Happy Birthday, Mum!

I love you.


Gratefully, Happily, Wonderfully Yours...

The Nearest Book

B. has memed me.
I'm excited about this one.
Let me see...the closest book is *drumroll*....The Vampire Lestat, by Anne Rice

As always, there are rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Turn to page 123.
3. Skip to the 5th sentence.
4. Post the next 3 sentences.
5. Tag 5 other people.

Well, here goes...
"I scanned the crowd around for the source of this strange distraction, what was it, not Nicolas in the door of the deserted theater, watching me with a broken soul.
No, something else both familiar and unfamiliar, having to do with the dark.
'Hire the finest mummers'--I was half babbling--'the best musicians, the great scene painters.'"

I really like this Meme. May I do another? Please? Yes, I think I shall. Rules are meant to be broken.

The next closest is...Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Unfortunately, this particular edition lacks a one-hundred-and-twenty-third page. So I'll have to go on to the next closest, which happens to be The Mammoth Book of Pirates, edited by Jon E. Lewis and containing retellings by historians as well as firsthand accounts of piracy. On page 123 is "Journal of A Buccaneer", by William Dampier. Interestingly, if page 123 had fallen just three pages further into the book, the passage excerpted would have come from "Avery's Prize"(about Henry Avery's capture of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's ship, the Gang-I-Sawai), by pirate historian Charles Ellms. Ah, well. Such is life.

"There were a great many fat Bulls and Cows feeding in the Savannahs. Some of us would have killed three or four to carry on board, but others opposed it, and said it was better to stay all Night, and in the Morning drive the Cattle into the Pen, and then kill 20 or 30, or as many as we pleased. I was minded to return aboard, and endevoured to persuade them all to go with me, but some would not."

Huh. How...gruesome. (She said, as though pirates did not habitually engage in killing.)

Suddenly referring to herself in the third person...



PS: Avery cannot think of anybody to tag. And for that she is sorry.

The Great Meme Duel!!!

I would like to point out that this challenge deadline is unfair to those of us

*cough*myself*cough* who do not have regular internet access.

1. I am one of the few people that can read B.'s handwriting.


2. I am currently eating a tofu scramble. And it's delicious.


3. Aislinn created my desktop background. It is purple. With yellow squiggles. Beautiful.


4. My watch is awesome. It's so very relativity-ful. Desafortunadamente, it broke while I was dancing.


5. I love manga. Particularly Deathnote. And anything by Yuu Watase.


6. I'm in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I'm playing Helena.

B., you repeated a fact. The fundamental particles one. Does that mean you lose? Or does it mean that that set doesn't count?

Challenge-doingly...

What Aislinn Said.

CLICK

Rule Breaking Galore

Hokay, so. Medeia/Plenty of Paper memed me. Hoorah!

Six Random Facts:

1. The thing that has been said most to me by strangers is either "I love your hair!" or "What's that on your arm?".
   
2. I got letters from a faerie when I was young(er).
   
3. If I had been born a boy, my mother would have named me Nathan. Or perhaps Edgar Allen.
4. In preschool, for Hallowe'en, I was Jeannie from the television show "I Dream of Jeannie".
5. I adore cemeteries and swingsets.
6. I was Mary, Queen of Scots in my former life. And whatever they may say about me, I didn't do it.

Everybody has been taken!!!! *Cries tears of despair* I suppose I'll tag B. as well. Just to pile on the pressure.

I have not been tagged for The Mutating Meme. But I'm going to pretend that I have, because I really want to answer the questions. I mean, because I'm just way too cool for rules. So there. Let's say that...Aislinn tagged me. Check out the original here. (You can find the rules there, too. This computer seems to be on something. It won't let me copy-paste into blogger.)

1. If you could change your name, what would you change it to?

Hildegarde. Or maybe Gertrudis. But then again, it might have to be Bob.
2. What is your least favourite food?

The flesh of animals.
3. Are there any songs that get stuck in your head really easily? How do you get them out?

