Enjoying The Rain & Yep, Another One!

While we're not getting a direct hit from tropical storm Humberto here in New Orleans, we are getting a good bit of rain from it, and that makes me happy! It's been pretty dry down here lately. We've had the occasional Summer shower here and there, but nothing substantial. We're supposed to have rain for the rest of the afternoon and all into the night, which will fit the mood of The Historian perfectly! So my plans for the rest of the afternoon are to sit outside underneath the patio with some coffee enjoying the rain and reading The Historian which I have been loving...and I'm only 200 pages into it.

This will be the last book in my Dracula series, and I'm really glad I chose to start off the RIP challenge in that way. These three books have gone together really well. Dracula and Renfield were both excellent books, but neither really gave me that eerie, spooky, creepy feeling...The Historian does, and I love it for that! It's the first book that's really captured that mood for me. Reading these books in this series type of way has also helped me to appreciate Stoker's work even more than I already did. With both Renfield and The Historian, I get to re-examine parts of Bram Stoker's original masterpiece and see the amazing influence that he had on other writers and really on society in general!

Different topic - I'm joining another challenge :p Kailana is sponsoring this one in memory of her dog Sandy who passed away the other day. She was a beautiful dog and I know that her and Kailana had a very special relationship. I'm a dog lover myself, so I can empathize with her and I think that this is a wonderful idea for a challenge. Its' the Four-Legged Friends Challenge and the challenge is to read 3-5 books with animals as a central character. Here are my books:

1. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
2. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
3. Surrender by Sonya Hartnett
4. Varjak Paw by S.F. Said
5. Watership Down by Richard Adams

While reading these, I'll be thinking of my little white mini poodle, Buddy. Me and Megan bought Buddy together 6 months before Katrina. He's the sweetest dog that I've ever met and has the cutest personality that I've seen in a dog. He's as curious as a cat and is always looking to get into anything that he can. His favorite trick is "give me a kiss" and he does great little "jump in the air and spin around" tricks :) When Katrina came, Buddy evacuated with Megan, so I don't get to see him too often these days, but whenever I make trips to visit with Megan, he gets super excited and cuddles up in the bed right between me and Megan when we go to sleep. It'll be nice to be all back together in one place again soon.

Migraines And Moving Forward

The migraines are back...blah. Things have actually been pretty decent lately when it comes to headaches. Ever since I started the topamax the migraines have started to cool down to maybe 3 or 4 a month instead of the previous 6 to 8 per month. The neurologists says that the best I can hope for is to get them down to about 2 to 3 per month, which will work for me, but she says that unfortunately, I'll probably always have them and I'll just have to take the Relpax to get rid of them when I get one. But in the last week I've had 2! This will be the third. That sucks...I haven't had 3 headaches in a week in ages...probably about 6 months.

So I'm spending the night watching Lord of the Rings on TV even though I own the dvds and could watch them with without commercials, a topic that Deslily wrote about not too long ago. Funny how us silly humans do things like that...but then again, if you watch the movie on tv, you do get the wonderful entertainment of seeing commercials with little jingles that sing "viva viagra"......

I've been reading again lately which is good. I'm so glad to be out of that slump, and the books that I've been reading have been really good! I'm currently reading my first Tolstoy for the classics challenge (a very short Tolstoy) and his writing is incredible! If I'm feeling brave one of these days I'll attempt to tackle War and Peace or Anna Karenina, but that probably won't happen any time soon. There's a great 30 page introduction by Ronald Blythe before my version The Death of Ivan Ilyich that tells you all kinds of really cool things about Tolstoy. Strange guy, but cool guy.

The best news of the week is that I have 2 job interviews next week! One on Monday and one on Friday. The one on Monday is for a job that I've been wanting since before I graduated and I've applied for that job 3 times, so I'm really keeping my fingers crossed for that one! They're both state counseling jobs, so while the pay wouldn't be the best, I would have excellent benefits and it would be good experience while I'm getting my licensure. At this point I don't really care that much about the money any more. Sure, it needs to be enough for me to live on, but I just want to be somewhere where I am happy and where I'm working with kids and making a difference in their lives. If I can find that, I'm cool.

