Category: Uncategorized
Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
After I found this highly sexist article called Why Girls Hate Game Of Thrones I’ve been on what I like to call a “slow burn”. I’ve been stewing about it for two weeks now, biding my time until I got into full rant mode and now I’m ready to explode. Maybe it’s because I’m feeling crankier than usual due to a strep throat, but either way I couldn’t resist the urge to refute this sexist, idiotic excuse for an article.
Because I’m feeling particularly rant-y I will now dissect the article piece by piece, but be warned that the original article contains coarse language you do not normally find on my blog. No, there’s no swearing but there are terms I would not use in polite conversation.
So here is why Renata Sellitti thinks all girls hate Game of Thrones the TV series (which can also apply to the books):
Point #1: “We hate gross things. Know what’s gross? Screwing your sibling.” Continue reading
The Best and Worst of June 2013
Yes, my post is late today! Well, that’s because it’s Canada Day and I’m sick (again) with a sore throat and runny nose. Nothing unusual there so don’t panic; I’m just feeling miserable and am a little crankier than usual.
If you look at the stats for this time last year, they went down as well as most of my traffic seems to come from students looking for help on school assignments. That’s why in June I only received 3,803 views and 2, 014 unique visitors. Still respectable, but nothing really to brag about.
So on that note, let’s look at what my top posts in June 2013 were:
1. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
2. Why no Writer Wants to Tackle Chronic Pain
4. End of Days by Eric Walters
5. An Apology to Self-Published Writers
None of these is really that surprising. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome has made this list every month since May 2012 and the rest are either novel study books or are particularly clicky articles that people read, shared and commented on. Obviously that drove the views through the roof for these particular articles.
So then what were the worst articles/book reviews in June?
3. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
4. The 3 Best Books to Read in the Bathroom
5. Rot & Ruin by Jonathon Maberry
None of these is all that surprising seeing as some are not particularly popular self-published books or books from older series that have already been finished. The only real puzzler here is Rot & Ruin by Jonathon Maberry because while it’s not the most popular book ever written, it does have a decent fan base. Oh well; that’s just how it goes sometimes.
Discussion: Love Triangles
I’m pretty sure you guys all know my feelings about love triangles by now, but I’ll reiterate for any newcomers: I hate love triangles with a passion.
They used to be kind of cool and really ratcheted up the drama in the few books they appeared. The love triangle trope was used, but it was fairly rare.
Enter the Twilight phenomenon.
Bella had to choose between Edward and Jacob and fans went nuts over the fact. There were and still are ‘Team Edward’ and ‘Team Jacob’ fans and although the series is obviously finished they still go berserk over it. Which is fine because if people are reading (even Twilight), that’s awesome. But I’m getting a little off topic here.
The point is that enterprising authors and publishers saw how much a love triangle enhanced interest in the series by fans as well as how it generated buzz amongst the general public, who would then be compelled to read the book as well. Can you see where I’m going with this? So because of the ridiculously huge success of one triangle, now almost every single YA book I read with a female main character has two good-looking guys fighting over her.
Cue the eye-rolling. I really hate how love triangles are forcibly added to the plot to create a dramatic subplot and I really, really hate how they’re so unbelievable 99% of the time. The latter is often due to poor writing or the author doing a half-hearted love triangle because their editor told them to. Love triangles can be done well (see: Cleopatra’s Moon), but those are rare and the fact is they’re so overdone. Can we just let the trope die for a bit? Or at least use cryogenics to freeze it for a few years, even a decade before reviving it.
So I’m done rambling about my hatred of love triangles, but what do you think? Do you love or hate love triangles? What was the worst love triangle you’ve ever read? The best? Why do you think so many authors use love triangles?
My First eReader: Thoughts and Observations
Yes, today I bought my Kindle Paperwhite! I was a little skeptical walking into the store, but after playing around on the display one and liking what I saw, I decided I really was going to buy it after all. Of course, being really excited about my purchase I’ve already spent a couple hours on it. So here are my thoughts and observations about it, in no particular order:
1. It’s really light!
This is great because some days I can’t handle holding heavy books. One of the advantages of this is that I can hold it comfortably in almost every position and that it doesn’t weigh much at all.
2. The screen is really easy on the eyes.
I was really pleasantly surprised at how much the screen looks like the page of a real book. Being able to adjust the brightness to accommodate different levels of light in different rooms is awesome as well. And the best part? Unlike with a computer screen, my eyes don’t get tired after a couple of hours. So now I can read ebooks just as quickly as I read physical books, a great bonus for all of the authors on my waiting list.
3. Even PDFs look pretty good on it.
Before getting my ereader my preferred file choice was a PDF and I was a little worried about transferring them over to my Kindle. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how good they look on the screen. The writing is a little small, but that’s really only a temporary problem. Most writers in the future will have access to .mobi files and if not, the occasional PDF won’t kill me.
4. It’s convenient.
I still prefer physical books if I’m keeping them for my own reading pleasure, but for authors sending me books the Kindle Paperwhite is perfect. Most authors sell through Amazon so they can send me a .mobi file more often than they can send me a PDF. In addition to that, I can take my ereader wherever I want and not be limited by how bad my back pain is on a given day. Now I have no excuse to procrastinate on my In Progress list!
So to everyone who recommended ereaders for me, thank you so much. I know now that I made the right decision and that the Kindle Paperwhite is perfect for me. Give yourselves a pat on the back from me, will you?
Discussion: Favourite Characters
Every person who reads has a favourite character or characters. There are just some characters that you remember years and years after finishing a book. They speak to you because you can see a part of yourself in them or they have such strong personalities that you can’t forget them.
Harry Potter is, of course, quite a popular favourite and he remains one of my favourites to this day. I say ‘one of’ because there is no way I can just choose one favourite character when I’ve read quite literally hundreds of books. One of my most recent favourite characters would have to be Isherwood Williams from Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. Ish isn’t a perfect person, but he’s resourceful and intelligent. He makes mistakes and tries to be a good leader of his group while rebuilding civilization in his own manner. Things don’t turn out quite how he wants them to, but he’s just one of those characters that believably shapes the world he lives in through sheer force of will.
Keeping with the depressing post-apocalyptic theme, Marco of The Return Man is another of my absolute favourites. Tortured, cynical and at the same time full of hope, he’s a mess of contradictions that in the hands of any other writer would be a terrible character. But V. M Zito made him believable by giving him an unique backstory that explained his cynical attitude as well as why his past continues to haunt him. Opposite him at first is Wu, also one of my favourite characters. Wu isn’t perfect and neither is Marco, but the two of them formed one of those unlikely friendships that just worked well.
I’ve rambled on enough about my favourite characters, so now it’s your turn. Who is/are your favourite character(s)? Why?
[As a side note, there are no rules for Discussion posts other than the usual ones from my Commenting Policy. Feel free to engage myself and other commenters!]