Dawn of the Sequels.

Book shopping has been proving a little bit difficult lately. Not because I’m trying to cut down on my purchases (though that has been rather difficult), but mostly because whenever I start to pick up a book, I have to consider whether I want to make a commitment to the rest of the books in its family. It’s like wanting to get married to one person, then end up “marrying” the in-laws as well.

… I gotta stop with these weird analogies.

But what I mean to say is: there are just way too many sequels out there today. When I browse the books on the shelves, I try to see if they belong to any series, and whether or not the series is complete. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t have anything against series. Some of my favourite books are part of series. But the thing about series is… once the first book hooks me, I know I’m in deep trouble.

The ratings are a lie.

The cat is not amused.

… well, okay, I’ll be fair. Not all the time.

Yesterday I watched a movie with my fiancé that was rated 4.8 on IMDb. We steeled ourselves for a pretty bad experience; however, we ended up being pleasantly surprised. The movie was not bad in the slightest, and certainly did not deserve a rating as low as 4.8. It was a good family movie, filled with funny and touching moments. We really enjoyed ourselves, and the movie put us in a good mood.

On a different note, we watched a movie the other week that was rated 7.1 on the same site, but if left up to us, we would’ve given it 5 stars tops. It was bland and uninteresting, and we both ended up feeling quite disappointed. Actually, I can list many movies where the ratings promised a good watch, but left us wishing we could get the last two hours of our life back.

Shop Girl

I used to come and watch you for a few hours each day. I would press my face against the shop’s display window and stare at your extravagant beauty. You modeled there, but I knew for a fact that you weren’t one of those dumb, painted mannequins; no, you were alive and radiant.

I let my eyes soak up your lush exquisiteness, your smooth skin… oh, how I longed to touch and caress you. How I longed to march straight into that shop and run my hands all over you. But I knew I couldn’t. Why, you ask? Because if I ever did hold you, I wouldn’t be able to let go.

I even went to look at you when I went out with my girlfriend. I know that was totally out of line, but I couldn’t help it; you were so beautiful. I had many rows with my girl about you, I would tell her that she was more important, but she wouldn’t buy it – I can’t blame her, because I had been lying then. In the end, she finally made me choose between you and her. I was thrown out of the apartment within the next minute.

Sorry – you didn’t make the cut.

The best kind of twins.

My most recent bout of  Writer’s Block lasted more than three months. It’s nothing compared to my five-year Block, but it was still frustrating. I felt stuck and didn’t know how to move forwards or backwards from a specific point in Penny for Your Dreams. For the first time since forever, I was actually editing  and rewriting before completing my first draft. I rewrote one particular scene five or six times in hopes of striking an appropriate chord with my novel. Ultimately the solution turned out to be rather simple.

I was incorporating what I’d hopped would be Weasley twins incarnates into my novel. I liked them. I wanted to give them a lot of spotlight. I really wanted other people to like them. However, I ended up realising I could never produce characters that measure up to the Weasley twins.  Not only that, I can’t even write twins without making them sound cliché or cheesy. So I did the next best thing and got rid of them. Well… more or less.

In Celebration of World Book Day.

We have days for nearly everything. There’s Pie Day, Popcorn Day, Chocolate Cake Day, Tolkein Reading Day… so it’s only natural that we have a World Book Day. Incidentally, it’s also Talk Like Shakespeare Day. I thought of writing this whole post in Shakespearean English, then I decided it would be a) too difficult and b) too annoying.

But I went off on a tangent there. Today is first and foremost World Book Day! Even if you don’t like Shakespeare, you probably like other books, and now is the time to celebrate them. How do I plan on celebrating World Book Day? Well, one would naturally assume that I’ll go book shopping, right? There is no such thing as too many books, is there? Unfortunately, it goes against my resolutions for 2013… that and my shelves are now overflowing. Though maybe I’ll buy an eBook or two. That’s not so bad, is it?

Aaaaaand I’m going off on a tangent again… in celebration of World Book Day, I’m going to – for the time being – list the reasons why I think books are fantastic.

Stay calm and stick the book in the freezer.

“Joey?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you want to put the book in the freezer?”
“…okay.”

There was an episode in FRIENDS where Joey claims that putting The Shining by Stephen King in the freezer makes him feel safer from its scary clutches. Then he goes on to put Little Women in the freezer at a point where things get too sad for him. At the time I just laughed at Joey for being his usual silly self, but thinking about it now, I realise he may be onto something.

It’s not about actually sticking it in the freezer, per se, you do not have to do that if you’re not so inclined; you could stick it under your bread, lock it up in a box if you so desire or shove it to the back of your closet… whatever floats your boat. Rather, I think it’s an attempt to somehow prevent the inevitable.

Books are one-time things.

I almost always read books to their very end; yet at the same time, I almost never reread them. I often feel surprised when I come across someone who has a book or two that they read time and time again. I heard a fan of Jane Eyre say they read the book fifteen times, and my only reaction to that was, “How can you do that? Don’t you get… well, bored?”

I love books as much as the other bibliophile and I do have some favourites, but even those I can’t picture myself reading so often. I can read a book twice, or three times if I really love it, but even then I wait for long stretches of time before I even think about giving it a second spin. My shelves are crammed with books I haven’t read in years because they are still fresh in my head. I can remember almost every detail about them and as such I don’t feel the need to read them again. In a way I’m a bit of a paradox – I can’t not finish a book, yet I can’t be bothered to finish it a second time.