As I've posted here before, I've been using Shelfari more and more, because of all the convenient features that are continually multiplied and expanding. It's really one of the neatest websites I've come along, and I again have to give my friend Matthew Miller props for turning me onto the site ( Read more... )

Jinn: A common question that arises when a character in a folktale meets a strange person is: “Are you Ins or Jinn?”, or, are you human being or spirit? This question suggests the division between two types of beings in Arab folk belief, the human and the jinn. Just as do human beings, the jinn have their own society, values, morals, dilemmas, and ( Read more... )

It's been far too long since I have written a full-length review in this journal, and luckily I have just finished a novel which I can think carefully about. That being said, however, I am finding myself quite perplexed, unable to decide whether I ultimately liked the book in question or not. This being the first of Natsume Sōseki's works that I ( Read more... )

So I haven't posted here in a long time; but here is a short update on my writing status. As said before, I've completed Yuki Hanashi (though I'm not sure which to use as a subtitle: "Tales of the Snow," or "Snow Stories") and am about three fourths through editing it. So that's good news. As for my next writing project, which is as of now ( Read more... )

So after finishing Yuki Hanashi in early December, I took a bit of a break to relax, watch some tv, do some reading that's actually for pleasure rather than research, read some books that I've been wanting to read but have been holding off on because of worries that they might get my mind too far off the themes and the world of my book ( Read more... )

With so many presidential candidates out there and so little time to research their views and to compare and contrast them, I found this quiz to be a helpful tool to find out which candidate I agree with the most ( Read more... )

I recently had an opportunity to read Ruth Porter's The Simple Life, a novel I'd spotted on the shelves at the bookstore a few months ago. It looked pretty interesting, and my fascination was piqued even more by the stark black and white photography that accompanies each chapter. I've just moments ago finished reading it. I'm not entirely sure ( Read more... )

The Science of Sleep has been, to me, like an old friend that one knows he should call and catch up with, but for whatever reason can not find the time for, only to have that friend bump into him on the street. Various friends and co-workers of mine have been recommending this film to me, and I have seen and read good things about it everywhere. ( Read more... )

I have always personally disagreed with that little nugget of supposed wisdom, that "there is no such thing as an original story", and that it is impossible for a writer to create something new and unique. To me, that is ridiculous. It is nothing more than an excuse for a lack of originality. A corollary of this theory is that every story ( Read more... )

Books I own that I have yet to read:

• Hellboy: Unnatural Selection, by Tim Lebbon
  
• The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle
  
• The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, by Washington Irving
  
• Shrub, by Molly Ivins
  
• The Interpretation of Fairy Tales, by Marie-Louise von Franz
  
• Beowulf and Grendel, by John Grigsby
  
• The Secret Garden, by Francis Burnett ( Read more... )