William Faulkner

Over the summer I had tried to read The Sound and the Fury.  But I just couldn't get past the first 2 pages.  I got way too bored.  Too many words on the page that are uninteresting!  I hate when I get books like that.  I really want to read them, but I just can't.  So now I had to read A Rose for Emily as part of a class.  Still boring, but since I had to read it...sure.  It wasn't too too bad on the boring scale, since it was a short story the action had to go sort of fast.  The secret to her insanity was a pretty cool reveal at the end.  As a story it wasn't too bad.  I guess a 7 out of 10 for eloquence and an intriquite plot.

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Count of Monte Cristo

There is a part in this book where the Count reveals his true identity to Fernand, one of those who had had a hand in putting the Count, young Edmond, into prison.  Prior to this Fernand had been on the point of dueling the Count for turning Fernand's son and wife against him and exposing him as a traitor.  Fernand just wanted to know who his tormentor was before he killed him.  After the Count was exposed, however, Fernand could no longer bring himself to kill the one whose vengeance was justified.  Deep down, Fernand knew that if any man was justified in condemning him, it was Edmond.  He resigned himself to live his life of torment and dishonor, as he should have from the point he was jealous of Edmond.

Also, blogger is not letting me look at my pageview stats...

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Inconceivable!

I just realized that I didn't post on this yesterday for 9/11.  I would like to thank our troops for all that they do overseas and also the first responders who are always always ALWAYS there helping those in need.  They truly do an amazing job.  I am glad that this nation is protected by such capable hands.

I mentioned that I read The Princess Bride, S. Morgenstern.  One part that is interesting is when Westley is being tortured by Rugen.  Usually, he doesn't mind too much, he just goes off in his mind with his love.  Enter the machine.  This differs a little bit from the movie.  The movie just puts a couple of suction cups on Westley.  The book covers Westley with suction cups, including his nostrils, eardrums, eyelids, and tongue.  This makes it impossible for him to retreat to his love.  After his "treatment," Westley just cries.  Why?  Is it because he feels he will eventually die from the machine?  Is is because he knows he could never endure such a thing?  He just cries.  Because no words could express the hurt and anguish that he feels.  This is the saddest part in the book for me.  Because this unbreakable man has just submitted to evil.  He's done. 

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Reading the almost real princess bride...

The Princess Bride, originally written by Simon Morgenstern, abridged version by William Goldman.  And this statement, I have just found out, is incorrect.  Mostly because of the fact that Simon Morgenstern is not real.  He never existed.  Goldman (that fox) made all that crap up in his book so he could put his "abridged" parts into the book without too much of a problem.  I would call him a douche.  But that's really incredibly funny.  I am semi-chuckling right now.  Hah.  Hah.  And one more, hah.  You tricked me, you mastermind.  That was incredibly funny.  And you even talked about a 1000 page manuscript that never existed.  You amuse me incredibly.  An amazingly funny man.  Anyway, read the book, it really is good, now I have to go find out which parts he was lying about, other than Morgenstern...HAH!

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Jovah's Angel, Sharon Shinn

Recently (as in today) read Jovah's Angel, the sequel to Sharon Shinn's book Archangel.  Set 150 years after the original novel, this book follows a new archangel and her angelico.  The problem in this book is the question of faith and why the people of Samaria have the beliefs they do.  Technology has been set loose in the land and some of the other-worldly machines in Samaria have been failing.  What's more, it seems that Jovah is having trouble hearing the angels.  Alleluia must find her angelico, find her god, and heal her land from the everlasting weather troubles.
This seemed to cover another set of problems.  I do question my faith a lot, and this book was not very reassuring for that.  It did seem to exhibit many of the common behaviors man has when responding to faith and technology.  It actually seemed more like a stereotypical God/Science cross.  I'm not sure that the resolution was satisfying at all.  6 out of 10 for unoriginality?
On another note, read John Scalzi's stand-alone, The Android's Dream.  That was a surprising and somewhat hilarious and WOW! book to read.  Highly recommended.  8.5 out of 10.

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Archangel by Sharon Shinn

Set in a kind of alternate bible-setting, angels semi live near mortals and are more of a part of daily life than they are in a the bible.  Rachel, an adopted wanderer made slave is called to be the wife of the Head Angel-to-be, Gabriel.  Her main duty is to start a yearly singing that abates the wrath of Jovah, their God.  She needs a pretty good voice for this, which she doesn't ever let anyone hear for a while.  She and Gabriel don't get along, to put it blandly, and the singing is in serious question.  Meanwhile, corruption and heresy have crept into the land because of the current/passing Head Angel.  Along with his marriage problems, Gabriel must try to heal the land.
This was a beautiful story.  I sometimes get mushy over love stuff in books and this ended up being a better one with a drastic change from loathing to can't-do-without-you love.  Some of it was slightly coryny, the theology a little annoying, the climax obvious, the end was infuriating.  Though they did say it's good to question your beliefs.  Points for that.  7 out of 10 sounds good to me.

