Literocracy

Blues4Kali- MetaMythology for the Millennium

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 15:50:22 GMT

What will Winter Solstice bring in
2012?
...an instant of Karma? ...an ethereal spiral dance of the collective soul? ... cosmic judgment leveled against civilization's expanse? ...destruction of the world as we know it? ...a chance for a new start? ...the rise and the revenge of the Goddess? or simply another day in the life of paranoia?
These are the false prophesies that your pastor warned you about!

Reality Exchange Program

"Makes DMT seem like a whip-it."

Crazy Bear said there'd be days like this. As usual, no one believed him. Now, all I want to know is: where IS that lifeboat, and how DO I ditch this ship of fools, without any of these bliss ninnies noticing that I'm already gone?

Captain, my ass. We are equal in this sea of madness.

That iceberg is looking awfully big.

New Age Metaphysical Books

Amana Mission is on a quest to save the world, and the only problem is, she can't remember why she got involved with such an obvious scam in the first place. Jesus saves. Christ. What a loser.

Kali kills first, and recycles later.

Hitchhikers, load up for a ride to the Other Side. You may wish you had gone Greyhound.

"What the...?"

*A cranky band of prankster peace warriors who absolutely cannot resist messing with each other's minds, no matter the cost.

*Cocky alchemy-dabbling quantum surfers, navigating the Ethersphere with hand-held computers, switching timelines to find a better party vibe and swap tips about the best temporary toilets for use as interdimensional portals.

*A burnt-out visionary hippie millionaire on a mission from Gaia to build a better "communitopia" by underwriting a convoy carrying telepathic priestesses.

*A wheelchair-bound mindpilot propelling a crystal-powered Seed Bank toward the post-Apocalyptic Garden, with psychic precision...and a predilection for high-velocity extreme driving.

*Hermaphrodite time-jumper fleeing a fate worse than death.

*Anarchist ghettoes where anything goes-except escape.

*Ancient Principals vying like sweatsoaked carpetbaggers for our loyalty as the Final Vote is tallied.

*Long-haired security patrols collecting a cannabis tribute tax from all pilgrims to the Valley of Fun.

*And an underground meat mafia bringing a black magic revival to a bloodless dreamworld gone bland.

All brought together by a secret psychedelic superdrug that tunes users in to reality through the eyes of another archetypal avatar inhabiting a different state of space and time. Mahayana made easy. Budding Buddha natures are running amuck on a virtual superhighway where all roads lead to the Bo tree and singularity.

Twenty-first century Tantra is about more than sex, drugs, and
rock and roll.Confronting the Karma of every wasted breath is only the first step.

Welcome to the End Times. Kali awaits. She already knows who you are.

Do you?

The 21st century counterculture is even weirder than it appears on the surface. This is not your mommy’s MTV Road Rules. Satire Parody and Humor.

Ride along on this mesmerizing, metaphor-packed bus trip toward ecstasy and enlightenment, as three real-time guides-Amana, Sissy, and Deva, let you in on what they learned when they asked what It was really all about, after all.

Become them for a multilevel metafictional tour of infinity and awaken yourself to the miracle-a-minute magic of mighty Mother Kali!

Science Fiction Novel Blues 4 Kali

book (memoir)

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 20:36:15 GMT

-has anybody heard of the book "News Junkie". Put out by Process Media, that crazy publishing house that puts out weird books?....

Trying to find a book for my mom

Mon, 15 May 2006 18:30:22 GMT

My mom once checked out a library book about a male cat named, I think, Moses. The story went something like this: Pioneer family--mom, dad, children, (plus family cat), aren't making it in the mid-west state they live in, so the dad goes out to California, (he may have been going to try his hand at being a gold prospector); when he is settled, he will send for the family. In the meantime, a tornado destroys the family farm, so mom and kids venture out to find the father in California. The book deals with the adventure along the trip. The cat in the book, whose name was in the title, has different colored eyes, and that trait, supposidly makes it lucky. In the last chapter of the book, the family makes it to California but cannot find the dad. By a stream, the cat stumples upon a female cat, and then the owner of the female comes into view, and it is the father they have been searching for. Happy ending, family reunites, cats get along, all is well.

After she had read the story and returned the book, she went to check it out again, but it had never been returned by the last person who read it. She never wrote down title and author, and now for a VERY long time, shes have tried to find the book and I'm trying to help her as a suprise. I have searced web sites, used book stores, cat magazines, etc., but have not had any luck finding it. She thinks the words "Moses", "Lucky", "One-Eyed" ,and "Cat" are in the title.

