They say acceptance is the first step...

This quiz comes courtesy of Liana Brooks from www.lianabrooks.blogspot.com/ and a moderator at AgenQuery Connect.

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"In my desire to help others, I have created a quiz with some of the common symptoms of book slut behavior. If you have one or more of these symptoms, you too, may be a book slut."
Does this sound like you…

1. You read more than one book at a time, sometimes even more than one in a day. (For a while I wasn't doing this, but I recently backslid. *cough* I currently have six books on the go?)
2. You can’t pass a table of discounted books without feeling that you might be missing out on something really good. (People pass tables of discounted books?)
3. You belong to at least one book club. (Sadly, no. Unless you count goodreads?)
4. As you are nearing the end of one book, you are already thinking of the next one. (*Combs hair out of eyes* Yes? And?)
5. It stresses you out that there are more delicious books in the world than you can possibly read. (Um. Food is optional, right? I can, I mean, I'll live a long life! I'll stick to only a few genres! I'll read fast! *weeps as reality strikes*)
6. You will read anything. If it is a book, you’ll read it. And probably even enjoy it. (No, I have standards! I won't read trashy romances- anymore. And I don't like horror, unless it's written by certain authors, and uh, Christian Fiction! I don't like Christian Fiction! Unless there's nothing else to read...)
7. Book workers, i.e. booksellers and librarians, know you by name. (I've been offered three jobs, they know my file from memory, and they knew me when I was twelve. *pause* Whut? Whut?)
8. For you, reading isn’t just an in-bed-before-you-fall-asleep activity, you will also read in public if the opportunity arises. (I've been told off for reading in the middle of parties, but come on. That conversation just wasn't interesting!)
9. You carry books with you–just in case you find an opportunity for a quickie. (You mean you don't?)
10. You try to hook others by gifting books or by promoting your favourites by saying things like, “Everyone is reading this and they love it. Just try it.” (Not just one, very much. Well, only with my close friends and cohorts.)
11. You will take a free book even if you aren’t interested in it. (Don't knock it till you try it!)
12. There aren’t enough bookshelves in your house to hold all your books. (Heck no. I'm using orange crates and banker's boxes and the top of my dresser and the floor.)
13. Friends describe you as an ‘avid reader.’ (No, friends describe me as insane. People who don't know me either think I'm a reader or photographer, weirdly enough.)

If you replied ‘that sounds like me’ to 1-2 of the above, you have begun exhibiting signs of being a book slut. There is no immediate cause for concern.
If you replied ‘that sounds like me’ to 3-5 of the above, you are in significant danger of developing into a book slut. If symptoms worsen, seek support. You do not need to go through this alone.
If you replied ‘that sounds like me’ to 6-9 of the above, you are a book slut. Seek support immediately.
If you replied ‘that’s sounds like me’ to 10-13 of the above, you are a book slut of the highest order. There is no hope for you. Embrace your book slutishness and repeat with me (loud and proud), “I am a book slut!”

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I am a book slut!

(Srysly so. heh.)

"Do not go gentle into that good night/ Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-Dylan Thomas

I keep seeing news clips about the new Watchmen film, so I thought I'd go to the library and see if I could find the graphic novel. The plus side of the hard copy, also, is that you can put it down and walk away if needed. And given the nature of the news clips I've been seeing, that would probably be needed. HELLOOOO, DARKNESS AND DEPRAVITY. Ahem. Anyhow, the novel wasn't at the library, but I did find a Daredevil collection, and scanned through it. Of course, just the same as when I was 16 and reading anything I could put my hands on so long as it looked easy, it left me feeling rather like I had been punched in the stomach. 

I'm not really sure if that's the normal reaction to modern graphic novels, or if other people can read them with sweetness and light moods intact- but I sure can't. However, this time, I decided that since I am now in my second decade, I should try and figure out why certain scenes were so gut-churningly awful. This time, I think I've figured it out. 

If the future is mutable, if we are self determinate, then every death is necessarily a tragic, infuriating waste. There are always other options, and death is the ultimate case of squandered potential. Look at this broken body; this was a man, with thoughts and dreams and hopes and a chance for happiness, and it was all taken from him. Betrayal becomes even more intolerable, because of what could have happened. Moreover, these novels thrive off of taking everything to a higher level. People's lives are generally stolen from them in particularly eye-catching fashion. There are more betrayals, more (pointless) deaths, more squandered lives to mock you and your rainbow-coloured hopes. And these things generally happen to, around, and as a result of, the people who are supposed to be the heros, the best of us. Look, this is the best person you can hope to be, and his life isn't any better than yours, at all. The underlying point to drive into your skull is that death is the final insult, and any attempt to look at it in other ways is simply ignoring the truth of the matter and deluding yourself. Our deaths are all wasted.

It is an almost breathtaking logic, given artistic expression.

However. If one starts from a different premise- that the future is fixed, then there is no such thing as a life cut short. All lives, short or long, agonizing or blissful, are exactly the way they were intended to be. That doesn't mean that I can't rage at death, but the shocking pointlessness of it is gone. 

Yes, I know I take comfort in strange things. No one put a gun to your head and forced you to read my rant.

"Now that is enigmatic. That is textbook enigmatic."

Just thought I take this opportunity to rant about one of my favorite subjects, books! Oh, you guessed? I'm terribly distraught. :D

I finished Stranger in a Strange Land. Yes, I did.

Finally.

I had started it before, and not liked it. Then I kept coming across references to it, and found a cheap copy, and I had recently re-read some books that I had not liked and I did like them this time, so I thought I give it another go. And how did it go? I very much doubt that I will read it again. It just- failed to catch my interest. Big time failure. When the MC strips nude in a public square and is stoned to death, the other MC's break into the morgue, steal part of his body and eat it, and then go off to form a group-marriage commune and the reader's reaction is "meh;" you know the author has some issues.

It is sad, because I really like his juvenile fiction. (His being other things by Heinlein). But in the adult stuff, he seems to spend way too much time preaching laughably inaccurate sexual ethics and various self-centered heresies. And they aren't even new heresies! Come on man, get it together... Yeah, in all the adult stuff I've managed to wade my way through so far, he manages to have at least one episode where a (female) character monologues on about how wonderful pornography and/or free sex is. The only problem is; all his characters sound like men. So you are supposed to have this great eureka moment, ("Oh, there is no emotional bond connected to sex, and women like being stared at in lust!") and instead the whole scene rings hysterically false. Bottom line; to any of my younger siblings who might see this post- don't read the book. Read Citizen of the Galaxy instead if you want some good SF. And to anyone else who sees this; consider yourself warned. I wash my hands of it. :D

And now I'm reading an actual good book. *hugs it* Unfinished Tales, you make my heart soar. :P Since I'm reading it in snatches of time between shifts I'm only as far as "the Children of Hurin," but it sings at me from the corner of the room. I greatly love the style of writing. It feels like I could pick any line at random and it would be a good quote. A lovely book. Read it. Yes, I'm talking to you!

And what else have I devoured lately? Oh, yes. FMA. :D Bless the day I stole a volume off Stephanie's shelf and read it in the basement. "I have worse things than that to regret." Lovely.