wow, looks like something I should go and read o.o........after the "currently hoping to finish list" is finished and the "catch up to the current novel list" is finished......errrr....yea, might take a while.............

@Lillith --

And I think Rose relates stuff to books because that is how she has lived. You have to remember until she was a scholar in a school setting. She hadn't really done anything yet.

In Fire Rose, she HAS, though. She's practically gotten her doctorate, and she's had a failed love affair already. That's a lot of *action* for a woman of that era.

Re: disliking pretty people, there are plenty of times she mocks pretty former (female) classmates and the like. I don't have the book in front of me, since I've returned it, or I'd quote it.

Re: opinion vs know-it-all -- I think though, if you tried to make yourself out like an expert on Japan, instead of an enthusiast, people could see through you in a second. That's what Rose was doing when she was trying be all "I've seen it all".

The rest of your points make sense, though, in context of Beauty and the Beast. I think I just must really dislike the fairy tale and its retellings.

Now that I know that Mercedes Lackey has a great website, I'll just be going by that bibliography. Amazing that she has six books coming out this year, even if there are two written with other people.

I was really excited when I saw on the book list that she had collaborated with Piers Anthony until I saw this:

But my main irritation of the moment is the Audit. This is simplified, as all the details would be tedious and confusing. I have done some business with BAEN BOOKS, a publisher which at first seemed quite promising. But over the years there were little signals of mischief, and then larger ones, and finally a giant one that required me to take firm action. When I agreed to do If I Pay Thee Not In Gold there collaboratively, it was to be the first of a series. But when my collaborator dumped an insultingly sloppy manuscript on me-apparently she was angry at my assumption that I know how to write Piers Anthony style better than she know how to write Piers Anthony style-I cleaned it up as well as I could, a real headache, and told the publisher I would not do another. That marked the turning point in our relations. The publisher paid the collaborator more than $55,000, and paid me $400. And subsequently stopped sending me statements at all. The publisher had originally estimated, and stated so in the contract, that it expected to pay me, as the senior writer, on the order of $100,000. Obviously I would not have made the deal if I had known it would be for peanuts; money aside, the experience was already bad enough. Evidently the books started to be cooked the moment the publisher felt it didn't need me any more. Not to put too fine a point on this, but I don't think the collaborator's contribution was worth well over a hundred times what mine was, and the failure even to send statements was an open breach of contract. I am not a good writer to stiff. When my agent's repeated queries got nowhere, I acted directly, with a high powered New York auditor backed by the same lawyer I had used before to make TOR honor its own deal. Well, it has now been over four months, and the BAEN is still stonewalling the audit. Preliminary figures indicate that I am owed from $20,000 to $55,000, but these have to be confirmed, and the publisher is not providing the necessary accounts. I suspect it will take a court order to blast them out, and another to force payment actually to be made, with the threat of punitive damages. So the issue is not yet settled, but I think enough shows here to be a warning to other writers who may consider doing business with this publisher.

Boo. I am curious to read it, anyway.

Originally Posted by Guivre

Now that I know that Mercedes Lackey has a great website, I'll just be going by that bibliography. Amazing that she has six books coming out this year, even if there are two written with other people.

I was really excited when I saw on the book list that she had collaborated with Piers Anthony until I saw this:

Boo. I am curious to read it, anyway.

I think Lackey's website is one of the best author's website I've seen.
Wow really? I have to go see what she is coming out with.

And that is just horrible.

It took me an hour today to get through a few sentences of Miyazaki no Shigoto -- so many kanji I didn't know! And there was this really long sentence that I simply can't quite translate. I think it was giving examples of what Hayao Miyazaki's popularity has done to people. There were a lot of "people who can be said to have..." type phrases. Hopefully when I take the intensive reading course next year I can ask the professor to help me translate some of it.

... unless someone on here reads Japanese?

@anime_scholar: I wish I could read Japanese. Dx I should probably take some classes too, but I'm afraid I'd lose it all very quickly.

anime_scholar>> ah.....I thought about trying to learn it, and then I was like...meh...I can't even read chinese yet! XP

Up to chapter 5 finally of the vampire book. It's a long book plus tiny writing as well so takes a while. I read bit by bit each day.

MedievalBeauty>> which vampire book? :3

I think I'll start in on this contest. 50 books in a year should be easy enough...

LaVida: The complete guide to vampire mythology by Charlotte Montague.

I just picked up a copy of The Hobbit today at the library for cheaps. ^^ Now I can reread it whenever I like. I need to get a new copy/copies of LoTR though... Mine's kind of trashed, haha.

@MedievalBeauty: Oooh, sounds like a really big book. xD Is it any good?

