Philotic Web

John Constantine is everything Keanu Reeves isn't - blond, British and funny.

Still, the movie wasn't terrible, but comics are better.

Reading Wicked. It's a lot more... Erotic, than I expected.

finished rereading Men at Arms in about two days. It's tremendously interesting to watch TP use the book to retcon Guards Guards Carrot into the Carrot of the rest of the Watch series, it's a huge turning point, imo, one I'd never noticed before. It's interesting how Nobby and Fred essentially remained the same from their more parodic roots but Carrot becomes something quite different (in fact he takes the book away from Vimes in the last half).

Considering how Guards Guards was ripped off by Shrek in a whole lot of ways, how much better would Shrek 3 have been if instead of any of the nonsense Charming bit with the play we instead have Charming discover (have foisted upon him) the first Gun in that universe. Hehe, suddenly becomes a much more interesting movie. You could even include the punk ass bitch Arthur they had, except I would rewrite him to be more like Carrot.

Can you tell I just finally watched Shrek 3 and hated it?

I especially hated that Arthur was made king instead of Shrek, though Shrek really shouldn't be king either. It's just a lot more interesting than what they did with the movie. There should have been more Merlin, it was the only good thing about the movie.

Bah, bad movie taste in my mouth still.

I'm also reading, How the States Got their Shapes which is very interesting. I didn't know Delaware's northern border was a semi circle. I did know pretty much everything about the Missouri border, except that the norther border isn't a straight latitude line, it curves upward on the eastern edge. the story behind it is kind of interesting. I'd also forgotten that we sort of seized the northwestern corner from the indians it was supposed to belong to.

Finished The Fountainhead which I believe to be at least equal to Atlas Shrugged. You can see a lot of Atlas in the writing, and you can pinpoint a lot of the key settings and ideas in Atlas Shrugged in The Fountainhead which I found particularly cool.

I also read Catcher in the Rye which I found surprisingly good. I wasn't expecting much, but it was quite an enjoyable read. I also managed to crawl my way through The Scarlet Letter... was kind of a difficult read in that I'm not used to reading older-English books. Still enjoyable, however.

Re-read Ender's Game once again, just for fun. Also just re-read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. You should all read it if you haven't already. Seriously. Do it right now. Go out and read it. It's Fantasy without elves and rings and magic swords. It's a very, very, very enjoyable book that everyone should read.

Going to read Catch-22 and then probably One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. That will probably end up being the end of my summer reading. Maybe through the year the person whom I roughly stole their summer reading list from will let me steal their school-year reading list also.

I'm currently rereading Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher, which is the eighth book in the wizard/private-eye series The Dresden Files. Harry Dresden returns to help his friend's daughter at a Horror con where movie monsters are becoming real and killing con patrons.

It's probably one of the better books in this series.

I also recently read Batman: The Killing Joke. Not one of the better Batman Graphic novels I've read, but it was fairly good. Gave a nice theory on The Joker's backstory.

reading Mindless Eating and the little common sense book of investing. both are quite good, especially Mindless Eating.

Hey, did you hear about Mindless Eating from me? Another of my friends just read it and loved it to. I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Oh, and I'm rereading Player Piano by Vonnegut.

I think so, I definitely heard about it in this thread.

Ah, yes, Tales of MU. I have seen the ProjectWonderful ads, and clicked to take a peek, but nothing more. Would you suggest it, zero?

Now that I've finished it (up to today; chapter 257), I think I can say I do, if it's what you're looking for. ToM has been one of the more, hmm, "disturbing" I suppose, things I've read recently. "Disturbing" is a bit too harsh, but... you know, somewhere in that direction. It is probably the only place I have seen certain sexual fetishes discussed in a non-negative light by nonparticipants. There is a lot of sex in it (and heavy on BDSM), but it mostly doesn't read like porn, and the other times, only like bad porn ("bad" in the sense that I'm not getting anything out of it). The most recent chapters are probably those I found most disturbing, getting close to guro or vore.

