happy st. valentines day ~ !

[lookingland]

my internet on my home computer is not running very well ~ i have no idea why, but it's just cranking ridiculously slow and keeps timing out, etc. could be weather related (that's my guess), but anyway, that's why i have been slow and silent on this end, perhaps. i am having a sorta crummy week anyway, so it's probably just as well.

i ain't gonna kvetch about the worm feasting on the damask cheek and all that. i've been a little storm-tossed the last couple of days, but am finding my sea-legs gradually. i was sorta browsing back through my journal from the past year and realized that it was almost exactly a year ago that i polled all you lovely peeps in ljLand and you voted pretty whole-heartedly for "a lotta little books" from me.

and have i written them???

: o p

well, never fear intrepid readers of this oft-mundane, certainly inconsistent, and most definitely unfocused blog in the sphere. i said i would have a book by valentine's day, said it would be An Abiding Something, and while i lied about which book, i am going to really push myself to finish one nevertheless. i don't have a title for it yet, which sorta stinks, but i'm working on it!

meanwhile, for the 50bookchallenge (on which i am sorely behind):

no. 4 ~ The Coal Black Horse by robert olmstead. this book isn't really about the horse at all, first of all. secondly, it's painfully clear that the writer wrote it with a thesaurus in hand, trying entirely too dang hard to make it all "literary" or something. this is the worst book i have read in quite some time. basic plot: 14 year-old Robey is charged by his mother to go find his father at Gettysburg. Robey (quite randomly) is loaned a horse that gets stolen and is (just as randomly) recovered and then he finds his father, mortally wounded, buries him pointlessly, and saves a girl from her lecherous rapist guardian. she's knocked up and has twins, that she subsequently throws in the river, but Robey saves them. the end. i gave this book far more of a chance than it deserved. the story is lame and the writing is wretched. yuck on all counts.

no. 5 ~ Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C. S. Forester. having watched all the movies, i thought it would be fun to read the books. i'm amazed at how well the films are adapted from Hornblower's early exploits. there are changes and accommodations here and there, but much of the film dialogue is taken straight from the book. forester's style is easy on the eyes and his stories are easy on the head. i think, at long last, i've found some pulpish books that i can actually read (huge coup for me!). this late-written (but early chronologically) omnibus contains most of the stories that make up the first four films. fun stuff!

it's especially interesting to me
that so many later "captain" models admit their
inspiration and influence coming from Hornblower,
from P. O'Brien to Gene Roddenberry!

Comments

[bachsoprano.livejournal.com]

So sorry to read about the crummy week. Nuts! Glad to hear that you've got a plan, though.

Interesting that the movies didn't deviate from the books too much....love those A&E folks (or was it BBC?) and how they really pay attention to detail and try to get it right. :)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

plans are definitely good. if they are good plans ~ hahahahahaha.

: o p

"a lotta little books"

[(Anonymous)]

"and have i written them???"

I suspect the answer is no. I think it would be swell if you did. How 'bout doing that? hmmmmm?

:-)

m.

Re: "a lotta little books"

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i'll get right on that ~ hahahahahaha.

: D