Julie Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ 's comments (member since Nov 28, 2008)

Julie Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ 's comments from the Cyber Book Club group.

AHHHHHHH. This is in March, correct? I think you could push me over with a feather to convince me to go.

Also, speaking of Matt letting you play his guitar... did you see that he is one of the in-game rock stars in Guitar Hero 5? (As in, they did motion capture of him, etc.) Plug In Baby is the song he does, too. And the guitar that comes with that game.... is red and sparkly.

*ALSO BIG TIME SPOILERS*

I think the end may grow on me with time. I thought Diana just went nuts between the last half of book 3 and this book. It wasn't just a little rebelliousness here and there anymore, it was a constant threat of complete ruination - her assignation with Grayson Hayes (which still cracks me up, and now grosses me out a little because I have a cousin named Grayson Hayes), chopping her hair off, gallivanting off to Cuba (plus all the stuff she had done on the way to Cuba)... it just seemed like she turned into a complete wild child by the end and I can't believe the Hollands have ANY good name left to salvage. But, GIVEN that Diana "discovered" herself by doing all that crap, I guess I can see the author's point that she shouldn't just tie herself down to the first guy she falls in love with. BUT but, SHE WAS IN LOVE WITH HIM. It was set up for so long that they were the great true loves of the series, and then to just have it fizzle like that, is really frustrating. I can understand it, and maybe even agree with it, given where the characters end up emotionally and personality-wise by the end of the series, but then I just wish Anna Godbersen hadn't bothered to drag me through the emotional muck of CARING whether they got together all this time!! GRARRR!!

Also, Elizabeth's arc ticked me right off. All she had to do was marry Teddy Cutting at the end of book 3, problem solved, voila. The author knew it. Elizabeth knew it. But no, the author instead torments Elizabeth more and writes Teddy off into the army so he's not around to save Elizabeth the trouble (This is not dear Teddy's fault. I love Teddy.). I think we all saw the Snowden Cairns crap coming a longgggg time ago, his involvement in Will's death at the very least.

Carolina and Penelope both surprised me a little. They both got the serious comeuppances they so richly deserved.... but I found that by the time it happened, I didn't really WANT it to happen anymore. I wanted Carolina to marry Leland, and I wanted Penelope to get her prince (thereby freeing up Henry for Diana, but nooooooooooooooo). I felt a little pity for each of them and was kind of sad when it didn't work out for them, even though in my head I knew they deserved it. Yargggh.

I may get more used to the ending and might even agree with it a bit, once I have mulled it over for a while. This happened to me with Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy, as well as the movie District 9, and the Gurren Lagann anime. But right now I'm just really glad I didn't BUY the last book.

ROFL... I have been staring at that post for five minutes thinking? Amanda? There's no Amanda in an SM book... because I wasn't pronouncing "Schmanda" right in my head and therefore couldn't think of anything to rhyme it with. *shakes head*

Anyway, yes, I'm right with you all with a giant GRARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR for Anna Godbersen!

I just finished Splendor. I guess she did her job a little because by the time the resolutions happened for two of the characters, the ones I hated before, I actually felt a little pity for both of them and didn't want things to go badly for them anymore. But the characters I did like before, cheesed me off all through book 4 and I couldn't believe what idiots they were being. So 3 of the 4 resolutions made me mad! Not to mention, the 4th (Elizabeth's) should have already happened in book 3! Grarrrrrrrrrrr! I do not understand how people could create characters just to torment them like this. Crap, after crap, after crap!!! Grrr!

Maybe it will be one of those books that grows on me over time, as I get a chance to mull it over. Like Circle of Friends, or the movie District 9, or the Gurren Lagann anime. *sigh*

139. Forest Born (Books of Bayern, book 4) - Shannon Hale
140. Splendor (The Luxe, book 4) - Anna Godbersen

Grar, I say! Grar, Anna Godbersen!

Gahhhhhh, Madison Square Garden is sold out, I think. I can't believe I didn't see this thread sooner.

And Ahenry - you might have a buyer for some of those tickets if you end up with extras... LOL! We drove to Maryland once for Muse - I'd definitely drive to Virginia!

Rofl... what book is it? I still have horrible memories of having to read The Door in the Wall when I was in 4th grade. It was for a book report, and was the most boring book I'd read at that point in my life. I wonder if I'd like it better now? It is super short but felt like a million pages at the time.

I have GoodReads friends on both sides of the line with Beautiful Creatures. I'll have to give it a shot, if for no other reason than because I'm curious to see what side of the line I'd fall on!

And hmm... I conveniently found a copy of Atonement at a book sale a while ago... heheheh.

I think I've read 15 of the books out of all of those polls. There's a bunch more I've been wanting to read, though!

Sans - thanks for the link about the Nook!

Have any of you seen Phineas and Ferb on Disney XD? My husband and I spent much of last week staying at my sister-in-law's house watching our 6 nephews, and we saw a lot of Disney XD and Nickelodeon. I LOVE Phineas and Ferb! That show is hilarious!