There is, of course, much more to it than that. A lot of it is about discrimination and tolerance, often creating parallels between the fictitious species and real ethnicities, but hell if I know if there's any race-specific messages or anything. One in particular seems kinda anti-Japanese, but hey, I'm white, so I think other races are being offended, right? :D All of the main characters are interesting, but I do think there's too much supporting cast without significant definition (I confuse some of them a lot). The protagonist is also a complete bitch and always either incredibly annoying or extremely frightening, while my favored characters (like Finbar and Celia) barely get any screen time at all, but oh well. There's also humor, and some internet meme references/geek jokes throughout. Random examples (sorry for taking up all this space, but I like these):

"To some extent, yes, but I think you touched on a key point there," Hart said. "Being given what you're promised. The provincials felt betrayed. It's not that the emperor had never passed burdensome laws before. It's not that citizens had never had their rights restricted before. What made this different... what bred the resistance that led to rebellion... was the sense of being cheated, of being ripped off. They were lured overseas with promises of 'cake', as you put it, only to get there and discover it was a lie."

"I has a flavor?" Suzi asked doubtfully.

I got to my feet and took a quick look around, if only to confirm the horrible suspicion that had formed in my head.

It didn't take long for me to do a quick survey of my surroundings: I was in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.

There's also the Gygax Memorial Healing Center, and the April 1st Rickroll. I also just find this quote so awesome:

"Don't you want to be my friend? I'm being so nice to you!"

"Please refer to subsection B, paragraph you stomped on my face, you f****** whore," I said.

There's also some fun chapters that I think are neat just by themselves (you don't need know anything about the story to enjoy them, I don't think): like 46, or the story about golem souls. There's probably others, but I've written too much about all this already; I think all will agree I'm done.

Edit: Okay, one more thing. The author seems to suggest that they use a spellchecker while writing this... I don't know if there's something wrong with it or what, but I've noticed several times where "pop" is used when "soda" is clearly intended. It gets a little irritating after a while.

There's also some fun chapters that I think are neat just by themselves (you don't need know anything about the story to enjoy them, I don't think): like 46, or the story about golem souls. There's probably others, but I've written too much about all this already; I think all will agree I'm done.

Funny you mention 46: I just got to it, and only managed to guess what it was all about two chapters previously.

I have to say, despite it being completely, well, almost a complete mish-mash of every fantasy story ever written, I'm kind of liking the universe it is set in. As for conclusions on the story and whatnot, well, I guess I'll have to get up to wherever the heck you are, but so far I agree with what you have stated.

Edit: Man, I ALWAYS agree with Zero. I'm such a lame follower. I guess I'll always have Bebop to set me apart.

I have to say, despite it being completely, well, almost a complete mish-mash of every fantasy story ever written,

Quite. I meant to include the phrase "Sometimes it feels like I'm reading something that should be entitled Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Strap-on" in the previous post, but apparently I forgot.

Edit: Man, I ALWAYS agree with Zero. I'm such a lame follower. I guess I'll always have Bebop to set me apart.

It just means you have good taste! (Except in anime, of course :p). If it helps, I haven't played psychonauts, and you still have time to jump on the Dr. Horrible bandwagon before I get to it.

and you still have time to jump on the Dr. Horrible bandwagon before I get to it.

Done. I've just been putting off posting in there. Wait, if you know that, that means you've been looking in the thread, and that means you've been looking in a thread about something you haven't actually listened to! You bad, bad person.

and you still have time to jump on the Dr. Horrible bandwagon before I get to it.

Done. I've just been putting off posting in there. Wait, if you know that, that means you've been looking in the thread, and that means you've been looking in a thread about something you haven't actually listened to! You bad, bad person.

I made it through the last book I posted about (enjoyed it), as well as The Fool's Tale by Nicole Galland (also enjoyed) and Bid Time Return/Somewhere in Time (partially enjoyed). I'm now reading The Diamond of Darkhold, the fourth and last Ember book, and will move on afterward to The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway.

Going back to BTR/SIT...I had a rough time making it through the first 30 or so pages, thoroughly enjoyed the next 100 or so, and lost belief in the story the second day Richard is in 1897. I'd give better spoiler alerts and all, but I'm not convinced I'll be spoiling this for anyone. I could believe that he was infatuated/obsessed with/intrigued by Elise but I couldn't understand why she would return the interest on such a high level as to claim to be in love with him. I don't care who told her to expect him or that she rightly did so, I just couldn't buy that her suspicion and years of weariness toward men would diminish enough to so readily welcome him into her world after one day because he was so persistant. He should have come off as creepy (Matheson called it mysterious). That sort of quick-building love affair worked for me in Titanic but not in this. I'll blame it on so much of the book being devoted to Richard's going to 1897 and not enough to showing what she could have possibly seen in this temporally challenged stalker.

