I'm not dead! And I haven't left Livejournal yet, I'm still checking my flist religiously, I promise, even if I'm entirely lurking.

At some point, I'm probably going to need to log into my Dreamwidth account for the first time in ages and figure out who everyone is on Dreamwidth and how to add them since it seems like people who held out on LJ through everything else have been evacuating one by one. I'm a pro at procrastinating, though, so I'll do that later ...

So anyways, I've vaguely formed a New Year's Resolution (formed in February, so let's call it a CNY Resolution) that since I read an awful lot of books (I read over 400 last year!), I should really write up reviews of them, especially the ones I like, especially since a good 60-70% of my reading list comes from recommendations from others. (If you write up book recs on your LJ, I add them to my list of books to read!) (I especially keep on meaning to write up reviews for the books I read for the #WOCinRomanceBookClub since I SUPER SUPER LOVED some of them.) Unfortunately, I'm a pro at procrastinating, so this hasn't happened yet, but since I recently read The Hanging Tree and then read some snatches of meta on tumblr, I've started a reread of all the Rivers of London books and have ~thoughts~ and figured what better way to jumpstart my attempt to write more reviews (I think I'm going to try to write 12 reviews this year, averaging one a month) by doing a thoughtdump on my reread.

( My Thoughts On Rereading Midnight Riot, Spoilers Through The Hanging Tree )

Wow, I haven't updated in ages ... I promise, I still read my flist religiously, I guess I'm just too lurker-y to actually comment most of the time, and don't have interesting enough things to say to post ...

However, that has changed! Recently I have read a lot, because I have had much time on my hands and also a library card for checking out physical books and sneakily TWO library cards for checking out ebooks.

Most of what I have read is a large quantity of mediocre-to-terrible romance novels. I started following Victoria Dahl on tumblr, and because she is interesting, I checked out everything she has at my local library. I was quickly reminded of the fact that I cannot abide contemporary romance novels. I like historical romance novels (and paranormal/fantasy romances, for much the same reason) because the romantic leads face obstacles to their romance that I have find believably insurmountable. Contemporary romance novels, on the other hand - generally speaking, most of the leads' problems would be solved if they just talked to each other and/or stopped making stupid decision, so I have less patience for them. Which is to say that I enjoyed Victoria Dahl's historical romances (though not as much as Courtney Milan's), but my library mostly only had her contemporaries, which were not my cup of tea.

I also completely caught up on Michelle Sagara West's Chronicles of Elantra series, and have determined that as usual, I OTP Kaylin/Severn, I despise Nightshade (if Kaylin ends up with Nightshade in a later book I may very well throw the book against the wall and never pick up the series again), and I am pleasantly surprised by the increasing numbers of female/female friendships and conversations. The books have the same flaws as they do in earlier books (I'm not a huge fan of the hyperbolic literalisms in the writing; I made up that term just now and am not certain that it's a real thing but basically I'm a bit tired of "Kaylin was afraid Sergeant Marcus would rip her throat out because he's a Leontine and Leontines often do that; no really"), but they also have the same strengths as they do in earlier books (I love Kaylin, I like Severn, and even if the plots never make any sense to me, they keep me on the edge of my seat and satisfy my id and that is all I ask of a book).

As a side note: I'm 99% sure that Kaylin is supposed to be a woman of color. I'm not good at picking up race cues from books, so I base this in large part on the fact that the woman on the cover of the Elantra books doesn't look white to me. I think there might also be textual evidence as well; I may look for this on a later reread.

And now, finally! An actual review!

( I finished reading Tamora Pierce's newest book, Battle Magic, today! )

So I have intermittently attempted to write "review" posts (more like love letters) where I gush about my favorite books of all time. It is impossible for me to talk about favorite books, however, without talking about one of my first favorite books: Anne of Green Gables.

( My Childhood )

I'm going to attempt a series of Book posts about my favorite books. I had an Introduction up a few weeks ago, talking about why I love to read (I think), and now I'm going to talk about individual books that I love. This is the first one!

So ...If I am going somewhere for longer than two or three weeks, I will bring a book. (Okay, sometimes if I go somewhere for longer than a few hours, I will also bring a book, but I'm talking traveling.) I upsize or downsize the number of books I bring depending on how long I'll be gone, how long the plane flight or car/bus ride is, and whether I'll be charged for excess weight of checked luggage.

Generally, speaking, I will always bring AT LEAST the following books:

Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn
Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold
and ONE Terry Pratchett book (either a Witches book or a Watch book, pref. one of each; specifically Night Watch, Fifth Elephant, Thud!, Witches Abroad, and/or Lords and Ladies)

Of these, my absolute favorite in terms of plot is: ( <i>Summers at Castle Auburn</i> by Sharon Shinn; 'ware SPOILERS )And that's why this book is my ultimate go-to comfort read, and I'm sad there's not more fanfic.