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bethlakshmiNo one tagged, me, but what the heck, I need a super-quick break.
1. Total number of books I've owned:
Hundreds. I can no longer count them. I have a dining buffet, and a book case full of them, and more are ooking out of all the corners of my life - under my bed, around my desks, in sewing baskets, on coffee tables - here there and everywhere!!
2. Last book I bought:
To be ridiculously anal - a tour book on Westminster Abby, as that was the last stop on Casa Moomba London Tours. But that was in a orgie of Indian and London Touristy book buying. But the last book I received was Automata and Computability by Kozen - but I had purchased online 2 weeks before.
3. Last book I read:
... I'm so ashamed:
The Fairy Godmother
Mercedes Lackey
In the midst of my erudite sci-fi extravanganza, tiredness from travel made me bring out a very predictable book that would massage my tired brain.
4. 5 books that mean a lot to me:
1) Chronicles of Narnia - first book I read too many times to count, the book that made me an avid fantasy reader
2) Heralds of Valdemar Series - first book I read that talked about different sexualities as normal, but without making it central to the plot
3) Students Guide to UNIX - a book I find myself whipping out time and again as first work source
4) Natya Shastra - a book I find myself referring to and collecting translations of over and over for 3-4 years now.
5) Pat the Bunny - a book I loved so hard I went through 3 copies before growing out of it, probably my first book love affair
5. I'm not tagging anyone. Do it if you're interested.
1. Total number of books I've owned:
Hundreds. I can no longer count them. I have a dining buffet, and a book case full of them, and more are ooking out of all the corners of my life - under my bed, around my desks, in sewing baskets, on coffee tables - here there and everywhere!!
2. Last book I bought:
To be ridiculously anal - a tour book on Westminster Abby, as that was the last stop on Casa Moomba London Tours. But that was in a orgie of Indian and London Touristy book buying. But the last book I received was Automata and Computability by Kozen - but I had purchased online 2 weeks before.
3. Last book I read:
... I'm so ashamed:
The Fairy Godmother
Mercedes Lackey
In the midst of my erudite sci-fi extravanganza, tiredness from travel made me bring out a very predictable book that would massage my tired brain.
4. 5 books that mean a lot to me:
1) Chronicles of Narnia - first book I read too many times to count, the book that made me an avid fantasy reader
2) Heralds of Valdemar Series - first book I read that talked about different sexualities as normal, but without making it central to the plot
3) Students Guide to UNIX - a book I find myself whipping out time and again as first work source
4) Natya Shastra - a book I find myself referring to and collecting translations of over and over for 3-4 years now.
5) Pat the Bunny - a book I loved so hard I went through 3 copies before growing out of it, probably my first book love affair
5. I'm not tagging anyone. Do it if you're interested.
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 08:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 09:01 pm (UTC)esp in the birdpeople lands, there were plenty of straight good men. there were also straight heralds who were good. and the king.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 10:44 pm (UTC)Arrows of the Queen
Arrows Flight
Arrows Fall
In that series, the protagonist is a straight female. She's aided by quite a lot of other straight and gay people. At least three of the "good guys" are straight males (Skif, Kris, and Dirk). The two biggest antagonists I can think of are the lead characters extreme fundamentalist rural family, and the evil neighbor prince and his evil nursemaid. If they are any known sexuality, I would say they are unsafe S&M. The book is pretty clear that they get off on hurting people who DON'T consent to being hurt and they don't care how badly they hurt those people - and that makes them bad people.
The Herald Vanyel series has a bad gay guy, as well as the hero being gay. Although the hero's anti-tolerant father is painted as pretty bad, but they eventually reconcile so all's well. The Big Evil Dude makes homosexual overtures to the hero, so one presumes he swings that way.
They are certainly not deep. And on hindsight, Mercedes can be pretty pendantic. She really clobbers you with "Gay is OK". But when I was 13, I was pretty dense. And I identified enough with the characters that it gave me a really needed fantasy life at the time.
After that, my attention wanes... I've read the later stuff, but it started getting more and more formulaic, and I got older and less interested in the format. But I hit those first six books at around 13, when I was geeky, awkward, overly sensitive, and trying to figure out my sexual identity and the identity of those around me (including people in Ptown where our summer home was). The "arrows" books show a world where both straight and gay people are seen as good, and no type of family unit (including a potential three-way) was painted as "bad", just "unusual". And you get a magic horse that always loves you, no matter how big of an idiot you are. When you're 13 and convinced that only your parents could love you, because they HAVE to, the whole magic horse thing is pretty spiff.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-13 12:10 am (UTC)The Fairy Godmother
Mercedes Lackey
No need to be ashamed. :) It's actually one of the better things she's written recently - I picked it up from the library on a whim, expecting it to be borderline intolerable but worthwhile at least for humor value, and I found myself honestly enjoying it.
I don't know if it's going to pan out into a decent series, but... if she writes a second one, I'll read it.
Have you ever read Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's 'Fairy Godmother?' It's a completely different take on the concept, but one of my favorite light-urban-fantasy stories.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-13 12:34 pm (UTC)