Is there anyone out there that can help me solve this mystery? Thanks so much!

x-posted every community that deals with books.

free book swap site

Sun, 18 Dec 2005 02:32:45 GMT

Would any of you guys be interested in joining a site that allows you to swap books for free?

It's my boyfriend's site and I think he's doing a really worthwhile
thing because it costs him money but he doesn't charge anything. He
set it up in his spare time.

It's called ReadItSwapIt (http://www.readitswapit.co.uk) and it's got
over 500 users now and two thousand books available for swapping.

It really helps to spread literacy, stop waste and recycle books in the UK.

It's the only 100 per cent free site of its kind.

hope you don't mind me posting this, i just thought it might be
something you'd like to know about.

It's a great way to get rid of unwanted Xmas book gifts.

Or if you want to buy a book, you can get it there instead, for free - and it won't waste trees, cos you're recycling old books at the same time.

If you like the idea, please do join and put a link up on your LJ links page to help spread the word - the more people who join up, the more books everyone has to swap with.

Unfortunately it's only available in the UK, but if you live in the USA I seriously recommend Bookins (http://www.bookins.com) which, like ReadItSwapIt, is totally free.

If you'd like any more information please feel free to get in
touch.

What to read

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 18:39:11 GMT

I made a service and think you may like it.
It allows you to store list of books you read and/or recommend, using tags to categorize the list.
Then you can see what other people are reading in categories of your interest, e.g. it's like del.icio.us for books.
Service is only starting, so don't expect too much too fast :) but eventually it will become more and more usable as more people add their books there.

just curious

Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:05:43 GMT

I was wondering what book is currently being read and what book is next and when the start date is.

Life of Pi :D

Mon, 18 Oct 2004 23:29:12 GMT

I am pretty damn happy, not only because I did what I said I'd do this weekend -- finish Life of Pi -- but I also ended up really liking the book. Which, considering how slooow it was in the beginning, was a v. exciting development.

I thought about using some of the reading group questions at the end of the book, but none of them really struck me as being particularly insightful nor made me itch to answer them, so I'm just going to talk about the things that interested me. (Though I did laugh when I got to the "Do you agree with Pi's views about zoos?" question, because I have, of course, already answered that one quite vehemently in my (only) other post on this book.

The second we got to Pi on the lifeboat, I couldn't put it down. The rest of the book flew by, feeling as long as that first section had. It wasn't so much that it wasn't good at first, but I just had no real interest in Pi or his religious doings. I mean, despite disagreeing with him about zoos, I actually did agree w/ him about religion, even if I'm not a devout follower to even one religion, much less three.

I LOVED Richard Parker. Just loved him. If there had been a girl tiger I would have shipped them. Maybe even written fanfic. (Now that video game fanfic has happened, nothing is impossible.)

Was Richard Parker real? I don't know. The logical part of me is with the interviewers -- it's all a bit fantastical. But so what? Does that mean it can't be real? Yet, if events happened as Pi details in the last couple of chapters, it wouldn't really be that surprising that he'd made up this whole elaborate tale, would it? Having his family die while on a ship headed toward a whole new life was tragic enough (yet we did not actually see that much focus on the tragedy -- another example of Pi attempting not to dwell on it?), but watching what happened to his mother ... the Taiwanese sailor ... Wouldn't it be easier for Pi to transform these events into something else, something that would keep his mind occupied, but not dwell too much on details that would surely make him insane?

Here are some things that might support the idea that Pi's journey with Richard Parker was more symbolic than actual fact:

1) The facts of Pi's Richard Parker story seemed to change. This might also be attributed to the fact that he didn't necessarily tell the story in a linear way (I think). However, here's what I noticed: 1) one of the first things we learned was that Pi didn't have a can opener. He had to open those cans of water by hitting it against something on the lifeboat (forget what it was). Yet a bit later, he was carrying a "can opener" along with some other stuff off somewhere (to the raft, maybe ... I don't think the mention was as late as the acidic island). Did I miss the part where he found a can opener? He also says at one point that the elements and what not had completely destroyed all the blankets, his clothes, etc. Then when he finds the island he brings a bunch of blankets and makes himself a treetop home. So is there simply a time discrepancy (the island actually happened before all the blankets were disintegrated), or what? Assuming, of course, that these aren't just errors that an editor missed. ;)

2) While reading, I didn't find the whole Bengal Tiger thing too unbelievable, maybe because I knew that was the 'hook' to the novel. If you couldn't buy that, there was no hope for it. But in a real world sense, sure, it's not the sort of thing one just accepts without batting an eye. So was it really unbelievable to the point where it's just impossible? As far as impossible things go, Martel did a pretty good job of inserting doubt. Pi did, after all, have a background in animal training -- his father made sure of that. Of course, Pi is also very smart and ended up majoring in zoology, so by the time he's interviewing with the writer, he's probably had time to really work out the facts/embellishments, no?

