This joke isn't funny anymore + Booklog
Mar. 12th, 2007 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityofoneSo, as you may recall: on Wednesday, I quit my job.
On Friday, I lost my apartment.
Yeah.
Basically, what happened was that Absent Roommate came back and totally flipped her shit at Cool Roommate and myself. She didn't like that CR and I had both put some of our stuff in the living room and declared that—in spite of what was actually agreed when each of us (separately) moved in—AR, who holds the lease, is renting each of us a room. We have to earn our kitchen and living room privileges. Then, in the argument that ensued, it came out that a) AR has moved far, far beyond the point of rationality—she would answer statements and questions of ours by repeating her previous and unrelated statement over and over—and that b) AR has been cheating us out of money for months.
So we have to leave. We've already started looking at new places—two so far, the first awful, the second pretty good. So, uh, if you know anyone on the Westside of L.A. who's looking for two awesome new roommates or is renting a two bedroom place? Well, let me know! (Same if you know anyone who's looking for a writer to hire—I'm not going to be able to dally at finding a new job, like I thought.)
Anyway, I would just like to say that so far 2007 loses at life. I have never had such a consistently terrible year. It better turn around soon, or honestly, I will not know what to do. How 'bout this Saturday, world, to make a change for the better? It's St. Patrick's Day, it's my birthday, that oughta bring a little luck...
But, uh. Enough feeling sorry for myself. It's booklog time!
Week 10: 5-11 March 2007
54. Romancing Mister Bridgerton, Julia Quinn — I started reading this to try to de-stress. I've never actually read an out-and-out romance before, but I heard Quinn wrote fluffy and fun regencies, and her style, at least at the beginning, was lively and engaging. However, as the novel progressed, more and more things began to annoy me. First, Quinn does something with POV that really bothers me, and which I am trying to delicately explain here without giving away the book's central mystery, slight as it is. Basically, Quinn has a revelation in this book that makes me completely distrust one of the character's POVs. It's annoying and cheap, but I would have been able to let it go and enjoy the rest of the book were it not for all the sex. The long, interminable, squickily worded sex scenes! Now, I'm sure you all know that I very much like reading and writing about sex. I honestly don't understand how so many people in fandom can do something so well while so many professional authors are terrible at it. This book has some of the most off-putting sex scenes I've ever read outside of actual badfic. First, there's the unrealistic factor—two unmarried aristocrats in regency England attempting to get it on in a moving carriage as it flies through the streets of London; then there's the "eww" factor—virgins who are deflowered when they don't seem to even know what the actual sex act entails and before their twu luv can bother to explain it to them since he'd rather just be shoving it in there; and finally, there's the snooze factor. This was me trying to read the umpteenth sex scene in this book: "It was agony. It was ecstasy. She had been born for this man. As she reached to touch his member he turned to her with lust-drenched eyes and...Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..."
ETA:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
_inbetween_ has a post of bad sex passages from several Quinn books, including Romancing Mister Bridgerton, here.
I...I want to like romances? I do. I love romantic fiction. I love the Smart Bitches. I love smutty fanfic, for god's sake! So I don't know what the deal is. But I do know I certainly don't want to read about the agony and ecstasy of some inappropriately shirtless dweeb's member. Call me crazy.
55. jPod, Douglas Coupland — "Microserfs for the age of Google" is how this is oft-described. That's pretty accurate, really. Stylistically, it's much the same—which was nice, because Microserfs is pretty much my favorite Coupland book. (I have now read ALL of them! *sob* Well, except for the one written in Japanese and released only in Japan.) What surprised me is how much more cynical this book is. I mean, not that Microserfs is without cynicism, but there's an innocence to it, a wonder. I don't think anyone would have any trouble figuring out that jPod is the book written by the older man (and that's even without the authorial self-insertion stuff—which I alternate between finding funny and being made deeply uncomfortable by). jPod is like Microserfs but without the hope for reinvention and redemption. I still enjoyed the book a lot—it's really funny, and the parts that are just Ethan and his fellow jPodders goofing off and being geeky were great. But unlike Microserfs, the world of jPod is not one I would want to live in. It's cold there.