We even watched the Christmas Special at OUR house the night after we got back. *rofl*

102. Sleigh bells
103. Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard)
104. Irving Berlin?
106. Holiday Inn
107. Olive... hahahaha
108. Um, snow is glistening?
111. Jack Frost
113. the bluebird
118. eggnog
120. A leg lamp
121. Parson Brown
122. Serendipity
123. over the river and through the woods
124. uh, conspire?
128. While You Were Sleeping
130. the ox and lamb
143. Mary
144. Jacob Marley
145. C. S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)
146. Little Drummer Boy

1. I am facepalming right with you on the whole Pride & Prejudice & Zombies thing. Ack.

2. Pete Postlethwaite is seriously awesome.

3. Went to see The Princess and the Frog... it was okay. Had some serious surprises in it, and it was a fun variation on the traditional story. The images were beautiful, but the songs really paled in comparison to earlier Disney soundtracks. Gotta say, I loved Bruno Campos playing the Prince.

3 and a half. Movie tickets at the theater we went to officially went up to 10 bucks now. I'm sure some of you have been experiencing 10 dollar movie tickets for a while now, but it was a serious blow to the three of us who went. Yargggh.

You are not kidding!! I got frustrated enough with book 3 that I decided to just sign out book 4 instead of buying it, and I think I'm going to sell my first three! I did like them but they are just soooo frustrating! And besides, if I can sell the first three it will help support my getting other books that I enjoy more, and am more likely to re-read. Heh.

Such as....
138. Honey Hunt, vol. 3 - Aihara Miki

Oh man, this volume was great! I lovvvve the artwork in this series just like I did with Hot Gimmick. The basic storylines (not the setting) are quite similar but I enjoyed it the first time around so I don't mind seeing it again! I wonder if this series is going to get as smutty as Hot Gimmick. I'm not usually one for the smut but that series was sooooo good we (my friend who lent it to me and I) even got one of our other friends, who'd never read a manga in her life, to read it! Now I'm thinking about buying this series as it comes out, which I really, really rarely do.

Oh, to back up a little, I got to see a Nook reader in action yesterday! It's a very sleek little machine, and on picking it up and playing with it, it's quite easy to get around. I liked the interface (touch screen, with buttons only for the page turning) and as the guy at the store pointed out, with less buttons, if they make changes to the software/interface you will just be able to download the new software since there are so few buttons (I mean, they can make adjustments without worrying that the buttons won't do the same thing anymore). I was quite impressed. I managed to not actually drool on it, but not by much. :)

Still don't know that I'm GETTING one, but it was quite impressive.

137. Envy (The Luxe, book 3) - Anna Godbersen

Grarrrrr.... book 4 better sort some of this stuff out!

5. The Age of Innocence (guessed this on the other board too)

Heheheheh. Yeah, the books with deadlines always come first...

Oh, wow. It never hit me quite so strongly before, but I just got to thinking how utterly ridiculous it is to have to pay THIRTY DOLLARS for a hardcover book. That's just highway robbery. I guess I'm lucky that I only seem to bother with new releases in YA, which are more like 17.99 even in hardcover. Ack.

Hmmm. The Nook has the same type of screen - e-ink, or e-paper, I forget what they call it - not backlit, so it shouldn't cause eye strain like a computer screen.

The books are priced differently for the Nook as well. I noticed a while back that Barnes and Noble dropped their new releases to 9.99 for ebooks, and then Amazon had to do it too to stay competitive (at least it appeared B&N was first, I could be wrong). That's less than half the price for a hardcover new release - those are climbing close to 30 bucks these days (sometimes more, like the big bio on Ted Kennedy, which is 35). Other books are like you said, maybe 10-25% cheaper. There are also lots of classics you can get for free because they are in public domain. I can see how it would be really cost effective for someone who runs out and buys lots of hardcovers all the time, but I'm not sure how it works out for someone who buys most of their books as cheaply as possible, at yard sales, secondhand stores, and places like half.com, etc.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I am so excited for you!!! :D :D :D

Ok, a question I have wanted to ask everyone:

Opinions on e-readers?

I know Sans and...JennAY I think? are sharing a Kindle. What do you think of it? Do you miss holding an actual book while you're reading it?

I have been doing a lot of looking into Kindle and Barnes and Noble's new nook reader... leaning toward the nook actually. But I don't know if there's a point in me making the leap yet. (I have seen both of Sony's eReader models in person and didn't like them.)

I did have a weird experience recently.... I just read Envy (from the Luxe series) and I have a hardcover edition. As I was reading it I kept thinking, jeez, this is kind of heavy and hard to hold comfortably... I kinda wish I could be reading this on an e-reader. I also kept running into words I'd like to look up and thinking how I could do that on an e-reader, too. (Yup, too lazy to get up to find an actual dictionary or even go to dictionary.com!)

The biggest drawback for me right now is price. The cost of the reader itself, plus the cost of the books. I am a used-bookstore, bag-day-sale sort of book buyer for the most part, and it is a major drawback to me that there are no bag day sales for ebooks! :( At least with the nook they let you lend the books to other nook users, but I will guarantee that I won't know anyone who has one.

Any thoughts?