Mar
30

The Stupid. It Burns.

Posted in blog, books, gaming, grumbles, ranty mcrantypants | 3 Comments
I don’t even know if this post is going to have much of point, so I think I’m just going to ramble on the things that have hit me up this week. First off is the article over at the Times about how adults shouldn’t read YA books. Because they don’t challenge us enough. It embarrasses the author of the piece to think that “grown-ups” would dare to lower themselves to kiddie stuff. Fair enough. Opinions are opinions and you know, everyone has one. Literary snobs pick on genre books.  Sci-Fi writers pick on romance writers. Romance writers pick on erotica writers.  Whatever. I can’t really find it in myself to get worked up about it anymore because the arguments are worthless. Are we really going to start slut-shaming ourselves into reading what is considered proper? Intelligent? Worth-while? Who decides this sort of thing, anyway? After all – today’s literary boobies were… Read more
Oct
27

I For One Welcome our Hello Kitty Overlords…

Posted in blog, books, Connor, cthulhu, hello kitty, word whores | Leave a comment
I just had to share this awesome Hello Cthulhu cake…because it is AWESOME. That and to express a little amazement at my son, who dropped $30 on books at his school book fair. Not that I ever mind my kids buying books – I would take that a hundred-fold over video games or crappy toys. I’m just surprised because he’s eight and that’s a lot of cash for someone that young. (Saved up from his birthday over the summer.) Definitely a trend I intent to keep on encouraging, anyway. Also, I’m over at Word-Whores today, talking a little bit about vampires and werewolves.… Read more
Nov
23

Whither the YA of my Youth?

Posted in books, rambling, YA | 6 Comments
Jeffe and I were speculating the other day as to whether or not the YA genre actually existed when we were growing up (a nebulous period in the 70’s and 80’s, to be specific.) We took it to Twitter and the general consensus was that it didn’t. I started reading at a pretty early age. I know some of my favorites in 3rd and 4th grade were things like Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Little Princess and The Secret Garden…but after that things get a bit hazy. At some point I was handed Piers Anthony’s Xanth series, because I got mono in 4th grade and I distinctly remember not being allowed to participate in recess in the months that followed (which meant a lot of reading.) I remember reading Ogre, Ogre in May of that year, which was the 8th book in that series. Did I get all of his puns?… Read more
Sep
24

Spoiled

Posted in books, spoilers | Leave a comment
It could be, regardless of what I’ve said in the past, that I may be a reader of romance. By that, I mean the whole Happily Ever After concept – which is the mainstay of the majority of romance novels. Apparently most romance readers expect one – or demand it – or won’t even read the thing unless there is one. I tend to scoff at this. I actually do like tragic sorts of endings, or where things are uncertain. As long as the characters grow along the way, it doesn’t really matter to me if they’re still together at the end. Or so I tell myself. However, I’ve discovered that’s not entirely true. Apparently, when it comes to books I love or characters I’m deeply invested in, I have this rather terrible habit of flipping to the back of the book to read the ending. Or if not the… Read more