oanja: (bear with glasses)
Went to visit my mom last weekend and we went to the summer cabin. It was really nice (there was the heatwave going, which was a bit too hot for me) and we had some of my relatives visiting and had a small graduation celebration for me (with cake) My cousins also brought their sup board and I finally got to try it. It was super fun and I want to get one next summer (it's like made for a small lake like we have at the cabin, there's hardly ever any waves)

Work starts tomorrow! I have no idea what I'm supposed to do or what time I should get to work, but I'm sure it'll sort itself out. I think school only starts next week, so I'm hoping there's time for planning and figuring out how we're splitting up responsibilities with the other people in our team. (two psychologists and one other school counselor)

I've actually managed to read and listen to books this month, which has been a relief. I've read the first Lord John book by Diana Gabaldon, and two of the short stories about him. I really enjoyed them, but sadly there seems to be no fic really, which sucks. I've also listened to two of the Vorkosigan books about Miles and I started Cetaganda today. I had to pick up another audiobook app to get there, as I didn't want to pay for the paperbacks. I've kind of put myself on ban for buying new books, which has led me to abusing this loophole about audiobooks xD I also listened to a Forgotten Reals book called the God Catcher, which I really enjoyed and I want to read something else by this author Erin M Evans. For some reason she's only written Forgotten Realms books, but if they're as fun as this one was I don't mind.

I've also been doing a lot of game prep for my Waterdeep Dragonheist game, if by prep we mean, watched and read a lot of random lore things. :D There's so much STUFF out there about everything in Forgotten Realms, it can get a bit overwhelming tbh, but at the same time it's fun to learn about.

I think there was something else I wanted to write about but now I've forgotten... Oh the weather, It's back to being super cold again, it was about +13C on tuesday, but it got a but warmer today. I don't miss the +33C weather at all, but this is a bit too cold for July, I hope it goes back to low 20's still in August. I love warm autumns.

photo of me under the cut )
I bumped into this gif today, while I was trying to find photos of short haired female characters (this is a nightmare, how is this so hard?!) and I had kind of forgotten how hot Cassandra is! The eternal injustice of not being able to romance her with a female Inquisitor, seriously Bioware, shame on you

oanja: (Kassandra content)
Soooo, is there anyone, who would be willing to beta read a Diana (wonder woman)/Kassandra (Assassin's Creed Odyssey) fic for me? It's almost 10k (as a warning)

That was a fun thing to write though. I had a long train trip (almost 6 hours) and spent most of it writing this. It's been ages since I started and finished a fic on the same day /on one sitting, or actually sat down to write for an extended period and I had missed that feeling of a story just appearing out of your mind <3

I've been worried about this, as I didn't get any fiction writing done last year. I didn't post any fic and I got almost no original writing done either, but maybe 2019 is going to be a good year for writing *fingers crossed*

I also started the new K.J Charles book; Any old Diamonds and it's as charming as their other books have been! The only thing I'd quibble about is the way they write sex and the dynamics, it seems pretty yaoi sometimes, how there's always such an obvious top and an obvious bottom and they never seem to switch. (I mean I haven't read all of their books, so maybe I've just had bad luck so far)

But if this is an actual trend I wonder if it has something to do with romance tropes and people reading/writing het before? Like the books are also primarily from the pov of the 'bottom' character, which is a trend I've also noticed in fic and I wonder if this has something to do with women writing sex, as it seems a majority of women enjoy being the bottom (to some extent?) idk that is kind of besides my original point, but what I meant to say is I want more sexual relationships where there's switching! Also the bottom doesn't have to be the smaller/more effeminate character. It's 2019, we can do better!
oanja: (reading)

Welcome to the first chapter of the Goblin Emperor read-along! (I'm very excited about this!)

I’ve been wanting to do one of these for ages and I think my first instinct was to do it about the Wheel of Time, or Harry Potter. (I’m glad I didn’t start there, as those are such long and popular series that so many people have already said everything I would want to say, but a lot more eloquently .) I talked about doing this in a previous post and two people said they would be interested in doing a read-along of the Goblin Emperor so I picked it as my first book to cover.

Disclaimer: I have never studied literature, except for one course I did in University when I was doing my minor in English and we read a few English literature classics like the Great Gatsby and the Scarlet Letter… sooooo that’s my experience with lit crit :D I’ve read and really enjoyed other people’s read-alongs though so I kind of know what’s supposed to go into these. I guess we’ll see how this goes.

