A FEAST FOR CROWS

A FEAST FOR CROWS!!!

I'm incoherent with delight. It feels like I've been waiting forever for the announcement of this book's publication.

GRRM is going to split it into two novels by character and location. We'll end up with two complete stories, which I definitely prefer over him chopping it down the middle and giving us two halves of a story. Of course, my delight is probably mostly because Jaime will almost certainly be in the first one. More Jaime!! Squee!!

If you haven't read this series yet, seriously, catch up. Plenty of people are starting now; I just got drujan and 10zlaine to read them, too. :)

So yeah, aside from that, I had a pretty good weekend, actually. jaydk and I spent the day together on Sunday and did a double feature: Revenge of the Sith and Kingdom of Heaven. My obsession (Star Wars) and hers (Orlando!).

It was my third time seeing Revenge of the Sith--very cool to see it on the huge screen at Lincoln Square--and once again it made me cry. Luke and Leia's theme music, and Alderaan, and Luke's house, the twin suns, OMG.... *sob* And, also, it helped that I've been reading the novelization--it answers a lot of questions, so that you can more easily sink into the story. (Although the novel is terribly written and its intro to Padme is grotesquely offensive: being a senator doesn't matter at all, because she's all "completely defined by her husband," as if this is a GOOD, ROMANTIC thing, ugh, give up your identity for your husband, so obviously written by a man, and reason #54788514 why I will never get married, and seriously, let's get George Lucas some gender studies lessons, k?....)

Kingdom of Heaven was a lot better the second time. Plus, seeing it right after Revenge of the Sith definitely made me appreciate its sparseness and subtlety. It's beautifully filmed, and I love the minimalism of the dialogue. And I really thought Orlando Bloom did a good job portraying a character who is defined by his actions rather than by his words. (Although we had to run all over the city to see it, and ended up at a 10:20 showing, because the first one we tried was apparently the only sold out showing of that movie in the world.)

Um, and then on Monday I read Veronica Mars fanfic and played Dr. Mario on my NES Emulator. It was a holiday. :P

So tonight I'm going to try to see Chuck Palahniuk, because he's doing a talk at the Barnes & Noble at Union Square. And then on Friday I'm going to try to meet George R.R. Martin at Book Expo America. *crosses fingers*

Chuck Palahniuk

I met Chuck Palahniuk! And he said he really liked my hair!

Actually, it was really cool. He gave this fascinating talk, which included stuff I'd never expect to hear over a loudspeaker in the middle of the oh-so-civilized landscape of a Barnes & Noble. It was about how our weirdest, darkest secrets can define us. (And included anecdotes about people dying in a porn theater and having their bodies photographed, and a girl learning to masturbate with her sister's electronic toothbrush, stuff like that.) He was really funny and clever, and friendly.

He also read a segment from his new book, Haunted, which was really cool to hear him read.

And he ended by throwing fake body parts into the audience.

I didn't actually get to see him during the talk, because I was standing in line in the back hoping to get an autograph once he finished. He was really cool; he announced that he would stay until every last person got to meet him. So I waited in line for a couple of hours and read the first 100 pages of the book. (Very good so far.)

So finally I got up there, and had nothing to say, because I never managed to fully read Fight Club (though I love the movie and what I've read of the book), and I read another of his novels but can't really remember it. I mainly went there because Fight Club is my little brother's favorite book, and I wanted to get a signed copy to give him for his next birthday.

So he said he really liked my hair, and I blushed and said thanks, and then I babbled about my brother: Fight Club is his favorite book, it's the first book he ever really got into, etc. And he was really chatty, he asked how old my brother is (20, but 15 or 16 then) and where he is (Northwestern. Chicago? Yeah. Must be nice. Yup.) And I said how I was always the bookish one in the family so I was really proud when my brother finally got into reading. And I said thanks, and so did he, anyway, it was really cool, he was very friendly. So now I have to read the rest of the new book, and I guess I should read Fight Club in its entirety, too, since I finally have a copy. :)