My sister is sending me Harry Potter observations from work.  I would very much like to reread Order of the Phoenix.  I think it is my favorite of the series, because it has such chapters as "Career Advice" (which I think we both consider to be the best of the series).  And Professor McGonagall is just awesome. 

It drives me insane when someone on a message board says, "I love the Twilight series and Stephenie Meyer.  What are other YA books that you enjoy?" and all the recommendations are for equally bad series (or worse!  The House of Night series is definitely worse).   Where are the recommendations for good YA?

In other news:
We moved in Saturday.  I hate unpacking, so there are still boxes everywhere.  We missed trash day (yesterday) so this stuff has to stay here for another week.

I got my library card today!  Checked out two books (the closest library branch is tiny but very cute) and requested a bunch more.

I like walking, but yesterday was colder than the day before.  Today was warm again, but I may have slightly overdressed.

I'm not catching up on LJ in general tonight.  But I'm extremely excited that Barack Obama is our president-elect.

And while I'm not the biggest fan of Grey's Anatomy, I'm pissed that Brooke Smith was abruptly fired from the show in an attempt by Disney to keep lesbian couples from television.  Apparently she just goes to her car and drives away.

I can't believe I just had this conversation with my sister.And while I'm on the topic: can anyone recommend some presidential fiction for me?  I forgot how obsessed about fictional presidents I can be.  I know about Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife.  Is there anything else?

Also, also, all I've wanted to do the past few days, other than read, has been to watch The West Wing.  Specifically the beginning of season two, and maybe the good season seven Josh/Donna episodes (especially the first part of "Election Day" -- the entire episode except for the sad part at the end).  Maybe I'll eventually find time to watch some.  Or I could bring down my sister's laptop and watch some while I study...

Since I was in the Downtown Crossing Filene's Basement exactly one time, and it was during its "we're closing!" sale, I want to compare the second paragraph at the beginning of chapter three (actually, due to a minor change in a paragrap break, it's the third paragraph in 2008).

1984:
(There's actually a Filene's Basement store not too far from here.  It's across the street from the train we take if we want to get to BWI and avoid some of the driving.)

Currently reading: As Seen on TV by Lucy Grealy, The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner, Long May She Reign by Ellen Emerson White. (Yes, I've invested more than 60 pages into all of them -- the latter two are both really good, but I think I'll be finishing Long May She Reign first because it's a library book.  I have 21 things checked out from the library, including two copies of The President's Daughter.)

I'm rereading The President's Daughter by Ellen Emerson White.  White wrote a fourth book for this series (which I haven't read yet) and updated the first three for the modern audience in the process (since now we have cell phones, the Internet, and Hill Street Blues is no longer on TV).

The premise of the book is pretty obvious: Meg's mother runs for president, wins, and Meg's life completely changes in the process.  The update I find most intriguing occurs in chapter 3.  White emphasizes that Meg and her friend Beth are not shopping in the Filene's Basement in Downtown Crossing, because Filene's Basement no longer has a store in Downtown Crossing (her mother misses the Filene's Basement in Downtown Crossing).  So the scene must have originally taken place in Filene's Basement, right?  I'm borrowing the original from the library to compare.  Also, Meg reads up on Iraq because she doesn't think she knows enough about the subject, so I want to see what other minor adjustments were made.

The President's Daughter is still a compelling read, even with the new-generational updates, and I'd reread White House Autumn and Long Live the Queen in a second if the library system owned the new versions.  (They don't have White House Autumn at all, and I got rid of my copy last summer.)  I will be reading the new addition to the series, Long May She Reign, very soon.

Oh, and the press secretary went to Smith.

Other books read: Are We There Yet by David Levithan (two brothers are tricked into a trip to Italy by their parents; short, yet very sweet); High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (yes, I've seen the movie but not recently enough that I remembered the plot.  I really enjoyed this, and I'm quickly becoming a fan of Hornby); The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (I was never quite sure of where anyone's loyalties lied -- I guessed, sometimes correctly, but it was still shocking to see the outcome.  I will be reading its sequel, The Queen of Attolia, soon)

I also started reading Gossip Girl the other day.  I'm only two chapters in, but so far I like the TV show better.  Blair has become my fashion inspiration and if I think of her in the morning I wear a headband.

(I was just looking at the spreadsheet I use to keep track of the books I've read--it started as a piece of paper in 2002 but after a few months I digitized it--and there was a point in time where I was clearly rereading the Song of the Lioness books by Tamora Pierce, and I read the first three and then stopped.  I still haven't reread the fourth. Yes, I get into moods.  Oh, and Alanna recently turned 25.)

I've been reading a bunch of vampire-themed YA books recently, and, though not literature in the "will be a classic" sense, they are all much better than the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.  Oh, and they all have human/vampire romance in them.  No one sparkles, and there are actually RULES in these societies!!

This weekend, for example, I read the third and fourth books in the Morganville Vampire series by Rachel Caine.  This series is about a town in Texas that is overrun with vamps -- because they all moved there in an attempt to save their species.  Humans live here, too -- most have Protection, meaning they've sold a bit of their free will to the vamps in order to not be killed in Morganville.  Morganville also has a bottom-tier university, which is how protaganist Claire moves to town.    