A few words about the Goblin Emperor: I read it in January 2015 according to my Goodreads page, so it’s been a while. As I mention in the audio, I can’t really remember a lot of the finer points about the plot, as far as I can recall it has a lot of court intrigues and plots and a lot of difficult to read character names that I kept getting confused about. These posts will have some spoilers for the book, but if there are major spoilers I will mention that at the beginning of the post on that chapter.

About the read-along: I would love for people to comment and read along with me, as book discussions are super interesting! I participated on the gywo book club this year when we were reading the Murderbot novella and I found it super interesting how differently people can view the same material. I am going to try to make both the audio version (where I read the chapter aloud and comment on stuff) as well as the written version. The written version will have a short summary of what happens in the chapter and then some commentary from me.

I am going to try to read this with the view of learning something about the craft of writing a book (as it’s a dream of mine) but like I mentioned I have no qualifications for academic analysis or anything fancy like that, so it might end up being just commentary about how much I adore Maia and how I want to protect him. :D

About the schedule:
I'm going to try to make a few of these in advance so that I have a buffer (I'm in chapter three right now) and I'm thinking I will post a few chapters per week. I've had a lot of fun making these so far, so hopefully I can keep this up all the way through in an orderly fashion.

News Comes to Edonomee )
oanja: (Default)
Still not over the flu completely, but I did survive the day at work and I'm getting better now, so at least I won't be sick on Holiday, which would have sucked, especially because I was sick during midsummer holiday, which was my only other paid days off work this year. :P Hopefully I can actually have an actual vacation this spring. I really want to go to England again, or if not that then like Rome or Athens. I can't believe I've still never seen those places when you consider what a huge history nerd I am.

I got my audible coin today and am faced with the problem I have every month of figuring out what I want. I've noticed that I need to get more upbeat and funny books on audio, as more serious/dramatic books seem like a slog when I'm listening to them. But the problem is that upbeat and funny books tend to be pretty short and then I feel like I'm not getting enough bang for my buck. (the eternal dilemma)

Signed up to this bingo thing at [community profile] genprompt_bingo , let's see if it shakes me out of my fic writing funk. I think I need to put like a wordcount restriction for myself, maybe like 2k. I did a challenge once where you had to do less than 1k and that was too short for me... I'm too wordy.


Housewife / Househusband Taxes I / We have made a mistake Care's an Enemy to Life The Mind's Eye
Neurovariation The Ancients of the World Bread and Circuses Thank God it's Friday... Again: Time Loops Abduction and kidnapping
Crossover: Books and literary Mirror, mirror: Doppelgangers, clones and evil doubles Wild CardI Have a Rendezvous with Death Pack
Siblings Someone is Captured Faced with Overwhelming Odds Ghosts and Hauntings Mind Games
Best Friends Slice of Life Film Noir Fusion with another fandom Telepathy

oanja: (Kassandra look)
I really hope that if fandom, or at least parts of fandom, come back to DW for a while we could get back fests, where there would be a theme or prompts for fanfic and then people would have time to write and then everyone would post their fic. I really don't like the exchange versions that have completely replaced fests, as I feel it's too much pressure to write a fic for a specific person according to their wishes. It also makes it so much easier to have multi fandom participation if the parameters are more trope or prompt specific instead of trying to match participants by their pairings/fandoms *sigh*

Then a real life update. I'm sick and at home, I went to see a nurse yesterday after leaving work in the middle of the day and she wrote me a sick leave note for wednesday-friday. So on the one hand, yay free time from work, but at the same time, urgh having the flu is not fun. I'm also really sick and tired of my boss, who is a terrible personal manager and seems to have no skill in dealing with her employees in a way that's not demeaning/mean/rude or just inconsiderate. Also I still don't have my new contract for January and I have a feeling she's not even that keen on giving me a new contract. So that sucks and I'm thinking that if they give me the new contract I'll stay until autumn (so I can use my holiday days and have an actual vacation for once) and then quit, unless something changes for the better. This really sucks, because I've actually pretty much liked the work itself and it's really disheartening how much effect a bad boss and a bad relationship with your boss can effect me personally.

I binged the whole Castlevania netflix show yesterday/this morning and it was very good (hello ot3!), but very very gory and violent.

