of the characters I found uncompelling or downright irritating. Just an overlong, blah, badly written historical non-epic. Meh. Perhaps the miniseries will be better.

("sexy" wasn't coined until 1905!)

Part 12--A book or series that you've read more than five times: Hahahahahahahahaha--oh wait, this is a srs question and I are srs reader. Ok. I'm a chronic re-reader; I love to re-read my favorites and am as likely to read something I know I love as to pick out something new at the library (a bad habit, perhaps, but there it is). So here are a few worn-out covers:

+The Prize in the Game by Jo Walton

+The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

+Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

+Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

+Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

+Kilmeny of the Orchard by L.M. Montgomery

+Wrapt in Crystal by Sharon Shinn

+Saturday by Ian McEwan

+In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce

+Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

+Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier

Book Meme: Parts 8 and 9

Part 8--A book everyone should read at least once: I do recommend The Once and Future King to everyone I meet (solicited, of course; I don't just run up to people and yell LANCELOT WAS ACTUALLY UGLY SEE IT'S RIGHT HERE READ IT), but the second most-recommended on my bookshelf, and the book I will use here, is American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

I whole-heartedly believe that this is one of the best books of Our Time. I am a huge Gaiman fangirl and this is likely clouding my vision a bit, but dear sweet fuzzy Darwin American Gods is fantastic. Since reading it online two years ago I've read it probably eight times since AND YES DEAR READERS NEIL AUTOGRAPHED MY COPY.

See? Trufax.

(it was the best moment of my life. Sorry, beloved boyfriend)

Part 9--Best scene ever: Wow, this is hard. It's easy to do this with movies, but for some reason books are harder. I'll give it a whirl:

+From The Once and Future King (I have to, right? I'm so predictable): After going crazy and being nursed back to health by Elaine, and then spending a good bit of time in his castle with her, Lancelot is going stir-crazy. And lo and behold, his uncle and the man who had trained him to be a knight, called Uncle Dap, appears at the castle gate, with Lancelot's charger and armor and weapons. Lancelot goes to meet him and picks up his helm and touches the embroidery on its lining. He can smell it on the helm--Guenever did this embroidery, every stitch is hers. Then occurs one of the most beautiful passages in English literature.

"And immediately she was there, not the Guenever whom he had remembered on the battlements, but the real Jenny, in a different posture, with every lash of her eyelids and every pore of her skin and every note of her voice and every articulation of her smile."

How can you resist that? Just ain't possible.

Book Meme: Parts 6 and 7

Part 6: A book that was adapted into a movie you liked better than the book (or vice versa, or both): Oh, this is an easy one: Lord of the Rings! I can't STAND the books (oddly, I love The Silmarillion. So....go figure), but I am a huge fan of the movies. All of Tolkien's intense verbiage translates perfectly to the screen, because what he takes fifteen pages to describe (usually a tree or a lake) can be captured by the sweeping camera in fifteen seconds. Beautiful beautiful films.

(hard to resist, no?)

A book that I love whose movie I can't stand would definitely be The Dark Is Rising: The Seeker. It should never have happened--the mere existence of that film is a crime against people who love reading. Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence of YA/kids fantasy books is gorgeous, smart, moving, and sometimes very deep. The film made out out of the second book in the sequence is stupid and clumsy, and holds none of the magic of the source.

Part 7: Least favorite plot device used in books you otherwise enjoy: Hoom. I don't really like the "gay best friend" trope often used in female-voiced books (chick lit, contemporary YA fiction, a few others). It sells gay male voices short and makes the female main character seem shallow, and is a lazy way for the author to appear hip or whatnot.

