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Messages - stacer

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4621
Books / Re: So...what's everyone reading?
« on: April 05, 2003, 09:50:02 PM »
So far, 10. The most recent one is called Crossroads of Twilight. And who knows how long he'll drag it out. I'm hoping for a quick, clean ending in book 11. Come on, no series can hold out longer than that, can it? But I still want to know how it ends, and if he can really pull these threads together--the ones I care about, at least, which he seems to have lost interest in (what's going on with Moiraine? etc).

I did like Jordan's style of writing, to begin with. I guess it's the same with any series, though--what's fresh and inventive in the first book is stale in later books. He seems to be creating one mega-woman character and one mega-man character, slapping them all down on the page, and making minor changes in appearance, so that they're all the same at the end of the series, where they were different people at the beginning--they're all suspicious, they won't TALK TO EACH OTHER.

How much easier would all their lives be if they simply decided to have a correlation meeting once a week? "So, Egwene, how's the siege going?" "Great, Rand, how's that cleansing of saidin going?" etc. Unity these characters ain't got. It occurs to me that the Forsaken were more organized in earlier books, as far as communication goes, than the good guys are in latter books.

And why does it even matter to me?

<sigh>

I guess I just have to know how it ends, even if I'm frustrated. It's my own fault. ::)

4622
Books / Re: So...what's everyone reading?
« on: April 04, 2003, 07:34:41 PM »
I've been a WoT fan since about 93 or 94, but with each new book I get more disgusted. He's dragging it out. I still haven't finished book 10, which I borrowed, and I have a feeling that if I skip right on to book 11 (which, of course, will take three years to get published), I wouldn't miss anything. Too much yapping and not enough actually happening.

He did such a good job at the beginning of creating good characters and moving the plot along, but he's just tied himself into knots lately, adding all these stupid minor characters that no one cares about and no longer focusing on the original main characters. It took him four chapters in book 10 to describe one morning of Perrin's life in which nothing happened. Nothing. Zilch. Sheesh!

4623
Everything Else / Re: Stop it Tage!
« on: April 04, 2003, 12:50:45 AM »
Wow, Tage, your power must extend quite far. In Boston it's 35 degrees with freezing rain. Won't get warm for at least a week, they say. And I was out in the sun riding my bike last week! >:(

4624
Books / Re: So...what's everyone reading?
« on: April 01, 2003, 02:33:58 AM »
Mr. P, you should enroll in a program like mine. My pleasure reading and reading for class are one and the same, mainly. This week's reading: Harry Potter #1, Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones, Dealing with Dragons (a very silly stupid book), and Bed-Knob and Broomstick. Also every book Russell Freedman ever wrote. Well, not quite, but close. And every book on Rosa Parks.

That's just this week.

So far this semester for my fantasy class, I've read:

Wizard of Earthsea (which I'm ashamed to say I'd never read before)
Elske by Cynthia Voight
Tom's Midnight Garden by Phillippa Pearce (another I should have discovered as a child)
The Golden Compass
The Hobbit (again)
Winnie-the-Pooh
The Indian in the Cupboard
The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Pope (another I should have discovered as a teen because I would have appreciated it more then)
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (again)
The Wonderful Wizard of OZ
Peter Pan
Redwall
Hitty, Her First Hundred Years (story of a doll, quite annoying. Something my grandmother, who collects dolls, would have loved at the age of 9)
Charlotte's Web
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (VERY good, a retelling of Cinderella)
The Magic Circle (anything by Donna Jo Napoli is good)
Hans Christian Anderson's tales
Five Children and It by E. Nesbit (very Victorian)
Mary Poppins
Artemis Fowl
The Wind in the Willows....

and so on.

That's just for Fantasy/SF. The nonfiction class assigns about 5-8 books a week. At least in fantasy it's only 3 to 4. But they're all good books, usually.

Sheesh! I need to get some sleep. I've developed this strange eye-twitch from all the reading....

On the bright side, Russell Freedman will be in class on Wed. He wrote the Lincoln photobiography that won the Newbery in 1988, and several other well-written biographies, including Confucius, Babe somebody, Eleanor Roosevelt, and a history of the Declaration of Independence. He's got a book on the Bill of Rights in press now.

Anybody read Feed yet? If you have don't tell me about it, but I'll be reading it for class in a couple weeks and would love to discuss it later. It's gotten a bit of acclaim this year too, though I can't remember if it won the Newbery or an honor or what.

P.S.--upcoming reading in fantasy for next week: The Borrowers, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tuck Everlasting, and Neil Gaimon's Coraline. All except the last are books I read as a kid; will be interesting to read them with an adult's eyes. Anyone read Coraline?

4625
Everything Else / Re: Now we have all got Elven names
« on: April 01, 2003, 02:15:17 AM »
STACEY (m., f.) - a short form of ANASTASIA (q.v.), so perhaps Tyultare, or EUSTACE (q.v.), so perhaps Celumo

STACY (f.) - either from ANASTASIA (q.v.) or EUSTACE (q.v.)

ANASTASIA (f.) - Greek probably 'resurrected'; *ortaina "risen", thus Ortaine or lit. Greek 'ana' "up" + 'stasis' "stand": ama "up" tyulta- "stand up", hence Amatyultare

See--I told you I always wanted my name to be Anastasia. Now I have proof! Maybe that should be my pen name. A little clunky?

4626
Suggestions Box / Re: Current Poll
« on: March 28, 2003, 07:02:56 PM »
Come to think of it, Fell, I do remember the business woman with a magic ring thing. She was cool. And, of course, you can't forget the black and green haired girl band who were always trying to beat Jem and her band. I even had a sticker book, like the Barbie ones in which you can change their outfits etc. It's like a glorified coloring book--a coloring book for the sophisticated 5th grader.

Ah, those were the days, looking forward to Jem after school, imagining *I* could be her. Or that when I grew up I'd live on another planet like the Thundercats. Or find a magic sword like She-Ra. Oh yeah, man. 8) But I refuse to acknowledge that I knew anything about GI Joe or He-Man--that was boy stuff. :P

4627
Suggestions Box / Re: Current Poll
« on: March 27, 2003, 10:37:14 PM »
Gemm, were you kidding about not being sure why Fell said you were truly outrageous? It's hard to tell with text. If you truly don't know, he's referring to the Gem (or was it Jemm?) cartoon from the mid-80s, the girl with pink hair that had a band. Man, I loved that cartoon. It was on right after Thundercats, which was another fav. The Gem theme went "Gem! Truly outrageous..." etc. Can't really remember the rest, or at least, I won't admit to it.

4628
Suggestions Box / Re: Problems accessing my own profile
« on: March 21, 2003, 02:27:16 AM »
Seems like it's working. Had to choose a new name because it wouldn't let me have stacer. Tage, can you delete the old profile for me? I don't know how to do it myself. Then I can go back to at least using stacer on the surface, right?

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