I've also started listening to "everybody hates Rand" podcast about the Wheel of Time books and because they are super critical about Rand and to some extent of the other characters it's made me think about them and why I like or dislike some characters. I don't think they'll convince me not to like Rand (he's my favourite) but they make good points about how his views of women and how he treats women are really messed up and sexist. I think some of it is understandable and due to circumstance, but some of it is just bad writing from Jordan/Sanderson.

I've been thinking that I want to do one of those 'let's read' series about a book or a series for a while, but I'm torn about if I should pick something I've never read or do a reread. (if I did a reread I could pick something like the Goblin emperor, or one of the Dragon Age books, but I think it would be a good idea to start with a standalone, so I could maybe actually finish it) I think picking something is the hardest part... but it might also turn out to be a LOT of work and very time consuming, so I'm not sure I have the time. I think it might also be fun to do it like Mark reads does, and do a youtube video too, except that English is not my native language and I have an accent, not to mention that I doubt anyone would watch the videos anyway. :D haha~ I used to make voice posts on LJ sometimes, so I guess I could just do a recording instead. Does someone have ideas? Or recs to good read-along blogs they follow? I used to follow a lot of them on tor.com when they did wheel of time and Malazan, but they idiotically stopped those like half way through.

book list

Aug. 20th, 2018 08:12 pm
oanja: (Default)
I was looking at some old posts and I had posted this book thing in 2011 and I thought it would be fun to do it again and see if I had read more of these by now :D Also weirdly this type of thing was called a meme back then... huh

NPR recently published the list of the top 100 science fiction and fantasy books as voted for by the public. So let’s meme it, strike out the ones you’ve read, italicise the ones you’d recommend to others and no, seeing the movies doesn’t count!

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman 
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan 
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson 
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King 
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien 
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett 
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold 
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett 
61. The Mote In God’s Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore 
74. Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel’s Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire 
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldon
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

18/100 isn't a very impressice score but I didn't mark the series I had only read one book etc


In 2018 I got 27/100 which is better... but I did add some series I haven't read all of the books to this time. I'm not sure if I was more of a purist the first go around. :P

oanja: (Default)
I thought I'd write a quick note on my goodreads, but then it kind of got long. :D But the short version 3 stars for good writing, it really wasn't my cup of tea and I disliked some of the things in it immensely


Read more... )
oanja: (Avengers: Maria Hill)
I made a mistake last night by thinking I could just read a little bit, before going to sleep. Ended up finishing the book and when I actually went to bed it was almost seven in the morning... oops. But at least I'm reading books again. That's good, sort of.

So, of course I only got up at three pm today and now I'm not tired, even though I have a lecture tomorrow at nine. >_>

Also the Toews/Kane fic is now 8,600 words long and I have no idea how to actually make them get together. Well without resorting to sudden love confessions... This is annoying because I would rather work on my other fic, but right now I feel like I need to finish this first. Mostly because I know this could be done in about 2000-3000 words if I could just figure out what I want to happen instead of getting distracted and starting to sprout random facts about the verse they live in.

The new Teen Wold episode was great and I will enjoy the increased screen time for Stiles as long as it's going to last. Hopefully the writers won't screw him up too badly.

There was this article on PPP (the leafs blog thing) about how much Tyler Bozak sucks. And okay, he's not the best center out there etc etc, but he's played really well this season and actually had a positive effect on Kessels numbers, not to mention that they kept pointing out how badly Bozie plays without Kessel, although the minute amount was super small and I don't think they should draw conclusions about that (and doesn't Bozie get PK time? Which Phil doesn't. I'm not sure about this though, but if it's true wouldn't that explain some of it?) Anyway, I have way too many feelings about Bozak and it's getting out of hand... Did not sign up for this!

tumblr_n0cn9cD1Pp1r41emlo1_500
oanja: (BtVS Buffy hardly working)
I went to Tampere this past weekend for the UN student meeting thing about sustainable development. It was pretty cool. Also hung out with [livejournal.com profile] arilyn9 and [livejournal.com profile] sherg I'm kind of super jealous you get to live in one of my favourite cities. *pout*

Yesh, managed to finish one assignment for school. Two to go. Sadly the one I finished was the easiest... bummer. Still I have two days for the small thesis one and then two more days before the essay is due. Totally doable, hopefully *fingers crossed*

This wouldn't be such a problem if I didn't have the strongest urge to start a new fic. I want to write about how Phil and Amanda Kessel swap bodies and how that makes them evaluate their lives. Mostly I just want Amanda to get to play in the NHL and for Phil to pine after Tyler and wonder if it wouldn't be easier to just stay swapped so they could be together. And demand they send Stella to wherever Amanda is training for the Olympics and accidentally start rumors about Amanda and Tyler dating, which would not amuse Amanda, who would end up seeming like the over protective big brother. And for both of them to have body dysmorphia issues because they are cis people.

