channonyarrow

1. Favorite childhood book?
The one I think is my favourite NOW from then was probably Where The Wild Things Are, but the question sort of assumes that I have only read five books and don't, for example, remember loving the hell out of Madeleine L'Engle or Beverly Cleary or the Boxcar Children or Walter Farley or Dr. Seuss or Shel Silverstein or other things by Maurice Sendak or Susan Cooper or a whole host of other things I have read and loved.

... fuck it, I only read five books and my favourite book was Dick and Jane. Still is. The rest of this meme's gonna be pointless, isn't it?

2. What are you reading right now?
A book on Python, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, The Land of Painted Caves, a Lucky style guide, The Children's Crusade (Avengers), Snowcrash because I'm the only person who's never read Stephenson, Cry The Beloved Country, The Barbarian Conversion, and some books on the religious revivals of the early-mid 19th century. Thank Christ I finished Sade: A Biography, because it was BORING. And, of course, Man's Rage For Chaos, the book that will NEVER DIE.

3. What books do you have on request at the library?
I don't really do libraries. This does mean that I own more than a few books for only a matter of days or weeks.

4. Bad book habit?
Buying books. Never being able to buy only ONE book. Buying books I will never read. Judging books by their cover.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
I suppose technically Special Topics and some book I can't remember the name of that I really should start because it's my next book group book are out from the library because the group is run by the library.

6. Do you have an e-reader?
Nope. Or, very broadly, yes, in the sense that I do read novel-length fanfic on my computer.

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
I'm someday hoping to know where all the books I'm reading ARE.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
Yes and then back again. I stopped reading books essentially, as my free time diminished not long after I started blogging and then I started reading them again lately because reading social media is not my favourite thing. Also, due to job change, I feel like I now actually have uninterrupted time to read. It's awesome.

9. Least favourite book you read this year (so far)?
Sade: A Biography. The book is well researched but it's a somewhat suspect translation, to me, and also, it turns out that the Marquis was VERY FUCKING BORING INDEED, which I would not have expected. Also, I tried to read 120 Days of Sodom once and got about two pages in before I really wanted to throw up (the ... count, I think, who apparently has never felt the need to practise anal hygiene AT ALL) so I don't exactly have a spoogefest over the Marquis and his AMAZEBALLS literary talent, unlike the author of this book. And it turns out that in real life he was basically a whiny child.

Note that I have this opinion after reading a book by someone who clearly faps to the wonderful transgressiveness of the Marquis. THIS IS A BAD BOOK.

10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?
Uh. Probably either the two Morning Glory TPBs that my comics dealer made me buy or else Colour. I haven't read a lot of really great stuff this year yet. I did like Blood's A Rover but The Cold Six Thousand was so unmitigatably fucking terrible that it's hard to say I liked the third book in the trilogy after reading the second, you know?

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Rarely. I mean, my comfort zone with reading is large and eclectic as is, and I won't say that there's not, like, a self-help book or an investment manual that would just make me spooge myself with glee, but it seems unlikely. And beyond that, I have no idea what a comfort zone is, literarily. If you're really a fan of a certain genre maybe reading outside of that is outside of your comfort zone, but I don't have a comfort zone apparently.

12. What is your reading comfort zone?
apiphile says it best: "books which don't suck".

13. Can you read on the bus?
Interesting fact! I can read on the bus if I am not facing forward and/or windows are open. Otherwise, recipe for instant nausea, just add Cass. But I can read in cars where I am facing forward, so GO FIG.

14. Favorite place to read?
At home. Not in bed, though, as I fall asleep and I hate looking like someone's been hitting me when the book falls on my face.

15. What is your policy on book lending?
It depends on the person. I lend books to people where I know I will never see the book again but don't mind (if I really mind, I will actually buy a copy of the book for that person) such as graeae and my mum. If I loan to my dad, I'll get it back eventually. If I loan to pretty much anyone else, I have given it away in my head.

This policy would have stood me in good stead to remember when I loaned a book group friend 10 graphic novels (which are NOT cheap!) two years ago and I'm not sure how to say "Hey, remember that several hundred dollars of books I loaned you? Yeah, I can't afford to replace them, so I need you to give them back, because I did not actually give them to you."

