![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I realized something was up when I went scrolling down the first page of my LiveJournal looking for a post (any post) that had been tagged "books," AND THERE WEREN'T ANY. Not on the first page. That's over ten entries that have gone by, with me posting an average of once a week, without a single entry in which I so much as MENTION a book. Well, a book AS a book, and not movies or TV shows based on books.
Strange, says I. When for awhile there that was pretty much ALL I posted about.
Granted, I've never been a true Book Blogger. I don't post regular reviews, I don't gobble up ARCs, I don't participate in Nonfiction Monday or Poetry Friday or anything of the sort. But ramble on about books? THAT I have done many a time. As clicking on the tag that says "books" will show you. Lists of Favorites. Tributes to particular authors. The Yearly Roundup of Best Books Read That Year. Just random raves about books I've read recently stuck into posts about other things, even.
But where have these posts been lately?
I still can't tell. I usually started a book-related post because I was inspired by something I read on the many book-related blogs I follow. Is it that they've all been posting about things I haven't read yet recently? Or things I've already posted about? Or things that have been posted about by so many people already that I don't feel I have anything more to add to the discussion? It could be any of these reasons, but none of them is jumping out at me as being THE reason.
Or is it that I haven't been reading all too many really memorable books lately?
I think this is the answer. Last year my end-of-the-year Best Books List was so extensive I had to make several separate lists, and STILL left plenty of excellent books off. Now we're over halfway through the year, and I think I've got 5 books, total, that feel memorable enough to make a Best of list. Is this me or the books? Am I just picking the wrong books, or am I just not getting sucked in as well as I used to? Or am I not reading ENOUGH? That's a side-effect of me writing more, I think, which ought to be a good thing. Granted, most of that writing has been letter writing, journaling, and writing to ridiculous prompts. But still. Maybe I'm actually more BALANCED now.
So let's see. What books DO I feel like mentioning to make it up to you? Right now I am reading, and totally enjoying more than I even thought I would, Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John. Because I am a sucker for rock history, and if you work rock history appreciation into a book, I will love that book ALL THAT MUCH MORE. This is why Almost Famous is one of my favorite movies, too (and we'll throw in That Thing You Do and This Is Spinal Tap and the Beatles movies for the same basic reason). BECAUSE I GEEK OUT ON THAT STUFF. The other day I found this book in our J nonfiction collection (which I might have mentioned hasn't been weeded in decades because Miss Annie is convinced of the historical significance of Old Nonfiction Books) called something like What Rock Is All About, copyright 1979. It was pretty awesomely hilarious. I was impressed that the author managed to highlight pretty much only acts that DID become classics (all the artists pictured in the photo sections-- this is one of those books from back when all the photographs were relegated to separate several-page Photo Sections in nonfiction-- remain The Biggies of Rock History today-- although some of the pictures were awfully strange), but you have to wonder how many predictions/generalizations/etc were just dead wrong. Actually, I WILL say that I found several blatant errors in the Beatles chapter, such as getting the year John and Paul met wrong, and saying "Tomorrow Never Knows" was sung by George, so I wouldn't likely trust the rest of the book's fact-checking, either. BUT this has nothing to do with Five Flavors of Dumb, which is a really fun book that explores What Rock is REALLY All About from the point of view of a deaf girl, and appears to be fact-checked quite sufficiently, so you'll probably enjoy reading this one, at least if you are a rock geek like me.
Another recent favorite is Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. Oh, to be inside Libba Bray's brain for a day. Or an hour. She of the absurdly brilliant Going Bovine continues her off-the-wall bombardment of literature with a book that satirizes... EVERYTHING. Beauty pageants, television, marketing, corporations, society in general. There is desert island survival, spies and assassins, evil dictators, pirates, and Things Exploding. It is Just Whacked. And yet the characters are all surprisingly well-developed. I would say that the only downside (if you LIKE completely off-the-wall absurdity) is that the messages often feel a bit didactic, but since EVERYTHING in the book is over-the-top, I'm not sure this isn't entirely intentional....
