my last post still came off as offensive. i always want to try to be more cuddly and not so covered with spikes, but i don't think i can. i actually think this hedgehog thing is a rather accurate (spirit) animal. i'm pretty sure that no matter what, i will be

blunt tactless honest rude funny offensive and so on.

it's so hot here. i can't think in here. even with air conditioning. i need to bring a fan, but i don't want to buy one, i've got 4 or something at home and i'm going home next weekend. maybe i can buy one from the school store and then return it after a week...

stoops, thank you for the comment. and for not labelling it as a "pity comment."

to try to elicit more comments, i'll pose a question. what's your favorite book? series? i lean towards fantasy, bleh. i'm a dork. if you're still looking for good stuff, amanda, have you ever read:

his dark materials by philip pullman
a trilogy, it's really good. the 3 books are
the golden compass
the subtle knife
the amber spyglass

a song of ice and fire by george r. r. martin
it's 3 books out so far, i don't know how long the series will be. like robert jordan's wheel of time, but BETTER. meaning more organized, more entertaining, not all that shit from those stupid women's heads about a man's calf. he keeps his stuff comprehensible. i couldn't even finish book 10 of the wheel of time, i abandoned it in disgust, because out of the 50 different simultaneous storylines, i could only recognize maybe 6 of the names.
a game of thrones
a storm of swords
a clash of kings

the dark tower by stephen king
4 books out of the 6 are completed. he wrote the first one over 20 years ago, i think. this series and the world it takes place in will not leave stephen king alone. it's really incredible. it's about the classic knight and his party of loyal companions, only he's a FUCKING BADASS COWBOY with these sandalwood revolvers. i devoured these, they were impossible to put down.
the gunslinger
the drawing of the three
the wastelands
wizard and glass

i've read david eddings, and i think it's trash now. the belgariad, the mallorean, the elenium, and the tamuli, all crap. i would say they're the equivalent of marijuana, a gateway drug into better fantasy books. i never read their newest stuff, about althalus or the codexes. polgara the sorceror and belgarath were good books, i think, if you've read the belgariad and mallorean.

if you like the redwall series, you really just like redwall and mossflower. those 2 books are awesome. every other book is the same thing with the same plot, the same animals, just different names. jeez, how do those animals eat so much goddamn food? those feasts are disgusting displays of animal gluttony.

the chronicles of narnia are lots of fun to read. they're fast, since they're for children. the end is extremely creepy, though. i was weirded out for maybe a week after finishing it.

alice in wonderland and through the looking glass are really cool. and if you're remotely interested in the matrix, you should definitely read cs lewis first, i think the wachowski brothers used a lot of his stuff in their trilogy.

and what about dungeons and dragons... wow, that's a lot of books to get. i'm embarassed to admit i own almost every dragonlance book written... i stopped a few years ago when i realized they were getting worse and worse, and just how plain dorky that was. good ones:

Dragonlance:
the chronicles. spawned it all, of course. raistlin is so awesome. and with that, legends. also very good. as far as the infinitely many series that come from the world of krynn, i would say anything written by richard a. knaak is very good. especially the legend of huma. and kaz the minotaur. land of the minotaurs, and reavers of the blood sea, all by knaak, are worth checking out. jeff grubb is a hilarious author, lord toede (villains #5, i think) had me laughing out loud during it.

i haven't read d&d stuff from any other worlds, besides the drizzt books by r a salvatore that takes place in the forgotten realms. they're ok. i think he does too much description of drizzt's total awesomeness and invincibility and his friends and all their dropping and rolling and cutting and dodging. it gets boring to me. still, the icewind dale trilogy, and the homeland series, are pretty entertaining.

i really want to read about the time of troubles in that world. it sounds so interesting to me, when gods are forced to become mortal and kill each other and stuff. i want to know what happened and what elminster's story is. but there are way too many books, i wouldn't know where to start. i'm no longer the dorky kid with too much free time on his hands... oh wait...

margaret weis and tracy hickman also did the death gate cycle, 7 books, which was really good, UNTIL the ending where everything sort of falls apart and doesn't make sense. oh well. the first 6 books were worth it.

terry goodkind has an all right series that started off really well and is kind of floundering around now. i don't knwo the name of it, but up until book 4 are all worth reading. after that, it gets all weird and not so good. actually, 5 is worth reading now. i didn't like 6, it was all about socialism, somehow, and 7 i didn't even read, because it was about some new characters. bleh.

comment! tell me what books you like! i can name some normal books too, that would make me sound mildly intelligent rather than ravenously geeky. maybe i'll do that later.

oh, i almost forgot. ender's game is incredible. so is the newer series (it's actually a parallel series, sort of), the whole shadow thing, which he hasn't finished yet. orson scott card is some weird mormon dude, though, watch out. i even read the other 2 series by him, alvin maker and homecoming, which were mildly ok. but ender series are definitely worth reading.