rusty_halo | (no subject)

Hey look, I'm back. Thank god. *gives NYC a big hug and promises never to leave again*

I may write about my vacation later, or maybe not; I'm trying to be less whiny, and I have very little to say that is positive. One good thing: there is an amazing new vegan restaurant in Fort Lauderdale called Sublime, which just opened, and which I encourage anyone in that area to try. Even my dad, who has never once liked vegan food in his life, enjoyed it. We went there the evening of my birthday, and had a very nice dinner.

Unfortunately that's just about the only positive.

I've not yet caught up with my friends list, and I'm loath to start posting without doing so (I have this compulsive need to be thorough, and it feels wrong to post without first catching up with my friends list). Is there a way to display posts in chronological order? That would make it a lot easier ...

However, I'm not going to catch up with LJ until I finish the book I'm currently reading, which is the third in George R. R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series. I finished the first two on vacation, and got this one yesterday. I'm greatly enjoying the series, and like I said, I'm obsessively thorough; I'm not going to be able to do much of anything until I finish this book. (I'm the type of person who reads all night and into the next day, because once I'm into a book I cannot stop until it's finished).

I also re-read Stephen King's "The Gunslinger," which is the first book in his "Dark Tower" series; he re-wrote bits of it, and it has improved quite a bit (I always thought that "The Gunslinger" was the weakest in the series, but I found it immensely engaging this time around). If you have a chance, I strongly recommend the series. I'm not a big King fan at all, but I love this particular series; it's very different from most of his other work. I'll probably be re-reading it as well, as soon as I get a chance.

And I will of course be catching up with my website; I had only about 30 minutes of internet access for the entire vacation (and was getting yelled at by all the people in line behind me), so I managed only minimal updates over the week. (And they were cheats, actually; I'd archived those stories before I left, but hidden them; I just put them on the home page and sent updates while I was gone. So it looked like I'd done some archiving, even though I actually hadn't).

Anyway, must go work now, and I'll catch up with LJ and fanfic and websites and all that as soon as I finish this book. (Everyone tells me I'm going to love Jaime Lannister, but right now I'm finding Tyrion the most engaging; he's an outcast and a freak, and just about everyone hates him, yet he's smarter and better-hearted than anyone in his family. Jaime is very Spikish though ... I've been having all these thoughts about different ethical systems, one based on rigid principles and the other based on love and personal connections, and how they connect, and how they are gendered, and how they relate to the Buffyverse ... so if I get more free time I'll type that up into an unpolished mini-essay as well.)

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Hmm, let me know your thoughts on the G.R.R. Martin book. I read the first two, liked them alot and then waited so long to read the third one that I can't remember what happened in the first two. And I do remember them being pretty damned dark and depressing, so I haven't really been in the mood to reread them and, thus, enable myself to read the third.

And, re: the Gunslinger -- when did he rewrite parts of it. I read it several years ago and loved it. It's my favorite out of the series -- had such a Clint Eastwood feel to it and some really great imagery. I need to know if I need to buy a new copy -- maybe I'll like it even more!

Well, I'm still in the middle of the third book, but so far I've liked it at least as well as the others (probably more, because this one has scenes told from Jaime Lannister's POV, which the others didn't, and he's indeed very similar to Spike). If you enjoyed the first two, this is definitely worth reading. I was checking websites yesterday ... there are a number of good ones devoted to the series. You could probably find one to summarize the first two for you, so that you could jump into the third one without re-reading the first two. I'm not finding them terribly dark and depressing ... there are some happy moments.

King just really recently rewrote "The Gunslinger"; I went into B&N the other day and found it amongst a display. They've rereleased the whole series with new covers in preparation for the release of the final three in the series (which have all been written, apparently). He re-wrote it to fit in better with the others, so the continuity has improved, and the writing has improved as well. There are a few new scenes, but they fit in well. All the references to the past made a lot more sense now that I've read "Wizard and Glass," and make the story more emotionally engaging than before (at least for me ... I just couldn't get into Roland's character the first time around, but after reading the others I like and understand him so much more). And yes, it does have such a wonderful Clint Eastwood feel ... I'm sure part of the reason I love it is that I love those old Clint Eastwood movies. If I were you, I'd buy a new copy, or at least read it from the library.

Cool. Thanks for the info re the re-written Gunslinger novel. I'll have to stop by Borders and pick one up (not good at returning books to the library and I just love owning them -- the one thing I can be rich in :P).

And I'm glad to find another Clint fan. My Christmas presents from my dad consisted of the Dirty Harry collection, the Spaghetti Western collection and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Yes, I am a strange girl.

That's so neat that you're an Eastwood fan. I stumbled across "A Fistful of Dollars" on TV one afternoon several years ago, and I've loved it ever since. (Along with TGTBTU, although the that other one never seemed as engaging ... "For a Few Dollars More"?). I don't think I've met anyone else who appreciates them, and it's hard to explain why I do, except for that morally ambiguous character kink. Plus, in his younger days, Clint Eastwood was really quite pretty ....