Woo, I finished my Sherlock Holmes book so I could take it back to the library and ended up getting another pile of books. That meant I've finished my personal challenge of 25 books with it being my first year at university. I'll see how close to 50 I can get in the next two and a half months anyway. XD

Congrats, KatMagenta! I've heard lots of good things about Sherlock Holmes, but I think I've only ever read a short story or two, maybe...

Thanks Risika. ^^

If Granada has made an adaptation of it, I will read it! That's why I've read so many Poirot novels as well. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was more or less a collection of short stories so it wasn't a difficult read. It did refer back to other cases (both part of the collection and outside of it) but not in any explicit detail.

Hmmm, I'll have to look into it then... Poirot rings a bell. Probably something I had to read in English or something. xD

Here's my list as it stands:

Book Count: 50

Have Read

Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino
Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy (volume II) edited by Al Sarrantonio
Star Trek: Generations by J.M. Dillard
Vampire Kisses: Blood Relatives story by Ellen Schrieber, art by REM
Shaman King by Hiroyuki Takei
Kurohime by Masanori Ookamigumi Katakura
Rosario+Vampire by Akihisa Ikeda
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Hellsing by Kohta Hirano
Star Trek by Alan Dean Foster
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Ties that Bind by Makoto Inoue
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: The Necromancer by Michael Scott
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
Fire Star by Christ D'Lacey
Keys to the Kingdom: Drowned Wednsday by Garth Nix
Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Gene Roddenberry
The Fire Eternal by Chris D'Lacey
Keys to the Kingdom: Sir Thursday by Garth Nix
Atherton: The House of Power by Patrick Carman
Doctor Who: Wetworld By Mark Michelowski
Doctor Who: Forever Autumn by Mark Morris
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Torchwood: The Undertaker's Gift by Trevor Baxendale
Torchwood: Pack Animals by Peter Anglhides
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
Atherton: Rivers of Fire by Patrick Carman
Atherton: The Dark Planet by Patrick Carman
The Keys to the Kingdom: Lady Friday by Garth Nix
Doctor Who: The Forgotten Army by Brian Minchin
The Keys to the Kingdom: Superior Saturday by Garth Nix
The Keys to the Kingdom: Lord Sunday by Garth Nix
Comic Art Now by Dez Skin
Stones of Abraxas by K. Osbourne Sullivan
Soul Eater by Atsushi Ohkubo
Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: The Alchemyst by Michael Scott
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: The Magician by Michael Scott
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: The Sorceress by Michael Scott
Star Trek: First Strike by Diane Carey
Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Soldiers of Fear by Dean Wesley Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Time's Enemy by L.A. Graf
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
Star Trek: Voyager: The Final Fury by Dafydd ab Hugh


CHALLENGE FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just finished reading Word Freak, the account of a Wall Street Journal reporter's attempt to succeed in the world of competitive Scrabble. Apparently there was also a movie, I had no idea either of them existed, I just picked this off the shelf when I was looking for a book on Mah jong the other day.

I liked it, but felt the chronology wass a little weird. I think he jumped around a bit to make it easier to follow, but it still was little odd to read things out of order. It's got a kooky cast of characters in it, and some actual fascinating gameplay too.

Awesome. I've almost finished The complete guide to vampire mythology and I must say it is very graphic as in gory details about how vampires originated and different urban myths relating to vampires as well. I'm up to where they are discussing modern vampires as well as novels and movies that depict the vampire myth.

I need to find the next book in the Vampire Kisses series. I love Raven Madison!

Originally Posted by Guivre

@shadowfoot -- that would explain why different sites don't know where to number Fire Rose in the series. I've been away from Mercedes Lackey's books for a few years, so I've just been going by the listing on the inside pages. Now I wonder why they put them in that order. D=? Maybe alphabetical. I should look again.

That makes a lot of sense on why it seems a bit different than the others. It's a shame I didn't like it so much, because the lead character is from Chicago. =D And Chicago was really fascinating in that time around the Columbian Exposition.

I just looked at Mercedes Lackey's website, and it looks like I should have read Gates of Sleep before Phoenix and Ashes. Oh well. Hopefully there's nothing I needed to know.

I don't think there is anything in Gates of Sleep that is terribly important to know first. In fact, I think I read it after I read the others, but before Wizard of London.

I've read the vampire kisses novels before. They are good. :)

Much better than Twilight...*gags*

I think pretty much anything can fall into the category "better than Twilight". Or at least, I've yet to find something worse.

Yeah. Thankfully, Twilight hasn't destroyed my liking of vampires.

Well, seeing as they're not really vampires... It's okay. I actually enjoy my vampires more thoroughly now. ^^