July wasn’t shaping up to be much better with all the traveling and such, but I contracted a mild stomach flu and spent the past few days listless yet not so incapacitated I couldn’t read. Thus I am chugging right along on my July stack. (See how I am trying for a silver lining on my being sick during vacation?) Then again most months that I am ahead I space out half way through and have to scrounge at the end. =)
Ten books a month is a lot to read and I find that I’m struggling with getting enough sleep and finishing all my books. Sadly the best reading time for me is also the best sleeping time. Ah well, I’m still well on track to read 100 books this year.
Everything I have read about Heavy Rain leads me to the same conclusion – this game is a critic’s wet dream. “Exhausting, exhilarating, and, crucially, involving” (PS Magazine). “Powerful and emotionally engaging narrative” (GameSpot). You get the point. It manages to push all the right “critic” buttons: innovative, graphics driven, and story rich.
The game reminds of me of all those sad depressing artsy movies about special people that somehow manage to win the Oscars time and time again. Those movies that are lauded for their craft, composition, and story; those movies that suck all the fun out of life and that I avoid at all costs.
Its that time of the month again where I whip out my paranormal smut and call it a reading list.
The theme for this months literary jello shot is:
The goal is to read 10 books chosen from the “Read” shelf of 10 GR friends of the participant.
So I actually looked at my too read pile and found books that my GoodReads friends had already read. Might have cheated a bit, but its good for the pile. Besides I only managed nine books last month. Must get a crackin!
Our Sunday was spent amongst the mass of people, sixty thousand strong, at Maker Fair. I will venture to say that it was crowded, and it took me about an hour to find parking, but every second of discomfort was worth it to see the incredible inventions of these amazing people.
It was our first time going and we were not really prepared. Turns out almost the entire event was held outside. Yeah I read convention hall and figured no need for sunscreen and hats.
And one day? What were we thinking??? It was not nearly enough time to experiance the entire event.
We finally left the event sunburned and exhausted, but it was so incredibly worth it. People have made some crazy, ingenious, awesome, and beautiful stuff. And really I can’t not love an event where I can say: “Lets go see the burning thing over there!”
The whole clearing out my DS games was incredible long overdue. Going through them I noticed games from back in the day (eons ago!) when the DS first came out. YES, all the way back in 2004. Just don’t be surprised if one of the reviews is six years past due.
Turns out I have accumulated over sixty DS games in the past six years. That is only ten a year, not unreasonable. I took out a few of my husbands and a few I had already reviewed and paired it down to fifty. Still way too many to review this month.
Scribblenauts was a natural first choice as I had just finished playing it. That still left me with fourty-nine to pick from.
The only solution I could come up with that would significantly cut down on the time I would spend agonizing over deciding, was to throw them all in a bag and let randomness decide, ala scrabble Carcassonne =D
Its that time again where I marvel at the fact that I somehow managed to read all the books from the previous month and stare at the huge stack of books for the next month and wonder how in the hell I’m going to miss enough sleep to read them all. ~breath~
Onward! This month’s challenge has to do with book covers.
Read 3 books whose that has a single male on the cover.
Read 3 books whose that has a single female on the cover.
Read 2 books whose cover feature a couple.
Read 2 books where there is no person or human image at all.
The folks over at Blizzard have come up with an ingenious solution for assuring NDA (none disclosure agreement) compliance for their latest StarCraft 2 beta (at least for me anyway.)
Step 1 – Make the beta online only. Step 2 – Only enable head to head game play. Step 3 – Invite all the best StarCraft players in the world (yeah that’s right, Koreans also, you know a whole nation of people who are born instinctively knowing how to play StarCraft.) Step 4 – Sit back and rest assured that most people will never actually make past the first five minutes of any game as they have no chance of beating anyone with crazy SC skills.
Makes it hard to break that NDA if you have no way of really seeing much of the game.
That is certainly how its been for me. The longest any of my games have lasted thus far have been around ten minutes and they usually consist of me oohing and ahhing over how my poor team is getting their asses handed to them by units I didn’t even know existed.
Shocking that I haven’t been playing more of the beta, I know.
Stand-alone Books (3) (Finish a story in one single book)
Anthologies (3) (Test new authors by reading novella collections)
Trilogy (3) (Wrap a storyline with three books)
Read one whose order in the series matches your rank among your sibling
After I started the challenge of reading nine to ten books a month it became obvious rather quickly that buying them every month just wouldn’t work. Then along came the library to save my pocket book (and my shelf space!!) Actually the library is quite ingenious as I can go online and request books through their online catalog. Then when the book has arrived at my desired library they send me an email and I go pick it up.
Its all been so easy that I have been somewhat enthusiastic in ordering books from the library. But it also means I have far too many books that don’t fit into this months challenge. Meaning its doubtful I will actually complete it.
By no means does that mean I will not be reading!! Its time to get through this huge stack of library books that I just can’t bring myself to send back unread. Doubly important I manage this feat before the library sends goons after me to come collect.
January was a rousing success! Read all ten of my books, plus three more, and a few manga thrown in for good measure!
I finished early in Jan, mainly because of the moving. Now I’m into February (three days in already), ten books in a paltry 28 days, and I cant even find my books. Oh they are here somewhere, in a box. Should have been more worried about Feb. Going to have to cram to finish this month. Oh well.
Read a book by the following:
1. A Favorite Author – Visions of Heat by Nalini Singh
2. An Author that is “new” to you – Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
3. An Author you had given up before but willing to give a second chance – Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
4. A GoodReads Author – Light my Fire by Katie MacAlister
5. An Author born/died in the same year as you – (1977) Hex by Rhiannon Lassiter
6. An Author whose first or last name starts with the initial of your first name – (D) Undead and Unreturnable by Mary Janice Davidson
7. An Author whose first or last name starts with the initial of your last name – (B) The Invisible Ring by Anne Bishop
8. A male Author – Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
9. A female Author – Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder
10. With more than one Author (anthologies included). – The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