Then yesterday I started Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead.  This one has new rules -- there are two types of vampires: the Moroi, who breed like humans, and are "good"; and the Strogoi, who are "evil" and can originate as Moroi, human, or Dhampir.  (A Dhampir is a person who is half-Moroi, half-human.)  The Moroi are weak, and have guardian protection to protect themselves from the Strogoi, and both types of vampire need human blood.  Rose (a Dhampir, training to be a guardian) and her best friend Lissa (a Moroi princess) are forced to return to Vampire Academy after running away two years before.  They return to classes, but someone keeps leaving dead animals (ew!) for Lissa, and Rose must Save The Day.

The Morganville Vampires is slightly more chaste than the Vampire Academy series.  In Morganville, there is implied sex between two supporting characters, and it's a bit more explicit at the Academy.  But both series are a lot of fun, even if not Literature. 

And this is the entry I'm giving you instead of telling you how disappointed I was in Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley.  (I have Chalice out from the library right now, and I'm hoping its much better, but I have to finish a new Gail Carson Levine set in the same world as Ella Enchanted called Fairest, and then the second Vampire Academy book.)

Copied from a post I made elsewhere

I've been reading Breaking Dawn reviews all day, and most of them are not very favorable.  I kind of can't wait for it to come in for me at the library because it sounds like it'll be so bad that it's funny.

I just cleaned up my friends list.  If you were removed, it's because you were a) an RSS feed I don't care about anymore, b) a community I don't care about anymore, or c) someone I cared about but who hasn't updated your Livejournal in over a year OR I didn't know who you were (by which I mean, I couldn't figure out how we met).

So I just removed a bunch of journals that belonged to people I talked to back in my THE days. 

And if you think this removal was in error (because you silently read my journal and I didn't know that you were around!), please let me know.

And a note to people I've friended recently:
I friended your journal because I thought your public entries were entertaining and/or informative.  I may not have commented on your journal, probably because I didn't have anything to add.  You're welcome to make this "friendship" mutual, but it's your call.

Tell me something that you love about yourself. 

Anonymous commenting is enabled and IP tracking is off, so comment as frequently as you'd like in whatever guise you choose.

Poll #1127901
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Given a choice between Eve Ensler and Jane Yolen, who would you see?

I'm actually leaning to one over the other, but I'm curious to see what others would do.

Damn. I put a water bottle in my bag, and it LEAKED. Now I have a bunch of wet school things. It turns out that if you have post-its in a book, and the book gets wet, the post-its will turn the corresponding page its color. It sucks that I'm writing a paper and referencing a wet book, though. The pages are all stuck together.

Dear Smithies,

Apply to the Get a Life Workshop. I'm thinking of asking if I can go again. I had a really great time.

Sincerely,
Britney

I went to the library yesterday and checked out all the Princess Diaries books I haven't read, as well as the three or so books in the Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix I have yet to read. I also checked out four classic Doctor Who serials (I wish I had thought to look for Doctor Who at the library earlier in the summer! Though unfortunately the library system only has ten serials total). When I get back to Northampton I'm going to have to make sure my library card works and check out the public library's selection.

The family is off to New Jersey tomorrow. The forecast calls for rain every day, but the place we're staying supposedly has a DVD player, so between my sister's Blockbuster movies, my Netflix movie, and the Doctor Who serials, we're all set.

My mommy's coming to Boston for the first time next Friday, and the one thing she really wants to do is take a touristy trip around the city. Do we do a Duck Tour or a Trolley? Or do you know of something better?

Instead of working one day next week, we're taking a boat trip to Spectacle Island.

The books I've finished so far this year have averaged 412.39 pages, and this number is inflated due to three large print Harry Potters.

I am depressed, not because of anything that happened in the final Harry Potter book, but because the series is over (I highly doubt there will be anything other than companion books akin to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them or Quidditch Through the Ages). I've been reading the series since I was twelve, and since then I've graduated from high school, finished three years of college, and have begun thinking about what I'm going to do after May, when I will need to provide things such as health insurance and food for myself (it doesn't help that I've been hungry all day, despite fairly frequent snacks).

I'm also glad that I waited to buy the book until this morning - Meenu and I met at the bookstore, purchased our copies, grabbed coffee and THEN took the T home together. I didn't start reading until after 10 this morning (I'm not really sure when I made it home). Dealing with crowds last night would have been horrible.

(Also: my favorite character is AWESOME.)

My daddy spoiled Harry Potter for me: Obi-Wan is Harry's father. Boy, I didn't see that coming.

Honestly, though, I accidentally read a big spoiler yesterday and I've been cheering myself up by reading spoilers for things I don't care about (like Grey's Anatomy) and rereading this_is_now. Then I found a list of all the posts in order, which will come in handy if I read any more of the game.

Thirdly, shadowflute, The Office is not a movie and you should have already been aware that I'm nearly done with the second season (didn't we talk about this on Friday?). sonjamillicent, I happen to have Ghost World out from Netflix, too. I must read your mind.

The second season of Weeds comes out on DVD next Tuesday. It's already on the top of my Netflix queue. I LOVE Mary-Louise Parker.

Also, why is no one I nominated on the graduation speaker ballot? I'm pretty sure Bradley Whitford was a very feasible possibility. More feasible, than say, Oprah, who is on the ballot. Plus, he's about a million times more attractive.

What the fuck, world? Is the New York Times even allowed to post a review of Deathly Hallows? I can't wait for it to be 50 hours from now, because then the world will stop trying to ruin it for me.

Poll #1024008 Poll time!
Open to: Friends, detailed results viewable to: All

Recommend me a TV show. I have The Office (British), Extras, Coupling, and a few other TV shows in my Netflix queue, but I can't decide what to watch next. Help? Choose one of the mentioned shows or recommend a new one (it needs to currently be available on DVD).