3) I could buy every single thing that happened except for his running into the Frenchman in the middle of the Pacific. There, the limits of what I would believe was really, really stretched. It might be the one detail that unravels his story for me. (But it must be admitted that even that I could buy, if the doubt at the end of the story hadn't been introduced.)

4) Martel makes it a point to say that tigers/animals in general don't normally attack humans, they try and avoid violence, humans are an acquired taste, etc. -- yet Richard Parker pounced on the French man almost immediately.

5) Man-eating island aside, Pi finds and cuts open all that "fruit," which happens to contain a full set of human teeth?

6) Pi was what, 13? Yet he was able to construct a raft and a mast and what not?

7) When Pi finds the island, he thinks he's hallucinating. He's been surviving on his own at sea for months -- couldn't he have hallucinated about a great many things?

8) Pi tells Richard Parker that if it weren't for RP, he would give up. Couldn't he have been giving himself a reason to live, keeping himself occupied during those times when things were bleak and hope was in short supply?

9) Pi's alternate story comes a little too quickly and easily, particularly since his own mother is beheaded in it. This suggests that he's had time to think about it a lot, to the point where he's 'desensitized' to it. Of course, Pi is clearly very smart, so...

None of these things are completely unbelievable on their own, especially when survival is at stake, but added together, I don't know.

Now, some other random comments:

1) There were too parts that totally made me cringe: a) when the hyena is eating the zebra and wallowing around in its guts while it was still alive; and b) when Pi tries to eat Richard Parker's/his own feces. Yeuuuuuuk.

2) What was the grossest thing Pi ate? Aside from the feces, for me it was the turtles.

3) Since I'm an incredibly cautious kind of person, I wouldn't have been as wasteful as he was with the water/food at the beginning. Immediately my mind would go to rationing everything out, assuming the worst -- that I'd need these supplies for an indefinite amount of time. (Of course, never having been in the situation, I can't say that w/ 100% certainty, but I think that, at least, is something I can predict with some accuracy. I've seen too many disaster films not to feel like I have to be prepared for any terrible eventuality.)

4) There seemed to be plenty of opportunity for water gathering -- or maybe that's just easy for me to say. I mean, there were the cans of water, which would admittedly not last forever. Then there was the rainwater gatherer(s? was there more than one?). And then the cannister thingys that turned salt water into fresh water. Even with having to take care of Richard Parker, if Pi were really careful and methodical, shouldn't there have been at least a decent amount of water to be had? This was a lifeboat meant for many people, after all. Pi and RP had supplies aplenty, even if you considered RP as being 7 or 8 people by himself.

5) I have to admit I was slightly miffed by the "this might not be real" anvil we got at the end. I mean, I kind of saw it coming, but it was a little disappointing. Especially as the interviewers themselves point out how the stories match each other. It would have been interesting if it could have been left up to us to decide what had really happened, if we didn't believe the tiger bit. Or maybe the fact that the parallels between the stories were explicitly stated makes it more likely that the more unlikely story actually is true?? *attempts to outsmart self*

6) Too bad he didn't eat any large crabs. It would have been interesting to see how his killing of them differs from mine. :D

7) I really liked the irony of this vegetarian having to resort to this kind of life -- to show what we are capable of if pushed. I do wonder when/if he went back to his vegetarian ways once he was rescued.

8) Why was his eventual rescue completely glossed over? He just randomly landed at Mexico? That's it?

9) Like corianderstem, I had some trouble picturing the boat. What exactly did it look like? What did the 'locker' look like? It seemed to hold a great many things. What exactly did the raft look like? I had to gloss over the construction of it, because I really just couldn't picture it.

10) Pi had a knife, but he never once considers using it on Richard Parker. Granted, it would probably be as foolhardy as his other suggestions, but that being the case, I find it interesting that it wasn't considered.

11) Now I want to go back to his list of 'plans' for RP and read them with the view that he's actually talking about himself. I can only remember the last plan, which was eventually put into action: Keep him alive.

So what do you think really happened?

What would you have done in Pi's situation?

