From in_the_blue:
The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.
1.) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2.) Italicize those you intend to read.
3.) Underline those you LOVE.
4.) Put an asterisk next to the books you’d rather shove hot pokers in your eyes than read.
And my own addition:
5.) Strikethrough those you tried to read and put down.
Continue reading
I am now the proud possessor of Insurgent. Will give reading report next week.
They'll know next week if Awake is cancelled or renewed. Leonard Chang answered me himself. :crosses fingers:
I highly recommend Shattered and M.C.A. Hogarth for some excellent short stories.
I have three Tumblr blogs now. Well, four, but that one's private. Worldbuilding and personal, fandom, and Vardin. I'm officially nuts.
I've got another fic for my Safe reading list, but nothing for the original novels. :headdesk: Will post reading lists soon.
Speaking of which, I'm not reading Insurgent this week.
:headdesk:
Mood is one of the most important keys to inspiration and tone in fiction. I have to be in the right mindset and mental voice to produce something that flows with the rest of the story. I always thought I was quite normal and accomplished this by music or rereading my own work.
I was wrong.
I read. Copiously. Excessively. Sneakily. Sideways. In every minute I can cram another word in. Late last week, I was reading and it was inspiring me on my own fics, per usual, and it finally clicked what was wrong with Safe and why I wasn't able to get the next chapter written. There is only one fic I read that puts me in the right mood to write it.
Stories inspire me. When I wrote In This Wood, I kept the movie Hoosiers almost on permanent checkout from the library because it always put me in the right space. When I was writing fanfiction like crazy, I would work on different fics based on what I was reading. No wonder I can't seem to keep myself limited to a project or two until they're done. I'm cutting my own legs from under me every time I pick up a book.
So, as promised, I'm about to do some serious violence to my readerly self and make reading lists. While writing certain projects, I am limiting myself to reading only the things that inspire it. And the Bible. I don't care if it inspires story or not—I need that one.
I'm picking a Christian fiction novel under one pen name, a Liana novella/novel, and a fanfic: Safe. These are it. I can still update backlist, but this is my current frontlist.
How does reading affect your writing? Does it change your mood or writing style? Does it make you want to write something totally different or use different characters?
1. Spots the Space Marine by M.C.A. Hogarth
I've held off on talking about the amazing fiction I've been sucked into and reading like my life depended on it, simply because I seem to suck royally at motivating myself to do so. Well, this one broke that block.
I have loved her tragic, but transcendent The Worth of a Shell; I have adored her stories about Jahir and Vasih'th, the xenopsychiatrists; I have faithfully slurped up every possible smidgen of Black Blossom she could throw at me: it's like Emma with male aliens instead of female humans. It's a fantasy of manners, and I want her to write a zillion more. And then there's Spots.
I tried this book as an e-book first. Could. not. get into it. My paperback came from when I backed it on Kickstarter, and I pushed through the first four chapters and that was it. Hooked. The narrative zings along and you cannot put the book down without grumbling terribly at the requirement of doing so.
A 32-year-old mother is called up from the reserves and sent to supposedly in-the-middle-of-nowhere depot, which just happens to turn out to be practically on top of a crab breeding facility. I don't know even how to describe this book. This is a family, a Marine family, in space fighting crab-like aliens that look eerily like their allies, the violinists. It's a roller coaster, but it doesn't feel like one; it's that smooth and well-put-together.
2. The art business book by M.C.A. Hogarth
The woman's earning a living doing what I want to be doing. Enough said. Please consider funding this book through IndieGoGo.
So...
I've read where Veronica Roth says that by the end of Insurgent, Tris will not be the same girl she was at the end of Divergent. I think this is necessary, and Roth has never shirked from necessary choices. Tris can't be the same. At the end of Divergent, she had discovered her own strength and yet, she had also found her own invincibility. Her choices have been clear. Yes, she killed Will. Yes, she did not forgive Al. Yes, she let her mother die. Why? Because she could see that these choices were necessary, whether or not she could articulate the reasons.
But this is war. In Insurgent, we are promised that faction lines will cease to be the defining factor of good and evil, that those who seem good or evil will turn out to be otherwise, that reality will screw them all over as reality is wont to do, and this is something Roth has never flinched away from. I expect the Tris at the end of Insurgent to be different: she won't be a girl, but a woman. She won't be an optimist, but a realist. She won't be invincible, but she sure as anything won't be vulnerable.
Actually, I'm quite looking forward to it.
Best Divergent Four/Tris quote ever:
Peter’s right, she’s not pretty, that word is too small. She is not like the girls I used to stare at, all bend and curve and softness. She is small but strong, and her bright eyes demand attention. Looking at her is like waking up.
— Four, from "Free Four: Tobias Tells the Story"
A scene from Divergent in Four's perspective and written by Veronica Roth. How could I not choose this for 8 days 'til Insurgent?
http://www.facebook.com/DivergentSeries?sk=app_276313732461376
I just had a shocking revelation: this is the first book I don't want spoilers for. I am a serious, read-the-spoilers-and-call-it-good kind of girl. If I can't enjoy rereading a book, I won't enjoy reading it. I like spoilers. Big time. I like to read the whole book as summary first.
Not Insurgent. And I have no idea why.
Huh.
Eleven things I hope to see in Insurgent:
To be honest, I'm not counting on seeing all these things. But I'm hopeful.
Favorite new Insurgent quote, from chapter 38:
Cruelty does not make a person dishonest, the same way bravery does not make a person kind.
