elfinblaze

- Chris Colfer's next book, The Land of Stories #3: A Grimm Warning, came out today. More for me to read! I only hope it doesn't end on a heartbreaking cliffhanger like the last one did.

- I was going to go buy it today, but after the stabbing yesterday I didn't want to be near the traumatised shopping centre today. (My sister was in Parramatta when it happened, although she wasn't in the shopping centre, so she brought the news home with her.)

- I just saw the word "Horcrux" used as an insult. How fantastic! As in, "He's such a closed-minded Horcrux." Must remember that.

- Does anyone else have books that you stop reading halfway through, multiple times? It happens to me every time I try to read Wuthering Heights or Sophie's World, which I've started twice only to abandon them halfway through both times!

- If I could pick a song to play at my own funeral, it would be I Am A Thousand Winds, by Hayley Westenra, which is the English version of 千の風になって (sen no kaze ni natte) (that link goes to Masafumi Aikawa's version). The Japanese piece is based on the English poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye.

- Someone made Rudd v Abbott into a card game. Oh. My. God.

- New Volcanoes Discovered in Australia
"Though it's been more than 5000 years since the last volcanic eruption in Australia, it's important that we understand where, when and how these volcanoes erupted. The province is still active, so there may be future eruptions."

Time to do my annual list of books read, I think. As usual, this is only a list of books I finished this year. Unfinished books, or those still on my reading pile, aren't included. Books I started in previous years but finished this year are included in this year's list.

( Regi's reading list for 2013 )

Not many books read this year, but still.

Just finished reading Anne Rice's The Wolf Gift. I've never been a big Rice fan, although I've read some of her stand-alones, Servant of the Bones and Cry to Heaven, the latter of which is still one of my favourite fiction books ever because it helped me discover opera. I don't read much horror these days, but as a teenager I did. I read mainly classic horror: Stoker, Poe, Lovecraft, LeFanu, with a few modern writers like Poppy Z. Brite thrown in for good measure. I never enjoyed Stephen King or Clive Barker although I tried, and these days the "horror" that most bookshops stock is really paranormal romance, and I have zero interest in reading romance fiction, paranormal or not.

But I discovered that there's two types of horror that I like. Type one is the "chiller" type, fast moving, keeping you on the edge of your seat, compelling horror. Type two is slow moving, atmospheric, more beautiful and sad than horrifying. Most of my preferred horror fiction tends into one of the two types, although it has elements of both.

This one is mostly the second type, it's more philosophical, although it is still enough of a page-turner that I read it in two days. When my sister saw me reading The Wolf Gift she dismissed it as being like all the paranormal romance fiction out there these days, and the cover doesn't help. But of course it's not at all; it's true horror fiction with all the challenges and complexities the genre raises.

( Cut for spoilers )

Of the "big three" horror creatures - vampires, werewolves, and zombies - my favourites are still werewolves and other shape-shifter stories (followed by ghosts, which are less popularly written about). In European folklore it was mostly wolves that threatened people, and that people turned into. In Russia it was bears. In parts of Africa it was hyenas and lions. In South America, jaguars. It was always the untamed and untameable in our stories that humans became when they lost their humanity. I find that combination of fear, nature, and human history fascinating.

I would label this book "fluffy horror", or maybe "horror for non-horror fans"... but I like "fluffy horror" better. :p Yes, it's still horror so of course there's the corresponding level of violence and sex and disturbing themes, but then, my bar for horror is extremely high, so that colours my interpretation and you may disagree vehemently. But this book is what I would consider fluffy by comparison to others in the genre. I've read similar levels of violence in general fantasy fiction, and it's still confined to the action scenes. The sex is mostly "off screen" and completely consensual. There's no torture, cold blood, or extended dread, and even the violence isn't lovingly dwelt on. It's just part of the way things happen. Like nature.

The reason werewolves are considered horror is because they confront us with what we're all capable of and because we all fear a loss of control. They tell us that wildness exists in everyone, and that it doesn't take an animal to be truly cruel: that is all human.