56. The Forever King, Molly Cochran & Warren Murphy — This is one of CR's favorite books, which she lent to me. I can totally see why she liked it. It's a really cool take on the King Arthur legend, involving one of my favorite silly soap opera plot points—reincarnation. There's also a really interesting, complex villain whose long, long life is explored through a series of fascinating, history-charged flashbacks. So plot-wise, it's pretty damn awesome. I think the only thing that's stopping it from being OMG ONE OF MY NEW FAVORITE BOOKS EVA!!! is the fact that the prose is really nothing to write home about. It's kind of standard-issue, serviceable and flat. And thus the characters don't really come alive for me. I mean, Hal, the washed-up FBI agent who may have a shot at redeeming himself, is just the kind of fictional dude I have a tendency to fall in love with. I should have fallen in love with him in this book. But he just kind of sits there on the page. The book wasn't any less fun to read, and I'll definitely be picking up the sequel, but for me, at least, the prose's lack of sparkle makes it something I'm less likely to reread.
57. The Fly-Truffler, Gustaf Sobin —honey_babes was nice enough to lend me this book, and I hope she doesn't hate me when she finds out that I didn't love it as much as she did. *shame* There was a lot I really DID like—the novel's a quiet, contemplative look at a man after the death of his wife, and there were passages (especially the one about the women who raise silkworms) that really touched me with their beauty. But like most works of magical realism, I walked away feeling like I just...wasn't getting something. This has been for a while a great frustration for me, because in theory magical realism would be just the kind of thing I'd like to read—and even write. But in practice, every time I've tried to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Angela Carter or Salman Rushdie, I've put the book down feeling confused and, frankly, kind of stupid. (The exception being Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet, which works for me in its own crazy rock 'n' roll, alternate universe, apocalyptic way.) I do feel like I'm somehow to blame, but eventually I'm going to just have to stop beating myself up and accept that magical realism may just not be for me.
58. Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence, Paul Feig — Written by the creator of Freaks and Geeks, this is basically a collection of all the most awful and embarrassing things that can happen to you growing up. And then some: if you have the slightest embarrassment squick, I recommend avoiding this book like you would avoid a public speaking contest for people who stutter and have Tourette's. I can watch 'Duet' all the way through and not feel too bad, but this book had me not only hiding my head in my hands but wanting to invent time travel just so I could go back in time and beat the crap out of everyone who harassed Feig, seemingly the most put-upon and unfortunate boy in the world. There are two chapters in here about Feig's first day of high school gym that pretty much made me want to die.
Which is not to say the book isn't funny. It just really, really is not fun.
Total Books: 58
And for an extra, added bit of weirdness: see a fake copy of the magazine where I work in this trailer for a new movie about a dog.
ETA2: Make yourself feel better:fan_this drew me tiny sleepy Rodney!
On Friday, I lost my apartment.
Yeah.
Basically, what happened was that Absent Roommate came back and totally flipped her shit at Cool Roommate and myself. She didn't like that CR and I had both put some of our stuff in the living room and declared that—in spite of what was actually agreed when each of us (separately) moved in—AR, who holds the lease, is renting each of us a room. We have to earn our kitchen and living room privileges. Then, in the argument that ensued, it came out that a) AR has moved far, far beyond the point of rationality—she would answer statements and questions of ours by repeating her previous and unrelated statement over and over—and that b) AR has been cheating us out of money for months.
So we have to leave. We've already started looking at new places—two so far, the first awful, the second pretty good. So, uh, if you know anyone on the Westside of L.A. who's looking for two awesome new roommates or is renting a two bedroom place? Well, let me know! (Same if you know anyone who's looking for a writer to hire—I'm not going to be able to dally at finding a new job, like I thought.)
Anyway, I would just like to say that so far 2007 loses at life. I have never had such a consistently terrible year. It better turn around soon, or honestly, I will not know what to do. How 'bout this Saturday, world, to make a change for the better? It's St. Patrick's Day, it's my birthday, that oughta bring a little luck...
But, uh. Enough feeling sorry for myself. It's booklog time!