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?
Not much. I'm more likely to write ... *reads next question*

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
Yes. I underline too. That said, I generally dislike marginalia and underlining (and highlighting is OF SATAN) so I really really really am involved in a book if I mark it up.

18. Not even with text books?
Depends on the text book. See above re: engaged in the book.

19. What is your favourite language to read in?
The only one I know, which is English. I read technical books too, and I don't promise that I understand them because they are often written in a language I don't know. Or about a language I don't know.

20. What makes you love a book?
VAGUE. I have loved books that were terrible, I have loved books that were brilliant, I have loved books despite their faults, I have loved books for their faults. I guess I would go with "good story, good characters with good motivations, and something that feels unique about the book." And by "good motivations" I don't mean that their motivations were good, I mean that they weren't motivated by, like, the logic of "suddenly pregnant MUST DEFEND THIS STRANGE PLACE I HAVE FOUND MYSELF." Believable motivations, I suppose.

Actually, some of the best books have totally objectionable characters where you can understand their motivating force even if you don't agree with it at all. (These are the characters I like to write, so I'm biased.)

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
Not much. I hate it when people recommend books, generally, and I question whether I'm a good judge of books people would like, so I rarely recommend. The book and the person have to both be standout in my head. Or, the person has to be willing to read anything, like my sister-in-law.

22. Favorite genre?
Genres are so mainstream.

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did)?
What is this I don't even.

24. Favourite biography?
Not Sade: A Biography, anyway. Atomic Farmgirl had a fascinating premise and suffered from not fitting its premise. I quite liked This Republic of Suffering, even if it's not really a biography. Heroin: How to Stop Time From A to Z fascinates me, so let's go with that. Also, it's in the bathroom so I reread bits of it often. Biography is not one of my favourite genres, though I do read a number of them.

Looking at a later question, I realised: Michael Collins.

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
Yes, but I doubt I liked it. Someone gave me the book, practically at gunpoint, and the thing about self-help books is that they're so rarely YOUR self-help.

26. Favourite cookbook?
The Discworld cookbook, probably. Or the one that my mum put together where she copied a bunch of her recipes including my favourites. That was an awesome gift. I also like the Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks I have, and I want to use White Trash Cooking more than I do.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?
Colour, probably, and Michael Collins probably. They were both GREAT.

28. Favorite reading snack?
Tea?

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
I'm so hipster that when there's hype I avoid the book like the plague. This is why I haven't read The Hunger Games.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
I almost never read reviews.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
BWAHAHAHA, I used to be an editor. I have NO SHAME about bad reviews if the book was bad. That said, this does imply that I review.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
Fuck if I know. German? German has lots of great words in it.

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
Man's Rage For Chaos. It's not intimidating so much as "so much more complex than anything else I have ever read, written using words that *I* don't know the meaning of a lot of the time, in a discipline (philosophical art theory, I guess) that I have no grounding in, written during a time that was a lot less culturally-diverse than now so I keep wanting to argue with the examples provided because my life is different." But someday I will defeat that motherfucker, and then I will have to reread it to try to get it to make sense. I THINK I know what the author is saying, and he does make a compelling argument, but it's hard, yo.

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
Godel Escher Bach probably. I keep avoiding starting it and I don't know why because I bought that motherfucker. I WANT to read it, I just HAVEN'T.

35. Favorite Poet?
Oh fuck no. I don't do enough poetry to have a favourite one. Or Rashid Husayn because he rocks.

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
None.

37. How often have you returned books to the library unread?
The last time I checked a book out, I was probably 15.

38. Favorite fictional character?
+++ Whoops! Here Comes The Cheese! +++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Error At Address: 14, Treacle Mine Road, Ankh-Morpork +++ !!!!! +++ Oneoneoneoneoneone +++ Redo From Start +++

Which is a fancy way of saying that question has no semantic value as that implies I can pick one.

39. Favourite fictional villain?
SEE. ABOVE. WITH ADDED MELON. I like a good villain even more than a hero!

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?
Ones I'm trying to read.

