Fringe

Peter: The man who was just released from the mental institution, he wants to give you a drug overdose, then stick a metal rod into your head and put you naked into a rusty tank of water.

Walter: No, I don’t want to. No, I’d rather not. I’m just saying I can.

- Fringe, Pilot

In Honor of Misfortune

Misfortune has been one of my very favorite books since I picked it up at the library one day. I've since acquired my own copy from the library's book sale for the price of $1, and have enjoyed it every since. It's one of those very rare books (I know, people say things like that when talking about books, especially when they're getting paid for it, but I really mean it) that is both hysterical and meaningful.

On my last library trip I was browsing the new books shelf and happened to discover that Misfortune has now been released as a paperback, with quite an interesting cover.

I'm a bit torn as to which one I like more, this one or the hardcover version I have:

I definitely don't like the UK cover (you can see both the American and the UK covers on Stace's website, www.wesleystace.com/misfortune.html), and had really thought that the hardcover version was absolutely perfect for the book, but seeing the paperback, I'm a little torn. Of course if it doesn't have the adorable little illuminations at each chapter I will be very disappointed.

Books!

To continue my book theme, here is a little blank book I finished for myself this weekend:

After seeing a post on Angrychicken.typepad.com, a craft blog I keep up with, about homemade books, I decided to make one of my own.

I cut two sturdy pieces of cardboard into two (roughly) 8X6" rectangles and covered them in painted packing paper. I also pasted a piece of contrasting paper on the inside to cover the folds and glue smears of the white paper. (Painted packing paper is one of my best discoveries. I have a huge box of these sheets that I just paint up with acrylic paints. You can get custom sized sheets of paper in any color your heart desires!) I cut a bundle of sketch paper to fit the cardboard (10 pieces, folded in half for twenty pages), and used another piece as an inside binding to attach the rest of the paper to by gluing it (the binding paper) to the outsides of the cardboard covers leaving a 1/4" space between them. In retrospect, I should have left more than a 1/4" because my book won't close properly, but oh well.

After I glued the functioning binding (to be covered with the green so the stitches won't show), I used an awl to punch holes through all the layers of paper to create holes to sew it together with. I sewed it all up with some nice heavy duty thread that felt like it was waxed. Perhaps I'll use a lighter color next time... :-P Now, in the post she said that she just uses a sewing machine for hers, but I realized that my book was not going to fit in the sewing machine, and I wasn't sure it could handle 11 sheets of paper at a time, so I just sewed it all by hand, which actually worked really well. I think I would use a heavier paper for the functioning binding though. Also, the painted packing paper was not a good idea, it gets scuffed and torn way too easy. I might use card stock of scrap booking paper next time.

You're Such A Dissapointment

Or: Books I Have Not Finished


I find that the more I read, the pickier I get, and the less I am compelled to finish a book if I don't absolutely like it. Lately this has resulted in a large stack of books sitting on my bookshelf that have not been finished. Here's a list of the latest disappointing books:

Truancy - Isamu Fukui
A book about government control and the public school system? With a really dark, amazing looking cover? Yes! I'm right there! Well, I only got six pages into it before I gave up on it. Great premise, not so great characters, and an obvious agenda. We get it! You're pissed at the school system - get over it! A seventeen-year-old with an axe to grind? No thank you.

Of Saints and Shadows - Christopher Golden
I keep telling myself that I'm going to finish this one, but I'm really not sure that I am. It's not the worst vampire book I've ever read, but not the best either. It skips around a lot to different characters, which is one trait in a book I've never really liked (with a few exceptions, of course). It has to do with a conspiracy in the Catholic church and magic and stuff. I'll probably return it to the library tomorrow.

Nothing to Lose - Lee Child
I love Jack Reacher. Love. I think he's funny as hell and is one of the best quirky characters I've ever come across. (His propensity for violence, for always stumbling into the wrong situations, his rules and sense of justice--priceless.) That being said, it felt like Lee Child just got bored and a little jaded with politics and took it out on Reacher. That and it's slow. Really slow. Usually I read these books in two days or so, which is very fast for me, but this one has taken me over a week and I'm maybe 3/4 of the way through it or more. We're getting to the stage where Reacher is proving all of his theories, but I'm just not interested. Hell, Echo Burning was better and I hated that book. This one also goes back to the library tomorrow. I sincerely hope the next one is better.

The Vampire Shrink - Lynda Hilburn
I've read some truly awful vampire books but this one takes the cake. Kismet (I'm sorry--Kismet?) is supposedly a psychologist and yet she is incredibly shallow and mocks her patients in her head. She has that Laurell K Hamilton girly squeamishness down pat (And I'm not feeling too friendly towards LKH right now either), her vampires and their world are shallow, stereotypical, and flat out boring, not to mention the lead vampire's name is Devereaux and is described as "yummy" and a "Greek god." Like hell. (I actually did finish this one today just to see how it would end, and it was just as bad as I thought it would be.)

Sleeping Dogs - Thomas Perry
I may actually finish this one, but I'm not sure. I had picked it up for my dad at the library a week or so ago and it looked interesting so I took it after he was done with it, after all I love books about assassins. This one, however, is a little slow. After reading Nothing to Lose though my sense of "slow" may differ a little. Fascinating premise, but maybe not heavy enough on the psychology to hold me? We'll see.