Loramir Of Gondor's Journal

So, having finished 3 books in 3 days, I've finally caught up on the Twilight saga. Yes, I first read Twilight like 2 years ago. Yes, I specialize in being way behind on the current trend (also the reason why I've only recently discovered Friends). I reread Twilight about two weeks ago, dawdled for a while, then finally read New Moon Tuesday night, Eclipse Wednesday night, and Breaking Dawn yesterday.

I'd always liked the first book fairly well, though I was dubious about the insane hype of the rest of the series. I found that as a whole the series is neither as good as the crazy fangirls would have you believe nor as abysmally dreadful as the equally vocal detractors would claim. The writing is not the greatest, but the plot is engaging and kept me interested all the way through. My main complaint is that for all it is worshiped (Firefox spellcheck insists this has only one P, but it looks wrong...) as the ultimate epic romance--and yeah, there was lots of romance--I didn't find the romance terribly satisfying, for a number of reasons.

Bear in mind here that I am seriously the most diehard romantic you will ever find.

So, here are various thoughts. Books are henceforth referred to as T, NM, E, and BD because I'm tired of typing italics tags...

( Musings (& Spoilers) )

So yeah, I had some issues, but I still enjoyed the books. I will not be getting "And so the lion fell in love with the lamb" tattooed anywhere, or devoting my life to making mix CDs or music videos devoted to Edward and Bella*. But I'll probably read them again sometime when I want a nice romantic fairytale that is utterly escapist and completely absurd in terms of real life. Which is actually pretty often. I get enough real life in my actual life - I'll take nice silly fantasy in my literature, thanks. The Twilight saga will probably go in my 'guilty pleasures,' category, for books and movies and music that are so silly I really shouldn't like them, but I do :)  (10 Things I Hate About You, Dirty Dancing, Empire Records and songs like "Copacabana" and "Billy, Don't Be a Hero" are also in this category...)

*(although last night right after I finished BD, when I was still in a nice daze from reading, I played around 100 games of TriPeaks while listening to music, and had some silly fun attempting to relate songs to the series. I have a very wide mix of things like oldies and bluegrass and country and 40s jazz, so this was interesting. If this sounds extremely fangirly--in my defense, I had way too much caffeine at work last night and was rather giggly...

Incidentally, if you are not a thirteen year old girl and like some nice escapist romance that is much more mature and realistic and involves a much healthier relationship and no immortality at all, read Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, which are quite possibly my favorite books in the world. The Outlander series is also a very epic romance, with a fantasy angle, and to me, anyway, extremely satisfying for many of the reasons Twilight is not.

Also, if you like really good vampire books - which I don't actually, except for Twilight and this - definitely read Robin McKinley's Sunshine. For that matter, read anything by Robin McKinley, including her blog. Sunshine is her only vampire book, though. And it is very good. Just don't bug her about a sequel. This makes her very annoyed(see the aforementioned blog).

Ha. I've just noticed where she mentioned some books she recommends for "any squashy romantics I meet who don’t know them yet." Squashy romantics! That is totally me!

Off to watch the Twilight movie, just to complete my Twilight binge. Not a huge fan of Robert Pattinson, or at any rate the way he talks. He looks all right, I suppose. In the movie, anyway. Both he and Kristin Stewart seem to enjoy looking like homeless heroin addicts in real life. The movie is not as good as the books, but it's not bad.

So: HBP!

Just got back from the midnight showing. It was awesome! I didn't even know Sumter had that many HP fans diehard enough to go to a midnight showing!

Anyway. It was great! I'd forgotten how great HP movies are. I can't remember the first thing about OotP. I have lots of small nitpicky things and several big things that bothered me, but on the whole it was really good. Funny and still very dark, close enough to the book not to give me a heart attack, suspenseful, well-shot and good cinematography and special effects...

One problem of course is that I haven't read the book in ages, so exactly what is and isn't in the book are a bit hazy at times.

