The Deepest Discount of All

[polychrome_pen]

Well, it's official - I am totally infatuate with the great prices on deepdiscount.com! Since they added books to their lineup, I've gotten even more addicted. The manga is so cheap it's almost criminal. I think I shall be placing an order very, very soon...XD

In school news...I'm totally worn out. I had an Anatomy test on Thursday and an Organic Chemistry test on Friday, so by the end of the week I was near catatonic. I must say, I'd quite forgotten how much I hate Organic Lab. You come out smelling awful, like the scent has seeped into your pores, and it takes days for it to come out. Sometimes if the smell gets on my hands, I can barely bring a glass of water to my mouth without shuddering...>_< I'm glad for my History of Ancient Rome class. It's a much-needed breath of fresh air for my brain amidst all the science classes and labs.

Recently, I started reading Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I LOVE THEM. I'm almost done with The Wide Window and am itching to get over to the library and check out the next few. I absolutely love Lemony Snicket's little asides (which make me really want to know more about him!) and "translations" of Sunny's dialogue. It's not often that I actually laugh out loud at a book, but these are exceptional.

In other book news, I'm almost done with the audiobook of Jonathan Stroud's The Golem's Eye which is the second book in The Bartimaeus Trilogy. If you haven't gotten your hands on some version of these books, I highly recommend them. They are set in an alternate "modern" London and feature a wisecracking djinni (Bartimaeus) and the upstart young magician (Nathaniel) that he unwillingly serves. Bartimaeus is a hilarious character, and with 5,000 years of experience under his belt is almost coming up with hilarious little asides that really flesh out the world. But the books also deal a government that holds power away from the people, and as Nathaniel is part of that government (and wants to succeed in it), he's a very rich character. Sometimes you hate his guts, and other times you cheer when he does the right thing. The second book fleshes out Kitty Jones - a member of the Resistance movement that tries to undermine the magicians' power. The book is told from all three perspectives. Simon Jones reads the audiobooks, and his Bartimaeus is wonderfully cheeky. I'm definitely going to have to track down the audiobook of Ptolemy's Gate, which is the third book in the series.

In my little bits of spare time, I've been watching X-Men: Evolution. I've finished the first season (kind of disappointing) and am now mostly through the second (in which I've been much more impressed). Certainly the introduction of Beast is always great - he's long been a favorite character of mine (I mean, come on...a furry blue scientist who's in love with great literature and quotes Shakespeare and everything?). Also, the episode "On Angel's Wings" was touching. Magneto isn't nearly as well developed (or three-dimensional character-wise) as his X-Men: TAS counterpart, but on the flip side, Xavier lost the giant yellow hover-chair (I mean, come on, how could that thing make it through any doors?) in favor of something a little more realistic. But I love Alex. Havok has long been a favorite character of mine, and his brotherly relationship with Scott is well developed in Evo. I like it.

But Evo really got me back into X-Men comics. Except that now its really hard to figure out what's going on anymore. >_< Which is why I'm still buying Ultimate X-Men graphic novels. No complicated history. No weird overlapping storylines. Just (mostly) good art and fantastic adventures. But it's always nagging me in the back of my mind that "these aren't the REAL X-Men"...XD Oh well...it looks like I've got my research cut out for me.

Until next time, true believers!

Comments

[forsakenmermaid.livejournal.com]

Hooray! If you love A Series of Unfortunate Events and you're only on the third book, just wait until you get further into it! The second half of the series is insanely exciting and keeps you on the edge of your seat! Once you get to book 10 or so, you should check out The Unauthorized Autobiography of Lemony Snicket. It's an incredibly fascinating book, if not extremely confusing the first time around. Also, when you're finished or almost finished with the series itself, read The Beatrice Letters. It ties up the loose ends at the end of the series and answers any final questions you might have when you're done.

[ry-sabir.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info! I was a little lost about when to read the L.S. Biography and the Beatrice Letters, so thanks for clearing that up for me! ^_^

[tanz-fanatika.livejournal.com]

X:Ev is one of my favorite cartoons ever. It just rocks. I'd say it was right behind Jem and Winx on my list of kids' cartoon faves.

I enjoy ASoUE, too, but at a slow pace. The writing style is such that I can't read much of it at a time. It is funny, but my attention wanders after awhile. I read two or three books, then take a couple month break from it to read other things, then go back to it. I think I'm on book 10.

[ry-sabir.livejournal.com]

I just started Season 3, and I'm thoroughly impressed with the direction the series has taken! Darker turns are much-appreciated by me in cartoons.

Although I'll admit I'm still very attached to the X-Men Animated Series from the 1990s...it being my first introduction to X-Men and Marvel as a whole.