Life of Pi and next book

Thu, 14 Oct 2004 17:25:11 GMT

If you've all been slackers like me, you've read the first 50 pages of Life of Pi and have not progressed beyond that. I'm still planning to cram it all in by the end of the weekend, so we'll see how that goes. <g>

In the meanwhile, however, I wanted to remind everyone that next week we'll be starting The Neverending Story by Michael Ende -- so for those of you who plan to participate, get your books ready! :D

I'll leave you with this quote from The Simpsons:

Lionel Hutz: This is the greatest case of false advertising I've seen since I sued the movie The Neverending Story.

Life of Pi, through ch. 5 or so

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 03:56:42 GMT

Whooo, check me out, actually on the right schedule for once.

I have a beef about the narrator's take on zoos. I tried not to feel 'defensive' about the fact that I'm one of those people who are like, zoos, ugh. But it's my strongest reaction so far to the book, so I'm running with it. <g>

Okay, granted, I don't actually know that much about zoos, or zoology. And I've never spoken to a cheetah personally. But the narrator's defense of zoos rubbed me the wrong way. I simply can't buy what he's trying to sell. (And maybe I'm not really supposed to, but that will become more clear as I read on.)

Keeping animals in zoos just seems inherently wrong. Maybe it's not quite the horrible, inhumane thing some people have made it out to be -- and really, that's debatable -- but it certainly isn't natural. Keeping a lion in a cage, no matter how much it means he can more easily defend his territory or whatever, just seems wrong.

Maybe part of it is that the parallels the narrator makes don't really drive his point home. I could just as easily, using his own metaphor, say, "Hey, how would you like it if someone plucked you out of your home and stuck you in a cage just big enough for you to walk your body length five times?" Rather than the luxury penthouse suite example he used. People might choose the suite, unless you told them they couldn't leave. Then they'd rather live in a shack and preserve their freedom. I think history has pretty much proven that.

I'm not sure how reliable this narrator is supposed to be; maybe this is a facet of his personality that we're just supposed to accept, and the fact that we don't agree about keeping animals in zoos doesn't really matter. <g> I'm just not sure yet whether this is a narrator I'm supposed to relate to, or whether he's quirky a la Holden Caulfield. Is his take on zoos supposed to speak toward his own limitations? That he can't see when he's been imprisoned (in mind or body)? I wonder if the author is trying to actually tell us something more about the character here than just his take on zoos.

Time (and more reading) will tell...

Done!

Wed, 08 Sep 2004 23:21:57 GMT

All good things must come to an end, and so it is with Good Omens. I'm only sorry it took me this long to get around to reading it.

Well, I'm pretty satisfied. The climax of the whole thing was, I thought, a bit lackluster, but I don't think the plot was the main point (or the genius) of the book.

I can't believe it took me this long to make the parallels between the Four Horsemen and Adam's gang. It literally took me until this last section to connect all the dots. D'oh.

I really liked Adam; I liked his reasons for stopping Armageddon. I liked that he could stop Armageddon (though the hand waving thing he does to quell the rise of Satan, wtf was that?). I liked that he considered his friends, and I like that after everything, he managed to be grounded by his parents at the end. :)) (And maybe I like him just a little bit for being blond, gray-eyed, slightly evil, and friends with a little red-haired girl. :D)

I'm not sure I understood how the heck the kids defeated War, Famine, and Pollution/Pestilence. Was it just the strength of Adam's will, or something else? The idea that people can, if they wish to make a difference, beat back those things? That's kinda nice. I'm just not sure if that's what NG and TP were going for.

My favorite characters remained Aziraphale and Crowley (and Adam), and I'm still not sure why Agnes or Anathema or Newt's storyline was necessary. I didn't not like it, but it definitely didn't appeal to me the way the others did. I even liked Shadwell towards the end ("He's but a bairn!") ... and that one scene w/ the old dude, what was his name ... anyway, the one who wrote all the letters of complaint, who kept getting asked for directions. :))

(Damn ... it turns out that we learn Crowley has dark hair near the beginning of the book. I will conveniently ignore that for my David Anders casting choice.)

One thing I would have liked to have seen was an explanation for where the baby came from (meaning the Antichrist) and how/why they chose who they originally chose to be the family who was supposed to take him in. Surely with all the planning, it wasn't just completely random.

All right, guys -- that's all I've got. It's being placed on my shelf of books to be kept.

For those of you who are planning to join us for The Life of Pi, we'll be reading the first assignment for that book next week. (I'll update the agenda later tonight with details.)

Good Omens ... the final section at some point

Wed, 08 Sep 2004 00:01:24 GMT

Anathema said that there wasn't such a thing as Fate. I'd be interested in hearing her definition of it. Or yours. I mean ... I tend to think of fate as the process in which things are going to happen because they are going to happen. It's hard not to believe in fate, by that definition.

