I just discovered Language Log (and bookmarked it) yesterday! Found it by following a link at Positive Anymore's blog, which I found through a Google search. Love reading people who are as language-obsessed as I am.
Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carrying a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is to die of old age before it finds you.
Mal ,'The Message'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Kathy A - Jun 08, 2006 4:01:32 pm PDT #630 of 28061
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
Mr. Broom - Jun 08, 2006 5:06:20 pm PDT #631 of 28061
"When I look at people that I would like to feel have been a mentor or an inspiring kind of archetype of what I'd love to see my career eventually be mentioned as a footnote for in the same paragraph, it would be, like, Bowie." ~Trent Reznor
And who despise Dan Brown as much as I do.
brenda m - Jun 08, 2006 6:45:47 pm PDT #632 of 28061
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there
Which is, pardon my editorial sneer, running the gamut of fiction.
Ahahaha! Oh yeah.
brenda m - Jun 10, 2006 5:12:02 am PDT #633 of 28061
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there
Hallowed Hunt is out in paperback, yay!
Also, just finished Cryptonomicon, which I loved. Though it's making me want to go back and brush up on my WWII history, particularly the Asian theatre, which I hadn't realized had gotten so vague.
Seriously, though, fabulous book. It's amazing how well the three-plus storylines intersect, and how well drawn they all are so that with each shift between them, you fall right back into that story without losing track of the rest. There were a couple of elements that felt off to me or that I had some quibbles with, but god, what a piece of work.
The parts of my brain which have been eaten by fandom are occupied with how Rodney McKay maps to Lawrence Waterhouse, but that's a story for another day.
And I'm delighted to see that the Shaftoe family (and possibly others) feature in Stephenson's next series.
Polter-Cow - Jun 10, 2006 5:15:23 am PDT #634 of 28061
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
brenda, I love that book. It took me nearly three months to finish, but I had become so engrossed in it by that time that I didn't want it to end. I loved the intersecting storylines and the mathematical digressions.
brenda m - Jun 10, 2006 5:17:10 am PDT #635 of 28061
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there
Yup. I'm going to take a break before I jump into the next series, but I have a feeling I'll be revisiting this one again and again.
Volans - Jun 10, 2006 5:34:39 am PDT #636 of 28061
move out and draw fire
Count me in on the Cryptonomicon love. I've tried Quicksilver twice now, with no success, though.
Hallowed Hunt is good, quite different from the other two. I have to say I really like her idea for the gods and their portfolios.
-t - Jun 10, 2006 7:34:36 am PDT #637 of 28061
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
Hallowed Hunt is out in paperback, yay!
Yes! I just got my copy a few days ago. Such an interesting world. i wish it had a map included.
I really enjoyed the Baroque Cycle a lot, and it made me want to go back an re-read Cryptonomicon. It'll probably be a while though, those big loafs of book are hard to pick up again.
Polter-Cow - Jun 10, 2006 7:35:36 am PDT #638 of 28061
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
I would just like to state that I am forty pages from the end of The Name of the Rose, which is farther than many people who have begun the book have gotten, I am told.
Strix - Jun 10, 2006 7:40:10 am PDT #639 of 28061
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger
I"ve read it twice, and both time were more stoppy-starty than usual for me. I like seeing how much Latin I can recall.
I tried to read Foucault's Pendulum many years ago, but gave it up. Course, this was in college, when my brilliant pre-reading strategy for any halfway philosopical text was to smoke some pot, read, and wait for flashes of enlightenment. Strangely enough, this strategy made me hungry rather than transcendent.