Before that the only book that's really sticking out for me is The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge, which I read back in... April, I think. It's still the best book I've read this year, and it's a couple years old already! It's a really unique and captivating fantasy of which I say: "Whatever is making you think you won't like this, You're Wrong. Read it anyway." It's just that kind of book. Not a very good description, I know, but I don't feel like writing a better one. Just trust me.
As for what my KIDS have been enjoying lately, besides Thomas and Friends books (and seriously, what have I got to say about THAT?), we've had Mo Willem's Pigeon books in heavy rotation lately. I think Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! is currently my favorite. But everyone ought to know about those books already. If you don't, SERIOUSLY, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GO FIX THAT!
And for what I've been reading the SRC kids? Eh, nothing they've been particularly into. SRC storytimes have rather been washes this year. Although a really old version of "Baba Yaga" went over surprisingly well the other week. I wasn't even expecting that to work so well. But next week I'm foisting Adam Gidwitz's Tale Dark and Grimm on the older kids, so maybe there will be Much Excitement Yet.
And that's it. That's me giving you the update of my book-related life. I still don't know why it isn't more exciting, but at least the Books tag hasn't been lost back in time anymore.
Strange, says I. When for awhile there that was pretty much ALL I posted about.
Granted, I've never been a true Book Blogger. I don't post regular reviews, I don't gobble up ARCs, I don't participate in Nonfiction Monday or Poetry Friday or anything of the sort. But ramble on about books? THAT I have done many a time. As clicking on the tag that says "books" will show you. Lists of Favorites. Tributes to particular authors. The Yearly Roundup of Best Books Read That Year. Just random raves about books I've read recently stuck into posts about other things, even.
But where have these posts been lately?
I still can't tell. I usually started a book-related post because I was inspired by something I read on the many book-related blogs I follow. Is it that they've all been posting about things I haven't read yet recently? Or things I've already posted about? Or things that have been posted about by so many people already that I don't feel I have anything more to add to the discussion? It could be any of these reasons, but none of them is jumping out at me as being THE reason.
Or is it that I haven't been reading all too many really memorable books lately?
I think this is the answer. Last year my end-of-the-year Best Books List was so extensive I had to make several separate lists, and STILL left plenty of excellent books off. Now we're over halfway through the year, and I think I've got 5 books, total, that feel memorable enough to make a Best of list. Is this me or the books? Am I just picking the wrong books, or am I just not getting sucked in as well as I used to? Or am I not reading ENOUGH? That's a side-effect of me writing more, I think, which ought to be a good thing. Granted, most of that writing has been letter writing, journaling, and writing to ridiculous prompts. But still. Maybe I'm actually more BALANCED now.
So let's see. What books DO I feel like mentioning to make it up to you? Right now I am reading, and totally enjoying more than I even thought I would, Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John. Because I am a sucker for rock history, and if you work rock history appreciation into a book, I will love that book ALL THAT MUCH MORE. This is why Almost Famous is one of my favorite movies, too (and we'll throw in That Thing You Do and This Is Spinal Tap and the Beatles movies for the same basic reason). BECAUSE I GEEK OUT ON THAT STUFF. The other day I found this book in our J nonfiction collection (which I might have mentioned hasn't been weeded in decades because Miss Annie is convinced of the historical significance of Old Nonfiction Books) called something like What Rock Is All About, copyright 1979. It was pretty awesomely hilarious. I was impressed that the author managed to highlight pretty much only acts that DID become classics (all the artists pictured in the photo sections-- this is one of those books from back when all the photographs were relegated to separate several-page Photo Sections in nonfiction-- remain The Biggies of Rock History today-- although some of the pictures were awfully strange), but you have to wonder how many predictions/generalizations/etc were just dead wrong. Actually, I WILL say that I found several blatant errors in the Beatles chapter, such as getting the year John and Paul met wrong, and saying "Tomorrow Never Knows" was sung by George, so I wouldn't likely trust the rest of the book's fact-checking, either. BUT this has nothing to do with Five Flavors of Dumb, which is a really fun book that explores What Rock is REALLY All About from the point of view of a deaf girl, and appears to be fact-checked quite sufficiently, so you'll probably enjoy reading this one, at least if you are a rock geek like me.
