Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ah sounds like fun

Most of my friends live far away unfortunately.. the whole 'grown up and moved away' thing.. but maybe one of my coworkers -ponders- ah well, I'll get to it eventually

My goal to get back into good writing habits...is slowly but surely coming along. ^^ I almost have this story I was working on for the last two weeks finished.

good luck!

In the last two months, N has:

-Read all her original Goosebumps books minus some of the Give Yourself Goosebumps ones (I like to try out all the options, and it takes me forever to do)
-Bought and finished the new HorrorLand series, and intends to buy the Survival Guide when it comes out next week
-Started Salem's Lot by Stephen King for a change of pace. So far, so good
-Seen 9 on opening day. It was a brilliant movie

I have also almost finished my "real-life fairy tale," where I took a story about toys and made them real people. I had a writing class last quarter, and I wish my teacher (who was harsh) was able to criticize it. Mine was apparently one of those which she could not find much to correct/change/criticize.

While it is nice that there was not much she felt needed improvement, I like getting harsh critique and suggestions for improvement. So it was both wonderful and frustrating.

Finally finished Salem's Lot. I think Stephen King is going on the list of "authors I will read when I want to slow down," since his pacing is fairly relaxing.

Got some minor things done in terms of writing. I really should stop being so lazy. >>

I have never seen the film, so I cannot comment on it. I liked the book, though. It had a better and more realistic look on werewolves than what I usually see.

It only took me this long to finish Salem's Lot because I kept misplacing the book, otherwise I would have had it finished months ago. Now to find another book to read in the meantime. I have some on my shelf that have never been touched. >>

As for reading things above one's level...I remember trying to read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in third grade. My teacher had books organized by color. If I remember right: green for ridiculously easy, kindergarten levels, blue for books a step above that, yellow for those under-100-pages novels for kids, orange for about third-grade reading level, red for slightly harder, and brown for really hard, sixth-grade-and-up.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was a brown-level book. I was doing fine with the reds, so I took a step up once. I ended up confused and frustrated (and once we started a book, we had to finish it unless the teacher said otherwise), and I ended up hating it because I was unable to retain anything from it. I want to try to re-read it again, though.

I have a similar issue with Twilight. When I can think about the book a week later and not remember a damn thing about the main characters... Considering I can usually pick up a book I read years ago and go, "Hey, I remember such-and-such character/event/ending/what have you!", it pisses me off when I pick up a book, look at it, and draw a blank about even one memorable thing that stuck in my mind.

Hell, when I got into Goosebumps again, I was still able to remember key events from certain books. Specific examples:

-The "AMY AMY AMY AMY" painted on the walls in Night of the Living Dummy II was the first thing that jumped into my mind when I found it in a thrift store (I also remember being disappointed that this scene was cut from the TV episode, but now that I am older, I noticed this was---rightfully---cut to save time and move the story along). I also specifically remembered Slappy as a character (and I have the firm belief that he is the first character in any literary work that jumped into my mind, grabbed a hold, and stayed there), and I remembered that when he was first found, there was a sandwich stuck in his head. XP "I felt something warm inside. Slappy's brain!" [/paraphrase]

-The Barking Ghost brought back some memories, as my teacher read it to the class in second grade. The red eyes of the dogs, and the scene in the shed (specifically, one of the main characters getting dragged there, and the dismembered voices inside it), and a fight scene with said dogs were as fresh in my mind as they were when my teacher first read it to me.

In both cases, I was also able to remember the story line (Amy is trying to prove that her dummy really is alive; the two kids end up as ghost dogs and are trying to change back), even if I forgot [part of] the twist at the end.

What did I retain from Twilight not even years, but a few weeks later? Edward sparkles and drives crazy, Bella...had a broken leg and had to have Edward help her dance, and James beat the crap out of Bella in an old ballet studio, including throwing her into (and at least cracking---I do not remember if it shattered or not) a mirror. The scene that sticks out the most? Is because James had more personality than Bella or Edward. Yes, the character who was supposed to be a two-dimensional sadistic b*****d was more memorable than the protagonist and her hero. I could tell you how James carried out this plan and executed it, but I cannot tell you much else other than what I just said about Edward or Bella without help or looking at a review.

Did I remember the story line? Only that Bella wants Edward to love her, but there should be more to it than just that. I even remember drawing a blank when the librarian asked how it was when I returned it, and all I could say was, "...It was okay." I do know that when I found out there was going to be a second book, I kind of shrugged and moved on.

I guess in short, if you want me to like a book, you damn well better make it so I can at least remember the protagonist and how the story goes. Specific memorable scenes will not hurt, either.

[/long rant was long]

Summer and college. @_@