jennIRL

triumph! mostly thanks to Feedburner, every blogger’s best friend.

books-only feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/jennIRL_books

full Tumblr feed (use only if you want multiple random posts per day): http://jennirl.tumblr.com/rss

i’ve been loving Tumblr more and more, and WordPress less and less. don’t ask me why because i don’t know.

in any case! i’m going to see what happens if i move my blogging over there. so if you’d like the full Tumblr feed (which is several posts a day, including cat GIFs) you can find it at http://jennirl.tumblr.com.

if you’d just like the posts about books, i recommend subscribing to http://jennirl.tumblr.com/tagged/omg_books, that should do you just fine.

k thx bye!

UPDATE: looks like you can’t subscribe to just the book posts, sorry! i will try to cross-post, in that case, since you probably all don’t need all the cat GIFs.

hey, internet, can we talk for a minute? about Scott Pilgrim? because i feel like i’m missing something here.

let me see if i’ve got this. lots of folks i know are fans. of the series, and the movie. both of which have some nifty video game elements involved, and some fun simultaneous potshots at/celebrations of garage bands. and we like Scott Pilgrim, the character. right?

that last bit is where i’m getting stuck. i just read the first volume. and, yeah. Scott is a 23 year old. without a job. in a band. pseudo-dating a 17 year old highschooler, who is YOUNGER THAN HIS YOUNGER SISTER. and now two-timing said highschooler with an emotionally scarred, on-the-rebound, woman his age.

i kind of hate Scott Pilgrim. someone please tell me what i’m missing.

in protest against this post (has this guy actually ever read a book with a dragon in it?!) i give you (in no particular order) ten of the ACTUAL best dragons in literature:

1. Smaug, THE HOBBIT (Tolkien) (and the only one The Guardian got right): the grand-daddy of all bad-ass dragons in fantasy for all time. ’nuff said.

2. Temeraire, of Naomi Novik’s Temeraire Series: this dragon manages to be FUSSY and PRIM, in addition to giant and deadly. what’s not to love?!

3. Kalessin, THE OTHER WIND (Le Guin): if you haven’t read Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea novels, i am sad for you. the original trilogy is wonderful, but the Tehanu books (TEHANU and OTHER WIND) are far and above my favorites. go forth and read them.

4. Eustace, VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (Lewis): poor kid. if you leave out all the lit-crit that usually accompanies talk of the Chronicles of Narnia, Eustace’s misadventure is something straight out of an honest-to-god fairy-tale — vaguely lesson-ee, but mostly just creepy as all get out.

5. Snow Tiger, NAAMAH’S KISS (Carey): i love me some Jacqueline Carey, and i feel safe in declaring that i like the Moirin books better than the Phedre books. like Eustace, Snow Tiger is an unfortunate human caught in the grips of the supernatural — but way sexier, not to mention bad-ass.

6. Falkor, NEVER-ENDING STORY (Ende): seriously? i have to explain this one? i think not.

7. Mayland Long, TEA WITH THE BLACK DRAGON (MacAvoy): no one else, as far as i know, has ever read this book. and yet, it is one of my all-time favorites. short, intense, well-written, a fantastic present-day fantasy that i cannot even compare to anything else in the genre. pure unadulterated story-telling. READ IT.

8. Norbert, HARRY POTTER & THE SORCEROR’S STONE (Rowling): see Falkor.

9. Alamarana, ELVENBANE (Lackey): not only is she a dragon with an excellent internal life, but she is a shaman who can call LIGHTNING. how cool is that?

10. Heart’s Blood, Jane Yolen’s The Pit Dragon Trilogy: this whole series is ridiculously good. and the tear-jerker of the second book, HEART’S BLOOD? oh my.

alright, let’s hear it. who did i miss?

• Curse of the Wolf Girl, Martin Millar — because he is awesome.
• A Visit From the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan — because twitter told me to (and they are always right).
• Our Kind of Traitor, John Le Carre — because i needed something to read and it was there, and IT IS GOOD.
• Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart — this one needs no explanation.