#also the first narnia movie cast commentary makes me so happy

[inknerd]

January Wrap-Up 2019

The first month of 2019 is over! So unreal. I passed an exam I thought for sure I’d fail but also got my phone and debit card stolen. I finished my first term at uni and have started to make friends there, which is fun! I read quite a bit this month and I’m so excited for what I should read next. There’s just! So many!

AIR AWAKENS by ELISE KOVA ★☆☆☆☆ | 330 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2015

Welp, not the best start of my reading this year, I’ll admit. This is one of those moments were I’m seriously confused why a book has such a high rating on goodreads. Like, I understand why you would sort of like it, I guess, but 4 stars? No. + I dig the cover. As soon as I saw it and read the description I thought to myself that ‘maybe this book would remind me of Avatar: The Last Airbender?’ Obviously, it did not, but the cover is still pretty. - Just...the main character was so meek and the rest of the cast was frustrating at best and boring at worst (the love interest(s) I swear to god...). The plot, the worldbuilding and the magic system were pretty non-existent or badly explained, and I found the writing lacking. I feel like this book should have been longer in order to be what it wanted to be. 

THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE by C.S. LEWIS ★★★☆☆ | 183 pages | 1 day to read | Published 1950

Finally took the time to read this! I’m planning to read the entire series...eventually. + I love the world of Narnia and this book gave me a bit more insight compared to the movies, which was nice! It was a quick and fun read. - The characters, while I didn’t dislike them, seemed very flat and/or different from how I perceived them before. I prefer the movie in general, as a matter of fact.

THE HORSE AND HIS BOY by C.S. LEWIS ★★★☆☆  | 221 pages | 3 days to read | Published 1954

I didn’t know anything about this going into it - mainly because this don’t have a movie of its own. But I was pleasantly surprised, and if I hadn’t loved the Pevensies and their story as much before reading their book, I would probably say this book is slightly better? + The characters have more deep in this one, and overall the story is pretty fun? Like, it’s about two talking horses and two children trying to run away to Narnia, together with cameos from the Pevensies. I liked it. - The story in this, more than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe dragged a little more, and, along with the first book, made me realise I don’t really like Aslan that much. lol.

FIRE & HEIST by SARAH BETH DURST ★★☆☆☆ | 304 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2018

I got this in a fairyloot box and didn’t really know what to think of it...I was intruiged by were-dragons but then the story took place in modern times which wasn’t what I’d hoped for. In the end I read through this pretty quickly, skimming a bit. + Were-dragons. Very cool idea. The writing could be funny and witty at times. - I wasn’t interested in the story at all; it went from planning a heist to travel to another dimension and I just wasn’t up for it. The characters were pretty boring as was the romance. The book was too short to have such a large cast, in my opinion.

FOR EVERY ONE by JASON REYNOLDS ★★★★☆ | 112 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2018

I hadn’t really planned to read this, per se. But I got the free ebook and was like, “eh, it’s short. Let’s go”, and I’m happy that I did. + I really liked the poem in itself and the way it looked against the pages. - Now that I think back though, the poem might be a bit forgettable?

THE GIVER by LOIS LOWRY ★★★★☆ | 225 pages | 1 day to read | Published 1993

Don’t know why I suddenly wanted to read this. It’s been like this book that I’ve passed at the store and the library for years and I’ve never wanted to pick it up and I had no clue what it was about. But, suddenly I wanted to read it and I’m glad I did. + I liked the themes and the worldbuilding the most. Despite having a couple of years on it, and despite being a dystopia, it felt surprisingly fresh? It had this feeling of magical realism that I dig, and the characters were fine, too. - I can’t say I understand the ending...like at all.

GATHERING BLUE by LOIS LOWRY ★★★☆☆ | 241 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2000

I’m planning to read this entire series, so here we go! + Once again I liked the worldbuilding, especially how Lowry seems to play with different types of communities so that you can see different types of humans react in extreme situations.  - And also once again, can’t say I liked the ending. While I understood it this time, it seemed kind of...cheap? Can’t say I liked one of the plot twists that much, either.

MESSENGER by LOIS LOWRY ★★★☆☆ | 187 pages | 2 days to read | Published 2004

+ This tied the first and second book together somewhat nicely. The best part of it I think was that it explained the ending of both The Giver and Gathering Blue, and the continued social commentary was still interesting - and very relevant today, as well. - This followed a character from the Gathering Blue that I didn’t care for that much, and there were many things that I wanted to know more of, like the sinister force invading the land etc. The ending was sort of, okay? But maybe I’ll understand it more after reading the fourth book, like I did with the first and second one.