As to what I liked: I liked all the thought process shown in him going back, I loved the connection between the penny sending him to San Diego (and to her) and being the very device that tears them apart, I enjoyed that she was left to wonder what the hell happened to him and that she has the chance to figure it out in the '50s, and I love that the book is left open to you deciding if it was real or something he made up to deal with his tumor.

I also watched the movie; I really wanted to like it. But I can't say I did. It suprised me to learn that Matheson himself wrote the damn screenplay, because I think he got his own characters all wrong (Elise, at the very least) and made some bad changes - having elderly Elise approach Richard, move the story from San Diego to Michigan, take away Richard's cancer, made it an absolute that he went back in time, etc.

It's hard for me to know how I would have read BTR/SIT had I not seen the movie many times growing up. Since I read the book later, I found the differences in IT odd. I always found the fact that Elise falls in love with Richard so easily/fast kind of ridiculous. Love at first sight is such nonsense.

I am reading a book called, "Pandora's Star" by Peter F. Hamilton (Followed by Judas Unchained)

Excellent, excellent book. While it is still not on par with the Ender books I say that I'd give it a 4.7 out of 5. I mean--I can't even put into words how wonderful it is. This is my new favorite book series order:

1. Ender Series-OSC
2. Mars Trilogy-Kim Stanley Robinson
3. Commonwealth Saga-Peter F. Hamilton
4. Hyperion Series-Dan Simmons (exclude Endymion and Rise of Endymion)

I finally finished the Red Badge of Courage. Now I'm on to the Dark Elf Trilogy. Yay! I've been needing my fantasy fix.

I'm reading Don Quixote, Maps in a Mirror, Ten Years later, and Amos (Bible book)...

Just started reading Tom Clancy's Power Plays- Politika. Can anyone here who read the book recommend for/against it?

I'm rereading White Night by Jim Butcher, the 9th book in The Dresden Files. I've been rereading these since March. Took a break in early April to read the new one, Small Favor, but when right back to the rereading a week later after I finished it. I seem to remember reading a couple of books somewhere in between.

I just finished Neptune Noir, some fan articles about Veronica Mars, edited by Rob Thomas. I'm now reading Obedience to Authority by Stanley Milgram about those famous experiments.

I just finished Homeland and am going on to Exile. All I can say is that Drizzt is amazing and cool beyond all reason.

oh dear I may be rereading Jonathan strange and mr norell. it's such a very long but utterly delicious book. I need more from this world, the short story colletion is nice, but more! soon.

I'm reading "Judas Unchained". Not as good as the first "Pandora's Star" but I want to finish it to see how the duology ends.

I am re-reading Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series, books Monday through Friday, in preparation for my first reading of Superior Saturday, which is on order from Amazon.

It's been so long since I started the series that I have forgotten some of the details of the stories, so I decided to review.

This is one series that gets weirder and weirder with each successive book.

I just finished Homeland and am going on to Exile. All I can say is that Drizzt is amazing and cool beyond all reason.

Oh my gosh! Last year I got extremely bored in my Human Geography class and glanced at the open book of the guy next to me. I couldn't catch much, but the name Drizzt stood out to me, so I wrote it down, meaning to look it up, and apparently failed. So there you have it. Mystery solved.

Last year I got extremely bored in my Human Geography class

*social geography major*

I just finished Homeland and am going on to Exile. All I can say is that Drizzt is amazing and cool beyond all reason.

Oh my gosh! Last year I got extremely bored in my Human Geography class and glanced at the open book of the guy next to me. I couldn't catch much, but the name Drizzt stood out to me, so I wrote it down, meaning to look it up, and apparently failed. So there you have it. Mystery solved.

Human Geography? That can't be that hard, people aren't that big.