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Hurricane and more scalzi

Sorry that it seems like I'm on this John Scalzi binge, but I've been reading almost a book of his a day.  So I read his next book, The Last Colony, which brings back the main character and his "girlfriend" as main characters.  It also connects to the 2nd book.  He's really very good at this.  His writing is thrilling, the humor is slightly contagious, and the overall plot is just short of masterful.  I think he might be going a little to far with the series thing, his next book just goes over the 3rd book from another point of view, not that enjoyable, but for The Last Colony, it was a pretty solid 7 out of 10.  Review for Sharon Shinn coming when I don't have anything else to write about.

Hurricane wreaking havoc on the east coast.  Not a very common occurance over here, but it is taking so darn long for it to get here!  Hurry up already!  We've been having news things all day!  And it's probably going to continue into tomorrow.  I just hope the roads get cleaned up in a timely manner and that the flooding and the loss of power don't cause a whole lot of trouble.  For those of you in danger that can read this, all 1 of you, be safe!

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Books and why? plus more scalzi

I feel awkward telling people what books I read.  At the library, on this blog, at school, I just don't like it.  Because it's personal for me.  I think that people gain some insight on what I'm like from the books I read.  Or think they do.  And I don't want them to.  Talk to me to find out what I'm like, just don't look at books I read and assume things.  Read a random book about vampires recently.  (It wasn't Twilight)  The librarian talked to me about it.  That's a no-no for me.  I HATE librarians noticing what I read.  I never read vampire books.  I picked a random book by an author I'd read.  I didn't know it was about vampires.  The book sucked anyway.

Finished The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi.  A sort of sequel to Old Man's War, a book that I had said was compared to The Forever War earlier.  (I didn't really see too many similarities)  The thing I admire about the book is that it is only slightly related to the first book in the "series."  The book made references to people and events from the first book.  But this new book had a completely different plot-line, almost completely different characters, perspective, setting.  But it was still related.  I wish all authors could write sequels like he does.  It almost seems like he isn't doing it to make money.  (Maybe he was, or maybe he was just doing it for his fans who wanted more)  The Ghost Brigades?  8 out of 10.

~another musing of the ill-informed~

I do read a lot, don't i?

Some "interesting" books for your consideration.

Just read Old Man's War by Scalzi.  I liked it.  I liked some of the concepts, but then it got kind of boring.  I guess it is a rather well known book.  At the beginning it has this Avatar-like thing where they transplant your consciuosness into a different body.  Except I'm pretty sure the book came first.  Anyway...the book style was a little more realistic in that they actually leave your "brain" in your new body, not switching it haphazardly back and forth like they do in Avatar.  It would make sense to have a physical connection to a body rather than a psychic one.  Although on a level it is kind of a psychic connection at the onset.  So I liked the book, but it kind of got tedious after a while.

I'm now reading The Forever War, by Haldeman.  It has a foreward from Scalzi talking about how everyone thought he had based Old Man's War off Haldeman's book.  So it makes it sort of ironic that I read Scalzi's book first.  Orson Scott Card trumps all.  Just saying.

Also read The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan.  A daunting book.  It has 600+ pages.  Way too many.  Who would want to read 600 pages?  Not me.  But I did, only to find out that the book has a sequel.  Now why would you need a sequel after 600 pages?  Then I go even further to look online to find that there is not only one, but 17 sequels to this novel, which was published 21 years ago.  That is just ridiculous.  I did not feel like looking to see how many pages these were, but I bet they were up there.  Ridiculous.  Another thing?  Robert Jordan is dead.  Some bozo is making the last 3 books in the series.  Crazy.  I don't even think I want to read the rest of the books...

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Good books

A great book that I just read is Undercover by Beth Kephart.  Now you might read it and say, "Way too many metaphors and I really don't want to hear about a girl's boyfriend problems."  Ok.  I'm not too into the girl thing myself.  But the metaphors got better after you get past the starting barricade.  The book actually was pretty good.  I'm thinking I need to buy it sometime.  Just to give me something to do.  Almost cried.  I don't think I wanted to actually.  What?  You thought you were getting a book review?  What am I, a bad salesperson?  Probably.  That's too bad for you.  Heh.  Anyway, read the book, worth your while.

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Where Most of the Musings come from

Some of the people who do not read my blog may (not) be wondering where most of the musings come from.  Most of these ideas will come from books written by Orson Scott Card.  Card is, in my opinion, the best author in the modern world.  Not only can he come up with great plots, he can formulate some of the most in-depth arguments in which he formulates both sides.  These arguments are where I generate most of the ideas that show up on the blog.  The Orson Scott Card universe being so extensive, I have not yet read all of his books and could not possibly name all of them here.  One of the books that is the most popular that has been written by him is Ender's Game.  I encourage the reading of all the books by him that you can get your hands on.
~another musing of the ill-informed~