That favourite books list

see ladymoonray's lj for the full list. I've read 39 of 'em. Some I was forced to. And I can say definitively that some are just so shite it's not true (personal opinion, you can bop me over the head in your own time).

A small list of the utterly shite ones I've read :

Animal Farm, George Orwell - Please dodge the anvil.
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis De Bernieres - :sticks fingers down throat and then chases after author with sledgehammer for the pathetic ending:
The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M. Auel - oh look, she discovered the bloody wheel. Mary Sue historical bodice ripper porn.
The Godfather, Mario Puzo - :snores:
Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell - Oh, Ashleiiiiiiigh....
Lord Of The Flies, William Golding - again with the anvil. not to mention borrrring.
Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck - :snores: :attempts to strangle author in sleep for each time Lenny does summat stupid:
The Thorn Birds, Colleen Mccollough - angst! priest angst! family angst! :brings out shotgun to shut them up:
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson - :tosses aside:

Some I cannot cast an opinion on because I haven't read them. I can't put the Hardys on this list because (much as I hate them) they're written well, I just don't like them. And I haven't read the Archer on the list, but I've read enough to know that the man doesn't vary from one book to another.

Silver Arrow

Robin of Sherwood geekery with mingmerciless. One day he's going to regret telling me about all these cons. heh. Appears to be rather different from your average Starfury and Sector14 convention. More casual and more chance of actual sleep.

And oh dear god, conventions have turned me into a costume geek. Watching things with a beady eye to get details correct, even if most of mine are low-effort costumes... er... (thinks of the Psylocke costume) .... to an extent, lord copper. I of course bow before Ming, king of the low-effort costume. Anyway, he's reprising his Templar costume and I've decided to go as Templar squire/lackey, which is even more low-effort than his, as mine's got no armour and weaponry to go with it. However, was watching Seven Poor Knights of Acre and rewinding several times going 'C'mon, you bastard, turn round!' so I could see how the tabard hung, splits up the side/back, etc. And lamenting the fact that I'm using heavy cotton rather than wool, so it creases rather than drapes properly. :sings the lament of the frustrated costumer, scored for lute and bagpipes: Sitting in the almost-finished tabard now - just got to paint the red cross on the front.

And will attempt to keep mouth firmly shut if see way too many girls doing their ambition to go romantic/medieval. It's bad enough at Buffy and Angel cons.

Hmm, and it looks like the Cabaret costume will be getting another outing on the Sunday night...

On Buffy

Well, that's been...mmm... the last five years of my life.

I think I got into it by a crossover, or someone having fic on their site, because I started in Comics and Professionals fandom. My fandom involvement's always pretty much lived or died by the fic. (except for comics, where I was a message board whore for a few years). Then read tons of fic, read the backstory, viewed the piccies, and waited on tenterhooks for it to come onto BBC, having only got Sky recently.

It was what got me into making websites, started purely because I wanted to have somewhere to park my fic. Then I learnt a bit more, wrote a load of fic, got a domain, *then* I was pouting that there seemed to be no real site or writers guild on Giles/Ethan (the old Tev Ye guild, not the organised one of now). soulstar decided to tempt me into making one. Then came the Wes/Angel guild site Dangerous Habits which was horribly defaced and destroyed after I gave it away to someone who has what seems to have no idea of how html works. Learned my lesson there. More sites came and went, html grew, the whole 'site must be pretty' made sure I learned how to use photoshop. I wouldn't have the first clue about digital manipulation if it wasn't for Buffy, because previously I had bugger all interest in manipping my photos.

Buffy also made me a lot of friends - I'd had friends in comics fandom, but these were people who were just as insane and geeky as comics people, and over a tv show. They're also the ones that got me meeting up with people over the net and going to conventions. First meeting was going to a party at soulstar's, who I'd originally got talking with about Sex, Chips and Rock 'n' Roll after I feedbacked on a fic of hers. Kind of spiralled from there.

Nowadays I'm much more of an Angel girl - have been since it aired, because Buffy went down the angst trail (And the Marti Noxon trail). I enjoyed it, I loved the characters, just stopped liking Buffy herself and her angstings so much and enjoyed Angel more, so much more. It's darker and funnier and more mature. Never quite got Buffy's stance of 'they're human, they're absolved of wrongdoing' and 'all demons bad! Kill!' I sold my Buffy vids when I was strapped for cash back in uni. Didn't sell my Angel ones. Might buy the DVDs when I have enough money but for now I can live without 'em. Except possibly S3, because, well, Faith & Wes.

Stuck with it faithfully through the last few seasons, then went kind of 'eh' in the last season because it went so much downhill since the SiTs were introed and I ceased to care if I'd missed ten minutes. So fare thee well, Buffy, going with a bit of a whimper. It's not going to be heartbreaking because I was gradually cutting the ties a few years ago. I'll go to all the cons and keep reading the fic because I love the cons for themselves with their guests and con regulars and parties, and the fic because, well, you're talking to someone who has a habit of getting into the fic of a show just when it's finishing or has been finished for a while. Just think it'll slow down some.