Squawk Box
Jan. 6th, 2005 02:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sub_dividedI never understood the whole shouting while charging into battle thing--wouldn't the fighters be better off saving their breath? But yesterday during the infamous South Quad/West Quad snowball fight I learned that it actually is intimadiading when hundreds of screaming people run straight at you. It would have been more dramitic if we'd had battle cries like the badgers in Brian Jaques' books, though. "Squad! Squad! Back, foul Western Republicans! We shall hold our ground even unto hypothermia!"
I spent my break reading books. I've finally accepted my inability to finish a long, literary, or difficult novels ("I starting reading it, but then I got bored and wandered away" is like, the story of my life), so this time around I only bought manga and Young Adult fantasy books with those inevitable holiday gift-certificates.
Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynn Jones: is trippy. It's got what seems like really rapid pacing, but that's only because things happen randomly and without warning. I liked the characters because most of them are "good" but none of them make being good their first priority. Hayao Miyazaki is basing his next movie on this book. I'm not sure how much of a moral he'll want to give it but the book is almost the anti Sen to Chihiro: don't let yourself be exploited, be loud and rude and contrary, etc.
Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce: is another one of her Tortall books, only this time with a main character who isn't crazy-overpowered. I'm deducting ten points for that because ordinary people are boring. The book has a decent setting - it's like the achipelago version of Imperial India - but other than that nothing, really, to recommend it. Aly (she's an ally to the natives! Get it?) is bailed out of every single crisis by her patron god; in a prophesy involving seven people all seven of them turn out to be female. Yes, I know, Tamora Pierce = Girl Powar!, but still. The strongest male character in this book is a bird.
Eh, and I read another two by Wynn Jones that annoyingly pair all the characters up by the end, and some Kafka and some Marquez. And boatloads of manga. I've finished Sophie's Choice! It only took two years, but I figure that's justified since this book takes every single major American literary theme and throws them all together, gumbo stew style.
I should mention that I've been on a Fastball kick lately and you can find all the songs from their second album at the website. They're packaged together under "Order of the Day" and "Second Order", 20 and 18 Mb respectively. I'm still looking for mp3s from their third album. Minimalist pop with good singing, halfway clever lyrics, and NO GARBAGE CLUTTERING UP THE TRACKS. ♥ I love these guys.
I spent my break reading books. I've finally accepted my inability to finish a long, literary, or difficult novels ("I starting reading it, but then I got bored and wandered away" is like, the story of my life), so this time around I only bought manga and Young Adult fantasy books with those inevitable holiday gift-certificates.
Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynn Jones: is trippy. It's got what seems like really rapid pacing, but that's only because things happen randomly and without warning. I liked the characters because most of them are "good" but none of them make being good their first priority. Hayao Miyazaki is basing his next movie on this book. I'm not sure how much of a moral he'll want to give it but the book is almost the anti Sen to Chihiro: don't let yourself be exploited, be loud and rude and contrary, etc.
Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce: is another one of her Tortall books, only this time with a main character who isn't crazy-overpowered. I'm deducting ten points for that because ordinary people are boring. The book has a decent setting - it's like the achipelago version of Imperial India - but other than that nothing, really, to recommend it. Aly (she's an ally to the natives! Get it?) is bailed out of every single crisis by her patron god; in a prophesy involving seven people all seven of them turn out to be female. Yes, I know, Tamora Pierce = Girl Powar!, but still. The strongest male character in this book is a bird.
Eh, and I read another two by Wynn Jones that annoyingly pair all the characters up by the end, and some Kafka and some Marquez. And boatloads of manga. I've finished Sophie's Choice! It only took two years, but I figure that's justified since this book takes every single major American literary theme and throws them all together, gumbo stew style.
I should mention that I've been on a Fastball kick lately and you can find all the songs from their second album at the website. They're packaged together under "Order of the Day" and "Second Order", 20 and 18 Mb respectively. I'm still looking for mp3s from their third album. Minimalist pop with good singing, halfway clever lyrics, and NO GARBAGE CLUTTERING UP THE TRACKS. ♥ I love these guys.