Another recent favorite is Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. Oh, to be inside Libba Bray's brain for a day. Or an hour. She of the absurdly brilliant Going Bovine continues her off-the-wall bombardment of literature with a book that satirizes... EVERYTHING. Beauty pageants, television, marketing, corporations, society in general. There is desert island survival, spies and assassins, evil dictators, pirates, and Things Exploding. It is Just Whacked. And yet the characters are all surprisingly well-developed. I would say that the only downside (if you LIKE completely off-the-wall absurdity) is that the messages often feel a bit didactic, but since EVERYTHING in the book is over-the-top, I'm not sure this isn't entirely intentional....
Before that the only book that's really sticking out for me is The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge, which I read back in... April, I think. It's still the best book I've read this year, and it's a couple years old already! It's a really unique and captivating fantasy of which I say: "Whatever is making you think you won't like this, You're Wrong. Read it anyway." It's just that kind of book. Not a very good description, I know, but I don't feel like writing a better one. Just trust me.
As for what my KIDS have been enjoying lately, besides Thomas and Friends books (and seriously, what have I got to say about THAT?), we've had Mo Willem's Pigeon books in heavy rotation lately. I think Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! is currently my favorite. But everyone ought to know about those books already. If you don't, SERIOUSLY, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GO FIX THAT!
And for what I've been reading the SRC kids? Eh, nothing they've been particularly into. SRC storytimes have rather been washes this year. Although a really old version of "Baba Yaga" went over surprisingly well the other week. I wasn't even expecting that to work so well. But next week I'm foisting Adam Gidwitz's Tale Dark and Grimm on the older kids, so maybe there will be Much Excitement Yet.
And that's it. That's me giving you the update of my book-related life. I still don't know why it isn't more exciting, but at least the Books tag hasn't been lost back in time anymore.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-07-25 11:38 pm (UTC)From:But yes. I wasn't sure about some of the casting, but the actual production pictures that have come out are convincing me that it will all be good in the end. I definitely have to see it JUST BECAUSE.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-26 01:31 am (UTC)From:I created a Hunger Games ripple effect in my office and we've even been trying to get our students to read it. We found out the Res Life director who teaches a critical thinking class uses it in his class.
Anyhoo. In terms of casting, we all agree that Woody Harrelson as Haymitch is a brilliant choice and we're happy with Lenny Kravitz as Cinna. I saw that Katniss (her real name is escaping me at the moment, Jennifer something) as Mystique in the new X-Men and she was good in that. My co-worker saw her in the movie that she got nominated for an Oscar for and said she was amazing and highly approves of her as Katniss. I generally trust this co-workers judgment. Elizabeth Banks as Effie works for me. I feel it all hinges on the unknowns, Gale and especially Peeta. If Peeta sucks, the rest of it doesn't matter.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-27 10:33 pm (UTC)From:THIS!!!!!! (http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/07/27/hunger-games-first-look-peeta-gale-exclusive/)
I know looks aren't as important as acting ability, as ability to really capture the heart of who the characters are, in the long run, but I'm really impressed by the wonder of costuming/make-up/serious-bulking-up-at-least-on-Peeta's part. When I first saw the guys they cast, I was NOT expecting them EVER to come so close to the pictures in my head. There's still something a little WEIRD about Peeta, but then again I'm in love with him so I'm picky, and I'm really impressed by his bulking-up. Not that I have a thing for bulky guys, it's just Peeta's SUPPOSED to be bulky and that actor totally wasn't a few months ago.
And I'd already warmed to and/or approved of the rest of the casting already. Rue is perfect (oh how everyone will bawl), and everyone else will certainly do.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-29 09:26 pm (UTC)From:Unfortunately, that seems to be the trend these days. Isn't the new Pooh movie simply called Winnie-the-Pooh? And the fourth Rambo movie was just called Rambo. I seem to recall the working title for the Muppet film being The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made, which I quite liked.