Stardust, Short Story Sunday, And A Sad Article

I finally made it out to see Stardust tonight and I was so pleased with it! I can't wait for the DVD release of this movie now and I came home wanting to dive right back into the novel for the second time this year. The movie started out a bit rocky for me. It took me a little while to get out of critic mode. My main complaints were with the beginning of the movie in that it was too rushed, the every 9 years fair didn't exist (it was instead just a part of "Stormhold"), and all of Faerie became known as simply Stormhold...but I can overlook that with how wonderful the rest of the movie was done. Sure there were some other parts that weren't exactly like the book, but what movie is?

The casting was absolutely wonderful! Claire Daines as Yvaine was a perfect fit. She played the part wonderfully and I think they did a terrific job with translating her character onto the screen. Michelle Pfeifer deserves a nomination for her portrayal as Lamia. She did such an amazing job and I so looked forward to her screen time. Her final battle was superb. Charlie Cox as Trist(r)an was another great casting decision. This guy did such a great job with the part. Perfectly done. And Deniro...I was so leary about what they were doing with Captain Shakespeare, but it was....well, fabulous.

The ending, which I won't talk about, was totally different from the book...well not totally, but yes totally, you'll just have to see for yourself. But it worked for the movie version. I wish that they would have filmed the book ending as well to put on the DVD, but Neil has already said on his blog that they did not :(

All in all, I was very pleased with the movie, the special effects were amazing, the acting was top notch, and the story...well it's Gaiman! Entertainment at it's best. I loved it. For fans of the book, as hard as it is, go into it realizing that no book is going to translate perfectly to the screen...some changes are going to have to be made for the wider audience and for times sake. Just pretend that Peter Jackson didn't do such a good job with Lord of the Rings :p

Next topic: I've decided that I'm still adding stuff to the RIP Challenge! I'm also going to take up the additional peril of Short Story Sunday. For this peril, I'm going to be imbibing in the Wizards collection, which contains 18 stories by some amazing authors. This will work out nicely with 2 stories per Sunday, so I think I'm going to start that this Sunday! And it begins with the first chapter of Neil Gaiman's forthcoming The Graveyard Book!

And finally, I wanted to point everyone to this very disappointing article on CNN's website that you may have seen floating around on other people's blogs. It's an article about the reading habits of Americans. According to the article, "One in four Americans read no books last year". I couldn't believe that! That's so sad. The whole article is sad really. I sort of surround myself in this little book blogging bubble where everyone reads and forget how small of a chunk of the population we really are. It's unfortunate that more of us don't read. The "typical reader" of America....the person who actually does read, still only reads 4 books a year. Which I'm not complaining about, that's still wonderful! But it's so sad how unpopular reading has become. So I really, honestly want to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone out there who does sponsor these reading challenges, or works as a librarian, or works in a bookstore, or writes, or reads, or recommends a book to a friend. It's important to keep books out there and to keep those minds working!

OK, I'm off my high horse :p

Rainy Days And Mondays

Don't always get me down. How's that for a clever title for a post. Oh brother :p There's something that I just love about the rumble of thunder on a summer afternoon. It's the most relaxing sound in the world. Especially when I can enjoy it at home underneath the patio with a book. I love the rain. I always have. I'm one of those strange people who love thunderstorms. I know there's plenty of you out there like me. I just find the rain to be very relaxing and the power of nature just never ceases to amaze me. I also have a strange fascination with hurricane season which is now upon us. I certainly don't love hurricane's after what I've been through with Katrina, but I'm fascinated by them. When there's one out there, I'm constantly glued to the weather channel. I know for a fact I'm not alone in this one...Jroy, represent!

So anyway, that's exactly what I'm doing this afternoon...enjoying a book with the sound of thunder in the background. I'm STILL reading A Game of Thrones though it's going much quicker now and I'm reading about 100 pages a day. It's much more gripping towards the end. I've never taken this long to read a book! I started on May 18th and took about a 15 day break from it. Then I'd only read 2 or 3 chapters at a time because it just wasn't catching me. Now it's got me and I'm really enjoying it. Hopefully it keeps me in it's clutches. I really hope to finish these 2 challenges this month. I think I'll manage...I hope!

