moving along

I've finished reading A Dark and Hungry God Arises, and have started Garden of Eden. The Gap series is a good read for serious sci fi readers, but definitely not for the faint of heart. The personal violence (against the soul and the body) is so low and vulgar that you almost have to wonder what kind of person Donaldson is. His writing either betrays some sick secret fantasies or he has a penchant for reading true crime. One has to wonder. At the same time, he has a compelling sci fi series that really looks at psychology and the way victim and victimized could continually turnabout again and again.

latest read and birthday fun

I just finished reading Stephen R. Donaldson's Forbidden Knowledge, the second book in his Gap series. This is definately not sci-fi for the average fan. Donaldson typically writes about adult themes, and this book is no exception, with a main character who is raped repeatedly and forced into a stockholm syndrome like situation. The next book I intend to read is Ernest Hemmingway's Garden of Eden. I'm looking forward to this, as Hemmingway's novels are always captivating for me - I think his style is just approachable, it makes his novels flow easily. Which is a big difference from Steinbeck or Fitzgerald.

I also just turned 32, and celebrated in true dork style. My friend Jay and I played a huge game of Warhammer 40,000 that took up the time from 12:00pm until 5:30pm. We had a blast, though sadly I lost as we ran out of time - playing a massive 2 turns. Next time, we plan to play at his house and go from Friday througb saturday.

Today I finished reading Tender is the Night by F. Scout Fitzgerald, the latest novel in my attempt to repair my atrophied reading skills. Fitzgerald really tapped in to the American psyche, one could easily take the plot of this novel and jump it forward in time to the present. His fascination with the neuvo riche was something just beginning in his time, but now, fortunes are one and lost by people everyday - with the current economy, lost more of late than won. But the lottery and America's fascination with "reality" TV has made the process of gaining wealth for many easier.
Tomorrow, I plan to go to the library and get a couple of new novels, I've been focusing on Nobel laureates of late, but may look at other authors like DH Lawrence, I'm not really sure. I like to wander in libraries, just looking at books sometimes so we'll see how that goes.

In the beginning....

Today I'm going to begin trying to document the various modeling and painting projects I am working on, as well as keep a record of the novels I am reading and my general thoughts on them. I'm hoping this will help me focus a bit more on my own fictional writing among other things.