I mean, what would she call Agnes' predictions? If those are things that are going to happen for sure, is that not fate? If they could be circumvented -- like, say, if Anathema agreed to have sex w/ Newt again -- then maybe the whole Fate thing is bullshit. But since she follows it to the letter, seriously, isn't that fate? She won't do anything different. And I get the sense that she did it because the prediction said she would, not because she was overcome w/ desire.

Loved the Holy Water stunt Crowley pulled. He's my hero.

One of my favorite lines has something to do with demons and banishing and Aziraphale asking Crowley politely to leave, but I can't find it on the Net so I'll have to find it when I get home. :D

Their solution is to kill Adam? Oh nooooo!

And of course, I like contradictions of Tadfield being protected by love, and that Adam's intention is to make things better. I would say "ah, the road to Hell..." except NG & TP has already said that it's not, actually, paved with good intentions. :))

Good Omens, Friday

Fri, 03 Sep 2004 21:09:02 GMT

"Do you know," he said, "my cousin said that in America there's shops that sell thirty-nine different flavors of ice cream?"

This even silenced Adam, briefly.

"There aren't thirty-nine flavors of ice cream," said Pepper. "There aren't thirty-nine flavors in the whole world."

"There could be, if you mixed them up," said Wensleydale, blinking owlishly. "You know. Strawberry and chocolate. Chocolate and vanilla." He sought for more English flavors. "Strawberry and vanilla and chocolate," he added, lamely.

----------

*is dead*

Who was the singing/humming guy behind the counter at Burger Lord?

Is Sable's real name supposed to be Famine?

What is this New Aquarian stuff? Granted, I haven't been paying a whole lot of attention to Anathema.

Why was Dog afraid to go into Anathema's house?

I love Adam and his little gang. He's obviously the most interesting, other than Crowley and Aziraphale, being the unknowing Spawn of Satan and all. But he just seems like a regular kid. What'll he do with all his power when/if he discovers he has it?

Good Omens casting :D

Fri, 03 Sep 2004 07:46:08 GMT

I was thinking of who I'd cast in the roles of Aziraphale and Crowley, because sometimes I think of stuff like that. Most especially when I'm enjoying something, or when I think it might make for good visual entertainment. It's both, in this case.

I didn't have much of an idea of what either of them looked like -- or maybe I've just neglected to notice physical description. The only thing I can recall is that Aziraphale has "plump hands," so I'm assuming the rest of him is plump, as well. And so then I wracked my brain trying to come up with two actors I could cast in these roles, considering I love them both.

And it came to me. So perfect, in looks, temperament, characterization. Though I think only Alias fans will really appreciate it.

Greg Grunberg as Aziraphale (w00bie!)

David Anders as Crowley (mmm, evile)

Both guys, but especially Greg, are much better live action rather than in photos.

I'm still not that far along...

Wed, 01 Sep 2004 19:04:44 GMT

... but I'm catching up, and absolutely loving this book.

seldon, I finally went back last night and reread the pages that were giving me such trouble wrt the baby switching. I finally get what happened. Hallebloodylujah. (In case anyone missed my confusion, it is accounted here. See how willing I am to embarrass myself??)

I so want to name any son I might have 'Warlock' now. Just to laugh.

I've gotta know -- who's your favorite, Crowley or Aziraphale? I keep changing my mind. Aziraphale is such a dork, how can you not love him?? (The magician thing was priceless.) And yet you know how I have a soft spot for bad boys who aren't really bad. I found it infinitely amusing that Aziraphale, the angel, killed a dove, and it was Crowley, the demon, who brought it back to life. (And while I'm talking about Crowley, can I ask, just to be certain -- he was the serpent from the Garden of Eden who tempted Eve, right? So it wasn't Satan himself who did it, just his representative (Crowley, then called Crawly)?)

I'm not sure how Anathema is going to fit into it all, though at the moment I don't find her all that interesting.

Love little Adam Young playing innocently with his playmates and naming his hellhound Dog. Bwahahahahaha. This book may attempt to provide an answer to that age-old question of nature vs nuture that I think about all the time. Can't wait to see what it comes up with.

Is this book good or what?

Sat, 28 Aug 2004 00:23:39 GMT

Words fail me to express how much I love this book. Not only is this comedy, it is intelligent comedy, something that it's very very hard to find in these diluted times. Beyond the spy-stalking-ducks, schizophrenic hell hounds and the Buggre Alle This bible there's some intelligent commentary about some of the silliness of our society...

