Where I Was and What I Was Thinking
Sucks is the word for today. This piece by me ran on the now-defunct Regeneration Quarterly website right in the aftermath. The rest of it goes like this:
Category Archives: On Reading
Call Me Dany
Your Score: House Targaryen 72% Dominant, 54% Extroverted, 72% Trustworthy Ancient. Noble. Passionate to the point of insanity. Transcending lesser beings, you are of House Targaryen. You are a dominant personality—in fact, you are the most dominant of all eight house types. You will not suffer yourself to be ignored. You will not suffer yourself to be ruled. The phrase “I will not suffer myself to _____!” was practically made for you. You are willful, arrogant, and exceedingly dangerous to screw with. With a temper…
Book Cover Meme
I was tagged by Pretty Good on Paper–thanks! Go to the advanced book search on Amazon, type your first name into the Title field, and post the most interesting/amusing cover that shows up. I typed in Superfast. I’m tagging Sheila, Heather, Adler, and Susan (I hope she’ll do them for her characters).
As Madeleine Put It
I read a book for work last night set in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. I have zero interest in traveling anywhere even remotely challenging (though I do like to car camp). I prefer to travel in my imagination. So, in further honor of our beloved Madeleine L’Engle, here are a few of my favorite quotes of hers, typed as tears stream down my face with gratitude. I don’t think I’ve ever cried like this over the death of someone who wasn’t known to…
Madeleine L’Engle Must Be In Heaven
…leaving the rest of us woefully bereft. She passed away today at the age of 88. Read the full story here. I have loved Madeleine L’Engle’s books since I was a little girl, with Meg Murray’s mouse brown hair and nearsighted eyes giving me hope that girls like me could have our lives become great stories. My best friend and I met her in the summer of 1994 in Cambridge, England, at a two-week CS Lewis conference that was one of the best times in…
Goldilocks (Booking Through Thursday)
Do visit Booking Through Thursday and check out all the great responses to this week’s meme. Are you a Goldilocks kind of reader? Do you need the light just right, the background noise just so loud but not too loud, the chair just right, the distractions at a minimum? Or can you open a book at any time and dip right in, whether it’s for twenty seconds, while waiting for the kettle to boil, or indefinitely, like while waiting interminably at the hospital–as long as…
Trailer for “The Mist”
Because what a reading blog needs is More Video, right? But I’m really, really excited for this stupid movie for all kinds of reasons, and Sheila blogged about it the other day. Plus I just finished a really boring work read, and the best cure for boredom is You Tube. At least that’s what I learned in corporate America. Looks like a pretty straightforward adaptation of one of King’s scariest stories. I have a personal pet peeve with the stereotype of Crazy Bible Lady, but…
August Round Up–Top 5 Most Popular Posts
An odd month at Reading is my Superpower. I feel like I was all over the place with my reading, and I had a high percentage of books that made me go “meh.” However, August was also the month of the Best. Comments. Ever. on Reading is my Superpower! If you don’t know what’s going on over at George RR Martin Defends Genre, you really ought to check out the comments thread for a thoughtful dissection of whether or not genre fiction can hold its…
Statistics (Booking Through Thursday)
This week’s question: There was a widely bruited-about statistic reported last week, stating that 1 in 4 Americans did not read a single book last year. Clearly, we don’t fall into that category, but . . . how many of our friends do? Do you have friends/family who read as much as you do? Or are you the only person you know who has a serious reading habit? I’ve always been the biggest reader in any of the groups of friends I’ve been in throughout…
More on Genre
The George RR Martin quote I posted yesterday has struck a nerve and garnered some very, very thoughtful and intelligent comments on both sides of the debate. Please check it out. Additionally, Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist (where that Martin quote came from) points to this article in the online edition of a North Carolina newspaper, which expounds upon a point that some in the comments thread on my Martin post were making: