Neil Gaiman

I feel the need to gush. Gaiman was on the Colbert Report last week and was HILARIOUS. I always appreciate an interviewee holding their own against the always entertaining Colbert. But in my school-girl ways, I have to say that it was awesome to watch him speak. Weird, I know. But after listening to his self-narrated books, and then reading other books and hearing his voice while I read, it was funny to see this man connected to the voice I've spent hours listening to. On a similar note, he is an awesome narrator. I like the thought of authors narrating their own books but many fall flat. I've even considered listening to The Graveyard Book even though I've already read it, just to listen to him narrate (although I probably won't because there is just too much else to read!!!!).

I was, however, a bit creeped out by Colbert's seemingly extensive knowledge of Tolkein. While I haven't read Tolkein myself, it was a bit unsettling just how far he drew out the joke...

Yep. I'm a dork.

Just a fraction of the last month

I often THINK about blogging. But it's usually in the car or at work, so by the time I get to my computer, I've forgotten. So here's what I've been thinking...

Poems in verse are AWESOME for quick reads. I love how you can read the words like prose, but the physical alignment can add to the feeling of the story. I just finished One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones. A quick but sweet read about when Ruby's mom dies, she has to move to the other side of the country to live in LA with her big-time actor father, who she's never met. She has to leave her best friend and boyfriend behind. I loved Sones's use of verse and the references to popular and classic authors and books, like Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak, Hard Love, Charlotte's Web, and more.

I have also thought about my sick love of serial killers. I read Robert Cormier's Tenderness, about an 18 year old serial killer Eric, the old lieutenant who is obsessed with charging him with the murders, and the 15 year old girl Lori from a broken home who falls in love with him (the serial killer). Everyone knows Eric killed his mom and step-dad; everyone thinks he was abused; we, the reader, know he framed them in a calculated plan to be tried as a child so he could be out of jail at the age of 18, free to kill. We know he has killed more; the lieutenant knows; Lori learns. But throughout the story, I do sympathize with Eric. He can't help who he is. He reminds me of Jeff Lindsay's Dexter (and the Showtime show), the loveable monster; also remniscent of Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter. I do love me some serial killers.

Speaking of repetition, I read John Green's newest novel, Paper Towns. The main plot: slightly geeky but normal boy wants free-spirited, gorgeous girl, who we think wants him too but she's too caught up in her own drama to know. Soooo much like his Looking for Alaska. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED both, but I look forward to more variety from him.

As far as work goes, I'm still loving my job. It has its ups and downs, but so does every job. Some days it does feel like work, but others, I relish in doing what I enjoy. This spring I'm doing:
-Assimilating the Book (our quarterly reading promotion; read sci-tech books and enter a raffle for your own copies of Little Brother, How to Survive a Robot Uprising, and a 1 GB flash drive)
-SAT/ACT Math Review
-Podcasting
-Art contest
-CD crafts
---hover crafts (glue a closed sports cap to the top of a cd, then blow up a balloon and put it over the sports cap; when you open the cap, the force from the balloon makes a hover craft)
---small disco balls from cut up cds
-Smash Bros. Brawl Tourney
-Magazine crafts

I might start posting program plans on here, just to have them. I dunno.