But what really makes this book stand out, in my humble opinion, is its heart.

Half of Wednesday is spent with Them and Adam, which are very good developed characters for a bunch of pre-teens. The world is ending and the authors make sure we spend a normal day with a bunch of children; granted, one of them is the son of Satan, but genetics aside, Adam Young is nothing but endearing - I don't think I've ever found a more likable antichrist. He's... well, a child. A mischiveous, curious, well-meaning child. He and his gang feel like real children you may find down the street.

And that's as much as I can say about the book without slipping into fanboy mode and embarrassing myself. :p

I want to know which bits of the books you found the funniest, so jot down or mark those moments that made you laugh out loud so we can post them after we finish the book.

Good Omens

Sun, 22 Aug 2004 02:21:50 GMT

The line "An angel who did not so much fall as saunter vaguely downwards" is the one that first hooked my interest the first time I read this book, many moons ago. I love Terry Pratchett in general, but it's funny to re-read this particular book and notice the impact its had on my own style of writing. And since I am a fangirl, and have read this before, it's hard to come up with stuff to say... But I couldn't just let it go by uncommented on, now could I?

I thought of something useful, so I came back to add it. This site has annotations about some of the "in jokes".

That Was It?!?!?

Fri, 13 Aug 2004 17:24:24 GMT

I wish I had more positive things to say about "A Kiss of Shadows"...

So, the entire book was a setup for the rest of the series? I hate when authors do that... At least the way Hamillton did it. Other setup stories for series at least have the decency to be a self-contained story where something happens. Everything that happened in this book was that the über-evil fairy queen presented our protagonist with a harem of men. Bleh.

I could have overlooked the fact that the entire story looks like a wish fulfilling fantasy with a Mary Suish protagonist (as we have discussed before) if the mystery-solving aspect of the series had been worth it. But it wasn't! The "mystery", for what it was, was abandoned before the middle of the book and then solved with a couple of observations near the ending. The worst thing was that Merry didn't need to do anything to solve it beyond engaging in what was supposed to be mind-blowing, awesome sex (which, by the way, looks like it was Merry's answer to everything).

The end also felt very, very rushed, as if the author was more concerned with finishing the setup and starting the next book than with giving us a satisfying conclusion. After all the details she insisted on giving us earlier in the story, all we get at the ending is a quick narration that only says "So, so and so came back with me, so and so became detectives as well and so hasn't fucked me yet, but he will in the sequel and it'll be hot, I promise."

Maybe I'm being too harsh - this is supposed to be a ~~porn~~ erotic book, after all. It isn't the author's fault that I expect more than a little plot in my smut. But the sex scenes didn't do that much for me... I've read fanfiction that is way hotter than this.

There was only one moment in the book that I can say I liked: when Merry rejects the Goblin King's marriage proposal and the second goblin trapped inside him cries. But I don't remember a single scene from the rest of the book - so the entire book earns an eh for me. The worst part is that I read the preview for the third book in the series that came with my paperback and it looks like nothing really happens in the second book either. Hamillton can give Robert Jordan a serious run for his money in the unnecessary-padding-and-sequels-where-nothing-happens department.

But I've already started with Good Omens, and the few pages I've read so far have already cleansed my palate. But that's for another post...

Merry Sue Gentry

Thu, 29 Jul 2004 22:03:49 GMT

So, A Kiss of Shadows. My second Laurell K. Hamilton book, and the first Merry Gentry book I read. I'd thought the Anita Blake book I'd read was okay, but it didn't rock my world to the point where I rushed out to buy more. I got Kiss as a gift, though, so I read it. Now that I'm all caught up to where the group is supposed to be at this point, I'm making my first ever post on this community... And going to sound like a bitch. *sigh*

If this book was a fanfic, I'd have clicked out within the second chapter. The first one wasn't that bad, except that right off we got the jeweled eyes thing and that's about number one on the list of Sue-detecting techniques, but it just didn't pick up the pace at all. I understand that LKH was trying to go for the unearthly beauty of the sidhe and all that, but having the main character be super-humanly beautiful makes it hard for those of us who happen to lack such attributes to put ourselves in her shoes. The fact that it was drilled in seemingly every other page didn't help. Oh, but she's not perfect! She has a flaw! She's short. And for this we angst because she just doesn't fit in! Excuse me while I wipe away a tiny tear with my dull beige fingers.

I think overall that's my main problem with the book - at no point am I particularly rooting for Merry. I just don't care about her - I can't empathize with her in the slightest. She's too perfect, and this tough girl persona does nothing to help. Woooo, her life's in danger. So? When I as the reader don't give a rat's ass whether the narrator survives, there's a problem with the book. But, I have more to say, so I won't be shutting up yet.