About real hockey... the Wild have been playing pretty well lately, yay! They have won the last 7 out of 8 games. They have a four game road trip that starts tonight though, so I'm a bit worried. They haven't been great on the road this season. Still let's enjoy the fact that they are second in the Central division right now, only two points behind the Hawks. (and let's ignore how the Avs and Blues have played two games less)

Also there are 8 teams in the West who have as many or more points than the first team in the East. Wow, just wow.

I got new books while I was visiting arilyn9. I just love that one used book store there... This time I got 7 new (to me) books. I'm super excited about my expanding collection of the Culture novels. I don't think I'm missing many anymore. Then, when I got back home I found the books I ordered from bookdepository had finally arrived. Those are the Patrick O'Brian books. The covers are so pretty!
photo of my books )

Book stuff

Nov. 2nd, 2013 05:11 am
oanja: (life: reading)
So the game was kind of weird, I had trouble paying attention to it for some reason... But the Wild won, so all's well that ends well. :D

Then I went on a shopping spree and ordered Patrick O'Brian novels from the Bookdepository. They were under 5€ a piece, so I had to get them: The Post Captain, The Mauritius Command, Desolation Island and The Surgeons Mate.

I'm missing some books, like the first one, third one and the sixth one, but I figure I can get those later and I did find all of them as audiobooks and I'm already listening to the first one. I just really want the actual books, because I can't really follow all the sailing terminology from the reading and it also get's a bit boring sometimes, so it's much easier to skip when you're reading it for yourself.

I really want a new e-reader too, because I can't fix my kobo and I need one. =( I think I might have to wait until closer to Christmas though and then order it and tell my mom it counts as a present.
oanja: (hockey: new jersey)
Wild 5 - 3 Hawks
34444-Community-breakfast-club-danci-r8wn

Backs totally stole that one for us, but I'll take it! (also Pommer & Granny looks great. Now let's just keep Heatley far far away from them)
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Oh and I finally got the newest Temeraire book on Friday and I'm more than halfway through. It's pretty great so far. I keep wondering how the series will end though, as there doesn't seem to be a clear cut ending to it. I mean maybe it will just end when they beat Napoleon, but for some reason that doesn't seem like a satisfying end to me right now. idk, I'm sure when the last book comes out I'll change my mind, but yeah. Also I'm a bit of a Napoleon fangirl, so I don't like thinking about him losing. :(
oanja: (BtVS Buffy hardly working)
Last night when I was going to bed I made the mistake of taking a book with me. To be fair, I didn't think it would be so good that I would have to read the whole thing through, but I did. Luckily it was a short book, so I was able to finally fall asleep around four (seriously 176 pages!!! That is so short! And it had pretty big print too). Even more lucky I didn't have lectures today. Anyway I got one of those Anita Blake Vampire Hunter books on sale from the bookstore yesterday and that's the one I read. I was really surprised how much I liked it, but then again I really liked the early Southern Vampire Mysteries (True Blood) books too. Also it worked really well on its own, even though it was like the 19th book, but it wasn't like I couldn't follow what was going on.

There was a lot of het sex/sexuality in it too and it took me a while to get used to that after reading so much slash for the past 7 years. I mean usually in the 'real' books I read there isn't any sex 'on screen', especially because I read a lot of fantasy. I had no idea what the books were actually about before I read it, but I was also impressed with the polyamorous relationship Anita had with all her men, brownie points for that. I also got the impression that she's at least a bit bisexual? (she didn't flirt or sleep with a woman though, so I'm not sure) and some of her boyfriends might be too? Anyway, I'm going to read some more of these.

I even found some of them for free e-books, but my Kobo is frozen and I can't reset it or fix it, so that makes me sad. Especially because it's not like the thing was that cheap and I only had it for about a year. :(

Oh and first French class went well. The teacher was super nice. I'm actually looking forward to going to the lesions and maybe I will even learn a bit of French. :) I wish our language teachers had been this nice when I was in middle school/high school, I might have actually learned some swedish/german back then.

