Where I sit, I dream for days

I made a thing.

( a painted thing! )
In other news, I've actually had a super-crazy social calendar recently.  Just this weekend I actually went to a party, volunteered at an Oktoberfest (pulling Sam Adams - my hands smelled noxious for a while afterwards), and a book club.  I have three board game group meetings this week, a Game of Thrones D&D session tomorrow*, plus planning for the company Halloween thing.  It's different because usually I have zero social calendar at all, but obviously I'm driving in the 'too much stuff' direction and will have to come back to center eventually.

A nice thing is that I've started going to the gym every morning for a 40 minute workout, and then going into work.  I've found that I have more energy at the workout and in work afterwards as opposed to the afternoon workouts.  This is in the hope I lose some weight so I might reasonably be able to hack together a Miraculous Ladybug cosplay next year (it is a full body-suit thing and I don't want to put other people through undue distress.)

*I've actually been wanting to do a D&D style campaign for a long time now, but had trouble finding a group I wanted to be with.  This GoT group is on the newb side, but since I'm a newb too, that's cool.  I'm playing a septon on a secret mission, played by Jeremy Irons and he will be so badass nobody can handle it. 

I've been wanting to do this post all week. Here are the ten books (or book series) that I consider to have been formative in my young Sageling years. These are all books I read when I was 12 years old or younger.

( I guess the Bernstein Bears should have been in here. Too late now. )

Did any of these books affect you guys as well?  What books were very important and powerful to you at a young, impressionable age? (I hear "Clan of the Cave Bear" is a common answer, by the way.)

Top 100 SF/F books, according to NPR.  Since it seems to have been decided on based to fan-votes, I can understand better why the order is so weird and wonky and leans towards a lot of new stuff. Nabbed from prodigy .  Bold for read, italics for started, underlined for want-to-read.

 

( Read more... ) -----------------

I bought Super Smash Brothers: Brawl last week.  Should have bought it years ago, it should have been called Nintendo Fanfiction: The Game due to its story mode. I have my sights on getting a 3DS within the next few months, but getting some new clothing and some non-plastic furniture is a big higher on my list right now.  DID YOU KNOW THAT OREGON TRAIL - 3D WILL BE RELEASED ON THE 3DS?  Also a Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright team-up game.  God dammit.

I don't sleep.  I fret and review books.

Series: Breaking the Wall [Amazon]
Books: Thirteen Orphans, Nine Gates, Five Odd Honors
Author: Jane M. Lindskold
How I Found It: Border's close-out sale; the covers were pretty.

Super Short Summary: A war between our 'real' world and a world rooted in Chinese magical tradition is looming. It is up to the descendants of thirteen advisers who fled that magical world, known as the Thirteen Orphans, to hone their magical abilities and set both worlds straight again.

What I Expected: YA novel about thirteen teenagers who discover they have hidden abilities tied to the Chinese zodiac, sort of in the magical-girl tradition with a heap of Animorphs thrown in.

What I Got: holy shit the amazing adventures of the most badass 70 year old woman there ever fucking was

The Breaking the Wall series went from being an obscure find to an unexpected favorite very, very quickly.  K and I got to read it over the past two months, and we were/are still so full of freaking glee over it.  We've tried to find a fandom for it but alas, there is none.  If there was a fandom, I'd probably just write Riprap fanfic constantly.  I might do that anyway.

 ( MAGICAL MAHJONGG ADVENTURES )

So in short, I really enjoyed these books!  I think people who enjoyed The Twelve Kingdoms or who are in the game Perfect World could benefit from taking a look at it, for sure.  If anyone wants to give it a try but doesn't feel like paying for a copy, I won't mind shipping my first volume out, though I'm sure local libraries will have the series too.  I WISH I COULD HAVE A GAME BASED ON THIS SERIES RIGHT NOW, HUARGH (I call the Dragon).

AHHH MUST READ MORE, 20 TO GO BEFORE JULY D: 

( Guards! Guards!, A Briefer History of Time, Pride and Prejudice, Odd Thomas )

Next up: Fire and Hemlock, Good Omens, and Men At Arms.

WILL TALK ABOUT MY AWESOMESAUCE KOL ADVENTURE IN MY NEXT POST PROMISE.

So...if I'm going to successfully finish the 50 Book Challenge, I need to do like some 25 more books before July XD oops.
( The Prince, A Japanese Miscellany, Equal Rites )

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh so much fail on the reading front over the past month arrrrrrrrrgh

( The Jungle Book, Twelve Kingdoms: The Shore In Twilight, Enchantment )

I bought two books today, The Prince and Pride and Prejudice, the former being interesting because I play WARREN and it is relevant to those interests, and P&P is because my mom half-disowned me in our last conversation cause I told her that I've never read anything by Jane Austen.  Anyways, this year was planned to be a year for me to catch up on classics, so why not.  Alice in Wonderland is on my shortlist too XD