locker_monster's Year in Review

[locker_monster]

Actually, not much to report, but it's like that every year. ;-)

- Finished reading 54 books this year. That's down from last year, but meh, that's all right. The last book I finished was Broken Time Blues. It's a collection of short stories all set during the Depression but with a fantasy or sci fi twist. It was kind of bizarre. There were some good stories, though, like the one where Picasso is a magician and he creates Frankenstein-eqsue monsters from dead bodies and dying soldiers. Honestly. Against my better judgement I also read Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies. I don't see what all the hype was about. It's just Pride and Prejudice, but with zombies slapped on. Yes, it's ridiculous, but it's still the same basic plot. I also read the first two books in a series about a demon slayer that just made me sad. It wants to be Buffy, but it fails horribly. The main character is so annoying and the romance with her tall and brooding love interest is so boring. I plan to start Illium, by Dan Simmons, in the new year. It's an absolute brick of a book, but thankfully I will have some time to kill while on vacation.

- Wrote 10 fanfics this year. Thank you who_at_50 and dw_50ficathon for hosting such wonderful ficathons. Actually, that number might be 11, I wrote a drabble for a flash fiction comment-a-thon over at who_at_50 but I never posted it here, so I'm not sure if that counts.

- Had a great time in London for Doctor Who's 50th anniversary. It was just fun overall celebrating a huge milestone. Here's to the next 50 years.

- Met some great Whoivans at the comic book expo this year. I plan to meet up with them again in April. Here's hoping the expo gets more awesome guests like this year. However, nothing can top meeting Nathan Fillion (he complimented my Kaylee costume twice!). My life is complete now having met him. ;-) Actually, if they somehow got Joss Whedon to show up, then my life would be complete, but I really don't see that happening. But more Firefly guests, please. Four more actors and I'll have a complete set of autographs.

- I suppose I also learned how to sew this year. I'm not ready to make anything super elaborate, but I can spool the thing and kind of sew in straight lines. I just need more practice. Need to make more things from scratch, but obviously small things.

In non New Year's related stuff, Sherlock is back tomorrow!!! But back to work on Thursday. :-( It's going to be dead, though. Plenty of people will still be on vacation.

Comments

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

54 books this year

You just HAD to one-up me, didn't you? ;)

Congrats, though! Great total.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was pretty disappointing, yeah. My reaction was the same as I'm sure it would have been for the original Pride and Prejudice: Needs more zombies. But seriously, I don't like how they stuck to the plot so slavishly that they made all the girls ninja warriors on the side, because otherwise they'd have to actually REACT to the zombie apocalypse, instead of just continuing the plot and then, every few pages, kill some zombies. I would have much preferred if it started exactly like Pride and Prejudice, everybody being who they were, and then spun out of control as an actual zombie apocalypse altered things, sort of like a "What if"... maybe condense some aspects or change them (like, say, have many of the two main characters forced to share a fortified building and try to avoid each other while under the same roof) to keep echoes of the original plot, but not be exactly the same.

In the end, it's a book that was cooler to show people you were reading than it was to actually read (and even that was mostly just cool when it JUST came out).

Ilium is a pretty dense book, although I enjoyed it for the most part... be warned that it is part one of a two book series and it's really not the kind of book that's complete by itself.

And Happy New Year!

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

You just HAD to one-up me, didn't you? ;)

Didn't I do that last year, too? It's all my book club, really. They keep me stocked with plenty of books.

The whole mash-up genre is pointless. Yes, it gets people to read the classics, but just read the classics then. For some reason, Pride and Prejudice just attracts weird genre mashing. I read one book where Darcy and Elizabeth are solving murders. There's another book like that, too; the BBC just dramatized it.

Started Ilium today and boy is it weird. So you have a dead scholar watching ancient history, a guy lusting after his cousin on Mars, and a robot in a sub on I want to say Saturn? I really hope it starts to make sense soon.

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

Didn't I do that last year, too?

Yeah, but last year you got several more. Somehow it's much worse when you just beat me by _one_. It makes me want to shake my fist and say "Curses! But I'll get you next time!" ;)

Started Ilium today and boy is it weird. So you have a dead scholar watching ancient history, a guy lusting after his cousin on Mars, and a robot in a sub on I want to say Saturn? I really hope it starts to make sense soon.

Close, the guy lusting after his cousin's on Earth in the far future. Mount Olympos for the Trojan War is on Mars. And I can't remember if the robots are around Saturn or Jupiter or both or neither, but it was some kind of Jovian.

As to making sense... well, the stories don't start to come together for a long time, I think, it might be easier to treat it like three separate stories you're just flipping back and forth between. When they start to come together, you'll know. ;)

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

I shall endeavour to read less this year. ;-)

Ilium is so confusing right now, but I expect that from Dan Simmons. Hyperion had numerous stories going at once, too.