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.
Without reading books for pleasure, probably weeks at a time. I know that a couple years ago when I was finishing my web design degree I was spotty about any other reading.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
That terrible academic book by Norman Cantor that was supposedly about the Black Death leaps to mind.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
SHRIEKING.

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
Fight Club? I DON'T HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS OH MY GOD.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
The later Harry Potter books. "Let's leave out this plot entirely so we can add a totally unnecessary dragonfight that wasn't onscreen in the first place!"

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
Probably a couple hundred, not including any time I needed to get a whack of textbooks.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
Never.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
Stop permanently would be only if it was a terrible book. And my standards of terrible are pretty low - I AM going to finish the Land of Painted Caves, after all, and that book is awful.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
Only in a sense that I am the only person to understand.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
Keep, keep, keep!

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
Like a bad date or something? Uh, yeah, but not because the books have done anything bad, usually. It's more because a book on the science of dreaming sounds great, I buy it, then it languishes for 10 years while other things, more shiny and more tarty and more urgent, come along.

52. Name a book that made you angry.
Three Cups of Tea made me want to punch my relationship to America in the face. So did The Road From Ar Ramadi. In a totally different way, River Horse made me quite angry, but I wanted to punch the author for being a pretentious twat in that case.

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
Good in Bed, by Jennifer Weiner.

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
At Swim, Two Boys. I don't know how you can make gay boys in early Republican Ireland, set against the backdrop of the struggle for independence and identity and with bonus World War I awful, but that book managed it.

I also hated In The Wake of the Plague, but that was because it was wrong in so many ways.

55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
Discworld, Elizabeth Moon, David Weber, Janet Evanovich.

Meme from dreadnot:

Don't take too long to think about it. List fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen that come to mind.

1. The Bible/The Qu'ran/The Torah, no conclusive authors. (I'm not religious, I like to have evidence for arguments.)
2. Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
3. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
4. The Good Rain, Timothy Egan
5. The Brothers K, David James Duncan
6. The Lords of Discipline, Pat Conroy
7. Congo, Michael Crichton
8. Only Forward, Michael Marshall Smith
9. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig
10. Stranger In A Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
11. Sometimes A Great Notion, Ken Kesey
12. Perceiving Women, Shirley Ardener, ed.
13. Fire On The Mountain, John MacNeil
14. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
15. We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, Phillip Gourevitch

I've been having this craving for chocolate lately, which is actually kind of a nice way of saying "For about the last 32.6 years, I've wanted chocolate," and there was, in an appalling lapse, none in the house. So when I went to the drugstore today to pick up a scrip, I accidentally found out that the Easter candy is in. I also found out, less accidentally, that the Valentine's candy is on sale.

I have now committed great crimes against humanity and have two things to report.
1) Circus peanuts in a different colour and shape still taste so shockingly bad that I cannot believe I just ate that and must confirm that I did immediately, by having another.
2) Eating most of a box of chocolate in approximately 2 seconds means that I will feel like almighty death. Also, I still find maple chocolates need to be warned for, as they are gross.

So there you go.

Fortunately, tea came to the rescue, and I feel much less like I want to throw up, but probably moving isn't really a great idea right now, unless I would like to throw up. As I've never been bulimic, I'll pass.

This is only bad because I went to the grocery store and my milk is sitting out, getting to a happy room temperature, because obviously that's ideal for milk. If it comes down to it, I'll take somewhat warmer milk for the foreseeable future over vomiting over my favourite outfit, but I have to admit, it's a close one there.

I need to get off my ass and order my official transcripts, since I'm apparently registering for classes next Weds, despite having no idea how the fuck I'm paying for this, though the phrase "work study" has happened in my hearing, and that's fine with me. I have no aversion to working, I just am having trouble convincing anyone that me working is not a bad plan.

The dude in charge of my program NEEDS to quit arguing with me about whether I have any math credits; I'm just going to let him read that and weep, because NO, I have NO quantitative credits whatsoever, and by the way, IF the state law applies now, it didn't THEN. Part of the joy of Evergreen was that there WAS NO MATH REQUIREMENT. Right now, I have set this on "incipient comedy" when he realises that I'm telling the truth, not only do I have no math classes at ALL in my, um, six years of extremely-higher education, I don't even get to roll over any IB credits from high school because I FAILED my IB Calculus test, and I failed it in such a way that probably I actually knew what I was doing. This is how bad I am at ANYTHING involving geometry. I can find X all week long, but I cannot do geometry at ALL.