One other quick thing. I wanted to point everyone in the direction of Endicott's site. There are 3 new Terri Windling prints available and they are beautiful! I think I'm going to be picking up 2 of them for myself and possibly a third as a Christmas gift. Very early shopping! The first one that I want is "From the Shadows." It's a beautiful print and features lyrics from Tori Amos' song "Girl" from my favorite album of hers, Little Earthquakes. The other print is just stunning and is entitled "Coyote Woman." The money goes to support Endicott and two children's charities and all prints are signed by Terri Windling.

Time Well Spent With A Book

Quixotical wrote a wonderful post today about the lack of reading in the world today and I wanted to take the time to reflect on it.

Reading is something that I need in life. I need a fictional book to always be sitting next to my bed. Fiction offers an experience that nothing else can offer...imagination, release, escape. It's an experience that's in a league of it's own. You can get lost in a book. Any other entertainment medium may be entertaining, but the experience is forced upon you. A movie is experienced how the director decides it will be. TV is TV and tends to be ridiculous reality shows these days aside from the rare gems like Heroes *grin*. Music is a little different. People take music as a unique experience, but even that is not as customizable as a book.

The world seems to grow more and more fast paced and electronic every day. Everything is moving to more information all the time. I-Pods, Internet, TV, DVDs, CDs, Cell Phones, Laptops, etc, etc, etc,....everything is so instant, so busy, and everyone is so easily accessible. This also leads to schedule crowding. There's no time to do anything with all of these gadgets. Work, eat, play on the internet, and watch tv, and it's time to go to bed. I'm certainly not suggesting that I'm not guilty of obsessing over gadgets and the internet. I love both. But I like to still take the time to curl up with a book.

Books are an entertainment genre that have survived for countless years. They offer a unique experience to each reader. I'm thinking of all the varied reviews that have come in for Neil Gaiman's Stardust for the Once Upon A Time Challenge. Everyone takes something different from the same book. I think it's so important for everyone to set aside a specified amount of time each day to just sit or lay down and read. Even if it's only 10 minutes. Give your brain the exercise. Escape from the real world for a little while and enter the world of Faerie, or enter a crime scene, or enter a jungle in Africa, a winter in July, a world that you know nothing about. Find a way to fall into a story and let go of the day's worries. You'll find it works wonders.

As Quix said in her post, I'm shocked when I walk into someone's house and can't find any books. I just can't understand people not reading. I hear people say that they don't have the time, and I can understand that. But if you seriously don't have 10 minutes to put aside each day to read, then maybe there's something else that needs to be addressed. You're not being fair to yourself. Your body needs that time to relax and escape.

So I say with all this reading talk going on in blog land, we should make this "make people read month" :p What do you say? I'll get to work on my sister. Everyone should be able to spare 10 minutes. I'll have alot of time to spare now that I'm DONE SCHOOL AND MY INTERNSHIP!!!

Remembering Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut passed away this morning at the age of 84. How sad. He had apparently fallen last week and suffered brain damage from the fall. Vonnegut is known as one of those great, classic modern authors. He wrote Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle, and Welcome to the Monkey House among many others. I haven't read any Vonnegut, but he was one of Megan's favorite authors along with Oscar Wilde and Yukio Mishima. And to be in the same boat as the other two make him something special. I'm reading Slaughterhouse Five for the banned books challenge, but was going to read Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon next. Instead, I'm bumping Slaughterhouse Five up to the next spot in memory of Vonnegut. Though I haven't read anything by him yet, he'll still be missed. He's been an inspiration to American literature and to people close to me.

In other book news, I've decided to take a break from the challenges. I need to throw in a book to read just for fun (not to say challenges aren't fun). So I've decided that next up will be Colleen Gleason's The Rest Falls Away since it's the newest book in my possession and is not being read for a challenge. I'm so nervous that I'm not going to finish my challenges. Tolkien's new book comes out on April 17th, so I have to read that one and Brandon Mull's next book in the Fablehaven series comes out on May 1st. That still gives me plenty of time until the end of June, but I'm graduating and going to Mexico with Megan for the latter part of May and reading is probably not one of the things I'll be doing in Mexico. Though of course I'll bring a couple of books along. Jeesh...is reading supposed to be this overwhelming ;)