I've Been Reading (Just not Textbooks)

[rxelyn]

The title sums it all up, man. Just what I have been doing in the past two days only. Reading. Heh.

Jim Butcher may not be the most fantastic writer out there, but damn, his plots sure pack a punch. Every plot may be about Harry kicking ass and opening a can of whoop on supernatural baddies and in the end he always wind up saving the day and getting his ass handed back to him anyway. But but, the plot is always tight enough, it's believable and action packed. It leaves you wanting to read on and cheer the protagonist on. Kind of reminds me of Simon R. Greene's Nightside series.

Devoured Dead Beat in 2 hours, nothing amazing but it certainly left me hanging onto our page before I decided that I need to release my bladder. Haha. Yeah, it was that bad. Or do I mean good?

So in Dead Beat, we have spooky necromancers who are fighting amongst each other to reach the goal of achieving godhood. And they need this specific artifact that Harry is searching for too, being blackmailed by this vampire. Yup, conflict of interest is swiftly established. Every character that Butcher places in his book has a role to play, no one is sidelined and I fell into the trap that Shiela was actually real. Haha. And I thought to myself, 'Wow, he certainly knows how to make use of the minor people he inserts in the story.' Until it is revealed that it was actually Lash playing with his brain.

The Dresden Files always has witty banter and interesting conversation. But I rarely jot them down.

This made me burst out laughing as I drank my soup.
Context: Butters being all whiny about dying when Grevane trashes their home base.

"We are not going to die"
"We're not?"
"No. And do you know why?"
He shook his head.
"Because Thomas is too pretty to die. And because I'm too stubborn to die."

Note the colored line? Yup, this might sound familiar to you if you watched Joss Whedon's Firefly because our favourite Captain Mal said something like this during the war in Serenity Valley or something. Haha. Intextuality? I mean, this is a good line to steal.

This is the original line from Firefly pilot episode:

Bendis: We're gonna die.
Mal: We are not going to die. We can't die, Bendis. And do you know why? Because we are so very pretty. We are just too pretty for God to let us die. Huh? Look at that chiseled jaw!

Gee, Mal. Ego much? Lol. But we do love you anyway.
 

Another good line:

"I've always talked to things," I said. "And to myself."
"Good point," myself agreed with me. "Unless that means you've been nuts all along."

 

Because isn't that like appplicable to almost all of us out there? I can certainly relate, having talked to things and myself all the time.

Skimmed through Katie Macalister's Holy Smokes, an Aisling Grey, Guardian novel... I think it's the 4th book? Or 5th? Dunno, anyway, that's the first book from the series that I picked up. It wasn't confusing, considering that I used to start all my series like Dresden Files, Anita Blake and other urban fantasy books from the middle. I'm good at juggling information.

But I sure hope to high heavens that Macalister meant for her series to be a light chick lit story. Because the entire story seemed like a Mary-Sue plot. =_= I understood everything. But in the end, everything was dumb.And now I wished that I didn't waste my time reading it. Gah.

Stayed up till 3:13 am this morning reading Acheron. Sherrilyn Kenyon as usual packs a powerful punch in the delivery of her characters. Acheron's past... made me wibble. Lol. Yeah, my heart went out to him, especially the part when he goes out to feel the grass beneath his feet. That just broke my heart over again. It made me want to hug the child that he was and wasn't. And the way he submitted after deciding that it wasn't worth it to fight... it was realistic but at the same time... not realistic. Because... urgh, I can't explain. And I like how she inserted all the tiny little details about the rest of the freed Dark Hunters living out their respective lives in New Orleans, it's like this cosy little community where they all know each other and can relate to one another, that sort of stuff. But I don't really like the way she portrayed Artemis as a bitch because.. I don't know... Artemis was my favourite godddess out of the Greek pantheon. And I didn't really get what happened to Nick, last I recalled, he was still a squire or something... hmm, wonder what book I missed out.

The other book from Kenyon that I read was Upon the Midnight Clear. Which was a Dream Hunter story.

But frankly, Dream Hunters are not as kickass as Dark Hunters. Or even the Were Hunters.

In this story, we have Leta who has sufficient control over dreams as a goddess. Who goes to earth to save this mortal man, Aidan who is going to be taken out by the human personification of Pain, thanks to a jealous brother. That's the plot. Easy to summarize? The only redeeeming point of the story is the way she has drawn the characters. As usual, the men have some sort of an angsty past (at least she doesn't repeat anyone's sob story) and these women that turn up always worm their way into the men's defences etc. And for some reason, Lyssa (Pain's sister) reminds me of Neil Gaiman's Delirium. But Delirium is more adorable and colorful, of course.
 

Other books read include: Deborah Cooke's Kiss of Fire. Decent enough read. Was only intrigued by the dragons. But overall, didn't really stick well with me. Just found it... tolerable.

Things that I wanna read:

Books from Borders and Cambridge. They're still sitting quietly on my shelf, waiting patiently.

New stuff that I borrowed today at the library while 'mugging' with Amirah and Sze HIm as well as previous trips
Includes:
Ilona Andrews - Magic Bites (urban fantasy. The genre that I dabble in most)
John Connolly - The Book of Lost Things ( Fantasy. A poignant tale about growing up. Or so the blurb claims)
Johanna Lindsey - The Devil Who Tamed Her (historical romance. Okay, fine, I'm a sucker for these things. But you didn't hear it from me.)
Michael Chabon - Gentleman of the Road (Now I know why his name is familar. Because The Yiddish Policemen's Union is sitting on my brother's desk. *smacks forehead)
Thomas M. Disch - Concentration Camp (sci-fi. Because just how much is intelligence worth?)
Andrey Kurkov - A Matter of Death and Life (the blurb got me. Just how many people hire assassins to kill themselves off? Lol)
Patricia Briggs - Moon Called (which is still with Min Jie)

Other stuff:
Mike Carey's Felix Castor novels, from 2nd book onwards
Lilith Saintcrow's Dante Valentine series from book 4
Naomi Novik Temeraire series, reread it because I'm anal like that.
The Time Traveller's Wife because it was reccommended and I wanted to read it for ages already
Rest of the Dark Hunter stuff that I missed.
Try James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake again because it's been 7 years since my first attempt.
Le Guin's Lathe of Heaven which was in the unseen package the other time.
 

Might be updated from time to time. Depends on how OCD my mood is on a particular day.