TEMPESTS AND SLAUGHTER by TAMORA PIERCE ★★★★☆ | 465 pages | 3 days to read | Published 2018

I was so excited for this book because Wild Magic is my jam, and Numair was one of my favourite characters. I liked this book more than I thought I would! + I really love Pierce’s world and magic system, very believable and interesting at the same time! I also got way more insight into Arram’s character and abilities, and also grew to appreciate characters like Varice, that I didn’t really care for when reading the Immortals series. - I can imagine this book not being as interesting for someone who isn’t at least a bit familiar with Tortall and the characters already? There wasn’t much action and not really that much of a plot either; the book could definitely drag sometimes, though I’m very excited to see what happens next!

AMERICAN PANDA by GLORIA CHAO ★★★☆☆ | 311 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2018

I got the free ebook and decided, why not? + It’s always interesting to read about different cultures than your own, and this centrainly gave some insight into a teenager who doesn’t really know where she’s heading. - The story could get a bit weird sometimes? Like I don’t know how to explain it but sometimes people just reacted strangely to what other people said, or just straight up walked away. And then there was an odd mix of dramatic moments and clichés that I didn’t like, and the characters overall where meh, with the main romance not being that interesting.

WINTERSONG by S. JAE-JONES ★★☆☆☆ | 436 pages | 3 days to read | Published 2017

I wanted to read this book so much, even though I’d heard mixed/negative feelings about it. But it was inspired by Labyrinth, one of my favourite movies, and Goblin Market, one of my favourite poems, so how could I NOT read it? + There’s a lot of quotes and allusions from both Labyrinth and Goblin Market, and they all made me so happy! Like, there were straight up lines from the movie like “I’m tired of living up to your expectations” and there was the Market scene in the beginning of the book - I would read this book again for them, because I’m a nerd. - And that’s...it, with good things I’m afraid. I just didn’t like the story but I could have dealed with that if the characters weren’t so horrible. The main character couldn’t go two pages without mentioning or complaining of how not-pretty she was and I get that it was part of the theme but it just made me want to strangle her. 

SAWKILL GIRLS by CLAIRE LEGRAND ★★★★☆ | 450 pages | 10 days to read | Published 2018

I started reading this just when I had a paper I had to do, so I put it off for a bit and then flew through it in like two days. + Just... very good representation in general. Bi people! Ace people! There were several one-liners I really liked, the supporting characters were nice and the overall feeling was creepy and magical. A nice book! - There were some things I wished were explored more about the world and the monsters living in it, and some of the main characters decisions felt somewhat strange to me and also reactions to certain people dying felt pretty awkward at times. Otherwise, it was good.

COLLECTED POEMS by KARIN BOYE ★★★★★ | 286 pages | 3 days to read | Published 2015 (1950)

Slowly making my way through some Swedish poets. I’m very happy I read this collection in particular, it was such a good one! + Rather than using tabs I underlined and wrote on the pages, which proved very effective. The thing with poetry collections, and especially longer ones, is that I always run into parts where I don’t like the poems as much/get bored, but I didn’t have this issue with Boye, most were really great! - I don’t really have anything negative to say.

THE NIGHTINGALE by KRISTIN HANNAH ★★★★☆ | 440 pages | 3 days to read | Published 2015

I’d heard quite a lot about this and how good it were, which made me curious! + It has a nice pace, the characters are interesting; especially because you get to see two different sides of the war, yet those sides also interlap.  - I wasn’t ecstatic about the ending. Somehow the characters felt like they got more one-dimensional? And it felt almost preachy at times.

[thesoundofsimple]

It took me a while to compile these. Maybe I was busy, maybe I didn’t want the closure.  I’m not always so great with closure. I think it was more that i tried and failed to post this several times and it was starting to become too much work. Anyway, I’ve finished the series. This story has consumed me for the last two years. Hey, I’m not a fast reader ok - don’t you judge me. But it’s a nice thing to have something in your life like that for so long, what’s the rush. I’ve compiled a bunch of my fav moments from the book below along with some commentary on some of them. Where to begin... I read this series because of two people. Either in high school or early college my friend Matt insisted that I start reading the Gunslinger series. He was obsessed with it. I was not a king fan at the time and chalked his interest Up to the other weirdo fantasy books he would read about kings and queens and warriors and big bears and those fantasy books you would see in the bookstores with the girls with the big boobs and they are riding a wolf or something from other dimensions and such (you know the ones right?) Sometimes he’d plead with me anyway about how I was missing out. I ignored this but regardless, the seed was planted. As I was reading this, i realized how lucky i was to be able to just keep reading this series unencumbered by the wait for publication. I was never having to wait YEARS for the next book to come out, or wondering if it ever would come out. I kinda got the Netflix treatment on this, i could binge read. I had the sad realization that as obsessed as Matt was with the series, he only got through three. He died a few months before Wizard and Glass which i realize is a small tragedy in comparison to the whole "he died" part but its a tragedy nonetheless. I wish Matt could have been able to finish the series. That would have made him happy. He was a nice person and one of my best friends, I realize writing this, I miss him. The other person implicated here as getting me interested was my friend Amy. She'd been a big King fan since she was a kid. A little kid. A weird little kid according to her, reading fukin Pet Cemetery at age 11 and such. My own 11 year old would have to be committed to a mental institution if she read that book. Amy liked reading in general and I hadn't really been reading any books in a long time and I was embarrassed about that when it came to her so i tried to start reading a bit not to seem like a total degenerate. that kid had a way of making me do things that were good, things i should be doing - nice quality really. She had a way of picking out things for me that, well, I really liked. She was my taste-maker for a few years with stuff like this and I came to believe if she said i would like it, well it was a done deal because she was always right about what i'd like. That said, she was also a little self conscious sometimes about her interests. She'd go on a whole rant about something sorta esoteric and then suddenly become self aware and look embarrassed, say something like "yeah, your girl's a real weirdo, sorry" but I loved listening and learning about lots of stuff (great stuff) i just had been oblivious to. Roland and his friends were among Amy's favorite stories. So a few years later when we, well, didn't talk anymore, and I missed her... quite a lot, I started picking up some of the books she told me about. While Matt put the idea in my head to read these books, I know that the real reason i finally did was to have a tiny part of her around, a one way connection but a connection regardless (now who's the weirdo) And it was nice to be honest. I would have liked to have talked to her about these books, or just say Thankya for putting the idea in my head. 

It’s amazing to me how much the world changed for King from the first book to the last. Or since Matt left. Or since Amy left. Or shall I say, the world has moved on, if it do ya. That the first book was started before I was born and before the last, Harry Potter appeared in the world of Roland. This was an almost uncomprehendingly amazing story. I cant believe it came from one brain. its staggering to me really, truly staggering. Thank you Mr. King. August 1, 2018. 

—————————— My comments in bold You needn’t die happy when your day comes, but you must die satisfied"

“That smell of cooking meat wafting through the air was not pork.”

“sköldpadda tumbled to the red rug, bounced beneath one of the tables, and there (like a certain paper boat some of you may remember) passes out of this tale forever” Loved this reference to IT

“A man can’t pull himself up by his own bootstraps no matter how hard he tries” agreed. reflective of my continuing shift to the left of the political spectrum

“Roland nodded, which wasn’t good enough for Eddie. “Let me hear you say it.”“Hoggie.”“Hoagie.”“HOOG-gie.” Philly! “always tuned to the oldies on WCBS” my mom always had this on growing up. cousin brucie. 

“Anyone who doesn’t think the imagination can kill is a fool” it can. it can make your day or ruin your life

“He leaned forward through the fragrant pipe-smoke. “Son,” he said, “tell your tale. And don’tcha skip a goddam word.”” you knew he was going to believe, i loved this. 

“And she kept the secret. I was the only one she ever told.” Eddie, perhaps remembering that post-coital confidence in the dark of night, was smiling painful” keeping each other secrets... i know that painful smile while remembering

“John offered them a smile that augured well for his future as a dirty trickster: bemused on the surface, sly beneath. well, i just liked this

“Do any of us, except in our dreams, truly expect to be reunited with our hearts’ deepest loves, even when they leave us only for minutes, and on the most mundane of errands? No, not at all. Each time they go from our sight we in our secret hearts count them as dead. Having been given so much, we reason, how could we expect not to be brought as low as Lucifer for the staggering presumption of our love?” and sometimes, they leave, and indeed, are gone.  “and so will the world end, I think, a victim of love rather than hate. For love’s ever been the more destructive weapon, sure.” aye

“To a wide-eyed lad, the tacky tricks of the world’s most ham-fisted prestidigitator look like miracles. ”

“Steek-Tete in Thunder-clap, thinking just briefly of Mr. C. S. Lewis, and the wonderful wardrobe that took you to Narnia. They did not come out in Narnia.”