Quite a few. Sometimes it's something really annoying, like Fergalicious. Other times it's a really great song, like Anna Begins, by the Counting Crows. The worst thing that happens is when I have multiple songs stuck in my head, all dueling each other for the position of "Most Prevalent". I am never able to get them out and end up half-singing, half-muttering them to myself all day. Or for a couple of days. Eventually, they get absorbed into my mental shelving units while I'm sleeping. Only to be replaced by another song.

4. If you could be (or are) a mythical creature, what would it be (or what are you)?

A faerie, o'course. That does not, however, mean that I'm a little, sparkle-sprinkling creature with butterfly wings. Jeez, people. "Faerie" is a very broad category.
5. What do colours taste like?

Honey and sunshine and freshly-cut-grass.
6. Name three (or more if you like) fawesome words.

Mellifluous, incandescent, enigma, irrevocable, serendipity, intoxicating, viola, inamorata, dust, quixotic (originally, I was going to not put this one in, because Aislinn already had. But I simply love it too much to leave it out), phantasmagorical....(I like words.)
7. Zombies or unicorns?

Unicorns. Fo shiz.

8. Ball gown?

Yes, please.

I tag The Incandescent Corner and B. and...er...uh...I don't know!!!! Sigh. Failure.

Rule-breakingly...

Something to Look Forward To.

Hey! Look over there! It's a poll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How excitng.
Goodness. I'm looking forward to all of these (except for, you know, the one's I've already read. Which are very look-forward-to-able).
Anyway...Vote. Explicate. The Dark Lord commands thee.

Excitedly...

Peace, man. Peace.

In response to the recent turmoil thats seems to have cast a shadow in the realm of book bloggery:
I would like to apologise to Invictus Verbum and The Maelstrom for the tension that seems to have sprung forth from some deep, dark, and mysterious abyss.

None of us here holds any animosity toward either blog. We all love books. We're all pretty awesome. It's all good.

And so I--being the hippie-type creature that I am--hold up my fingers in the sign for peace (and end up looking rather like one of those awkward anime/manga heroines. [You know? Think Sailor Moon when she's being a ditzy schoolgirl.] Because I'm just that cool). *Begins strumming guitar pulled out of hammerspace. Starts singing Kumbaya. The general populace groans/headdesks/facepalms/thwacks Avery for being annoying and tangential*

Singing, apologising, and eating animal crackers (Dude. So. Delicious.)...

Memed, I have been!

Medeia Senka memed me. Hooray! Naturally, I took a really long time to post it. Because I fail.

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews? Honestly?

I have to go with Aislinn on this...the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I have no idea why. In my head I really, really like it.

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?
Oh dear me! This is a most difficult question. I really and truly am having much trouble with this (*rushes off to scan bookcases*). There are honestly way too many characters that I love for me to choose just three. For now I'll have to say: Doctor John Dolittle, M.D. (of Hugh Lofting's The Story of Doctor Dolittle); Lyra Belacqua (of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials); and King Kazul the dragon (of Patricia C. Wrede's The Enchanted Forest Chronicles). Does a Grande Adventure count as a social event? Why, of course it does.

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?
Thus far in my existence I have not yet met a book that boring. Perhaps I would just live forever. Hmm...that would kinda suck. What would happen when the apocolypse came around? Would I just...er...float around? Bookless? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?

I honestly cannot remember having done that. I may have, but I can't think of any specific instance.

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?

Alice in Wonderland...? Anne of Green Gables...? I know both of the stories quite well, and happen to love them. But to this day I'm not entirely sure if I've read either all the way through. Which is weird.

You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (If you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead and personalise the VIP.)

Matilda and The Witches by Roald Dahl. Why? Because they're awesome...and (since The Mother of All Evil is breathing down my neck and just called "Because they're awesome" a cop out answer) dey is kewl like dat.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?

Oh! What a question! Hmm...I think I'd have to say...Every language in existence! Is that allowed?

