100 Books In A Year, Updated

24. The Crippled God, by Steven Erikson. A somewhat unsatisfactory conclusion to the series. It seemed to be rushed, and the sudden 180 degree turn makes you go "what the hell just happened?" Some nice action sequences, although I do miss Karsa. Apparently there'll be another series dealing with the Toblakai. Still, though, a nice closure with the Bridgeburners.

25. Stonewielder, by Ian C. Esselmont. Apparently this book occurs just before The Crippled God in the Malazan timeline. Which makes the 180 degree turn even more bewildering. A bit slow, compared to Return of the Crimson Guard.

26. The Left Hand of God, by Paul Hoffman. Promising, although it does end rather abruptly. Character development is all over the place, with a lot of deus ex machina. Very raw, but there's something there. The first bits reminded me somewhat of A Canticle for Leibowitz.

27. Buried Fire, by Jonathan Stroud. Must've been one of Stroud's earlier efforts, because it is so amateurish, like he hadn't found his voice yet.

28. Tiassa, by Steven Brust. Brust lost me when he got all preachy in the couple of novels prior to Tiassa. Here he goes back to the humor that grabbed me from his earlier works. Still not quite up to par, but at least it's enjoyable.

29. The Legion of Superheroes: The Great Darkness Saga. I remember reading this at Benjor's house and being enthralled. Now I'm looking at how crappy the art is, and how shallow the writing and the dialogue (everyone addressing each other as "my love"? Seriously?) are. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the more recent Legion runs, like The Lightning Saga.

The Playlist Workout

I've recently started exercising again, although I was sidelined by an unfortunate illness last week. Since I don't like carrying my phone (too bulky) or wearing a watch (sweats), I only have my trusty Sansa Clip to carry around (weighs practically nothing). Thus, the only way I can keep track of how long I've walked is through the songs that played.

Today's weight: 225 lbs
Playlist:
High and Dry - Radiohead (4:17)
Boston - Augustana (4:05)
Need You Tonight - INXS (3:02)
Cajun Song - Gin Blossoms (2:57)
Advice For The Young At Heart - Tears for Fears (4:45)
Meet Virginia - Train (4:03)
Somewhere Only We Know - Keane (3:58)
I'll Get By - Eddie Money (3:31)
What Have I Done To Deserve This - Pet Shop Boys (4:22)
If That's The Way You Want It - Cutting Crew (4:10)
Just a Feeling - Maroon 5 (3:46)

TOTAL TIME: 42 min, 56 seconds

Summer Of Movies

Summer blockbuster season is upon us, and so far we've been in the movie theater every single week.

May 14: Thor. Not bad. Better than I expected, although it's a bit sad to see Sir Anthony Hopkins descend further into cheesiness. We had the misfortune of watching this on 3D though--yes, the goggles do nothing! It does whet your appetite for The Avengers though.

May 21: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. For a moment there I got excited as I had read the book by Tim Powers (it's on this blog somewhere, I think). Turns out it was just "inspired" by that book. The movie wasn't great, but wasn't bad either. Penelope Cruz looks better than I remembered, and those mermaids seem to be all supermodels. My kids liked them at first, until they turned into "vampire mermaids". Heh. We did seriously miss Will and Elizabeth though--here's hoping they make a cameo in the next one.

May 28: Kung-Fu Panda 2. Best movie I've seen this year I think. One of those sequels that was possibly better than the original. It's a pity there were too many *great* characters that were wasted; Jackie Chan as Monkey comes to mind. Seth Rogen as Mantis stole it somewhat, much like Geoffrey Rush stole POTC:OST.

Coming up (and yes, I used Saturday as the day we'll probably watch):

June 4: X-Men: First Class
June 11: Super 8
June 18: Green Lantern
June 25: Cars 2
July 2: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Nothing to see for July 9, so we get a break there

July 16: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
July 23: Captain America: The First Avenger
July 30: Cowboys and Aliens

Remains to be seen if we see the movies on their opening weekends. Maybe we'll move stuff around; maybe we'll see two movies in a weekend.

100 Books In A Year, Updated

15. Bryant & May off the Rails, by Christopher Fowler. Another "Peculiar Crimes" mystery. What was interesting about this was that it centered largely around the London Underground. Mind the Gap.

16. Foundation, by Isaac Asimov.
17. Foundation and Empire, by Isac Asimov.
18. Second Foundation, by Isaac Asimov. Ah, the original trilogy. I really hated losing my old Michael Whelan cover paperbacks; those were the best covers ever, rather than the current iridescent ones. What the heck are those? Anyway, this trilogy will always be one of my favorite series ever.

19. Wit'ch Star, by James Clemens. Finally over. Meh.

20. The Paris Vendetta, by Steve Berry. Fast food reading (then again, it seems like a lot of what I read is fast food reading). Fast, fun, but ultimately empty calories. Liked it because a lot of it was set in France.

21. Gauntlgrym, by R.A. Salvatore. See above, except it wasn't set in France. Drizzt is always good for pathos. In the words of Zz'dtri "also, not as popular"...although this line seems to have been removed from that particular strip. Or did I imagine that? Oh, and the cover, while certainly interesting, NEVER HAPPENED. False advertising.

22. JLA/Avengers, by Kurt Busiek and George Perez. Awesomesauce. George Perez was my favorite artist growing up (for the longest time I thought he was Pinoy), so seeing him draw this was cool. The story's pretty good too, although I wish it was Hulk that faced up against Superman rather than Thor--because I think Hulk would've taken the Big Red Cheese out.

