Book List

Now playing: Tom Sullivan - The Dreadnaught
via FoxyTunes


With all my talk of bookshelves and new reading material, I figured I should post a list of what I've currently read/am reading/plan to read.

(So you know, those should be numbers down there, dunno why Blogger decided they would look prettier as flower icons)

1. Samuel "Chip" R. Delany - Nova
   
2. Ursula K. LeGuin - Lathe of Heaven
   
3. Mary Shelly - Frankenstein
   
4. L. Sprague de Camp - Years in the Making (Collected Time Travel Fiction)
5. Brian Stroud - The Bartimaeus Trilogy (The Amulet of Samarkand - The Golem's Eye - Ptolemy's Gate)
   
6. Neil Gaiman - Smoke and Mirrors
7. PD James - The Children of Men
8. Wm. Shakespeare - As You Like It
9. Cornelia Funke - Inkheart
10. L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt - The Mathematics of Magic (Collected Enchanter stories)
11. Samuel "Chip" R. Delany - The Neveryon Series (Tales of Neveryon - Neveryona - Flight from Neveryon - Return to Neveryon)
12. Garth Nix - Across the Wall
13. Susan Cooper - The Dark is Rising Sequence (Over Sea, Under Stone - The Dark is Rising - Greenwitch - The Grey King - Silver on the Tree)

I should also dedicate a list of my "Books in Limbo," ones I'm currently in the middle of but got put aside for others. This are in descending order of how long it's been since I've picked them up, and the reason I put them down.

1. Umberto Eco - Focault's Pendulum (I loved Name of the Rose, but this is nearly impenetrable)
   
2. Raymond E. Feist - Magician (Reads, beat for beat, like some wish-fulfillment fantasy that *I* would write)
   
3. Peter F. Hamilton - Fallen Dragon (As my friend Toes said, dull exposition until the last 1/8th)
   
4. Samuel "Chip" R. Delany - Dhalgren (Neat, but dense and full of mindscrew)
   
5. Tom Stoppard - The Invention of Love (Stoppard's a genius, but I kept getting distracted)
6. Statius - Thebaid (In my defense, I AM over halfway through, but oh, the purple prose!)
7. Clive Cussler - Sahara (Fun, but kinda flat)
   
8. Victor Hugo - Les Miserables (Serial writing bloatage ahoy!)
   
9. Xenophon - Anabasis (I have no reason to not still be reading this, except for the influx of new reading material)
   
10. Robert M. Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ditto, but this one can get a little boggy)
    
11. Bart D. Ehrman - God's Problem (I can only take so much philosophy at a time, even if I agree with it)

So if y'all are wondering what I'll be doing for the next few weeks, there you go.


Enough, More Later.
- James

Way to go, Sherlock

Now playing: Corner Stone Cues feat. Christopher Tin - Madokara Mieru
via FoxyTunes


No way to come out of that without being an asshole. Personal lesson learned, now to go spend time in the wilderness.


Enough, More Later.
- James

I'm a lazy bum, sort of

Now playing: Jerry Goldsmith - The Fire Dragon (I seem to harbor an inordinate amount of affection for this song, i.e. it frickin' roXXors)
via FoxyTunes

Sometimes when I think of updating my blog, "I should post some pictures...oh wait, I have no way to host them, come to think of it, no way to take them. I really should get a digi-cam, they must be pretty damn affordable by now!" Of course, it's not terribly high on my list, but I always fantasize about how I can improve my picture taking abilities had I had one. You mean I actually have to think ahead about how I want to spend my fun money? Scandalous!

To the point, I re-organized my room. My desire for more shelf space finally took hold in my brain and wouldn't let go, so I dredged up my old Logistics Crew skills and played furniture tetris with my living area. I'd forgotten how little floorspace I have in my room, and that lead to some old problems of re-arranging the essentials: when you only have two walls to shove things up against, things get pretty limited. As much as I like my bay window, there's really very little you can put up to it. As it's designed to give a nice view, anything in front of it kind of defeats the whole "seeing things" business. And then the closet takes up the opposite wall, so it's either more space or losing access to clean clothes.

In the end, I finally decided that I could deal with limited access to the closet. I lined up my loft bed (on risers) the long way in front of the closet, which now limits how easily I can get my clothing, and makes trying to get stuff out of the top shelf somewhat ridiculous (ehh, I don't wear ties every day anyway). On the flip side, I now can easily access the shelf area above, and accordingly my nifty extra bookshelves. I stacked my two DVD shelves and moved them, so now I have more wall space, and you can guarentee that there'll be a new bookshelf in there soon. The final boon is that my desk can now take an un-obtrusive center at the bay windows, giving me a wonderful view of our backyard and my hummer feeder. There is still much to do!

I will give a shout out to ol' Tim Jue, who I saw and caught up with today at A.G. Ferrari's on College. I long for more KNSL shenanigans, and hope we'll both have time to indulge in our little creative diversions.

Anywho, it's late, I'm tired, yadda yadda.


Enough, More Later.
- James

Poetry Double Header

Now playing: Danny Elfman - I. Pianos
via FoxyTunes


Since I need to get some sleep, some poetry. First off, the Hooker translation of the famous Dueling Poem in Cyrano de Bergerac (recommended by TC and implemented in the 1950 film version with Jose Ferrer)...


Lightly I toss my hat away
Languidly over my arm let fall
The cloak that covers my bright array
Then, out swords! And to work withal.

A Lancelot, in his ladies hall
A Spartacus at the hippodrome
I dally awhile with you, dear jackal
Then as I end the refrain, thrust home!

Where shall I skewer my peacock? Nay!
Better for you to have shunned this brawl
Here in the heart, through your ribbons gay?
In the belly, ‘neath your silken shawl?

Mark how my point floats, light as the foam
Ready to drive you back to the wall
Then as I end the refrain, thrust home!

Ho, for a rhyme…Mark, you’re as white as whey!
You break! You cower! You cringe! You crawl!
Tac! And I parry your last assay
So the turn of my hand forestall

Life with its honey, death with its gall
So may the turn of my fancy roam
Free for a time ‘till the rhyme’s recall
Then as I end the refrain, thrust home!

Refrain:
Prince! Pray God that is Lord of all
Pardon your soul, for your time has come!
Beat – Pass – Fling you aslant, asprawl –
Then as I end the refrain, Thrust home!


Also, because I'm a sucker for love poetry, I love me some Alfred Noyes, and to tie this post together, the following...


Song
(After the French of Rostand)
Alfred Noyes

O, many a lover sighs
Beneath the summer skies
For black or hazel eyes
    All day.
No light or hope can mar
My whiter brighter star;
I love a princess far
    Away.

Now you that haste to meet
Your love's returning feet
Must plead for every sweet
    Caress;
But, day and night and day,
Without a prayer to pray,
I love my far away
    Princess.


Enough, More Later.
- James

A Quick Note on Stephanie Meyer

Currently in Earphones: "Wanted" Soundtrack by Danny Elfman

I found it interesting when Twilight first came out that nearly all the reviewers made mention of Meyer's Mormon background, and how that made her books a little cleaner what with the no pre-marital sex and all. Also, the slow build on the romance was praised by parents (well, moms, who also got into the series and read them with their daughters) who found it as the perfect opportunity to explore the birds and the bees talk. Trufax!

And, here's the fun part, Meyer started ratcheting up the squick in the most recent book, and people are looking all surprised. And I'm not talking the blood and guts, I'm talking the creeptastic Imprinting business. I'll let you do the searching on that one.


Enough, More Later.
- James