“What do you know about what it’s like to spend your whole life on the outside, to be the butt of the joke every time, to always be Carrie at the fuckin prom?”

“It was a simple and perfect bit of wordless communication, the sort people who love each other take for granted.”

“My grandfather had a proverb,” Pimli said. “‘You don’t worry about dropping the eggs until you’re almost home.’” “Was it Emily Dickinson who called hope the thing with feathers? I can’t remember” had a friend, she liked this one. 

“Because the only thing talent wants is to be used.””

“Yet he is content enough. The food is good, and although his sexual appetites have subsided quite a bit over the years, he’s not a bit averse to the odd bonk, just reminding himself”“very time that sim sex is really nothing but accessorized masturbation” I cant help but think this is my future. at least it will be accessorized!

If there’s any movie the Breakers never get enough of, it’s Star Wars.” was this a dig a starwars?  “Roland smiled. “A man who can’t bear to share his habits is a man who needs to quit them.”  “Yet still I love you and would serve you and even bring the magic again, if you would allow me, for that is how my heart was cast when I rose from the Prim”

“Even if the torture stops, I’ll die. And you’ll die too, for when love leaves the world, all hearts are still. Tell them of my love and tell them of my pain and tell them of my hope, which still lives.”

“Nerves, he thought, were for people who still hadn’t entirely made up their minds.”

“the rest of the tale will be short and brutal compared to all that’s gone before. Because when katet breaks the end always comes quickly.Say sorry” = king does this thing where he makes a statement like this and you start worrying and reading faster and faster “All is forgotten in the stone halls of the dead. These are the rooms of ruin where the spiders spin and the great circuits fall quiet, one by one”

“He used to tell me that never’s the word God listens for when he needs a laugh.”” “Hush,” he whispered, and she did. The hand caught in her hair pulled. She brought her face to his willingly and kissed his living lips one last time. “I . . . will . . . wait for you,” he said, forcing each word out with immense effort.”

“I probably know more about D-cups than D-lines, and I think that’s true of everyone here”  i take the D line home, D cups are more fun. 

“on order from Viking Motors (“The Boys with the Toys”) in Oxford himself.” i think i stopped into this store last fall

“It was also a stick shift, and she had never driven one of those.”

“Roland and Jake were now bracing their hands against the dusty metal dashboard, where a faded sticker proclaimed AMERICA! LOVE IT OR LEAVE! in red white and blue” was once in a bar in south boston and they have this big sign up that says this. i agreed at the time 15 years ago, now i realize it’s against everything i believe in

“You’re in one hell of a hurry, mister—like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. What very important date are you almost too late for?”  I believe this is what is known as The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon

“Despite his sorrow, there were no tears yet; his eyes felt like hot stones in his head. Perhaps the tears would come later, when the truth of what had happened here had a chance to sink in a little”

“He knelt a moment longer with his hands clasped between his knees, thinking he had not understood the true power of sorrow, nor the pain of regret, until this moment.I cannot bear to let him go.”

“It’s what we call poetic license, Roland.”He nodded, showing unexpected (to her, at least) understanding. “Pretty lies,” he said” =pretty lies, i liked that

“If she had trimmed her bush, maybe she would have taken them off. If she’d known, getting up that morning“

“You wouldn’t dump me without at least . . .” She shrugged one shoulder. The gesture made her look very young. “Without at least saying goodbye?”

“The George Washington,” Marian Carver said. “Or just the GWB, if you’re a native.” i used to listen to the traffic reports as a kid and know all these abbreviations, GWB, BQE, LIE, etc

That man had some hard bark on him

“He opened it and slipped inside with no look back. That, he had found, was ever the easiest way.”

“There were photographs of Eddie and Jake in the folders that were simply too painful to look at. Memories were better.”  “nothing so glamorous, just a retreaded adman from upstate New York”

“Then she screamed. There were no words in it, nor could there have been. Our greatest moments of triumph are always inarticulate.”

