Over at On The Nightstand I am taking part in several challenges, one of which is “read 100 books in a year”. I did the same last year, reading (IIRC) 117 books, with the bulk of my reading happening between March and November. I did read a lot, but once I started up my book blog the amount of reading I did increased exponentially.
Anyway, it’s the 17th of January, and today I have reached the 10% mark of that goal – I finished East by Edith Pattou.
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
Hidden Voices: The Orphan Musicians of Venice – Pat Lowery Collins (Review)
Now that I have reached that marker already, I’m going to slow down the reading a little bit for the rest of the month (I do have a few more books to read for review, with the one I am going to crack open tonight before bed being The Magician Of Hoad by Margaret Mahy) and focus much more on my writing for at least the next week – do a couple of word wars and things like that. I’m a little bit behind already on my Lionheart writing, but not too far that I cannot catch up on. Two days of writing and I’ll be right as rain.
Anyway, I’ll share with you the snippet of Lionheart that I posted over on Open Mic over at the blog of Michelle Zink, author of the wonderful Prophecy of the Sisters.
The lights flashed more and more frequently with each passing second, dancing about the blackness like countless stars moving rapidly across an otherwise empty night sky. There were no recognisable constellations, but as the shining particles moved about a shape began to form: small, delicate.
Human.
It was not until the glowing apparition spoke that Leander was able to recognise it.
“Help me, Leander,” begged the Eithne made of stars. “I don’t know where I am.” Her voice sounded tinny and from far away. “Please. I need your help.”
Voices of shadow strangers could not compel him to speak, nor being torn to shreds by some semi-invisible monster. But the mere sight of his little sister, especially when she was lost and in obvious distress, easily drew a single word from his mouth.
“Eithne?”
“Leander.”
She looked so utterly lost, forlorn and young that Leander instinctively reached out. He wanted to enfold her in his arms and comfort and protect her like he felt a big brother should, but each time he tried to touch her his hands passed straight through. Each time he tried the motion disturbed the shimmering dust particles, forcing them apart. It took a few seconds for them to reorganise themselves, taking longer each time.
Apart from her being a shimmery, off-white colour, and made of an infinite number of visibly separate particles, it was a very good likeness. It was unnerving, really.
“What are you doing here?”
The Eithne made of stars fluttered her eyelids frantically and chewed on her lips; the real Eithne did the same thing whenever she was anxious and scared.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Something’s happened. Something terrible.”
Anyone else excited? I loved Pokémon Silver, so the chance to go back to Johto (and Kanto!) is so awesome. Plus I’m loving the idea of the Pokéwalker – anything that provides some sort of exercise motivation = all right by me.
I’ve been listening to Chameleon Circuit for the past few days and I thought I’d share. In the tradition of Wizard Rock (Harry Potter), they do Trock (Time Lord Rock), which is Doctor Who. And they’re good! Very catchy.
So, I was looking at some posts on Absolute Write where members were discussing books that they had read, and their goal to read 100 books. It inspired me to have a look at all the books I have read this year.
According to my OpenOffice spreadsheet, at this point in time, I have read 43 books so far this year. That comes to about five books a month, which isn’t bad at all when I think about it compared to my life and timetable.
So here, sorted by the author’s first name, is my list.
It was a toss up between posting here or at On The Nightstand, but eventually I decided that it might just be best to crosspost it to both blogs (and be sure to untick the journalpress plugin for my livejournal and dreamwidth accounts on one, to avoid even more double-posting) as there are two different audiences, but both might be helpful.
Although not as big as some other bloggers’ piles, I do have a wee bit of a “to read” pile building up. I would take a photo of said pile, except I cannot find my camera.1 So you are going to have to make do with just an ordinary list. So: which one should I read next?
Dracula – Bram Stoker
Children of the Night: Classic Vampire Stories – David Stuart Davies (editor)
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings – Edgar Allan Poe
And now that I have done that, onto the second part of this post: book recommendations! I am looking for books2 that fit into one of the following categories (preferably YA, if fiction):
Fairies, of the non-urban kind. And not the little kind of fairies either. Seelie/Unseelie courts and the like.
Set in Victorian England, and with a focus on the upperclasses. MC being a female in her late teens/early twenties would be marvellous.
Anything that would fit in with the general gist of what I have listed above. Other classics like them.
So yeah. Suggest away. This is what I call “fun research”, which I do while letting ideas fester in my head and just reading and changing my reading list slightly, as I cannot simply jump onto yet another project. So I am letting this seed grow, and watering it with good books.
Isn’t that the way it always works? You clean your room then cannot find a thing? [↩]
No need to suggest A Great And Terrible Beauty and sequels, as so many did this afternoon on Twitter. I’ve read the first, did not like it, and so am in no hurry to read the sequels. Anything else is welcome though! [↩]
The latest film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s novel stars Ben Barnes as the titular character, Colin Firth as Lord Henry Wotton and has Rachel Hurd-Wood as Sibyl Vane – all three being actors I adore and eagerly wait for their next projects. That was how I discovered this movie was in production a long time ago – I was checking out Hurd-Wood’s next projects and this was on the list. And I squeed.
And for those unfamiliar with the tale, Wikipedia’s plot summary for the movie is as follows:
When a naïve young Dorian (Ben Barnes) arrives in Victorian London he is swept into a social whirlwind by the charismatic Lord Henry Wotton (Colin Firth), who introduces Dorian to the hedonistic pleasures of the city. Henry’s friend, society artist Basil Hallward (Ben Chaplin) paints a portrait of Dorian to capture the full power of his youthful beauty and when it’s unveiled Dorian makes a flippant pledge: he would give anything to stay as he is in the picture – even his soul.
So tell me, am I the only one excited for this movie? I’d hope not!
A friend of mine got for her birthday this week a pre-order thing for the upcoming Sims 3 game. And as you can imagine I am more than a little jealous. Unfortunately my computer is made of suck, and even if it weren’t a zombie that only half-worked it is still nowhere near powerful enough to play Sims 3. In fact, it can barely cope with Sims 2 and any expansion pack higher than University is out of the question. I have my eye on my perfect computer, but unfortunately I am a wee bit short on funds at the moment. I am hoping to make a spare bit of cash by designing websites, but it looks like I am about three months away from that awesome desktop with Sims 3.
For a good chunk of this weekend, a friend and I have been watching videos made with Sims 3, as posted on their official website and their youtube account, and ooh-ing and aah-ing over new features and the way things look. We commented on the resemblances between Susan Boyle and Barack Obama’s Sims and the real thing in the Good Luck, Susan Boyle video. And we laughed ourselves silly at a parody of the new Star Trek trailer made entirely with Sims 3. The image accompanying this entry is from a screengrab of that trailer. My favourite bit? Red Shirts will die…
So: are you looking forward to Sims 3? If so, what things are making you so excited? I am looking forward to (amongst other things) being able to customise personalities more, a grid that is four times smaller, being able to select lifetime wishes (and having a larger range of wishes to choose from) and, of course, the open neighbourhood system.
Very catchy.
I am hoping to make a spare bit of cash by 