I found The Wolf Gift very enjoyable actually. I thought I would enjoy it when I bought it, just because I do like reading about werewolves, but I probably enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Finished another book! Struck By Lightning: The Carson Phillips Journal, by Chris Colfer.

It's the prequel to the movie, Struck By Lightning (coming out here this summer), which is why the book's ending is so abrupt. In the movie, the central character, Carson Phillips, gets killed by lightning in the first scene (so that's not a spoiler). The book is his journal, covering the last few months of his life, leading up to that day. The movie then contrasts what everyone says about Carson after his death, with what he was really like, so the book is at once a "novelisation" of the movie, as well as extra context for the pleasant lies that get told after his death.

Struck By Lightning a story full of unpleasant, complex, completely obnoxious, and weirdly sympathetic characters (including Carson himself). They are all stuck in a world from which they are trying to escape in their own ways, and all of them fail. Drugs, sex, fantasy, lies... all the different ways these characters use to escape their own unique hells, and none of them ever succeeds, except arguably Carson, who at least goes off in a flash of light. They are all equally in hell, all equally stuck, and none of them are going anywhere, although they all dream of it.

So it is dark, but it's very entertaining along the way, watching Carson do everything he can to escape his existence in the small town, and small world he's stuck in. In a desperate effort to impress his dream university, hoping they will accept him and provide his escape, he starts a literary magazine at school, and blackmails all his classmates into contributing.

Despite the inherent tragedy of a young person dying like that, the book is also very, very funny (the laughing-in-public-while-reading type funny), so I've been calling it a tragicomedy.



"Are you sure you're supposed to be drinking with all those prescriptions Dr. Dealer is giving you?" I asked her.

"It's Dr. Wheeler, and why don't you just leave that to the professionals?" she said, and took the Advil. "Those warning stickers are for amateurs."

Over the last few years Mom has formed this sick relationship with her doctor. It's sick because half the time I'm convinced she thinks they're actually in a relationship. She literally makes up illnesses so she can visit him and is convinced if she doesn't call him once a week he worries about her.

If I had a patient taking more pills than Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe put together, I'd be worried too. But I'm not sure she means worry in the same sense.



The comedy is in the exaggeration and absurdity, and in Carson's sarcastic and clever humour. The tragedy is in the young man, who may be the villain as easily as he is the hero of the story. A boy who was never wanted or valued except by his grandmother, and who is living in hell-on-earth (a small town high school).

In the end, his death really is inevitable, given how badly he needed to either fly or explode, so in the book, getting struck by lightning is more metaphorical than anything else. His grandmother is the most important person in his story, the only one who believes in him, but once she forgets him, once the most important person in the world stops seeing him, it's only a matter of time before he disappears completely. Because a lack of anyone having faith in us, kills us all, one way or another.

I'll rate it at the end of December with all my other books read this year, but I enjoyed in immensely.

There will be no Gleeview post this weekend, I think, because I'm way too busy. I'll try to get it done later this week, because I really do want to squee about that episode.

I will be out most of the day tomorrow, so I was out most of the day today shopping for that. I was very restrained. I only bought two books, both of which were on my to-buy list anyway! I would have spent more time and money today, but then I got a foot cramp and decided to go home. Might be a good idea to remember that for next time I don't want to spend too much money: wear the wrong shoes.

So now I'm currently reading Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East, by Benjamin Law, which I became aware of through this interview. It's very entertaining, funny as well as bitter-sweet.

Across from Dhyana Pura's string of gay clubs was a kerbside where Bali's moneyboys gathered seven nights a week to steal your heart, take your breath away and, sometimes, pinch your wallet. Rows of them waited patiently, standing on one leg with a crooked knee planted on the wall behind them, the international pose for male hustling...

One thing unified them: they all looked crushingly bored. They were also evasive when I asked them what they were up to that night. One guy told me he actually sold mobile phones in Denpasar full-time - a well-paying job, he added - but hung outside the clubs on Friday and Saturday nights because he 'just liked to'. Generally, none of them talked to each other. When they figured out I wasn't in the market, they didn't talk to me either.

It's pop-anthropology and very engaging, exploring various queer issues in Indonesia, Thailand, China, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, and India. I'm just over halfway through now, and finding it really interesting.