I suppose I'm excited about this. I mean, I want to do the course, and I know that it's not going to happen, largely because I'm unsuited to online learning in any event (I am so not a self-starter) and because most of these courses are not available online, if I'm not full time in school. I'm just nervous about figuring out how the fuck to pay for it and live at the same time; my unemployment benefits do run out in June (or possibly October, depending on the stimulus package) and I don't, right now, really want to start this and be unable to finish it. I would love, actually, to have a flexible job where I could work, say, three days a week and go to school two or three days, though I have a feeling that would have me building webpages in my sleep and living on coffee. On the other hand, I'm bored out of my fucking skull right now but not motivated to do much to rectify that, so I can put up with a couple years of too-busy-to-shit, really.

Also, a meme. I want to do this, but I am LAUGHABLY bad at sending anything out in a timely fashion AT ALL, so.

The first five people to post here will get something made by me. It might be a photo, short story, whatever. You don't get to choose, however. You will get it some time in the next year. You have to post this in your journal and do likewise.

I may have actually injured myself laughing when I was listening to The Phrase That Pays (Nashville Version). Some things just should not be. Other things still shouldn't be, but have the redeeming quality of giving me something to laugh about.

A meme, via apiphile. I don't think I can top her answers, but I will try.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
No. Yet I still have my dad's ex-wife's middle name for my middle name. It only took him two months to tell my mom this.

( I'm feeling merciful today. )

Before I race off for brunch and avoidance (any meal is brunch if it combines breakfast food with beer, and that's really the extent of what I ask for from a meal), a meme, from everyone and their dog, most recently spamcola and jkivela.

January: On balance, brown and blue hair was not the best possible option.

February: Today's pressing question: Can I make a business case to be sent to SXSW for work?

March: I am good at my job...except when my boss is routed in on an email, when I can fuck up some really, really basic facts.

April: I like April Fool's Day just fine.

May: Iron Man rocked. I am going to go see it like four more times and buy the DVD and love it and squeeze it and name it George.

June: - I saw a car with the license plate "Jwalk" this weekend. No one will get this, but it gave me quite a turn, I can tell you.

July: I think you all should know that I am planning a clown costume for a Batman party I'm going to.

August: If I was really using Goodreads properly (and frankly, it's one of the very, very few webthings that I enjoy) I would get a WiFi-enabled computer and go home and go through ALL of my books and put them up, then start looking at lists to find out what I've read that I haven't got copies of, and then I would start feeling successful.

September: Jesus fuck, Gerard, you just won Gerard Sex Chicken.

October: The first "teachable moment" in my resume-counselling with my outplacement person should not be how I should not attach the wrong resume to the email.

November: I'm reminded every single day, that I am not a perfect man. I will not be a perfect president. But I can promise you this, I will always tell you what I think and where I stand; I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you when we disagree, and most importantly I will open the doors of government and ask you to be involved in your democracy again.

December: None of these are new. However, they evidently bear motherfucking repeating.

*****

And the rot has set in. My Bender icon has disappeared, replaced by something that looks like Nintendo on crack, and I am Not Happy. I probably still have it saved somewhere on my hd, but it's been entirely long enough that who the fuck knows.

For eight days you have to post something that made you happy that day.

I am actually not sure what day I am on. It might be day ONE MILLION AND FIVE.

Let's see.

1) Okay, this is a big one: I went to Theo Chocolates today. I ate EVERYTHING IN SIGHT. I have sampled so. much. fucking. chocolate that you wish you were me. Favourites: Theo Jane Goodall Dark Chocolate, Coconut Curry Milk chocolate, and vanilla milk chocolate, though I suspect that candied orange peels will be RIGHT UP THERE, and that totally does not recognise the Lavender-Jalapeno-Caramel and the other one that I have actually forgotten but had sea salt on top. Sea salt and chocolate is the best thing to ever happen.

