friday five and BLAH

[dr4b]

And the weekend starts to crumble...
Well, at least, Chris seems to be cancelling on me, so I don't know what I'm doing tonight anymore. I guess if nothing at all else comes up, I will go to IZ and check out the new Extreme unlocks. I suppose I *am* looking forward to playing Least 100 Seconds. But I wish I felt more excited about it.

As for Saturday, still no definite plans. Maybe after my officemate leaves for the day I'll try calling people. If nothing else, I *am* hanging out with Rumi Saturday night, regardless of what anyone else does. Right? Right.

Oh well, it's Friday, here have a Friday Five.

1. What is your favorite type of literature to read (magazine, newspaper, novels, nonfiction, poetry, etc.)?
Er... science fiction and fantasy, I guess. I also like to read classic literature, like Mark Twain and Jane Austen and Alexandre Dumas and all that.

2. What is your favorite novel?
That is a REALLY tough question. I'm thinking Dragonlance Chronicles (the first trilogy) jumps to mind as "most often lent out to people", but Harry Potter Book 3 would be way up there too. Bridge in the Menagerie, if it counts, is also WAY up there on my list. EDIT> I was debating whether to include _The World According to Garp_, as I went through four copies of it because people never gave it back, so it gets an honourable mention even if I haven't re-read it in many years, 'cause joelle_van_dyne reminded me about it.

3. Do you have a favorite poem? (Share it!)
Yes, many. It's actually a tossup between "Days and Nights" by Kenneth Koch, "Falling From Stardom" by Jonathan Holden, and "It's Raining in Love" by Richard Brautigan. These are all on my favorite poems page.

4. What is one thing you've always wanted to read, or wish you had more time to read?
I joke about wanting to read Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, which I have never touched, but I don't think I care any more. Let's see, I guess I've always wanted to read more Poul Anderson, Piers Anthony (I love to hate him), Roger Zelazny, Frank Herbert, and a few other authors.

5. What are you currently reading?
American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. It's been put on hiatus as I've been unable to focus on reading during my bus rides, though.

Comments

[random-boy.livejournal.com]

Don't bother with The Wheel of Time, unless you're REALLY bored. I guess it's an interesting story and all, but it's kind of like Xanth without all the puns (i.e., Robert Jordan writes it to satisfy his own ego).

Wheel of Taking a Lot of Time

[tesposit.livejournal.com]

I found the Wheel of Time books to be very absorbing. Currently I am reading the newest one, and it is hard to get into. Jordan seems to write more and more about less as the books go on. The storylines are overdeveloped I think. The first few were very enjoyable, but things seem stretched out now.

A good author that is very fresh and crisp, although graphic, is George R.R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire (starting with A Game of Thrones). The series is still in progress, though. Also interesting is David Farland's series The Runelords, which I think recently published the third book in the trilogy.

Piers Anthony - I read the Incarnations of Immortality back in Jr. high. I was turned off to his writing because of the two-dimentional female characters. They all seemed pretty interchangable. Also the endings of the stories, except the first one (which was the best) seem clipped. Yet then there followed a 75 page author's note.

[random-boy.livejournal.com]

Piers Anthony used to be my favorite author. But then I realized that all of his books are the same. I still appreciate the moral dilemmas and problem solving acts that his characters go through, but after trying to read the description of yet another logic puzzle in Xanth, I began to lose interest. On a Pale Horse (the first Incarnations book) is still my favorite of his. Come to think of it, A Spell for Chameleon (the fist Xanth book) is also rather strong. Anthony has some good ideas, but then they seem to become diluted when he decides to continue a series. To an extent, I appreciate the rather lengthy author's notes he writes for his books. They provide good insight into his thought processes.

What I find to be most frustrating in series such as Xanth and The Wheel of Time is a lack of closure. Series like The Lord of the Rings and Dragonlance: Chronicles are so powerful because of that closure. I can only put up with so much of a building storyline. From what I remember (having read it completely only once back in high school), Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series had decent closure after 5 books, but then he felt the need to add two more books, neither of which were that good, in my opinion.

Okay, enough complaining. I will now finish on a positive note by saying, "Wow! Michael Chabon!".

[tesposit.livejournal.com]

One thing about Robert Jordan's characterizations of female characters - they all seem to spend a lot of their time being very angry. Either at each other or at the men, who in turn can't figure out why the women are all mad. They are always described at scowling, frowning or glaring.