After this I also have Tanya Huff's newest book, The Silvered, to read. I'll probably have a post to make about that one too.

I decided to write this week's entry as a little comic.

( scan )

It's not that I hate the idea of eReaders. I certainly have no problem reading stuff online, so I'm not opposed to screen over paper. I just don't like any of the eReaders on the market at the moment.

And I do love physical books.

I finished reading Trick of the Dark by Val McDermid, and I enjoyed it so much I had to write a quick post about her brilliant depiction of homophobia in it, which is such an important theme throughout the book.

( cut for length; no spoilers )

Books read so far this year: 6.
Stories written: 1 (to be finished around Easter).
New Year's Resolution to read and write more: looking good so far.

I spent all last week reading. Finished The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. I started it last year, but I'd only read about 1/4 (300 pages) before last week.

I posted about it on my tumblr. because I can't be bothered doing a proper review here, because I don't have that much to say about it. I mean, it's a very good book, good world-building (if a little climatologically wobbly), excellent pacing and structuring (which is the main reason I read this writer's books), very, very engaging, if slightly melodramatic, but very enjoyable. The reason I wouldn't list it among the "special" books of the year is because there's still something missing from the characters, and I can't put my finger on just what. For some reason the characters didn't leap off the page at me, with the exception of Wit, a minor character. But if you ignore the wobbly link between climatology and human movement, which no one but me really cares about anyway, it's some impressive world-building. This is one imaginary place with a very rich and detailed history, geography, and whole new systems of politics and magic. So it's incredibly well put together.

Anyway, if you want to test-drive Mr Sanderson's writing, he's made an entire novel, Warbreaker, availiable on his website. I haven't read it yet so I can't give you any warnings, but I'll get round to it eventually. Maybe in February.

Currently, I'm re-reading The Hobbit. Because after seeing the trailer I feel like I need to remind myself, because I don't remember anything! It's been about 15 years since I read it last.

Next on my list to read: The Well of Ascension, by Brandon Sanderson, which I got for Christmas.

Apparently I feel like reading again, after last year's break.

I currently have 165 books in my bedroom bookshelf (I have many more in other shelves and packed away, these are just my favourites). I know this because I just spent five hours cleaning and rearranging the shelves. These 165 books are double shelved on two of the shelves. I hate double-shelving but I just can't get rid of any of them! I need to keep all my friends close at hand! *wails*

I'm fairly sure I don't own any more books now than I did five hours ago, but I have no idea how I fit all those books there before. Apparently they were thrown in there every which way, although it's also possible they've been breeding behind my back.

I still haven't read every book I own; I just keep buying new ones. Just wait until I go on another bender in a bookshop. I'll be double-shelving the third shelf soon.

- I was in the new Galaxy bookshop yesterday because I had a voucher about to expire, and bought two more books I really don't need. The shop is now upstairs at the general Abbey's Bookshop, with the language bookshop, so now it's twice as evil as it was before, because now I can lose myself in two shops instead of one! They have plenty of German language books, so there's that temptation to resist too. In the end I bought two fantasy books.

The one I'm reading first is Jes Batiss' Night Child, which is the first book in a series of paranormal detective fiction set in Vancouver. It's fairly short and I'll probably be done with it tomorrow.

I also bought a brick. Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings, the TOR publication, which has the whole book in one, and is 1,200 pages long. So if I ever need anything heavy in my bag to beat someone over the head with... Nah, I can't wait to get stuck into that one. That should keep me entertained for a week.

- We've gone over our bandwidth cap again, so I've disabled all images loading in Firefox so that pages will load faster for me, just with pure text. It's really illuminating to see which websites are still accessable or useful even without images.

- Autostraddle do much more entertaining Glee recaps than I do and I agree with everything they wrote to a creepy get-out-of-my-head extent, so basically, what they said. Also I can't upload images on my current connection, so go read their recap if you want pretty pictures. [EDIT 2011.10.01: My own pictures are now uploaded and added below the cut.]

I'll just add my own thoughts quickly here:

( cut for spoilers and 11 pictures )

- I cannot stop listening to The Jezabels! The more I listen to this album, the more I love it.