( Thoughts (spoilers!) )

Well, it's nearly 4:30 AM. So, conclusions: definitely very well done. I think it's tied with PoA for my favorite. It was just the right balance of humor and darkness. It would be very easy for it to be too dark and depressing, but it wasn't. It maybe wasn't dark enough, really. You didn't really see just how grim the Voldemort situation was and how much his power had grown, at least not as much as you did in the book. And if you didn't know what happened at the end, it maybe kind of came out of nowhere.

But anyway. I think it struck a good balance overall. The humor wasn't as forced as it has seemed in some of the movies, they did a good job of showing how the gang is growing up...

Anyway, I could probably go on for ages, but I must go to bed! Now I'm looking forward to reading the book - must finish GoF and get through OotP (aka "HP and the Teenage Angst!").

And it's Harry Potter Day once again!

I have to work from 5-10, plus an hour's drive home (can't wait till I move to Columbia), but then me and my brother are going to a midnight showing!

I really wanted to reread the book, because I've only read it once or twice, and once was in a huge rush to find out what happened when it first came out. I can't ever remember who all those Gaunt people are and all the details about Slughorn and and Fenrir Greyback and stuff.

But I got stuck on GoF, possibly my least favorite book, and lost momentum with my re-reading. According to IMDb, though, the Gaunts were dropped anyway. Although weren't they kind of important? But whatever. The reviews sound pretty good and now I'm all fangirly and excited.

I hope they don't ruin the ending. I also hope they can make me care enough about Dumbledore to even care about the ending, because thus far I have hated Michael Gambon as Dumbledore, especially in GoF when he yelled at Harry after his name came out of the Goblet of Fire.

(This reminds me - I ought to go back and reread the journal I was keeping as I read HBP for the first time. I stopped every few chapters to record my reactions. There are lots of capital letters and exclamation marks and question marks and some very large "NOOOOO"s toward the end.)

I wonder if Dan's acting has improved any. I've never been particularly thrilled with him. Rupert, when he gets to do something besides stupid-sidekick-comic-relief stuff, and Emma are pretty good, but Dan's always been rather wooden. I don't hate him, but he's just kind of blah. He seems to have two main emotions - stoic and angry. However, since he's playing Angsty Teenager Harry now, perhaps those will serve him pretty well.

I remember how obsessed I used to be with HP. It's kind of faded over the years, but new movies and things still make me all fangirly!

I was amused just now to see ghostlybohemia had made an icon of the cover of the edition of Jane Austen's Persuasion that I have...which is truly horrendous. So I commented to tell her about my equally (if not more) horrendous edition of Pride & Prejudice, and she expressed a desire to see it.

So I've scanned both the front and back covers. The back cover is rather plain, but I had to scan it, you see, because if I told you what the back cover copy is, you seriously wouldn't believe me.

And so, here it is, in all it's horribleness:

( Mom's fishing for husbands - but the girls are hunting for love... )

Yes, I actually paid for this, in a real bookstore! It was the cheapest edition at Waldenbooks. I think it was $2.99 or $3.99. I was going to get a slightly prettier one, but this one was so incredibly hilarious I had to buy it.

As if Mr. Darcy would ever wear a purple coat and turquoise waistcoat...

I've been reading Little Women lately, and just finished it. I read the afterword at the end of my book, and it made me so annoyed I had to complain about it!

Lots of rambling about Laurie vs. Professor Bhaer as the right man for Jo, behind the cut :) I much prefer Professor Bhaer myself...

( Ramble )

I was talking about Dumbledore's "outing" on a forum, and got to thinking about it.

For one thing, I don't really care - Dumbledore is how he is in the books to me - whatever she says outside the books doesn't really count. I already know who Dumbledore is to me, so it's a bit late to try to change my Dumbledore.

Secondly, I also had a bit of an "of all the characters to make gay..." moment - I'm a huge Shoebox Project fan, so Remus/Sirius is the only slash ship I have any interest in - I've really never been into slash at all till I read that.