Tomorrow I'm going to [livejournal.com profile] arilyn9's place and to tracon. Whee~
oanja: (stock Stitch)
Now that I know I'm getting some money at the end of the week I've been looking at gaming consoles again. >_> Oops? But I could get a really basic (very small memory) xbox360 with 130€ That's cheap! Especially now that I'm paying for viaplay anyway, it would be cool to be able to watch all the movies and shows on my tv instead of my computer screen, which is a lot smaller (obviously). I'm just really annoyed that you have to get the gold membership to activate and use the viaplay app (or whatever it's called) and the same would apply if I got a PS3 (only the xbox thing is a bit cheaper)

I've read books this week! I'm super proud of myself. :D I just finished Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones and it was pretty great. I really like her style. This was an older book by her, but you can tell in a lot of her books that she's really into the idea of parallel universes and a lot of her characters universe hop (I think Howl's Moving Castle is the most famous)

omg look at the cover photo though. I was pretty sure this book had been written in the 80's or something, but nope 1997... was the fashion really that bad back then?
cut because the photo was rather big )

Then I read this Stat Trek book called the IDIC epidemic, and wow I googled it so I could post the cover page, which is kind of ridiculous and it seems you can read it for free on google books, or whatever it's supposed to be called. Anyway the point was that it was a really well written and thought out book, I was really positively surprised. Also it had a Klingon original character, who was central to the plot and I really enjoyed reading about him (especially because I don't really know that much about the Klingons, as they aren't really fleshed out in TOS, and nevermind the reboot universe)

(I don't know why Spock is so central in the cover, when he's not even the main character. [can you guess though why I originally bought it?] Heh I have two other books about Spock that I got from the same second hand bookstore while I was in the States, I'm going to read those next)
images

I think I had almost forgotten how much I like actual books, because let's be honest I mostly just read fic these days. Maybe I can keep this up this summer and read all the books I have that I haven't even started, or that are lying about half-finished.
oanja: (hockey: Mikko Koivu)
I'm still not sure if this is all too good to be true, but right now things are great. The Wild have a four game win streak going, whee~
Also I found out that Mikko Koivu is going to be a dad. That came out of the blue as I didn't even know he had a girlfriend. Guy sure likes to keep his private life private.

Oh and the Ducks beat the Blackhawks! I was ready to give up on the game during the third period, but I should have known better. The Ducks don't just give up. :D Also Selänne got his 670th goal. Six hundred and seventy! It boggles the mind.
138579430sryji

Have I mentioned yet how the NHL websites are hilariously bad and they love puns. A lot... :D

tumblr_mjzne7a1Uk1rni8euo1_500

wild stuff )

And look I have some non hockey things to post as well, it's a miracle!

a few photos )
oanja: (Teen Wolf Derek is sad)
I started reading the Wheel of Time series when I was 13 and now it's over. I've had these books with me for the past 13 years! I'm really glad that the last book was mostly great. I don't know how it could have lived up to my expectations tbh, the bar had been set too high in my mind.

I mostly blame this on my weird book plot thing, where I think books that have serious themes should have serious/sad endings with like a glimmer of happiness/hope. Instead books tend to end like Harry Potter did, with lots of fluff and maybe a smidge of seriousness/sad parts. I also thought the Hunger Games had a too happy ending... So yeah. xD

It seems that most people on the internet liked the ending so *shrug*

I might change my mind on a reread though... After reading 908 pages in about 24 hours might warp ones perspective. ^_^;

"The wind blew southward, through knotted forests, over shimmering plains and toward lands unexplored. This wind, it was not the ending. There are no endings, and never will be endings, to the turning of the Wheel of Time.

But it was an ending.

He came like the wind, like the wind touched everything, and like the wind was gone.

from The Dragon Reborn.

By Loial, son of Arent son of Halan, the Fourth Age."

oanja: (Avengers: Loki O_o)
1) Finding a story that looks promising and seems well liked, reading it for a bit and just leaving it because it's not the kind of thing you like. This is the weirdest one because I don't get it myself... Like there is nothing obvious wrong about these fics, they have good grammar and the sentences make sense (unlike some of the things I write) but something in the style just rubs me the wrong way.

2) People not using capital letters in the beginnings of sentences and with proper nouns. Seriously why is this a thing? I have seen this in fics that have been betaed, so it must be a conscious choice by the writer. So annoying.

3) Fics where the pov jumps around from one sentence to the next, or between paragraphs. This is a deal breaker for me, I just can't keep reading.