“Because the body had a way of forgetting the worst things, she supposed, and without the body’s cooperation, all the brain had were memories like faded snapshots.”

“Good boys go to heaven, and all my friends be in t’other place, toastin marshmallows” 

“It felt strange to laugh, but it was a good feeling, like finding something of value long after you were sure it was lost forever.” this resonated with me

“Oy had decided to live. It was a small thing, but it was a good thing.” It was a good choice. it always is. no matter what. 

“not Sheemie, he’s gone into the clearing at the end of the path, say sorry” thought sheemie deserved a better more dramatic end. “After today she’d see him no more. And that was for the best. Still, she would have given anything in her life to have him make love to her again. You could stay at the apartment for a couple of days and rest up,” she said. “I’d stay with you.” And fuck thy brains out, do it please ya, she thought” sex with an ex? yes please. 

““Bet your bottom dollar,” Roland answered”“and was sorry immediately. He’d learned the phrase from Eddie, and saying it hurt.” has this happened to me, using a phases of a departed only to find is satisfying but satisfying at the same time? i think so...

“In the dark, such visions had a horrible persuasiveness, but luckily she was too tired for them to keep her awake long.”

““It hasn’t been a bad life,” Joe was saying. “Not the life I expected, not by any manner or means, but I got a theory—the folks who end up living the lives they expected are more often than not the ones who end up takin sleepin pills or sticking the barrel of a gun in their mouths and pullin the trigger.”

“Laughter, Susannah would reflect later, is like a hurricane: once it reaches a certain point, it becomes self-feeding, self-supporting. You laugh not because the jokes are funny but because your own condition is funny.”

“But what Roland and Susannah and Patrick heard in a major key, Mordred heard in a minor” i liked this. i have  this really really smart friend but he cant understand the difference between major and minor even when i played him some stuff in piano, hes like “i dont get it”

“Beneath a picture of Roland in profile, he had printed: BEATLES, not Beetles.” WOW i never NEVER realized this! im in IDIOT

“She wondered why everything had to be so damn hard, so damn”“riddle-de-dum) mysterious, and knew that was a question to  which she would never find a satisfactory answer . . . except it was the human condition, wasn’t it? The answers that mattered never came easily.” 

“where she’d learned the art of murder and fallen in love and been left bereaved?”

1. “More important than that, it was unworthy of how much he had come to love and respect her. It broke what remained of his heart to think of bidding her goodbye, but if it was what she wanted, what she needed, then he must do it. 

2. “No,” said he, and she saw he truly was not. She believed she had never seen such sadness and such loneliness on a human face. “Never” 3. “For a moment she thought he would make it easy on her, just agree and let her go. Then his anger—no, his despair—broke in a painful burst. “But you can’t be sure! ” 4. “She took him by the arm and pulled him down and put her lips on his. When she inhaled, she took in the breath of a thousand years and ten thousand miles. And yes, she tasted death.” 5. “He put his face in his hands. It occurred to him that if he had never loved them, he would never have felt so alone as this. Yet of all his many regrets, the re-opening of his heart was not among them, even now. She had brought grace to his life. It wasn’t a word that had occurred to him until she was gone.” this whole section where suzanne leaves roland was kinda hard for me to read, a little to close to home. even tho they were just friends, it was very familiar. 

“A hard rain made for queer bedfellows at the inn; had Roland never heard that saying?”

“Or what if he does know her, somewhere far back in his mind, yet still denies her as completely as Peter denied Jesus, because remembering is just too hurtful?”

“She tosses Roland’s revolver into this litter barrel. Doing it hurts her heart, but she never hesitates.” id never be able to do this. 

“His touch is electric, and she sees that he feels it, too. It occurs to her that he is going to kiss her again for the first time, and sleep with her again for the first time, and fall in love with her again for the first time. He may know those things because voices have told him, but she knows them for a far better reason: because those things have”“already happened. Ka is a wheel, Roland said, and now she knows it’s true. This was a sweet part of the book. Reminded me of a lyric “i get the joy of rediscovering you...”

“And will I tell you that these three lived happily ever after? I will not, for no one ever does. But there was happiness.”

“One taste of the old times sets all to rights”

“All right. I go. Long days and pleasant nights. May we meet in the clearing at the end of the path when all worlds end.” Thank you.