Thirdly, I think it's a dumb move. There are enough reasons for people to keep their kids from reading HP. Why give them another one? Even my aunt and uncle were reluctant to let my 10 year old cousin read it, but my brother and I practically forced them. For people like them, who are not that keen on HP anyway just from the negative press, this - even if it is isn't in the books - is all they need to say no. I think it's just one more reason for people to slam HP.

I mean, it doesn't affect what's in the books, but a lot of people who don't know anything about HP will just associate this with it now, and that will keep them from letting their kids read it. "Oh no, there's a gay guy!" No kid should have to miss HP just because JKR wants to satisfy the slash fans and keep her name in the headlines.

OK, I would like to establish two facts: I do not read fan fiction and I definitely do not read slash. Ever.

I just don't get slash. I have never understood the point. It generally disgusts me.

I also don't read fanfic. I'm an English major and a perfectionist. I can't handle bad grammar and horrible mutilations of the canon.

So I don't read fanfic. Or slash.

Until now. I have been converted to the wonders of Shoeboxism. Yes, I have discovered shoebox_project. I heard of it ages and ages ago, but slash just really turns me off so I forgot about it as soon as I saw it was Remus/Sirius.

So then the other night during my Essay Avoidance Session I found some quote icons from SBP. They were so intriguing I was like, "Well, I'll just read a little. You know. To see what it's about." So I pulled my first all-nighter in three years of college to "work on my paper," which roughly translates to "read the entire fic."

( my thoughts - possibly spoilerish )

I highly recommend it...er, obviously. I got the PDF version, since some of the older LJ entries are missing the art that goes with them. Read it. Even if you have never read another fanfic and will never read one again. Even if you hate slash. SBP manages, though I would never have thought it possible, tasteful slash. It seems natural. It's not gratuitous. It's not the absolute point of the whole story.

And for the sake of intriguing you further, here are some of the fabulous quotes. Practically every single line is quotable, though some are just classic.

( quotes quotes quotes )

I've been thinking about books lately as I'm planning to go to the library this afternoon. And someone asked me for book recs. So here we go!

I read just about anything and I love to talk about books, so this might get longish.

Also, I'm 19, but I read a lot of YA/kids stuff because it's the only section in the university library that I can find my way around in. Sometimes it's fun to read stuff you missed as a kid, though, and some of the more recent stuff that wasn't out when you were a kid is great! A lot of it is surprising good and interesting enough to keep an adult's attention.

( recs )

More later.

Some very old and rather horrid--if I do say so myself--icons from around the PoA era. Mostly involving Billy Joel song lyrics. Also some ancient error icons from back in the day when those were all the rage, all dealing with PoA except 4 house icons.

[+] 23 Prisoner of Azkaban icons and bases
[+] 42 Prisoner of Azkaban and Hogwarts-related error icons


( ron fancies madame rosmerta )


( this icon thinks GoF!Voldemort looks dumb )

Also archived at my gallery.

Reposting icons made from pretty fairy tale books from Amazon.

[+] 19 fairy tale icons



( vanish at the stroke of midnight )
Also archived at my gallery.

Reposting old Laura Ingalls Wilder icons, made from the covers of the 9 original books with art by Garth Williams. Also 3 from the covers of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series.

[+] 10 Laura Ingalls Wilder icons
[+] 3 Thursday Next series icons



( sleep under the stars )

( ever wanted to be in books? )
Also archived (with bases) at my gallery.

Reposting children's book icons I made a long time ago and posted in my old journals.

[+] 28 children's book icons



( read me a story )

Also archived (with bases) in my gallery.

In honor of Valentine's Day, I've made some icons using romance novel covers, mostly snatched from The Fabio Int'l Fan Club. I don't even read romance novels, I just think the covers are amusing in their stereotypical-ness.

[+] 21 romance novel icons



( 'oh, oliver,' she cried, her bosom heaving as they embraced... )

Also archived in my gallery.