A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?
The Moorchild, by Eloise McGraw. Or The Very Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, by Julie (Andrews) Edwards. Or The Witch Family, by Eleanor Estes. A yearly return to my youth sounds rather nice, actually.

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art—anything)?

A really awesome thing about YA authors is that they not only write fabulous books, they really like their readers. Or, you know, fake it really well.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead—let your imagination run free.
I would love to be wonderfully imaginative/wildly creative, but somebody has already imagined my dream library. I want the library from Disney's 1991 version of Beauty and the Beast. The. Most. Amazing. Thing. Ever.

I'm sure I could imagine something even more spectacular...but I've been in love with Beast's library ever since I was very young. Not to mention that Belle was the only Disney princess that I could ever relate to. She read books. I read books. She had a crazy father. I had a crazy father. She hated oily, misogynistic, pompous hunter-men. And wouldn't ya know it, I hate oily, misogynistic, pompous hunter-men. She loved a towering, hairy, rose-in-a-jar guarding beast man. Hey...me too! (Who doesn't love Beast? I was so mad when he turned all gross and princelike!)

Answeringly...


PS: I shall tag soon. Vhen you's vleast vexpecting it! Mwahahahaha. Ha.

Jazz Hands and Chair-Sharing -- Or -- A Lovely Night

So, the other night, I and my cousins met the fantastically frickin' fabulous Libba Bray and Shannon Hale.

I know, right?

It was awesome. They were awesome. Shannon Hale likened me to a character in a book she's working on. Which was very exciting. I shared a chair with Libba Bray. Again, very exciting. We cousins got to actually give Libba Bray the cookies we'd promised her in exchange for the interview! Homemade, of course.

Books were signed. Pictures were taken. Conversations were had (I played it cool despite the fact that my brain was going Ssssssssqueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!). Jazz hands were...er...jazz-handed(?).

All in all, 'twas a lovely night.

And now for the photographic evidence:

Self explanatory, I should think.


With Shannon Hale. See? Jazz hands!


With the very foxy Libba Bray. (Hurray!!!)

Happily and happily and happily...


PS Check out this blog: The Incandescent Corner. We met some really awesome people, the blogstress of the above link included.

Sharing the...er...Love!

Because all you need is love. Right? (In other words: Avery will list some of the the things she loves. [Partly to spite Aislinn. But mostly because she wants to. (Why am I talking about myself in the third person?)])

1. Awesome teenagers. (NERDFIGHTERS FTW!)
2. Well-written books. (Whether or not they have good covers/titles.[sheepish smile])
3. Broccoli, Spinach, Tofu. (Not mushrooms, though.)
4. Frozen Yoghurt
5. Tapioca Milk Tea
6. Kittens and puppies and baby unicorns! (Plus cats and dogs and grown-up unicorns...I love animals.)
7. The cold and the shade and snow and rain. (I'm not particularly heat-resistant. At all. I get overheated very easily.)
8. The sun. The moon. The stars. (Oh dear. Am I being sappy?)
9. Eloquence
10. Dancing in the rain.
11. My cousins.
12. Our readers.
13. Those lovely days when crisp, brilliantly coloured leaves carpet the ground.
14. Music. (A beautiful, wonderful, magical thing.)
15. Words.
16. Life.
17. Magic (as in -al powers)
18. Magic (as in The Gathering)
19. Harold and Maude (One of the best films ever!)
20. Beauty and the Beast
21. Many, many other things.

I'm not trying to paint myself the optimist or anything. I mean, I hate a lot of things too. I could generate a things-I-hate list with greater ease than it took to make the things-I-love list. Which I guess is kind of the point. I don't want to be a hater-of-all-things. There are so many things out there to love. And to love something is a much pleasanter sensation than to hate* something.

'The-hills-are-alive-and-the-world-is-a-beautiful-place!'-ly
*Some say that hate is practically the same thing as love. They're both strong feelings that require a fair amount of focus. Hate isn't apathy. Just saying. Aislinn must have a complicated relationship with kittens.