One imperfect letter, one missing page

125. ^*Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby? by Allyson Beatrice (233)

I put this on my tbr list on the strength of the title alone, I think. This book is a look at how fandom - specifically online Buffy/Angel fandom - changed one woman's life.

I haven't been deeply involved in a fandom since I was in high school, but I was deeply involved for several years and it has effected my life in some ways similarly to Allyson's - the threads of that involvement linger in old friendships and in-jokes and fond memories. It was fun to read about a fandom that was as close and intense as the one I was involved in, but because it was filled with adults rather than teens, the members could do things like travel across the country (or in some cases, across the globe) to gather and meet, contact the actors and other people involved in the shows and actually have them respond and occasionally get involved, and so on.

Overall it was a very enjoyable book, often laugh-out-loud funny and at times poignant (the story near the end about everyone donating money to bring their friend from Israel to the US for two weeks almost brought me to tears). It was a fairly easy read, too, especially for non-fiction, written in a conversational tone, perhaps similar to blog or forum posts.

126. *Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin (184)

George Orr's dreams change reality. He is sent to a psychologist with a specialization in sleep and dream disorders and for the first time in his life, he has hope that he'll be able to stop his "effective dreaming", which is a responsibility he does not want. Instead, the doctor starts using his dreams to change the world. But dreams aren't as easy to control as the doctor would like to believe...

I was expecting another book as dense and difficult as The Left Hand of Darkness, but Lathe of Heaven was both shorter and much easier to read. That doesn't mean it was less powerful or fascinating, however.

126 / 150 books. 84% done!

63 / 75 *new books. 84% done!

5 / 10 ^non-fiction. 50% done!

34170 / 40000 pages. 85% done!

122. *The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia (304)

A lovely steampunk novel with an unusual main character. Mattie is emancipated automaton, created to be a maid but allowed to grow and learn beyond her original skills. She chooses to learn Alchemy and also learns to tread the line between the human world and the mechanical. Mattie is a wonderfully sympathetic character, naive and intelligent at the same time. She is tied inextricably to her creator, the Mechanic Loharri, who - although he emancipated her - keeps the key she needs to wind herself up.

There are many different plots running parallel in this book, often twisting around or through each other. It's impressive, actually, how much story there is in what seems like such a short book.

122 / 150 books. 81% done!

61 / 75 *new books. 81% done!

4 / 10 ^non-fiction. 40% done!

33185 / 40000 pages. 83% done!

These are books that I'm not going to finish, for one reason or another:

Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland (137/unfinished)

LibraryThing Early Reviewer book

I tried, I really did, but I gave up maybe a third of the way through. I just don't care. I don't care about the main character, the two men she's intensely attracted to I find repulsive, and nothing is happening. Also, I really don't care if their world is overrun by evil fallen angels. I gave the book to a coworker who may appreciate it more than I do.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (audio/unfinished)

I love this book on paper, but the lady who is reading it has an uncomfortable, grating voice, especially when she's reading someone else's dialogue besides Tally. It got to a point where I just couldn't deal with it anymore. I don't know how someone with a voice like that got into the business, frankly.

Knave of Dreams by Andre Norton (audio/unfinished)

Once again, I tried, but this book really lost me from about the first chapter, in which the main character learned a whole new language in about two days, without any magical or scientific aide. Sorry...no.

He (the main character) is also rather an idiot. Ok, I grant that he's been thrown into a new and strange situation, but he has a tendency to jump to some very odd conclusions on the one hand, but at other times get exactly the right conclusion on half the information. I give up.

Currently reading (and loving):
The Magician's Ward by Patricia C. Wrede
The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia