The Aviary

Thu, 09 May 2019 22:13:06 GMT

Okay, so, about a week ago I idly started rereading Wolves of the Calla, then got bitten by a compulsion and am racing through to the end of the series. And the thing is, I haven't read the final two books since they were published. At that time, I was too busy having FEELINGS to point out or even really notice flaws in them.

Now, of course, I still have a lot of feelings but they are muted by time and by the fact that I know how things end. So other things are bothering me and now I'm going to complain a little.

( These books came out over a decade ago but I have friends I'm still trying to convince to read them, so these things get a cut tag. )

I mean, I am still excited about finishing the series because I literally do not remember most of the details of the final book. And also I still love these books amazingly, flaws and all. But sometimes you have to complain about stuff.

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Tue, 30 Apr 2019 16:12:53 GMT

Things:

- A week ago, my choir director asked me if I would mind singing the descant on one of our pieces. I sang it properly for the first time during rehearsal last night and was awesome at it, so that's cool.

- This weekend, on a whim, I decided to pick up my Dark Tower reread at the point I last left off three years ago and thus am now reading Wolves of the Calla*. This is very exciting because a) I love everything about these books to the point that I occasionally have to take a break from reading just to have emotions about, like, the existence (or lack thereof) of Gilead and also b) so, I've read the first 4 books in this series a bunch of times and the last three only once each, when they came out. Which means I have forgotten a hell of a lot of stuff that happens in Wolves and am constantly surprised by it. It's delightful. (Less delightful is the fact that Calla Bryn Sturgis has a very strong dialect that I can feel creeping into my thought patterns as I read and I'm trying really hard not to let it come out my mouth.)

- Tomorrow is May Day and I have taken the day off work because it is a holiday. I'm going to go for a hike on the beach in the morning and then come home and watch The Wicker Man, as is a right and proper celebration of the day.

*Okay, no, I broke off the reread in the middle of Wind Through the Keyhole because it wasn't grabbing me like the others - right after Wizard and Glass, another big flashback was too much - and so I still haven't actually ever finished that one. Maybe I'll read it after the end this time.

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 16:21:32 GMT

Things of lately:

- I am over my terrible cold (mostly) and my Dad is back from Taiwan. He was there for a month, that is entirely too long.

- This past weekend, I went to see Assassins in Seattle, which was SO GOOD, OMG. I'm so glad I decided to do the ridiculous thing and buy myself two tickets, because I need to see it again. I just - I have a lot of feelings about that show. It's possible that Assassins is my favorite musical, and if that's not true, it's at least in the top five. The ACT's production is really great, if you're in Seattle and can get tickets you really should, and I'm super happy that I'm going again in April.

- I have finished reading Wizard and Glass and have started Wind Through the Keyhole. I always think I don't like Wizard much until I'm reading it and then I remember that it's actually really good and that I do actually sorta kinda care about Roland and Susan's doomed romance. Plus, Cuthbert. Wind Through the Keyhole is entirely new to me, which is exciting.

- Vaguely relatedly, I decided I needed something new to listen to after getting through a large portion of Saga Thing, so I spun the dial of "Things Sara is Interested In" and ended up with old time radio westerns. So I am listening to Gunsmoke. There is a huge amount of it, it's really quite good, and the episodes are almost exactly the length of my daily commute, so I can do exactly two a day if I want. I remain astounded and immensely pleased at the sheer amount of old time radio the internet wants to give me for free.

- We are now about a week and half out from the day the Kingston library closes for three weeks so that we can move into our new building! I'm super excited about the new place, but also weirdly excited about the closure. I mean, I'll still be working, but I'll be working in a library that's closed so all the really annoying people won't be there to bother me. My least favorite patron (who only comes in when he has a hold to pick up, but has a lot of holds so that's nearly every day) came in yesterday to suspend all of his holds till after we reopen (because he refuses to go to the next closest library which is 10 minutes away), so I don't have to see him for a month! I like most of our patrons, but it's still nice to have a break now and then.

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Tue, 15 Mar 2016 15:35:54 GMT

So, I'm rereading The Wastelands - which, you guys, I have so many feelings about this series, so many. I'm always worried, when I take a long break from something I love, that I'm going to come back and find that it was visited by the suck fairy in my absence, or that I will have somehow outgrown it or something. That has not happened to the Dark Tower, I'm so relieved. It's not perfect, and it's still one of those things that I'm a little hesitant to recommend to others, because it was so Important to me that I'm not sure I can' properly gauge its actual quality, but I am still filled with the crazy love.

Anyway. Rereading The Wastelands and I'm nearly to the end and I swear to god, this happens every time I read this book. I'm all, "Wait, they're not even on the train yet, how do we possibly have time for the riddle contest?" And I flip to the back of the book (I've read it before, I'm allowed), and there's the frelling terrible cliffhanger and every time I am surprised. My brain insists that the riddle contest must be in book three, even though it has never actually been there, because that cliffhanger is just cruel.

I didn't start reading Stephen King till I was in highschool, which means that I didn't start reading the Dark Tower till after Wizard and Glass was published. And now, all of the books are on my kindle, so when I finish book three, I get to go straight to book four. Those of you who actually read the books as they came out and so had to be in suspense for five years - you have my sincerest sympathies, because that sounds awful.

(I mean, I had to wait between books four and five with the rest of you, but that wasn't nearly as bad.)

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Wed, 09 Mar 2016 03:55:52 GMT

Friends, I have an important question:

Because of reasons, I currently desire to revisit the Dark Tower series. It's been about 5 years since I last did so and I have not yet read The Wind Through the Keyhole.

So. Should I start at the beginning and read through to the end with Wind Through the Keyhole as the last book, or start with the one I haven't read? Or is there another place in the order that Wind Through the Keyhole should go?

Tangential question: do you have opinions on whether this reread should be original flavor or revised Gunslinger?

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Sun, 07 Aug 2011 02:52:13 GMT

Okay, so I still haven't found The Gunslinger, but I decided that I know what happens in it* and just skipped to The Drawing of the Three. Which I hadn't read in forever - I haven't read any of the Dark Tower for about...god, five years now and unlike (apparently) the rest of the Dark Tower fandom, I never liked Drawing of the Three and much preferred The Gunslinger.

But now, I am done with Drawing of the Three and have begun The Waste Lands, which is probably the book in the series that I like the best. There has been the gunslinger's catechism and the giant cyborg bear and Eddie's carving stuff and Roland is going crazy and oh man, I love this book. So much love.

In other Stephen King related news! I have been watching Haven. It's still very monster-of-the-week, but it's fun and I'm enjoying it, though none of the characters have really grabbed me as yet. But, y'know, I'm only about halfway through the first season. I am looking forward to future revelations and hoping that the headline in the credits that mentions Reverend Flagg actually comes to something eventually, as opposed to just being a sort of easter egg.

*Desert, Tull, flashbacks, David, Speaking Demon, "Go then, there are other worlds than these", "Death, gunslinger, but not for you", giant freaking blade of grass.

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Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:33:47 GMT

Tonight, Mom and I went to see Cowboys and Aliens. About which, two non-spoilery things:

1) Every time I see something with Clancy Brown in it, I have the following conversation with my mom:
Me: Hey, Clancy Brown!
Mom: Who's that?
Me: ::tries to think of anything she's seen with Clancy Brown in it:: ...he was in Justice League.
Mom: ...oh.

2) I remain incapable of watching any sort of sci-fi/fantasy western without spending a good third of the time thinking about the Dark Tower. (No Eddie or Susannah in this movie, but there is an arguable Jake and, surprisingly, an Oy.) Daniel Craig has been put on my list of "actors I would not mind seeing play Roland Deschain."

I should read the Dark Tower again.

Also, it was a pretty fun movie.

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