Kristin Cashore has said that readers can pronounce the names of characters and places in Graceling however they like. In particular, she originally pronounced the first a in Katsa like the a in father, but since many readers pronounce it like the a in dad, she has adopted the more common pronunciation. (As far as I can tell, the a in father is ( Read more... )

In anticipation of the publication of Fire, I reread Graceling.

Graceling is a really good book.

Some things I like about GracelingThe story ( Read more... )

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, was one of the big YA fantasy/sci-fi novels of 2008. I thought it was good, but I was ultimately disappointed. Part of that was that I didn't realize until I reached the end of the book that it's the first book in a series. While the plot was good and the writing was extremely effective at maintaining a high ( Read more... )

I've previously mentioned that I am reading the novel Infinite Jest. I have also previously mentioned that reading books on the Kindle is disorienting because you don't have the standard physical cues about approaching the end of the book.

Turns out that reaching the end of the physical book Infinite Jest is as unexpected as reaching the end of ( Read more... )

I've been kicking around some loosely related thoughts recently and figured I should post them here in case anyone else can make sense out of them. This is all kind of loose and unformed, so it's entirely possible that this post will just be incomprehensible.

1.
( Michael Jackson )

The New York Times has a review of See Mystery Lights by Yacht, which I mention only because the reviewer has clearly missed the Michael Jackson reference. Which makes me question the authority of the reviewer in general.

LJ Support reports that " Syndicated accounts are currently not being updated on LiveJournal."

Just in case you were wondering, as I was, why you haven't seen any updates from non-LJ blogs today.

Today I had to explain to someone who calls herself a Red Sox fan who Nomar is.

I was slow to realize she wasn't joking.

If you're young enough to not remember the early 80s, you may not fully appreciate what the big deal with Michael Jackson is. All I can say is, watch this:

Click to view

It's still simply stunning.

An especially happy Father's Day to cerebralpaladin and congratulations to orichalcum!