flemmings | To read or not to read

Us Epicureans are often faced with dilemmas like this. Which is it that gives the greatest pleasure and the least pain: reading 800 pages of Rowling's prose or reading other people's spoilers?

Reading Rowling is not fun, at least not in these latter days. Reading breakneck isn't fun either, not for this naturally slow reader, but it's the only way to minimize the pain of reading Rowling: run fast enough and the coals won't burn your feet. Having to read fast because the prose hurts and if you don't finish in time someone inevitably will spoil you causes resentment: this is not how satisfying reading experiences are made. Reading Rowling because there's nothing else to do on a beeeyootiful July day (I know, an oxymoron: but they do in fact exist and we are in fact having one of them) makes me feel hard done by. Reading Rowling so as to feel part of the capital-F-Fandom that is reading Rowling today even though I'm not a fan of HP annoys me, because while I understand the concept of the lowest common denominator, having my mindset of choice generally represented by the HP fandom is kuyashii. If only it had stayed a kids' book that kids read and adults didn't quite see the appeal of, I'd be so much happier. Instead it's the level-entry fandom for huge numbers of former non-fen, as Gundam Wing was for huge numbers of former non-Japanese-anything fen, and the results, as with GW, are far from pretty.

Yes I know what I'm saying: I could bear it well enough if it wasn't for Those Others. Yes, well, moving right along here-- but if I don't read it myself I'll always feel vaguely dissatisfied at having got my info second hand. OTOH the vague dissatisfaction of that must be balanced against a whole weekend spent reading Rowling who-is-tired-of-Harry-herself.

What's needed here is a thumping long manga that I've been wanting to read forever, such as (looks wistfully at shelves) Kohri no Mamono starting at vol 1. Alas, my set starts at vol 4 and makes no sense. Another Kawasou series, which in my case I have not got. (Why are there no Bookoffs in Toronto?) I have Godchild; I don't want to read Kaori Yuki. I have mid-series FB, but FB in Japanese is for some reason not the happy fast read it is in French. I have Akai Torino but jeez: Akai Torino. (Ever noticed how BL is never a thumping good read?) Or best possible scenario, if I had a story that actually co-operated with me ha ha ha.

I'm faced with a loose-ended weekend, and I suppose I must just loose-end it, but I won't loose-end it reading Rowling. I shall vacuum all my rugs and wash all my floors instead, and that will have to do.

(I'm using my pissy red dragon icon a lot lately. This isn't the sign of the red camellia: rather, I suspect, the reverse. I will mention for everyone's future reference, once they hit their 40's, that drinking soy shakes for breakfast for a dozen years evidently means you sleepwalk through menopause, except for the occasional pleased 'gee I haven't had a period in three months' realization. However the surging hormonal fluctuations must be happening somewhere under my bland soy-doped surface, like those stray moments when I feel slightly hot for no good reason, and I suppose low-grade irritability is how they manifest. Unless indeed it's a case of fourth month unlucky and what I have is plain old PMS.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Psst. précis

Actually I did read that this morning though I forget how I found it. Reassured me that I'd made the right decision. (And

mightygodkingovercompensatingfanboy is a wanker of major proportions: if I'd realized it was him I might have given it a miss.)

Sorry not to have been clearer then. My daughter pointed me to the carpet scan and I dipped in and out. It was amusing seen as a fake, but when I heard it was the real thing I just thought "oh, no" and grabbed for the first summary I found.

It felt like my reaction to the later Amber books; hoping that flashes of promise might be fulfilled, but having to admit that they won't.

Like Amber, a good thing gone on too long, and by the looks of it, utterly unedited as well. There *are* people saying they loved loved loved it, but then some people loved loved loved OotP which for me was like having fingernails ripped out. De gustibus: possibly adolescent angsting and many pages of pairing people up goes down better if you're a lot closer to the age of the characters than I am.

*grins* does that mean I have to start drinking the soy shakes uh...ummm soonish! Coincidentally I actually felt the urge to buy soymilk the other day just to try it out... Not too bad I thought and made a note to self to read the label next time for less or no sugar content. Although I don't think I can drink it exclusively!

To much time spent in the UK has conditioned me to like the odd cuppa cha every now and again.

I must be one of those 'adult persons' who really can't be bothered! HP ...umm sauce??? No I jest, I do know who HE is but for some reason can't see the fascination really! I could blame lack of time I suppose.

Hope you find something other than vacuuming and washing to do! In which case may I pimp my fic!? ^__^

here, well jus' in case! (http://i-am-zan.livejournal.com/36843.html?view=273387#t273387)

*runs off*

which reminds me...I ought to get some dragon type icons. Hee!

does that mean I have to start drinking the soy shakes

No, she says sardonically, you can start taking ginko biloba and hope it works better for you than for me. I saw your entry Thursday? night was it, and made a mental note to read it as a reward When This Cruel Week Is Over: and then when the cruel week was over forgot that I'd made the note. Thanks for the reminder.

I can't drink soy milk per se- yucky taste when it's milk milk I want. But I use soy powder in milk quite happily, since I hate having solid food in my stomach in the morning. Anecdotal evidence from friends suggests that a very little soy goes a very long way to mitigating the more unpleasant side effects of the Remove Program experience ie soy in one's tea banishes hot flashes.

ginko biloba - I think I'll stick with soy, as gingko is the yucky thing for me. ^__^

I hope the entry even if small at least felt something like a reward! ^__^

But gingko biloba has no taste at all. Just a capsule that you swallow. And it does wonders for the memory.

Heh. I'm hoping that wt will fall into it so I can steal his disgaea game for the weekend. I figure I'll read it eventually, but in a couple months ... The saving grace for me is I couldn't care less about spoilers, I'm too used to it from scaning things the kids read and watch.

There are works where the journey not the arrival matters, but HP isn't one of them. The only point in wading through Rowling's less than inspired prose is to find out what happens, so if someone spoils the plot- even if it's Rowling herself and her damnable and quite unnecessary 'Someone dies!!' interviews- there's that much less reason to make the effort.

Parenthetically, while we're talking of wt workarounds, you hadn't thought of accompanying him to Taiwan for those few days maybe?

He has a four hour meeting in Shenzhen and maybe a four hour meeting in Taipei. I'll go next summer when I can spend a week there.

I found playing Disgaea to be infinitely more rewarding than reading Harry Potter. (But I did enjoy the ideas behind the book if not the ways they were presented.)

How different is soy shake from this one?
http://importfood.com/rtye1101.html

Soy shake is dried flavoured soy powder that you mix with milk, so what it tastes like- if you use the right kind of product- is chocolate milk. The products that actually taste like soy I find repulsive. I still mix some instant coffee and instant chocolate with the local brand I use now just to up the oomph, because otherwise it's bland. The one kind that tasted good on its own is alas part of a package diet/ vitamin regime where you have to go for the whole plan.

The one I linked is popular (in a common sort of way) hereabouts and elsewhere in southeast/east asia. One can should cost no more than sgd3, and it probably tastes much better than the diet thingy....

Mh- if it tastes at all like soy, I'm not sure. The diet thingy plus milk is thick enough to make me feel like there's something in my stomach, which is the problem with liquids qua liquids. Besides, chocolate! (however ersatz) = yum. And of course it has vitamins added so I don't have to take vitamin pills as well. As a no-fuss way of getting going in the morning, it's not bad.

Damn. I had to switch to rice milk due to allergies to the soy.

I found Rowling's prose mannerisms didn't bother me as much this time around.

To read or not to read

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

drive by pimping!

Re: drive by pimping!

Re: drive by pimping!

Re: drive by pimping!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject