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timerippleAt last, I have a new kitchen floor! Only took them three months.
This week I:
- went to fiddle class and had an excellent time
- got lots of books out of the library that I don’t have time to read
- repaired my shower
- did not write either of the two essays I really, really need to write
- wrote an apology
- edited things for other people
- wrote something unexpected
I live within long-walking distance of three public libraries. Ever since I got my Minuteman Network card renewed, I haven’t been to the BPL-- the Minuteman libraries are nicer, and while they don’t individually have as extensive YA and Children’s collections, they tend to be a lot quicker getting requests in.
Which is why I spent most of today running around between the two closest ones like a book maniac. (Oh wait.) At last I have my hands on Margaret Mahy’s Maddigan’s Fantasia, which I have been panting after ever since![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mistful reviewed it. The Flora Segunda sequel is now out, as well, which I’m looking forward to. I agree with SRB’s critique that the voice is a little too young in the first one, but also with her general assessment of the book’s many awesomenesses. I LOVE BOOKS SO MUCH OMG.
One of the biggest reasons I haven’t gotten anything done this week is because I at last really got into Dorothy Dunnett’s The Game of Kings (The Lymond Chronicles #1). I was initially interested because Cassie Clare mentioned it pretty regularly as a major influence. The influence was pretty evident (and that’s a problem I have with her Real Books-- it’s really hard for me to get attached to a character who is obviously and admittedly an amalgam, bits and pieces of other characters. It’s harder to appreciate them as unique and individual when they’re so patched-together). Anyway, I really liked Dunnett once I got into it-- it’s very heavy on the Scottish history, of which I haven’t read a lot. (I think you'd like it,cadragongirl.) Excellent characters (even the minor ones), and the plot shenanigans made me cackle in glee. Character is probably the single most important factor in a book, for me, but I love plot like a... a mad plot-loving thing. Especially when plot happens a certain way because of character, as it does here. (See also: I Love Megan Whalen Turner. A Whole Lot.)
Twilight is not getting read so far, though I swore to read it over vacation and I want to see the movie. Some time.
I had a really nice talk with my advisor about narratology, and even if I don’t think I’ll be ready to participate in any paper calls for this spring, it might be a really interesting direction to take in terms of independent research. I keep thinking about it randomly, which usually means I’m pretty excited about an idea. I especially keep thinking about levels of narration in embedded stories, and entire narratives that are set up as embedded stories (for example, many of the Redwall books; The Orphan’s Tales is an extreme and magnificent example and now I really want to write about it. Actually I just want to read it again, because the writing is not happening these days).
I’m putting off reading Octavian Nothing for class, because I read it over the summer and though it’s magnificent, I don’t particularly want to read it again. Ah well. I started Alan Garner’s Red Shift, then decided it wasn’t worth dealing with all the intense and depressing stuff to get to the Tam Lin stuff. (It was going to be Research, I swear, but then I got bored.)
I keep thinking about the rampant pseudo-incest in nineteenth-century children’s(?) fiction. I might have to do a paper on this. Remarkably, no-one else in class seems particularly keen to discuss it.
THE LAMPLIGHTER: Gerty and Willie!
THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD: Ellen and John!
JACK AND JILL: Jill and Jack!
FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS: Polly and Jasper!
LITTLE WOMEN: Jo and Laurie--PSYCH!
EVERYONE: Pseudo-incest, ewww!
ME: What? They’re not even biologically related, come on. Wusses.
EVERYONE: EWW.
ME: Surely I am not the only person in this room who’s read Sophocles? ...Ovid?
EVERYONE: ...who?
ME: *sigh*
This week I:
- went to fiddle class and had an excellent time
- got lots of books out of the library that I don’t have time to read
- repaired my shower
- did not write either of the two essays I really, really need to write
- wrote an apology
- edited things for other people
- wrote something unexpected
I live within long-walking distance of three public libraries. Ever since I got my Minuteman Network card renewed, I haven’t been to the BPL-- the Minuteman libraries are nicer, and while they don’t individually have as extensive YA and Children’s collections, they tend to be a lot quicker getting requests in.
Which is why I spent most of today running around between the two closest ones like a book maniac. (Oh wait.) At last I have my hands on Margaret Mahy’s Maddigan’s Fantasia, which I have been panting after ever since
mistful reviewed it. The Flora Segunda sequel is now out, as well, which I’m looking forward to. I agree with SRB’s critique that the voice is a little too young in the first one, but also with her general assessment of the book’s many awesomenesses. I LOVE BOOKS SO MUCH OMG.One of the biggest reasons I haven’t gotten anything done this week is because I at last really got into Dorothy Dunnett’s The Game of Kings (The Lymond Chronicles #1). I was initially interested because Cassie Clare mentioned it pretty regularly as a major influence. The influence was pretty evident (and that’s a problem I have with her Real Books-- it’s really hard for me to get attached to a character who is obviously and admittedly an amalgam, bits and pieces of other characters. It’s harder to appreciate them as unique and individual when they’re so patched-together). Anyway, I really liked Dunnett once I got into it-- it’s very heavy on the Scottish history, of which I haven’t read a lot. (I think you'd like it,
cadragongirl.) Excellent characters (even the minor ones), and the plot shenanigans made me cackle in glee. Character is probably the single most important factor in a book, for me, but I love plot like a... a mad plot-loving thing. Especially when plot happens a certain way because of character, as it does here. (See also: I Love Megan Whalen Turner. A Whole Lot.) Twilight is not getting read so far, though I swore to read it over vacation and I want to see the movie. Some time.
I had a really nice talk with my advisor about narratology, and even if I don’t think I’ll be ready to participate in any paper calls for this spring, it might be a really interesting direction to take in terms of independent research. I keep thinking about it randomly, which usually means I’m pretty excited about an idea. I especially keep thinking about levels of narration in embedded stories, and entire narratives that are set up as embedded stories (for example, many of the Redwall books; The Orphan’s Tales is an extreme and magnificent example and now I really want to write about it. Actually I just want to read it again, because the writing is not happening these days).
I’m putting off reading Octavian Nothing for class, because I read it over the summer and though it’s magnificent, I don’t particularly want to read it again. Ah well. I started Alan Garner’s Red Shift, then decided it wasn’t worth dealing with all the intense and depressing stuff to get to the Tam Lin stuff. (It was going to be Research, I swear, but then I got bored.)
I keep thinking about the rampant pseudo-incest in nineteenth-century children’s(?) fiction. I might have to do a paper on this. Remarkably, no-one else in class seems particularly keen to discuss it.
THE LAMPLIGHTER: Gerty and Willie!
THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD: Ellen and John!
JACK AND JILL: Jill and Jack!
FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS: Polly and Jasper!
LITTLE WOMEN: Jo and Laurie--PSYCH!
EVERYONE: Pseudo-incest, ewww!
ME: What? They’re not even biologically related, come on. Wusses.
EVERYONE: EWW.
ME: Surely I am not the only person in this room who’s read Sophocles? ...Ovid?
EVERYONE: ...who?
ME: *sigh*