It's amazed me how very thoroughly unsexy this book is, considering that it reads like a porno video - a mishmash "plot" stringing together various sex scenes. I don't know, maybe I'm being overly picky, but it all just ran together for me. She likes pain, I get it. Sidhe sex is spectacular beyond the dreams of mortals, gotcha. Can you please stop hitting me with a sledgehammer to drive that point home? She has sex so incredibly fabulous that she can heal people, and yet the hottest scene in the book to me was the bit where Jeremy kissed the policewoman's hand. I couldn't care less about Merry, but I would read a book about Jeremy... Well, as long as it wasn't about him and Merry hooking up. Doubt it'd happen, though, because this book really insists on driving home the point that it is all about Merry, all the time.

So let's talk about the so-called plot. I think the word I'm looking for is self-indulgent, unless possibly I'm thinking of the word lame. The plot kept zinging off onto tangents and seemed to exist only to find new ways for Merry to end up having sex, or almost having sex, with someone different every time. The self-conscious "our morals are not like yours" was quite frankly not all that interesting, and Merry finding new powers every chapter lessened the impact until it was meaningless. As a story of personal growth, which I think this was meant to be, I was unmoved. She didn't seem to grow or change in any way, just to have lots of sex, which she would've had anyway, and gain whiz-bang new powers for no particular reason. Unless there's a really spectacular surprise ending, it doesn't build to anything - there's no goal to be reached. The most you can say she's working for is to survive, and that's boring, especially because, since she's the narrator, we know that she survives. I'm the kind of person who reads the last chapter of mysteries first and this was just too blah to bother - I could tell you from the first few chapters that it ends with super-fabu Merry alive and kicking ass.

Then we've got the actual writing style itself, which gets irritating fast. As someone (seldon?) pointed out, it keeps happening that Merry stops the action to give us exposition on something that anyone in their world would know, thus stopping the action, and so the book drags a bit. It's not like some of it isn't nifty, but it slows us down. Then we have the way that each new male character needs to be described in massive detail, except that to me it all blended together, like descriptions of various Ken dolls. This one has green hair! This one's taller! This one has a grey color scheme! And none of them really stand out. Well, that's not entirely true. Jeremy I liked, and Roane didn't blend in with the rest quite so much. The sluagh guy, Sholto stood out some, although mostly because of the way Merry was all "Let me see, ooh, of course I'll fuck you... Oh, wait a minute, no." Uh huh.

Another irritating and similar habit of digression is the way that she'll stop the action to give us a long passage detailing a bit of history - her grandmother's marriage, the duels she's had, etc. etc. - and then pick up again where she left off... Only there's never a real payoff for it. We don't need to know about her father's silver stars, or the way the fey fought in WWII. It could be argued that they fill out her character or expand on the universe this is set in, only it's so clumsily wedged in that it doesn't flow naturally. It doesn't advance the actual story, it interferes with it. And then we have things like a full page, four paragraphs, on the life history of a character that never appears again. Gah.

The last story construction thing that bothered me was that Merry would hash something out in her inner monologue/narration, and then she would say the exact same thing in conversation. Why? Did the word count need padding? Did LKH think maybe we weren't paying attention? Did she really want to make sure that the idea was imprinted on our frontal cortex? I hate it when I feel like a book is treating me like I'm stupid.

Oh, another thing about the actual plot, and this may sound odd - I can't decide whether too much happened or too little. All the different segments felt disjointed and padded - fragments that had been puffed up to fill space so no one would notice that there was very little connecting them. There wasn't really enough action to qualify as an adventure story, and there wasn't enough of the stuff at court to qualify it as an intrigue. It came off as a biography of Merry Sue Gentry, Super-Fucker. None of the plot elements - the hiding in LA, the sidhe worshipping cult, the Branwyn's tears, the court intrigue, the sex-a-thon with the guards - none of them were developed to the point where it felt like it'd been explored. I felt rushed through the individual scenes, but at the same time wanting to get it over with so Merry would just shut up about her angst and perfection. I think it'd have been better if either less happened so what did happen could get the full story told, or more happened so that it felt like there was something of substance there besides "hot babe screws dozens of hot guys". I really don't hold out hope for the remaining chapters to change anything at this point.

And I'm done bitching for now. *^^*

We have a winner!!!

Thu, 29 Jul 2004 01:05:03 GMT

The latest poll results are in, and The Queen's Fool by Phillipa Gregory is our fifth book. Thanks to everyone for voting!

