From ladyofbrileith

These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users (as of today). As usual, bold what you have read, italicize those you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand. Add an asterisk to those you've read more than once. Underline those on your to-read list.

( List under the cut. )

Has anyone written any sort of academic paper about why Harry Potter is such a big deal? 'Cause I admit to enjoying the books, I like the movies, and I think the world is really great. She did an awesome job of creating an interesting world and telling the same old story in (which is fine, 'cause there's a reason the same old story keeps on working). But why'd this catch on when others haven't? Just curious (honestly).

Anyway, I'm going to read it whenever Jes is done, and the only reason I'm in a rush is because I hate being the last to know anything (and I give it about three days before the inevitable shmuck says something spoilery and goes "well, you should have read it by now, anyway," and then I smack that person, though probably just in my mind 'cause it's probably an internet person, let's be honest).

So I've been TiVoing Star Trek: Voyager as it replays on Spike. I started early into the 3rd season. I really only have vague memories of all these episodes, which is weird because I normally have a very good memory for things like this.

"Scorpion" was a few episodes ago, so it's finally gotten mildly interesting again. Besides the fact that Seven just wanders around in a too-tight jumpsuit, she's an interesting character (and man did they luck out that Jeri Ryan looks good in a jumpsuit and can actually act). I think that half the reason I tuned these episodes out is the Paris/Torres relationship. I mean, really. It's just awful. I'd rather see B'Elanna with Chakotay, and Chakotay makes me laugh everytime he's on the screen. I'm pretty sure that's unintentional. Of course, Harry laughs/giggles/grins like an idiot everytime he's in a scene with Chakotay, so. Actually, Harry laughs/giggles/grins like an idiot anytime he's in any scene. I hope that's intentional, otherwise Garrett Wang is awful. He's endearing, but it gets old fast.

I like the Doctor (teehee) better the second time through. I like B'Elanna less, which is a shame. They, for lack of better word, really castrated her with the romance storyline. She became sort of a sop. A cranky sop. I don't really remember what happens next (other than a baby), so I hope they redeem her.

Fandom has pretty much ruined me to canon forever and ever in every show. It's always better because it's not bound by the stupid guidelines that producers/publishers/studios establish so as to avoid offending people. For some reason, people on the internet actually get the whole "if it offends you, don't consume it" thing.

Well. Mostly.

Or: how I got annoyed on my lunch break.

Look, I can handle the aging of Will from 11 to 13. I can see how, maybe, shrinking his family can enhance the story for the screen (despite the fact that he's supposed to be the seventh son of a seventh son). I can handle a shift in the Walker's story. I can understand why Christopher Eccleston was cast as the Rider, even though I think he's too old and he'd make a way better Merriman. I understand why they want to beef up the action (even though the book is delightfully creepy at points). And I totally get why it's set in the twenty first century instead of the late 70s that the books were set in (I'll bet you a thousand bucks that 9/11 is mentioned at least once, as a sign of the Dark rising).

But under no circumstances should Will Stanton be an American. There's no reason for it. This excuse is silly:

Because it's fitting that he is more of an outsider than in the book, [writer John] Hodge said. Stanton should be culturally alien to the story's setting, which compels him to question why he is there and doing what he must do, he added.

You know, that just expresses to me a complete lack of understanding of the source material. Will does just fine questioning his purpose without having to be a foreigner (several times). Besides, Susan Cooper's book is a distinctly British book. She's said this herself. Why bring an American into it for any other reason than to make American teenagers more interested in going to see it? I mean, yeah... it'd be cool if it does well and more people are introduced to the source material. But people went to see Narnia and they didn't have to Americanize that.

Can you imagine pitching Narnia like this: "Well, instead of Londoners escaping the Blitz at an old eccentric's house in the English countryside, they're Americans in a bomb shelter. WHEE! Oh, and we thought we'd get rid of one of the sisters 'cause, hey, more action with less girls."

I know that I've been very critical of book-to-movie adaptations before. And I've been pleasantly surprised in the past (like with I, Robot and V for Vendetta). Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised with this one. But, honestly, I doubt it. The Dark is Rising is my Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, or Narnia; my first fantasy series that I fell in love with and still cling to and re-read at least once a year.

Maybe the trailer will change my mind. Maybe my curiosity will get the better of me and I'll go. But as of right now... well, I'll rent the DVD when it comes out.

In addition to the mostly unpaid work I'll be doing as either an intern, clerk, or contract attorney (we haven't nailed down a title, even though I'll be using contract attorney on my resumé), I've taken another job tutoring. That one actually pays.

One day I'm going to have to get a real job for real people working real hours and wearing real work clothes. And making real money. Perferably this one, but I'm still a couple of years and a relevant degree away. Or this one which, actually, except for my expertise in EU IP, telecommunications, and IT law, I'm kinda qualified for. Oh, an experience advising companies. Someone want to make a company I can advise?

Or I could just go crazy and pretend I'm 16 for the rest of my life. Thank you, weird SVU plot from this week. Then again, I remain continually annoyed at 14 year olds that are stuck in adults' bodies. Or maybe its adults stuck with 14 year old personalities. Dunno.

My family and I are going to New York City this weekend for my mom's birthday. I haven't been since, um... '99 or 2000? I can't remember. I'm going to go down again, later this summer, to visit friends. This weekend's for my mom.