2) Found the best pizza in Seattle. Everyone who craps on about Abbondanza can just shut the fuck up right now. I live right by Abbondanza, I know it's really well-reviewed, and it is good pizza, particularly since they do a Capricciosa pizza and I think that prosciutto is the second best thing to ever happen. However, they cannot make a fucking crust. I think they may use matzoh as their crust. It's thin, it's crispy, and it is The Thing That Should Not Be. Abruzzi's can make a real crust. I may VERY WELL want to slap them (I hate patronising places that insist on discussing their issues with their customers, and Abruzzi's skates that edge) but I can't argue that their pizza is fucking marvelous.

3) I finally got my car out! I drove! It did not die, spin out, fishtail (much) or generally fuck up! Awesome!

3a) The snow is melting! A lot! (Though, to be fair, we are expected to get approximately another metric asston of snow for the holiday. Let me just say: yey.)

4) Apparently, 3 Doors Down's Citizen/Soldier is also making me happy, since I've listened to it 12 times so far today, and I don't know how I feel about that, given that I first ran across it in a National Guard ad that played yesterday before Gran Torino, and because it is about as...yeah, it's about as Southern Rock as it gets. Let's leave it at that. And yet, I really do like that, and I do like the sentiment. I may be a pacifist on a governmental level, but some part of my nature is a protector. Judge me on my cock-rock.

5) And the last good thing: I am about to go the fuck to sleep. Given that I slept three hours last night? This is overdue.

For eight days you have to post something that made you happy that day.

I have red velvet cake and my shopping is done. Everything else about today has sucked.

Okay, so I was tagged by jkivela, who cleverly flattered me in the same breath, so I'll do the meme. Flattery will get you everywhere; philately will merely force the USPS to haul you around.

For eight days you have to post something that made you happy that day.

Okay, huh. It's been kind of a not-good not-bad day, really, and mainly that's all because of YAY MORE SNOW. Also, we have been upgraded from 2" new snow expected to another winter storm warning with 3"-8" expected. But there've been some positive things. I think.

Number one with a bullet is that I haven't lost power (knock on wood, I won't tonight, either.)

Two would have to be that I annoyed graeae with sparkle text. Because she deserves it. At least I didn't use the dancing-dick sparkle background.

But! The main thing that is making me happy (other than that people with studded snow tires came up and hauled me out of my apartment and took me to lunch a whole two miles away) is that I have rediscovered Almost Live. That used to be Seattle's version of SNL, and it was pretty damn funny (though I will note that if you watch COPS in Ballard, COPS in Kent, and COPS in Wallingford sequentially, you totally see the pattern of the skit) and, most importantly, never ever gave me the Motts, which SNL does all the time.

And it turns out that a lot of it is on YouTube, which I find AWESOME. It's sort of weird (since I never see anything on TV anyway) to see skits that I remember from watching the show.

Side note: this is the show that confused the hell out of me about when SNL starts. It showed at 11:30 on Saturdays, bumping SNL to midnight, so when SNL started airing at 11:30 this year, I had a mini meltdown, because I knew I was right that it started at midnight because I stayed up to watch SNL and Headbanger's Ball and they were on at the same time.

Today, I realised that I really was right and everyone else was wrong. SNL used to start at midnight. Fuckers, doubting me.

These may be too PNW-mocking to make sense, but let's find out.

Ballard Driving Academy.
Lynnwood Beauty Academy.
The Streetwalking Lawyers of Aurora Avenue.
COPS in Kent.

And on a down note (and one that I, as a native Seattlite, proud child of blue-collar parents) find hits a little too close to home: Seattle Is A-Changing.

God I miss this show.

To distract from the book I am copyediting. (Long book is VERY FUCKING LONG!)

I know I've done this one before, but ah well. From trollprincess.

"These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish."

( Read more... )

Today, we are expected to get between zero and eight inches of snow. This is as good a reason as any to avoid the Deep Fried Double Wide Holiday Hangover Ball. Also, I don't have tickets, but since Queensryche just stepped up to take over for Saliva, I was thinking about it.

Also also, RIP Bettie Page. I have something to say about that, but I'm going to wait till this book is done.