23. Full Dark, No Stars, by Stephen King. Nothing really horrifying; the stories were quite good. Made you think "what would I have done in his shoes?" which is really all an author could ask for. King's probably best with short stories anyway, as his novels tend to fizzle out in the end. I think he loses interest.

100 Books In A Year, Updated

10.. The Templar Legacy by Raymond Khoury. Why do I continue reading these things? Pretty lightweight stuff--good for the beach, but not much else.

11. Wit'ch War by James Rollin--er, some other pseudonym. See above. And yet I continue torturing myself by continuing on to Wit'ch Gate. *sigh*

12. X-Men: The End by Chris Claremont and a bunch of other artists. Great beginning, great middle, lousy ending.

13. Marvels by Wade and Ross. Not quite as good as Kingdom Come, but enjoyable nonetheless. I was disappointed when it just ended.

14. The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. Somehow, not as good as the first book. Of course, I devoured it in three days, but maybe the long wait gave it "Middle Book Syndrome"?

100 Books In A Year, Updated

4. Wit'ch Fire (The Banned and The Banished, Book 1) by James Clemens. After getting past the annoying use of "'" (wit'ch, og're, etc) it's actually not a bad book. Nothing to get excited about, though.

5. The ABC Murders, by Agatha Christie. Hercule Poirot, always enjoyable.

6. Ghost Country, by Patrick Lee. Halfway through I realized this was part of a series, but it didn't matter. Enjoyable escapist reading, but I kept thinking of Portal while reading it.

7. White Corridor, by Christopher Fowler. More PCU goodness!

8. Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, by Geoff Johns. I've always been a fan of the Legion ever since my friend Benjor introduced me to them via The Great Darkness Saga. Which reminds me--I need to get that one too!

9. Titans: Old Friends, by Judd Winick. Not bad. Only bought this because my daughters are huge fans. Then I find out there's some lovin' going on between Nightwing and Starfire, so whoops! Time to get Teen Titans Go! instead.

Lego Minifigures, Series 3

I'm a sucker for collecting things. I fell into the Super Hero Squad trap. I collect Marvel Superhero Mighty Beanz. For a time I was collecting JLU minifigures.

One day I was at Target and saw these Lego minifigures (series 3) in the Valentine's Day aisle. I had already bought two series 2 just for kicks, so I said what the heck and bought one pack.

I got the baseball guy which was cool. The kids saw it and were hooked. Of course, this gave me the perfect excuse to start buying new ones. So far I have the following:

1. Fisherman
2. Pilot
4. Samurai (x2)
5. Snowboarder
7. Sumo Wrestler
11. Racecar Driver (x2)
13. Alien
16. Baseball Player

I've been going crazy looking for the Elf just because he looks a bit like my Dragon Age character. Anyone want to trade?

100 Books In A Year, Updated

3. Odd and The Frost Giants, Neil Gaiman. Found this at a Big Lots for three bucks (hardcover!). Cute short story, not quite on par with his other works, but enjoyable nonetheless.

100 Books In A Year, Updated

1. The Book of Lost Things
2. The Steampunk Trilogy, by Paul di Filippo. Three short stories. First one was good (Victoria), but the next two I struggled to get through. Then again, I struggled through Neal Stephenson's work as well (I never got through the first book of The Baroque Cycle, for one thing), so maybe steam/cyberpunk isn't quite for me.

Hmm, two books in a month. At this pace, I'll never make it to 100 books.

The Cape

Summer Glau couldn't save this. I fell asleep halfway through, but managed to wake up to see River's talents being wasted. Seems like TV just doesn't know what to do with superheroes; they should just leave them to animation (like Avengers and Young Justice).

Blue Horseshoes

So the Colts lose. I was kind of expecting it, but it still hurt a bit. Especially since Caldwell apparently didn't remember the Jacksonville game when he called a timeout, allowing the Jags to gather themselves and score the winning field goal. Geez.

Now Manning wastes another year. It's interesting to speculate as to what Manning plans to do, as he still hasn't signed a new deal. Does he...

1. Demand they get a new coach? Preferably someone with a defense-first philosophy? OR
2. Sign with a new team? It'll have to be a high-profile team built to win NOW. Which could potentially mean...

Peyton Manning, Dallas Cowboys.

(probably not, but it's an interesting thought).

SEATTLE!

Once More, With Feeling

Gosh, it's been three years since I last posted. I realize blogging isn't that popular anymore (replaced by tweeting), but hey. I really just want a place to keep track of the books I've read, the toys I'm obsessively collecting, and the movies I've watched.

(Happy New Year, by the way).

That said, here are the "firsts!" I've done so far this year:

First Book Read: The Book Of Lost Things, by John Connolly. Kinda like a nastier version of Into the Woods. I think Connolly's a pretty good writer--some passages were pretty striking:

"Newspaper stories were like newly caught fish, worth of attention only for as long as they remained fresh, which was not very long at all"

while others are hilarious (Comrade Brother Number One and everyone else). Good stuff, and a recommended read.

First Movie Watched: The Sorcerer's Apprentice. I'll stick to Fantasia, thank you very much.

First Toys Bought: Action League, DC's answer to Marvel's Super Hero Squad. The four sets include:

• Superman and Bizarro
• Flash and Boomerang
• Firestorm and Deathstorm
• Green Lantern and White Lantern Sinestro

GL and Sinestro were pretty badass.