So. Tired. Gahhhhh

I've been working mostly 13.5 hour shifts lately (7:30 am til 9 pm) and normally I fly through 'em pretty easily but today just burned me out completely. Possibly because on top of my long day today I worked until nearly ten last night (and I can never go straight to sleep after running around all day) and I have a ten hour tomorrow. Pity me!

Guess who's sleeping in Sunday when she finally has a day off? This gal!



On another note: dammit, Northern Ohio, warm the eff up already! Doesn't help that the village I live in is right on the lake-- it's pretty much always five to ten degrees cooler here than say, Mentor where I work (a whopping twenty minute drive away)

I really hope someone reads Bunnicula for the Vampire Challenge :-D

1) Do you use a bookmark or turn down the corner of pages?
Generally I just lay the thing face down still open or try to remember the page # (which NEVER works, let me tell you -.-)

2) What was the last book you finished?
Helen of Troy by Margaret George. I had quite a few problems with it actually but I think I loved it anyway ;)

3) What are you reading now?
I'm sort of shuffling my feet around a few books right now, haven't quite chose one to pursue yet... started Across the Nightingale Floor and Lady Chatterly's Lover

4) Favourite genre?
Oooh... fantasy, historical fiction and Victorian. No I will not choose one :p


5) Least favourite genre?
Crime fiction, thrillers, etc

6) Favourite authors
Jane Austen, Neil Gaiman, J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Moore, Margaret Atwood, Kage Baker

7) Where do you read?
Everywhere. At work, on my smoke breaks, on the bust, at home...

8) Can you read whilst walking?
Yep

9) One book you always recommend to people?
Good Omens

10) Books that are so bad they’re good? Secret shameful reads?
Sword of Truth series. Although after the first part of the series it got too awful even for me ^^

11) Open the book nearest to you, turn to p45, third sentence down:
"Captain Eightpanther's Travelers' Digestives, them," said the imp from the doorway to his box.

12) Excuse for filling out a pointless meme?
I worked long hours all weekend so I am making a point of doing absolutely nothing all day :D

Hands down Alexandre Dumas. Provided that I could also magically understand French ;-)

1. The Count of Monte Cristo // Alexandre Dumas
2. Lord of the Rings // J. R. R. Tolkien
3. Pride & Prejudice // Jane Austen
4. Talking to Dragons // Patricia C. Wrede
5. Good Omens // Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

Any of you guys got any insight for me on the different translations/editions of The Thousand and One Nights? I have an edition translated by Sir Richard Francis Burton that's a bit too flowery in language for my taste not to mention woefully incomplete. I'd like a more expanded edition with a really good English translation.

Whoo, in the final stages of Nicholas Nickleby at last! I feel like I've been reading it forever-- I originally picked it up about two months ago but I kept reading it in bursts. 200 pages, put it aside for a few weeks and repeat ^^. I think the problem was that it was kinda slow in the beginning but I got really into it in the latter half of the story. And I've been hooked since the Brothers Cherryble were introduced :D. I just love them, they are definitely among my favorite characters ever now!


Mm, not sure what I want next. Possibly Wuthering Heights or The Oxford Book of Historical Short Stories. I was reading St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves but my mother swiped it >_

1. The Secrets of a Fire King: Stories by Kim Edwards
Most of the stories here are excellent and the rest weren't too shabby either. The first three stories of the collection were phenomenal! Altogether very unique and well-crafted-- I shall definitely be bumping up The Memory Keeper's Daughter on my to-read list! 4 stars



2. Snow by Orhan Pamuk
Ka, a poet just returning to Turkey after a long exile, becomes immersed in the political unrest in the town of Kars. Relentless winter weather makes leaving Kars impossible for a few days but plenty happens without contact with the outside world-- a night at the theater gives way to a violent military coup, political Islamists as well as the police ensure Ka has no peace and Ka falls in love with the beautiful Ipek. It was definitely tough reading at some points but the storytelling was just gorgeous-- I kept a pen or highlighter handy every time I picked this book up in case there were passages I wanted to mark! 4 stars



3. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Reread! I needed something light and entertaining for a day stuck sick in bed. A fun little fantasy that all light fantasy fans should have read by now-- and if you haven't yet, go for it! If you like Patricia C. Wrede and such you'll probably like this :). 5 stars



4. The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia A. McKillip
This is the first time I've read this author but it won't be the last! Not a terribly original plot as far as fantasy goes but her writing is fabulous! She writes beautifully and that alone made the book worth it. A magician twenty years prior to the book's main action unleashes a terrible magic on Hunter's field that comes back to haunt him and torment the kingdom of Pelucir once more. The Queen of the Wood also lost her daughter and commissions the mage to find her, using the Prince of Pelucir to lure the mage in. 4 stars


5. One Good Knight by Mercedes Lackey
The second of Lackey's Tales of 500 Kingdoms series (though they can be easily read as standalones as plotting doesn't carry over from book to book). This one was about Princess Andromeda whose kingdom is being ravaged by a dragon-- to appeal to the Tradition, a mysterious force in the 500 Kingdoms that requires things be carried out in the way of traditional stories, the country leaves a virgin sacrifice once a week. I really enjoyed this book except that the romance subplot was very forced, came in way too late to have any bearing on the story and was just really... weird. The Fairy Godmother was definitely better but I'm still going to pick up the next two in the series. 4 stars

Okay really fell off the reading bandwagon the last few months (finished one book in the last three months of 2008. Unfuckingheard of-- I just couldn't get into anything). But 2009's here and it's time for a fresh start! I'm absolutely determined to make it to 100 books this year-- I was only 11 short last year.

I'm starting out the year with Kim Edward's Secrets of a Fire King: Stories. I've got one story to go then I'm finished. I really enjoyed it for the most part (the first few stories were fabulous) but my attention started to wander while reading one or two of the ones in the second half of the book.

After this I return to Nicholas Nickleby. And possibly something lighter to read when I'm not in a Dickens sort of mood.


What's everyone else starting the year with?

*le sigh* I've been so slack in my reading lately. I haven't actually finished a book since I read Dark Lord of Derkholm and that was ages ago (okay, like two weeks. But still.)

I don't know I just haven't been able to really get into anything lately-- plus I've been so busy lately. I keep picking things up, reading a hundred pages in and then just leaving it for no apparent reason. In the past couple weeks I've started and stopped The Mark of Zorro, Runemarks, Castle in the Air and some anthologies. Out. Of. Control. There is no excuse, I'm not in school I have to do something to make me feel like I still need my mental faculties.


Probably time to bust out my fail safe authors. There are several authors whose work I really enjoy but have a large enough canon that I still have tons left to read still. Anytime I get into a slump like this I pick up something of theirs I haven't read yet and it usually gets me back on track. Does anyone else do that? Sort of space out reading stuff by authors they generally enjoy? It was a sad day when I finally ran out Austens. Anyway, I got Margaret Atwood, Ray Bradbury, Kage Baker, Juliet Marillier, Maragaret George and Christopher Moore to fall back on still.

YAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

Anyone doing NaNoWriMo this year? I actually signed up for once (under ladykhemet) but it'll be a miracle if I actual do it. Well, I'll give it a try at least-- I've never followed through on anything, ever, in my life so maybe this can be the kick in the ass I need ^^

Trying to figure out what I want to read now that I've finished The Dark Lord of Derkholm. If I had anything else by Diana Wynne Jones I'd have definitely picked that up but alas, I just own the two. I was thinking of picking up Dracula or Frankenstein or something else appropriate for the time of year but I'm really in the mood for modern fantasy. The Lies of Locke Lamora maybe, I've been seeing tons of good reviews for that, or Runemarks. I can't commit!

Okay, so what the fuck with the Howl's Moving Castle movie? Did they not read the same book that I read? Perhaps this is the book on shrooms?

Seriously. This movie barely resembles the book besides a couple of the same characters and settings

There's an East wind a-blowin'