That was unexpected

[cornerofmadness]

And pissy. On top of a frustrating day at work, I went to Athens to meet with my writers group for the first time in a month. The weather morons said less than 20% chance of snow so I made the over 40 mile trip. I had fun there, yes I did. Then it all went to hell in a hand basket. I didn't even get to the Athens air strip when it began to snow. Lightly mind you but for the next 30+ miles I had to drive in snow. WORSE, I rounded a curve and there was a big-ass branch in the middle. It didn't even feel like I hit it but I know I did. Then a few miles down the road I hear a strange noise and something doesn't feel right. Those who know this area knows there is NOTHING on Rt 32. No lights, no place to get off and check it because all the off ramps are to even more isolated roads. In fact I drove those 30 miles seeing no one until I hit Wellston. Of course now I'm nerved up and I was nauseated before I got in the car. Now I'm really sick. (No stomach if I'm not pulling off onto the dark snowy shoulder to see if there's a branch jammed in my car, I'm not pulling over so you can empty). At best it's the sound of tires on snow but I know it's not, next best the branch is jammed up under there (I've had this happen before) and worse, I've knocked something loose like a heat shield (I'm the queen of losing heat shields) since the Civic sits about a hairsbreath off the road or my tail pipe. Once I get to Rt 35 which is much smoother, there's no noise. Good...until I pull off onto my road and drive way. There is definitely something dragging. In the piss poor light of the parking lot I can't see it other than my tail pipe is where it should be. So now I'm nervy and pissed off. Shakes fist at Mother Nature (and seriously why was that branch in the middle of the damn road when there's no wind).

There was a lot more I probably wanted to talk about but I'm so nerved up I can't remember so let me move on to something happy. I thank apgeeksout for this. The reading bingo challenge . I think I'll try for a black out on both but I DO need your help (and hope some of you join us). One of the challenges is to read something a friend loves so rec me your favorite books. And what would YOU consider a "forgotten classic" or a "YA classic" since those are two of the bingos. I'll have to keep myself a list as I go. I'm reading some that would fill 4 blocks at once (yes, I know that' cheating) so I'll put it in for all four and adjust as I go thru the year.

I will say this, not only am I totally over dystopias, apparently I am over epic fantasy battle books. Seriously. I'm forcing my way through Brandon Sanderson's second Mistborn book. I LOVED the one set in the future of this world, Alloy of Law and went back to this. #1 wasn't nearly as much fun as Alloy but I loved the characters. I'm 200+ pages into a nearly 800 page book 2 and it's all battles, Vin fighting people and politics. I want to gouge out my eyes (this is also why I couldn't get into Game of Thrones, at least in book form). I'm only 200 pages in because I'm skipping the damn fight scenes. They are SO boring to me any more. Even with writers and characters I like (I couldn't read Butcher's fantasy series but then again I didn't even like the characters so there was no way I was getting through those fight scenes). In a way this makes me sad. There was once a time I loved this. I can handle some fight scenes (like in FMA when we had LOT of story between the fight scenes) but when it's the bulk of the book, I'm finding it just uninteresting.

Comments

[0-mother-0.livejournal.com]

eeeeeep, glad you're ok!

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Classic YA? House of Stairs. Though it might be considered dystopic; it's a psychological story. Also a forgotten classic.

Anything by Alexander Key, too. I love his works, and they are anything but dystopic. They have more of a family feel to them.

I hope Naru's okay. That sounds yuck.

[apgeeksout.livejournal.com]

I have pictures somewhere of a giant branch-monster lodged under my car - took a bit to get it loose, but the car was unscathed; hopefully yours will shake out the same!

For "forgotten classic", I think I'm going to go extremely literal, and read a classic novel I've forgotten loading onto my ereader. For YA classic, I figured S.E. Hinton, Judy Blume, or Robert Cormier.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I think I've read that one

I didn't recognize Key's name but I know his work obviously

Naru is going to the doctor after class

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

thanks. It's not the first time I've done this either. He's going to the shop because I can't get under my car at home.

those would work. I was even wondering about ursula Lequin and L'Angle or C S Lewis. Is Tolkein technically YA?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

thanks

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

House of Stairs? I have a copy, you might've picked it up at my house.

I want to read more of Key's works.

Poor Naru. Poor your wallet.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

The Hobbit is considered YA, at least. I don't think the rest of his work is.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I reread that last year. I'm not sure there's ever a reason to reread it now

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I think we saw a horrible Sy-Fi movie based on it


well it wo uld be possibly covered under my insurance

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I think we may have. Or it was "flavored by" or something, and I was horrified they took that book and made such a bad movie out of it.

That's...good.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

hahahahaahahahahahahaaha.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yeah I'm pretty sure that was it

he charged me 0$

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I saw that on FB. Congrats!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

thanks

[sillymagpie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm also over epic fantasy quests.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

It's something of a shame really. I don't know what changed. Have I gotten old? Have I simply read too many? Has my impatience grown? All of the above?

[sillymagpie.livejournal.com]

Too, too many bad novels.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

that will also do it. To be fair, Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy is very good but it's still not quite doing it for me (I can't say the same of Butcher's pure fantasy series. as much as I love the Dresden books, that's as much as I disliked the Furies one)