Book Meme: Parts 3, 4, and 5

Part 3– The best book you’ve read in the last 12 months: Ohhhh come now, do you know how many books I read every month, let alone in a year? Setting aside the answer that will go with the next question (because I do read this title every year), I will give you a few that I've read this last year that I really liked and will almost certainly reread:

+Shatterglass by Tamora Pierce

+Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey

+Wonder Woman: Challenge of the Gods by George Perez

+The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie

+Four Souls by Louise Erdrich

+The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

(creepy mask is creepy)

Part 4 – Your favorite book or series ever: Aaaahhhh, the easiest question anyone will ever ask me. For some reason I have difficulty parsing what movie is my favorite (though truly it's STAR WARS), but my favorite book has been my favorite book since I was 12 or so--and that book is The Once and Future King, by T.H. White. This includes its fifth book, generally published separately, called The Book of Merlyn. My granny gave me my copy of each when I was 11 and once I read them I, so very seriously, became who I am. A big Arthur nut, a fantasy fan in general, interested in British history, and a lover of big arcane words. I read that book at least once a year and every time, I see something new in it. It gets deeper and more meaningful with each read. I never get tired of any part of it; I don't skip any chapters, even though I can quote some of them in chunks. It is beautiful and classic and moving and sad and full of anachronisms but still manages to be true today. It is the book I tell everyone to read.

Some other favorites:

+American Gods by Neil Gaiman

+The King's Peace by Jo Walton

+Howards End by E.M. Forster
+Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

+The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

+Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery

Part 4: A book or series you hate: Now, it would be very hip and also very true to say Twilight here, but I will desist. There are many people funnier than I who will tell you why Twilight is so rendingly awful. SO. Here I will state my loathing for Great Expectations. This is sad for me to say, because I am really a huge Dickens fan. I love Bleak House, David Copperfield, Dombey and Son, The Pickwick Papers. There are few writers who could or can do what Dickens did. He's really awesome. Big hairy butt coming around the corner...he does have a few bombs, and Great Expectations is one (A Tale of Two Cities is the other). PIP! ZOMG don't you just want to kick him in the shins and tell him to stop leaving a damn margin, that that is how you piss money away? Miss Havisham is frightening to (even big) children. Estella is a spoiled brat. Magwitch is a bizarro creeper dude whose tragedy feels forced.

Guh. I just really do not like that book. It is my belief that The Two Shitty Dickens Books (as mentioned above) make kids believe that they hate Dickens, because they're forced to read these two awful ones in high school. Then, like me, they get to college and read something like Dombey and Son, and BAM they're die-hard Victorianists. Happens.

Book Meme, Parts 1 and 2

So, I am not sure where this began, but it looks uberfun. AND WE BEGIN!

Part I: A series you wished had gone on longer or one you wished would just END ALREADY (or both!): Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos. There are some issues with Simmons' work and philosophies and style, but zomg his writing is ambitious and fun to read. I LOVED Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion and even though Endymion/Rise of Endymion are somewhat related to the Hyperion Cantos, they aren't as good or as mind-bending. Moar Hyperion plz. A genre I wish would just end already is chick-lit. EVERY BOOK IS THE SAME JEEBUS H CRISTOBAL. And I have read a fair few--I don't hate without some experience. I just--guh. The same recycled covers, the same bubbly font, the same hip heroine-who-writes-for-a-big-city-magazine-a-la-Carrie, the same duality of male characters, the samezzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Make it go away.

(the Shrike: it's comin' for you)

Part 2: A series or book that you wish more people were talking about and reading: This is a loaded question. I mean, of course I wish more people would read MY favorites, so I'd have something to talk to people about (so that would mean people diving into Hardy, lots of YA, cheap fantasy, and ethnographies). But overall, as a major fantasy fan, I wish there were more titles based around non-European myth bases, like N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and Karen Healey's Guardian of the Dead. There are some fabulous bloggers on the Internet talking about fantasy that doesn't deal with dragons (as it were, and please note I do love Patricia C. Wrede), but as yet there doesn't seem to be a lot of that in the market. As an anthro-nerd and as a person who likes to travel, I love reading about different cultures, and let's face it: European myth stories are pretty tired. New blood is needed, literally; I want to see fantasy involving Maori spirits, Inuit deities, Native American myth cycles. Fantasy and science fiction are great vehicles for innovation and speculation (der) and new themes and tropes...why are we still stuck in medieval times?