*chuckles quietly to self*

I finished Feet of Clay (my first british HC, and in mylar, and I got it for 11 plus shipping). and it's such a damned good book. TP has the mystery be the macguffin, in that the reader knows all along about the extra golem while we get to enjoy watching the watch (heh) unravel that bit, and at the same time he sprinkles a variety of other mini-game mysteries throughout the book, such as how vetenari is being poisoned, and so on that make it such a delight to reread. imo, this and Men at Arms are the best of the Watch books, while Night Watch is the best Sam Vimes book (gave Vimes a chance to shine instead of being out done by his supporting cast which is what usually happens to him). I like both about equally, but I think Feet of Clay is the slightly better book because TP can work with the current incarnation of Carrot rather than having to do some of the retconning of Carrot he had to do while writing Men at Arms. Angua doesn't have as prominant a role in feet of clay, but it does give us our first dwarvish woman (that we know of) and I always felt that Cheri was an awful lot like the poor dwarf who gets killed in Men at Arms, which may be the best dwarf Pratchett has written.

Detritus is also such a fun character.

I already have bought myself a new HC copy of Jingo, also a british edition (love their cover art, hate the cover art of this era of US covers) and am enjoying strolling through it. it was the last of the watch books that I read because for a long time I mixed it up with interesting times/lost continent and thought it was yet another rincewind abroad books, but I barely remember it, though reading it is jogging a lot of memories.

Still going through how the states got their shapes, the little book of investing and Jonathan strange and mr norrell, finished the first book of js&mN, it's very good, but such a lovely book it needs to be savored, so I'm putting it on hold for a bit.

Mindless Eating was such a terrific little book. It completely changed the way I think about buying food (now I'm back to always having a large supply of fruit on hand like I did in college rather than other snack-esque food) and it is helping in regards to my problem with the well stocked snack rooms/kitchens at work. I'm also getting back on a cooking kick again. I think it's the onset of harvest that does it to me, every year round about July, going into January I'm on a big time cooking kick. then I sort of lay off the elaborate preparations and intricate dishes for several months and just cook myself very simple meals instead. :p

I need someone to cook for, but I don't want to get stuck doing potlucks again. I think I'm going to look into party foods that I can take to tailgate esque events, this season.

I finished Coraline by Neil Gaiman a couple days ago. Easy read, but I liked it. Nice and creepy and amazingly unique. I spent most of the book thinking what a great movie it would make (having just recently rewatched Mirrormask), and then came onto pweb and found out that it's actually happening. It was like a dream come true--kinda.

I'm most of the way through Brideshead Revisited. I'm liking it a lot better now that I'm not trying to read it during school. However, thus far I'm not seeing much of a discussion of grace in it.

I'm halfway through "The Difference Engine" by Gibson. I didn't even know that he decided to change from cyberpunk to steampunk way back in the early nineties, but apparently it's working for him. I have two other steampunk novels to read in preparation for my NaNoWriMo.

stayed up late and finished reading Jingo last night. This one is pretty good. more relevant today than 1997, perhaps. The book reminds me a great deal of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, a rather famous british movie about the old 19th century/WWI folly of eagerness to wage war. It does have quite a few movie references iirc.

there's not so much a mystery in this book, it's more of a romp than the other watch books. What makes this particularly enjoyable is that it's the first book to really feature Vetinari heavily. We good a good glimpse of the more playful side of the patrician that we don't really come across again until we meet Moist in Going Postal. There is a decided lack of Gaspode in this book which is a bit disappointing.

Lord Rust is mocked magnificently, it's especially delightful to see his crap attacked so wonderfully by pratchett. Something of the overall tone of the book reminds me a great deal of the mildly sarcastic tone Susanna Clarke takes towards British War so I'm quite ready to pick that book up again and read the next part. Besides it'll be a few days until my copy of Fifth Elephant gets here.

I also ordered a 100ft roll of 10" archival mylar brodart to protect my books' dust jackets, I got motivated cause Men at Arms, Feet of Clay and Jingo all came in Mylar and it is much nicer. even without glueing (which libraries do) it makes the cover stay on much better since it gives it a bit more weight. Not to mention how well it keeps covers in condition. My Martin, Rowling, Pratchett, Gaiman and Card HCs will all be the first to be covered. I am such a nerd.

Where'd you order that from?

brodart's site:

http://www.brodart.ca/shop/cb/product.aspx?pgid=3345