Sunday, May 11, 2008

Fate's Acquittal

Hey y'all. I know I've been slacking off... between being sick, and "stimulating the economy (read - shopping *grin*) I haven't posted much here in a few days. I have every intention of remedying this lapse...soon...I have tried to keep up on my other blog, as it has a more "structured" layout. I have however, managed to pretty well keep up with the blogs I "follow" - it takes much, much less time to read than it does to write...lol.
One of my favorites is Fate's Acquittal. Now, I'm not a blog reviewer, or even remotely qualified to be one - Hell, I just learned they existed about 2 or so months ago! But, I do read. A lot. A whole lot. On average I read 3-4 books a week. Sometimes more, occasionally (like when I'm sick and can't even see, let alone read) a bit less. I'm also pretty set in what I like - Historical Fiction, preferably very historical, like oh, I dunno, no less than 500 or more years ago..I am also a huge fan of Fantasy, not to be confused with Sci-Fi. If it involves Magic & doesn't contain sky-scrapers or cars, or any of that modern-type stuff, I'm all good. Swords, horses, spells, wandering the world on foot or by boat - these are the things I love. It doesn't have to be "our" world, just so long as there aren't spaceships or lasers involved in getting there.
I also have a affinity for Horror. But finding good horror, that I haven't read, is becoming increasingly difficult. Anne Rice was a favorite for a long time, as was Steven King, but as the years have passed they have both "changed." Now as a rule, change is good, but don't mess with my reading material! King lost me when he "sold out" so to speak. I was sorely disappointed by the loooooong wait for the next Gunslinger book (we're talking yeeeeaaaarrrrsssss here), but he didn't lose me completely until he did the "novelettes." You know, take one good book, turn it into 6 little books, and sell each one for $9,99? Yeah, that was the end for me. I'm a bit of a cheapskate to begin with, especially when it comes to books. Not that books aren't worth it, but to spend $9,99 on something I'm going to read completely in an hour or two..? I don't think so. Don't misunderstand, I buy books - I buy lots of books, but they are nice, thick, going-to-last a-couple-of-days books.
 
*Note: If you look closely, you'll see that almost every shelf on this case has at least two, if not three rows of books on it. This is only the books from one room of our home...every room (even the bathrooms) contains books. I have read 95% of the books I own, the other 5% being reference material, and I have sold, traded or lost, at a conservative estimate, 25 times this many - what you see has been accumulated in only about 5 or 6 years, with a few rare exceptions.


As for Anne Rice, apparently she has suffered some sort of "conversion." Because I loved her previous works, I did buy & read her (at the time) latest book, Christ The Lord : Out of Egypt. While it isn't my preferred subject matter, it was well written. But I won't read the next one. It's no secret that I am not a Christian, but that's really not the reasoning. It is important, to me, to know about many different views and beleifs, but I don't want it in my fiction - I want it where it belongs in non-fiction!
But one day, as I am trolling thru BlogExplosion trying to gain viewers ('cuz I have this need to be read - and acknowledged!) and find interesting stuffs to occupy my mind, I stumbled on Fate's Acquittal and started reading. Now, I'm not what you would call naive - haven't even been close for about, uhhhh 40 or so years...but I fell for it. I didn't know there were such things as "fiction blogs." The more I read, the more I enjoyed Tom & Ed's adventures...those two are nuts! But fun!
What a life! Finding out it is fiction (at least I think it is fiction...) was a bit of a let down, but not much, it's still good reading. And waaaaaay off the beaten track for me. But I keep going back, over and over. And I will continue to do so, as long as he keeps writing it!
Who am I to judge? Take yourself over there and try it on for size. What have you got to lose..? 5 minutes of time..? LOL
Ok, I gotta go. I have a whole bunch to write about - cars & stimulation and faucets, but I am out of time for the moment :( If only I could type as fast as I read, we'd all be in business! I keep hoping KMart will put "Fingers That Know How To Type" on bluelight special so I can get me a coupla sets, but no such luck, so far...So, the physical world calls, and I must answer my Mistress...
See ya laterzzzzzzzz!

4 comments:

Anne Rice said...

Interesting thoughts. I'm not up on my Stephen King, I must admit, however short novels are sometimes simply inevitable: take the Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway. It's a novelette, yes, but brilliant as For Whom the Bell Tolls. ---- As for religion in fiction, I was already writing religion in fiction. It didn't start with Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt. It began with the first of the Vampire Chronicles which was a metaphysical thriller. But I completely accept your point of view and if a book doesn't grab you, you have every right not to read it. Take care and thanks for the mention. Anne Rice.

Anji said...

Wow we meet some impressive people in your comments box! I'd love to have more time to read and like you I have 'layers' of books on my shelves. Now I've started to read in French too I've doubled what I can read (if only I had the time)

I loved For Whom the Bell Tolls, though I didn't expect to get past the first page - I couldn't put it down

Anji said...

I finally gor round to putting up 6 things about me. I've used my other blog as I'd already done it on the 'household' one.

http://anji-stilllearning.blogspot.com/

Tom Evans said...

Er... Wow! First of all, thanks so much for mentioning me! You're very kind. I'm also delighted that my writing interests you so much! More whacky adventures are on the way, I'm sure. Of course, it *might* be real, so one can never tell!

Second: oh my god, Anne Rice commented on an article about my blog! I secretly hope she followed through and visited my site for even a moment! Who knows, vampires *might* feature in my adventures soon enough!