Now it's time to get reading. Random order has been determined, and so our book schedule for the upcoming months looks like this:

1. Good Omens
2. Life of Pi
3. The Neverending Story
4. The Queen's Fool
5. Princess Bride

Exact chapter schedules will be done, as ever, shortly before we begin reading. Wheeeeee, books!

Tie-Breaker Poll

Thu, 22 Jul 2004 06:17:25 GMT

Okay, we have four clear 'winners' from the poll that have made it into our reading queue, but I'd like to keep the queue at five books, like we had last time. Thus, we need to have a tie breaker.

Edit: Oops, meant to say that this poll will close a week from today, July 28.

View Poll: Literocracy: Tie Breaker

Er, what world are we supposed to be in?

Sat, 17 Jul 2004 04:11:50 GMT

I'm only in Chapter 4 of "A Kiss Of Shadows", and I'm already confused. I blame the author.

When I started reading, I didn't know what to do with the setting. Was this a story placed in the real world where feys lived undercover doing magic work? That sounds cool. O was this an alter-earth where fey and magic were common knowledge? I find that slightly less cool, but very interesting nonetheless. I would be fine with the ambiguity if I weren't changing my mind every four pages, and at the end of Chapter 4 I found out why I couldn't decide which world it was.

Is Meredith's fault. She stops every three paragraphs to explain to us, in detail, what every single concept means and all its implications. I assumed from this that we were not supposed to be familiar with magic, the sidhe and all that. But then one detail or another would make me think that magic and fey's weren't supposed to be that big of a secret, like the fact that the Wife knew what a fey was.

After Chapter 4 I think that magic is common knowledge, what with the female detective (the one that was getting all hot and bothered by Jeremy) being comfortable with magic and nobody thinking about how uncommon somebody might find a thirteen feet tall man walking into a room when he was supposed to be undercover. But if this is so, then I find Meredith's explaining annoying, since it breaks my suspension of disbelief. After all, we are supposed to be familiar with the concepts already, and a good author would find a way to explain the concepts to us without making Meredith look like an absent minded narrator.

Am I just being picky or is somebody else being bothered by this?

This lack of internal consistency makes me feel very confused by this book's world. I can't decide if the author was sloppy or if she is very good - it all depends on whether this was on purpose or not. Right now, I'm favoring the "not". The plot holds promise, though.

ETA: BTW, and FYI, I do find very amusing the irony of feys - who are not curious by nature - working as detectives.

It's Polling Time!

Wed, 14 Jul 2004 19:06:46 GMT

This poll will be open through Wed., July 21. On Thurs., July 22, I will post the results (or another poll if some wonky tie-thing happens), and we'll have our next reading queue. Thanks for all the noms!

View Poll: Literocracy Open Book Nominations #2

Open Book Noms Will Close Today

Tue, 13 Jul 2004 17:59:41 GMT

Just a friendly reminder that open book nominations close today, so go here and get your nominations in. Tomorrow I'll create a poll so we can vote on the final book selections.

Danke.

Open Book Nominations

Tue, 06 Jul 2004 19:20:23 GMT

Nominate a book or books (no limit, though under 50 would be good <g>) for us to read during the next cycle in this thread! Taken from the guidelines:

Here's the criteria for what books can be nominated: Any genre will do, provided the book is 1) available in paperback, and 2) not in the middle of a series, unless the rest of the series has been read by the group. Anything else is fair game.

Would be cool if you were to provide a link and/or summary of the book when you make your nom, because some of us *coughmecough* can be lazy.

Open book nominations will CLOSE one week from today, July 13. I'll then gather together all the noms and create a poll so that we can vote and come up with the final reading list for the next cycle.

Post any questions you have to this thread or email me directly -- sarea_okelani[at]livejournal.com

Thanks, and have fun w/ the nomming! :D

Well, that didn't exactly go as planned...

Tue, 06 Jul 2004 19:06:07 GMT

I'm sorry to say that reading Mists of Avalon was a bust. I'm not sure if any of you finished it, if you were reading along -- if you did, kudos to you! I got off track when I went on vacation in June, and never got back on. Checking Literocracy's calendar, we were supposed to have finished the book last week. *facepalm*

I do plan to read it on my own at some point ... and am sorry to have missed out on chatting with you guys about it. But the show must go on!

So this week, we are supposed to be reading A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton. I'll post an updated calendar later today, but this should not be a difficult read and I think we'll get through it pretty quickly.

Since this is the last book in the queue, it's time again for open book nominations. I'll make a separate post about that.