Week 10: 5-11 March 2007
54. Romancing Mister Bridgerton, Julia Quinn — I started reading this to try to de-stress. I've never actually read an out-and-out romance before, but I heard Quinn wrote fluffy and fun regencies, and her style, at least at the beginning, was lively and engaging. However, as the novel progressed, more and more things began to annoy me. First, Quinn does something with POV that really bothers me, and which I am trying to delicately explain here without giving away the book's central mystery, slight as it is. Basically, Quinn has a revelation in this book that makes me completely distrust one of the character's POVs. It's annoying and cheap, but I would have been able to let it go and enjoy the rest of the book were it not for all the sex. The long, interminable, squickily worded sex scenes! Now, I'm sure you all know that I very much like reading and writing about sex. I honestly don't understand how so many people in fandom can do something so well while so many professional authors are terrible at it. This book has some of the most off-putting sex scenes I've ever read outside of actual badfic. First, there's the unrealistic factor—two unmarried aristocrats in regency England attempting to get it on in a moving carriage as it flies through the streets of London; then there's the "eww" factor—virgins who are deflowered when they don't seem to even know what the actual sex act entails and before their twu luv can bother to explain it to them since he'd rather just be shoving it in there; and finally, there's the snooze factor. This was me trying to read the umpteenth sex scene in this book: "It was agony. It was ecstasy. She had been born for this man. As she reached to touch his member he turned to her with lust-drenched eyes and...Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..."
ETA:
_inbetween_ has a post of bad sex passages from several Quinn books, including Romancing Mister Bridgerton, here.I...I want to like romances? I do. I love romantic fiction. I love the Smart Bitches. I love smutty fanfic, for god's sake! So I don't know what the deal is. But I do know I certainly don't want to read about the agony and ecstasy of some inappropriately shirtless dweeb's member. Call me crazy.
55. jPod, Douglas Coupland — "Microserfs for the age of Google" is how this is oft-described. That's pretty accurate, really. Stylistically, it's much the same—which was nice, because Microserfs is pretty much my favorite Coupland book. (I have now read ALL of them! *sob* Well, except for the one written in Japanese and released only in Japan.) What surprised me is how much more cynical this book is. I mean, not that Microserfs is without cynicism, but there's an innocence to it, a wonder. I don't think anyone would have any trouble figuring out that jPod is the book written by the older man (and that's even without the authorial self-insertion stuff—which I alternate between finding funny and being made deeply uncomfortable by). jPod is like Microserfs but without the hope for reinvention and redemption. I still enjoyed the book a lot—it's really funny, and the parts that are just Ethan and his fellow jPodders goofing off and being geeky were great. But unlike Microserfs, the world of jPod is not one I would want to live in. It's cold there.
56. The Forever King, Molly Cochran & Warren Murphy — This is one of CR's favorite books, which she lent to me. I can totally see why she liked it. It's a really cool take on the King Arthur legend, involving one of my favorite silly soap opera plot points—reincarnation. There's also a really interesting, complex villain whose long, long life is explored through a series of fascinating, history-charged flashbacks. So plot-wise, it's pretty damn awesome. I think the only thing that's stopping it from being OMG ONE OF MY NEW FAVORITE BOOKS EVA!!! is the fact that the prose is really nothing to write home about. It's kind of standard-issue, serviceable and flat. And thus the characters don't really come alive for me. I mean, Hal, the washed-up FBI agent who may have a shot at redeeming himself, is just the kind of fictional dude I have a tendency to fall in love with. I should have fallen in love with him in this book. But he just kind of sits there on the page. The book wasn't any less fun to read, and I'll definitely be picking up the sequel, but for me, at least, the prose's lack of sparkle makes it something I'm less likely to reread.
57. The Fly-Truffler, Gustaf Sobin —
honey_babes was nice enough to lend me this book, and I hope she doesn't hate me when she finds out that I didn't love it as much as she did. *shame* There was a lot I really DID like—the novel's a quiet, contemplative look at a man after the death of his wife, and there were passages (especially the one about the women who raise silkworms) that really touched me with their beauty. But like most works of magical realism, I walked away feeling like I just...wasn't getting something. This has been for a while a great frustration for me, because in theory magical realism would be just the kind of thing I'd like to read—and even write. But in practice, every time I've tried to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Angela Carter or Salman Rushdie, I've put the book down feeling confused and, frankly, kind of stupid. (The exception being Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet, which works for me in its own crazy rock 'n' roll, alternate universe, apocalyptic way.) I do feel like I'm somehow to blame, but eventually I'm going to just have to stop beating myself up and accept that magical realism may just not be for me.58. Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence, Paul Feig — Written by the creator of Freaks and Geeks, this is basically a collection of all the most awful and embarrassing things that can happen to you growing up. And then some: if you have the slightest embarrassment squick, I recommend avoiding this book like you would avoid a public speaking contest for people who stutter and have Tourette's. I can watch 'Duet' all the way through and not feel too bad, but this book had me not only hiding my head in my hands but wanting to invent time travel just so I could go back in time and beat the crap out of everyone who harassed Feig, seemingly the most put-upon and unfortunate boy in the world. There are two chapters in here about Feig's first day of high school gym that pretty much made me want to die.
