hale pupule

The Rules:

Don't take too long to think about it.

Fifteen fictional characters (television, films, plays, books, comics) who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.

Alanna of Trebond and Olau
Hermione Granger
Elinor Dashwood
Spock
Leia Organa
Beatrice
Data
Cyrano de Bergerac
the Doctor
Geraldine Granger
Anne Shirley
Lucy Pevensie
Meg Murry
Wonder Woman
Bunny Watson

Edit: I cheated and came back an hour later, because someone else listed a character who should have come first. I plead that I was barely awake at the time.

Well ... more like editing again.

I've posted that one-shot to OWL: Staking His Claim, a Lucius/Narcissa one-shit, rated PG for language and underage smoochin'. It's about 1,500 words.

And I've finally got my brain back on track with Wolfsbane, which has had only two chapters posted for the last year. (Shame on me.) The story index at OWL is here, and I hope it'll show up soon at Ashwinder, too. This fic is rated PG as well (language again ... I have such a potty mouth).

I'm having a lovely time listening to Stephen read CoS.

As I was on my way to work today, I thought of a book I haven't thought of in ages. I read it when I was in junior high twenty-*COUGH* years ago; the librarian recommended another of the author's books first (The Woman Who Loved Reindeer), and when I finished that, I looked for other things Meredith Ann Pierce had written and came up with Birth of the Firebringer. You're likely to find her stuff in the YA/Teen section of the public library, but her stuff seemed pretty sophisticated at the time, and Maria Nutick (a reviewer with Green Man Review) seems to concur: http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_pierce_firebringer.html

I've submitted a hold request at my library for the Firebringer trilogy and The Woman Who Loved Reindeer. Once I read them again, I'll make a proper book/author rec (just in time for summer reading, for those who have that luxury).

I finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society five minutes ago. What a wonderful book! Being me, I zoomed through it to get to the ending (so that I wouldn't read the last page first), and now I'm going to go back and read it more slowly. I've already missed church because I sat down and read this, and I can't bring myself to be sorry at the moment.

Bambu (lots of blessings and good luck be showered upon her for her good taste in books) recommended it to me because I mentioned my liking of stories told through correspondence. I have two WIPs that are part-narrative/part correspondence, but I haven't read a lot of books/fics that are told that way. Thank you, Bambu!

In other news, emphasis mine:

QI has become the first UK's first panel show to have its own pop song and music video.

The pop song, "Peter Cushing Lives in Whitstable", features QI stars Stephen Fry, Alan Davies, Jo Brand, Bill Bailey and Phill Jupitus.

During the third (or 'C') series of QI, Davies recalled seeing a band called The Jellybottys who played a tribute song to the Hammer Horror star Peter Cushing.

After QI was aired, Deek McNeill from The Jellybottys got into contact with QI and gave permission for his song to be adapted.

You can see the video here, presented by its producer Justin Gayner:

http://www.channelflip.com/2008/07/31/peter-cushing

Although it is not available as a single, the song will feature on the upcoming QI C Series DVD, available for pre-order from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/QI-The-C-Series/dp/B0017I1G48/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1216807100&sr=8-1

Okay, I don't like Amazon, but when it's Amazon UK or when I'm getting my tea (all right, Shiv, it's tisane), I will use them. *jumps about the flat happily*

Edit: I've pre-ordered it! Amazon UK will ship it out September 1st-ish. If they're as efficient as last time, I'll get mine before some of my British friends do, which doesn't make sense at all.

Uurrrrggghhh ...

I'm tired. I stayed up till 3 a.m. reading, since a new book arrived from Amazon yesterday. It wasn't quite what I was expecting -- it was recommended by Library Journal, after all -- but it was quite cute. Fluffy, charming, and rather hot. Made me LOL more than once. So go to the library and find Cathie Linz's Big Girls Don't Cry.

Summary from Amazon: "After her plus-size modeling career tanks, Leena Riley becomes a receptionist in her hometown veterinarian's office. Too bad the vet is Cole Flannigan, a boy who taunted her all through school. Good thing Leena has grown into her curves, because he's about to grow very fond of her."

LBPL didn't have a copy, so I impatiently ordered it; with a summary like that, I wasn't about to let myself forget this one without a fight. This appears to be part of a series. I shall have to look for Linz's other books, though I think I'll audition them via the library, before I buy them.

Verdict: 4 out of 5. I did like a lot of the book, but not everything. A lot is told, rather than shown: Cole is supposedly the town's playboy, but we don't see a single ex-girlfriend (just a predatory harpy) or anything else to back up this factoid. All we see is that he's a skilled flirt. (Well, he's good in bed, too, but as this is a romance novel, I feel rather idiotish for thinking it's necessary to point that out. They're ALWAYS good in bed, like Severus.) I'll be keeping the book, and I don't regret spending more than ten bucks for its purchase and delivery.

BTW, I thought the word "snarky" wasn't commonly used, but reading it in this book made me sit bolt upright in bed. The term seems to be making its way into the world of normal people. (Where did it start? Did Snape fans come up with the word, or did we get it from somewhere else?)

Edit: I stand corrected. The words "snark" and "snarky" have been around a long time, it seems. I just hadn't noticed them before I started reading Snapefic.

Book review! ( As usual, there are spoilers under the cut: )

Jenny Sawyer hit the nail on the head: This article contains DH spoilers.

There's a novel I'm reading right now called The Alchemyst; I picked it up at the children's bookshop when I pre-purchased DH. One of the main protagonists has been singled out by the bad guys, and it looks like they may succeed, because they can give him something that the good guys can't. Now THAT'S tension.

Yet another book that I've finished in less than a day. *shaking my head* I'm scrambling to read as much as possible, before school begins in four weeks.

This books is a fanfic, pure and simple. It's cute and fluffy, even though the subtitle is Or Love, Death, and the SATs. As the title suggests, it's a fanfic of a Jane Austen novel; in this case, Persuasion, ( even if you've read Persuasion, there is some stuff under the cut that you don't already know )

Verdict: run, run, run to the library. One thing's for sure; I will definitely be looking out for Paula Marantz Cohen's other novels.

Chocolate, Kleenex, and caffiene are purchased.

"I See Thestrals" t-shirt is waiting for me to wear it.

Going into work early so I can come home and take a nap (after a beta job).

I shall spend most of my shift out in the library stacks, away from the computer, and if I have to be at the computer, I shall listen to QI episodes instead of surfing LJ.

Happy reading, everyone. See you on the other side.

In the last five weeks, I've finished three books in less than thirty-six hours after reading the first page: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling.

TTTW and HBP in less than twenty-four hours, actually; sleep and work kept me from finishing Outlander as quickly. (I know I won't have much time to read during the fall semester, so I'm trying to cram as much in as I can. I only have five and a half weeks before school begins again!) I took a break from Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell to read HBP -- JS&MN hasn't grabbed me yet, but I haven't given up on it. And, of course, Deathly Hallows is coming out next week.

*plants both feet firmly on the ground*

Bring it on.