Qvoth the raven, "nethermore"

Putting the Po into Porn. Brava.

YA fans , or just good book fans -- run to the nearest bookstore/library and go find Shift by Jenifer Bradbury. So good. Chris is just starting college, when an FBI agent turns up asking questions about his friend Win. Chris and Win went on a bike ride across country after graduation, but at the end of journey Win disappears. The story is told with alternating chapters current time vs. the summer trip. Really good. really well done. and my DH the book snob , stole it from me and said I had to read it.

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Has anyone read The Monsters of Templeton ? It got a lot of good press but my boyfriend & I just read it (for our completely dorky two-person bookclub) and both loathed it.

(for our completely dorky two-person bookclub)

That's awesome! All I can get The Boy to read is Blue Beetle. Which is pretty good, except for the rat bastards at DC cancelling it.

I have The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. So far I have only read the introduction and acknowledgments and I am fairly buzzing with excitement.

I loved Watership Down and seem to recall it having a dictionary either before or after the narrative. I didn't mind. I could see how it could bug though, if it weren't for rabbit-speak.

I think dictionaries or guides of that nature can vary. Sometimes they're completely useful and appropriate, sometimes they just come off as a condescending gesture on the author's part. (And I'll admit, part of that comes from knowing something of the author's personality as well.)

Frex, Lewis had a guy he worked with, who fancied himself a writer. And he was super creative, but had all the mechanics of a monkey, which is actually kind of insulting to the monkey. Not only that, but he thought his genius so immense, that it could overcome mere trivialities such as mechanics. It would shine, doggone it.

Well, he finally published his first book with a smallish press and he sent a copy to Lewis. I glanced through it—it was post-apocalyptic, sci-fi material, not my cuppa, but still. Then I flipped to the back of the book and there was a glossary of terms. With terms like AWOL and types of military equipment defined along with the created terms.

I couldn't help it. I laughed my ass off. I mean, it was so typical for him to think that he was so far above his readers that they would need military terms that had made it into colloquial use defined.

I'm trying to remember the last book I read without some kind of glossary in it. It's possible my view on these things may be warped by my genre preferences.

(Anathem, which I'm reading right now and LOVING MORE THAN I THOUGHT IT WAS POSSIBLE TO LOVE A BOOK OMGOMGOMG? xkcd pretty much nails it. Except that once you get into it you realize that the made up words are completely integral to the world Stephenson is creating and OMG did I mention just how FUCKING GREAT this book is???)

So... you're saying I should get to reading the copy my brother gave me for Christmas?