Which is not to say the book isn't funny. It just really, really is not fun.
Total Books: 58
And for an extra, added bit of weirdness: see a fake copy of the magazine where I work in this trailer for a new movie about a dog.
ETA2: Make yourself feel better:
fan_this drew me tiny sleepy Rodney!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:15 pm (UTC)Also, GAH. So sorry about the apartment situation, and about not being a better friend in general. I fail at keeping in touch. Still owe you an e-mail, or at least some form of communication aside from the occassional LJ comment.
I got all excited when I saw what I thought was a copy of that sure to be awful movie in the Daily Cal offices. As it turns out, it was just promotional materials. *sigh*
Oh, and the girl in front of me during my Shakespeare lecture was reading SG-1 fic. Just thought I'd let you know.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:19 pm (UTC)Happy Birthday for Saturday, good luck with the pad and the job and hopefully things will start getting better...
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:21 pm (UTC)My goodness you read a lot.
Yes, but you lived with me. Surely you knew!
Oh, and the girl in front of me during my Shakespeare lecture was reading SG-1 fic.
*cackles* Oh, my spiritual cousin! Could you tell what kind of fic it was? Het, slash, smutty, good, terrible? In future, please try to pay attention to these specifics and not, you know, your professor.
Do you have any idea when you're next going to be down here?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:27 pm (UTC)However, in my defense, I must point out that you made both those posts before I knew you. Bad timing strikes again!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:28 pm (UTC)*hugs*
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:31 pm (UTC)(I still have one unread one *sobs 2*)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:39 pm (UTC)This is true.
Could you tell what kind of fic it was? Het, slash, smutty, good, terrible?
Hm. It looked severely boring to me. No smut at all, and with dialogue that I really hope sounds nothing like the source material.
Do you have any idea when you're next going to be down here?
Chances are I'm staying in Berkeley for spring break. So...early summer? :(
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:49 pm (UTC)Your summary really is hilariously accurate, at least based on the one (and only!) book I read. But what I think really kills me is that there often is something amusing about her prose. When she's not writing overwrought sex, it has...verve. But to what end? TO WHAT END?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:53 pm (UTC)And yeah, it is connected to the cable situation. Not only was she not paying the company at all, she was having CR and myself pay her 1/2 the total each instead of 1/3 as agreed. And that's just the financial deception we've figured OUT.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:54 pm (UTC)*slightly clingy hug*
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:56 pm (UTC)Did you not sign some sort of contract with her that specified what was allowed? And is there maybe some way that the landlord could be persuaded to evict AR because she's entirely insane and let you guys take over the lease?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:57 pm (UTC)Well, did you see, I typed out the unedited sex scenes from four different books below my interpretation later on. NOT invented.
She only has verve in the very last chapter. To what end? To get you to buy the next NON-RESERACHED completely derivative and horribly boring book of hers, thinking that it can't be as bad, because the blurbs sound tempting and promising.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:59 pm (UTC)Yeah, I do have to say that even when SG-1 is kinda dumb (often), its dialogue is usually pretty funny. Hey, spiritual sister! Find a better recs page!
Chances are I'm staying in Berkeley for spring break. So...early summer? :(
Big :( . But...well, maybe I'll be more together then and have an awesome new place to show off? Let us hope.
Oh, BTW—are you still watching Heroes? I just wanted to say that I was wrong about it: it is, actually, awesome.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 07:03 pm (UTC)Yeah, and I could switch my one line stupidly enigmatic userinfo to "Oh, and BTW? 300 sucks!" That'd make us both really popular. ;-)
I did see. I actually edited my post to link it. I hope that is okay?
I am not falling for her tricks! I never WILL find out who Eloise was writing to or why she ran off, and frankly, I do not care. Much.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 07:08 pm (UTC)And I doubt we could figure out a way to enable the landlady to legally evict AR. I don't think you can evict somebody just because they're a nutball and a jerk. Besides, a plan of that nature would be far too machiavellian for us. ;-)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 07:09 pm (UTC)You're coming down here again soon, right?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 07:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 07:12 pm (UTC)Aww! Yay! Um. John and Rodney being happy? And/or, John and Rodney hitting AR on the head with a hammer? *smiles innocently*
I'M RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED.
Eeee, me too! We must absolutely do stuff! And I need to remember to look into Winchestercon again...
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 07:14 pm (UTC)