>_>

In other news... =D I'm going to go visit [livejournal.com profile] arilyn9 for a few days. That's always fun. If I manage to get to the train station in time, that is... I haven't used the bus from my new apartment before this and I have no idea which ones still run on Sundays. Oops. ^_^;
oanja: (ME Liara)
Just finished reading A Dance With Dragons. Now who knows when I will get to read the next book. >_> Arya continues to be the only character that hasn't pissed me off at some point. It's a really weird feeling finishing a book series (I know there will be more at some point but right now there isn't anything more to read)

If nothing surprising happens I will be moving, yay! Next moth I'll have my own flat and no more sharing with anyone. \0/ I never enjoyed living with strangers and now finally I won't have to. I think it's worth the money, even though the rent is pretty steep. 
oanja: (text fascinated by work)
I have been reading actual books again! \0/ It's pretty sad how rarely I do anymore... Fandom and fanfic in particular have really ruined my reading habits.

Well anyway, I've had the Song of Ice and Fire boxset for about a year(?) but I never really started reading them, because by then I had been kind of spoiled by the TV show and fandom in general. Everyone kept saying how everyone dies and I don't really like that. (also the first few episodes I watched didn't really convince me it would be worth my while. [too much random female nakedness and fucking for my taste] I'm looking forwards to rewatching it and seeing if I change my mind)

But finally I got over myself and read the first book (finished it on Tuesday) and I really liked it. I'm now about one third through the third book (a Storm of Swords) and yeah I'm going to finish all of them...

When I first saw the first book in my local library I just passed by it (this was in the early 2000) and for some reason I never read them. (I think because at some point someone said they were like the rivals for the Wheel of Time series and that one is my baby) So it took the HBO series to come out for me to get my ass into gear. (I don't want to see it before I've read the books. I like being that annoying brat who points out how much better the books were... Well except for the Lord of the Rings. I was really surprised when I started reading the first book by how much younger everyone is compared to the show)

I think it really shows what a great writer GRRM is that I keep reading these, as most of the characters are highly problematic, or just flawed. (and not in fandom approved ways where you woobiefie them and think they'd be fixed by a hug) Even the characters you think are okay and who you root for keep making these really stupid mistakes and make me go 'NOOOOOO! You idiot, stop! You should listen to X who is telling you you are making a mistake!' Or "NOOOOO! Don't trust X, they will stab you in the back!!!!' and they never listen. *le sigh*

But I think I'm rather let down by the body count to be honest... Only one (main pov) character has died. I'm hoping that will change, because a lot of the people in this world should kick the bucket imo.

It's also kind of annoying that I keep thinking that this series is called a Game of Thrones when it's not! /0\ But a Song of Ice and Fire is so long and hard to type *whine*

Also this kind of boggles the mind:

If you are curious, here some samples. The numbers are approximate and should omit indexes, appendices and stuff not directly belonging to the text itself.
Discrepancies are often due to the fact that Microsoft Word consider “it’s” like one word, instead my data is measured considering it as “it is”, so two words. This can usually add a +5-10k compared to “official” wordcounts.

A Song of Ice And Fire - George R. R. Martin
A Game of Thrones: 298k
A Clash of kings: 326k
A Storm of Swords: 424k
A Feast for Crows: 300k
A Dance with Dragons: 422k
Total: 1M 770k
≈ 1,770,000.

But found in a forum post (http://fantasy-faction.com/forum...
A Song of Ice And Fire - George R. R. Martin
A Game of Thrones: 284k
A Clash of kings: 326k
A Storm of Swords: 404k
A Feast for Crows: 300k
Total: 1M 314k
≈ 1,314,000 + 422,000 (ADwD from loopingworld) ≈ 1,736,000.


I have already read more than 600,000 words...
oanja: (stock book wtf)
I found out yesterday that Tor had released the first chapter of A Memory of Light for free on their website (and evilly had the prologue for sale) so of course I needed to read them. So I did and now everything is terrible and I can't believe I have to wait until January to finally get the actual book. This is the last book and I don't know how to feel about it. I read the first one when I was fourteen (twelve freaking years ago!) I'm pretty sure I'll be a mess once I finish reading the last chapter. This will be way worse than reading the last Potter book (for various reasons, for one I don't think this will be as much of a let down...) Waah~ I'm already making no sense and I only read two chapters.
oanja: (Default)
Took this from tumblr, so not mine but fire_head's


my answers )

And now I've killed some time. I'll see The Avengers in an hour!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! \0/

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