hellziggy

Well, I may not be keeping up on the daily posting, but I am at least posting a heck of a lot more than I had for the last who knows how many months. :)

Day 13 — A fictional book

Alright. Some of the fiction I've read lately.

Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
When John Perry turns 75, he does two things: He visits his wife's grave and he joins the Colonial Defense Force. The CDF's enlistment contract is incredibly tempting. When a person reaches retirement age, all they have to do is give up all their worldly possessions and promise never to return to Earth.

I really enjoyed this one, and I'll be picking up the next books in the series. John Scalzi is also going to be one of the guests at Phoenix ComiCon.


Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax Series #1)
Humans (Neanderthal Parallax Series #2)
Hybrids (Neanderthal Parallax Series #3)
by Robert J. Sawyer
Hominids examines two unique species of people. We are one of those species; the other is the Neanderthals of a parallel world where they became the dominant intelligence. The Neanderthal civilization has reached heights of culture and science comparable to our own, but with radically different history, society and philosophy.
Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthal physicist, accidentally pierces the barrier between worlds and is transferred to our universe.

I've never read a Robert Sawyer book I didn't like. This trilogy continues that trend. It did feel like book 3 had kind of a rushed "oh no, I have to resolve things" ending though.

Huh, looking at the books I listed you'd think I was a fan of Sci-Fi, but it's actually not the majority of what I read. It's just what I happened to have read lately.


Day 14 — A non-fictional book

I've got 2 non-fiction books I'm reading right now.

Return to Antarctica: The Amazing Adventure of Sir Charles Wright on Robert Scott’s Journey to the South Pole, by Adrian Raeside
Return to Antarctica marks the 100th anniversary of the Scott Expedition to the South Pole.
By 1910, the South Pole had gripped the imagination as one of the final frontiers to be explored, and British naval officer Robert Scott was obsessed that an Englishman—specifically himself—should be its conqueror. Despite being under-funded and under-equipped, Scott gathered together an electric group of naval personnel and scientists and sailed south in the ex-sealing vessel Terra Nova. Halfway through the rough passage to the Antarctic, Scott got word that rival explorer, Norwegian Roald Amundsen, was also making a run for the Pole and was close on their heels. What started out as a stroll to the South Pole became a race between two very determined and different men.
Also aboard the Terra Nova was a Canadian, Charles Seymour "Silas" Wright. Return to Antarctica will transport the reader to the very time and place of Scott expedition through the eyes of Charles Wright, whose diaries and notes were handed down to his grandson, Adrian Raeside. In the Antarctic summer of 2008-2009, Raeside travelled to Antarctica to retrace his grandfather’s footsteps and to gain perspective on an adventure of a century ago that challenged men’s courage, strength and sanity. Raeside’s story telling, supported by revelations from previously unpublished accounts, drawing and photographs, does admirable justice to the legacy of the men who literally followed Robert Scott to the end of the Earth.

I know. Me, reading a book about Antarctica. Who'd have guessed? LOL. I got my copy of this free from Quark Expeditions when they had a Twitter contest. It's really interesting, and the author has a down to earth way of writing. It does, however, become obvious that he's not a professional author at times as he repeats information, or a paragraph will have info that seems out of context. I think the book really just needed a good editor.

My other current non-fiction is Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, by Mary Roach
The best-selling author of Stiff turns her outrageous curiosity and infectious wit on the most alluring scientific subject of all: sex.

I'm only a chapter into this one, so I don't really have anything to say about it yet. But I LOVED her first book, Stiff : The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers so I'm expecting good things.


Day 15 — A fanfic

And for this last one... Don't worry. I won't point you towards any slash or vampire porn. No sex at all in either of these. They are also both hilarious.

Wait Wait Don't Eat Me
Yes, it is Wait Wait Don't Tell Me fanfic. With zombies.

Drugstore Sushi
And this is Jonathan Coulton fanfic, letting us all in on the secret of how he creates his songs.

Like I said, no sex. They are both totally safe for work.


( The whole list )

LJ has started censoring. Journals & communities are being suspended because of interests they have listed. This is in response to complaints from a group called "Warriors for Innocence"
The posts about it can be found here, here, and here
It upsets me so much that they are doing this. Yes, some real pedophilia communities were suspended, but at what cost? Freedom of speech is one of our most important freedoms.
Blanket suspensions may have removed some pedophile communities, but had that "Warriors" group chosen to work with law enforcement the real pedophiles could have been caught and arrested rather than getting a big ol' warning to go hide.
Censorship is never a good thing.
I'm glad I don't write fanfic because I don't think I could handle all the drama and wank that goes on, but LJ censoring it will affect me too. I read fanfic and I've found many good LJ friends because of it. I don't read incest or Wincest, and I don't have them in my interests, but just because it's not something I choose to read doesn't mean it shouldn't be there for others. And I'm not even saying that I *never* read Wincest. I don't ever go looking for it, but there is one author on my flist that writes it and I will read it when she does because I will read *anything* she writes. She is just an excellent damn writer. But for me she is the exception. If it is any other writer and the authors notes at the beginning of the fic list any of the things that squick me I just don't read it.
Freedom of speech doesn't mean you are required to read things you don't want to, it means that they have the right to exist and it is your decision to read or not.
I'm really hoping that we will find in a day or two that we all overreacted in response to this... *sigh*

I know I've mentioned to y'all how wicked funny stoney321 is.

Have I also mentioned that this girl is broken inside? Seriously cracked.

She will write fiction that is wonderfully funny and at the same time leaves you saying to yourself "What the fuck did I just read? Did she really do that?"

Today she was taking requests from people for fiction drabbles. Someone suggested Chewbacca because of a recent mention of him.

The crazy bitch actually wrote it!

For the love of god, don't click this link if you don't want your brain to go *squish* Because it will.

*disclaimer*
I warned you! If you click and are irreparably damaged it's your own fault!