I'm getting a used HDTV for (relatively) cheap in the first week of June. I've actually watched things on it, so I know I'm getting a good set at a good price. The only downside is that it's a few years old and, therefore, 150 lbs. I'm also going to have to say goodbye to my TiVo. I wish Comcast would hurry up and put the TiVo OS on their DVRs. Or TiVo would hurry up and make their HD DVRs not $700.

I'm reading a book called Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, which is really good. It reminds me of The Good Earth, which was one of my favorite books in high school. But it's about women. I'm enjoying it a lot so far.

I also need to watch some Netflix movies.

Life is so weird when I don't have studying to avoid. I have no idea why that's just sinking in.

I'm reading Susan Gillman's autobiography Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress. Most of it is funny stuff about sex and parents and race relations and jobs and growing up. Yes, funny stuff about race relations. She tells it from the point of view of a white girl growing up in the projects in the 70s in New York City, and the childhood innocence intertwined with the "this is what I know now," comments is very effective and good.

Anyway, last night I read a chapter where she was working at a Jewish newspaper. Her views on Judaism (she was born Jewish, but raised all sorts of things and nothing at all) were interesting: everything she knew about Jews, she said, she learned from the media. She was assigned to cover some sort of learning week in Poland, where 3000 Jewish teenagers were, essentially, sent on a tour of various concentration camps.

It was very poignant. More poignant for me than the following chapter, in which she had to "come out" as straight to a group of lesbians who had assumed she was gay because of an article she wrote.

She described touring the camps in a way that sent shivers down my spine, and when she ran out of Auschwitz, beneath the "Arbeit Macht Frei" gate, and burst into tears after seeing "an oven built for [her]," I cried. It was sad and creepy and was just about the end of her journey from "why are Jews always playing the victim" to "oh" about what it means to be a modern Jew. It fundamentally changed her, but not into a fanatic zionist or even a quasi-practicing Jew. Just someone aware of what the past means. For the first time in my life I actually thought "I should go and see these places sometime."

This is my favorite part of the chapter. It ends a section, so I'll end the entry with it, because it's more dramatic if there's just a little bit of space afterwards:

"Until that very moment, I realized, I'd stupidly believed, 'I would've gotten out of this somehow.' Until that moment, staring directly into the genocidal maw of a body-size pizza oven, I'd somehow assumed that the Holocause had been meant for other people - for real Jews, Jews who actually cared about their religion, Jews who had some allegience to their people and their heritage, Jews who were earnest and pigheaded, Jews who had been weak or naive, Jews who hadn't been narly as savvy, charming, or modern as my family was. ... Look: We had a Christmas tree. I'd sung in choir. The last time I'd cheked, my mother was a Buddhist.

Yet as if it could speak, as if a demonic voice had been summoned from the inferno of its past, the oven gaped before me and its message was only too obvious. Oh, Sister. Don't kid yourself. This one's for you"

I have come back to my f-list to find that the theme for rightclickchick this week is "menswear." Oh the joy.

I've found a subletter. Excellent. He's getting a break on rent, but since I'ma ctually living cheaper in San Francisco (who knew?), it's not too big of a deal. I'm happy to have one less thing to worry about (except potential insanity). Now I have to just completely empty out my room. While my mini-closet, in which I stored Random Computer Things sits there and mocks me. Oy.

I left all of my reading material at home. Very annoyed. I mean, I bought Snow Crash (so Gibsonian! Love!) and started and like it and left it in my mom's car. Then I bought this huge ass book that is apparently a reworked version of The Mabinogion. So, I'm excited. Yay for approachable Welsh mythology. Also left at home. I was re-reading V for Vendetta. Home. And going to start Wicked. Home. Oh well, I'm going back in a couple of days.

It's amazing how much time I can waste sitting in front of my computer. I started this entry an hour ago.

So I'm about 3/4 of the way through Stephen Lawhead's Avalon, and I can't say that I very much like where it's going. I really loved his Pendragon Cycle, except for Grail, which got a little too heavy handed with its "Jesus is the Truth" preaching. Not that I don't think Jesus is good and all, just not my particular cup of messianic tea.

Anyway, without saying anything that's not on the back cover, the book is basically espousing the benefits of a monarchy and, more specificially, a Christian monarchy. I never realized that Lawhead is, and identifies himself as, a Christian Author. I don't have a problem with it; there was a lot of Christianity in the first few books, and I still enjoyed those greatly. But this time is different. This time isn't the 6th Century, when Christianity is trickling across Europe, gaining a foothold amongst the more traditional religions. This is the 21st Century, when there are bajillions of people that the new King is supposed to unite, and I just can't buy it.

In addition, the new King talks about the history of the British race, as a people, which ignores all the colonized and their decendants, ignores the many not-of-British-decent people living in Britain, and basically pisses me off. Again, we're not talking the 6th Century any more.

In the end, I think my problem is that Lawhead's King James Arthur Stuart wouldn't be that great of a King, that great of a leader, or that great of an Arthur for a modern world that is larger and more diverse than the 6th Century island he came from. If that were the moral of the story - that this is a different world and we need a different sort of Arthur - I think I'd come out liking this book. But I don't think that'll be the case.

It's a shame, because the character started off sort of interesting (four tours of duty in the Middle East as a UN Peacekeaping Officer), and has just sort of been completely delegated to role of "reborn, Dark Ages Arthur" instead of "Modern James who would be King." I think it cuts the story off from the real potential that all Arthur-Reborn stories could have: showing us how this supposedly great leader really adapts to an amazingly, infinitely different world than the one he left.