Ye gods!

As of right now, I'm a little more than half-way through Queen of the Damned. For those who don't know, it's the third book in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles series. So far I'm liking it more than I thought I would, but I'm not too sure how I feel about Akasha and her whisking Lestat away from all the other characters. I suppose I'll have to keep reading to find out...

You know, I really dig Anne Rice's views on human sexuality. I really do, odd as this sounds. I was watching an interview with her and one of the questions was why she had so many gay characters. She replied by saying she just sees the world that way and that in her mind the ideal being could love both men and women. She then elaborates about how attraction and love with her characters are fluid, transcending gender, age, status, etc. In short, it ended up sounding to me like she favors extreme pansexuality. I personally think this is really great, because I feel the same way and it's neat to find a like-minded soul, especially a prolific author. She writes it really well, too, in a way that doesn't dwell on the characters' sexuality but rather incorporates it as a natural part of them. I like it.

Anyways, enough about that. One of my favorite parts of Queen of the Damned so far is the excerpt from Claudia's diary. It reminded me how much I liked Claudia and how absolutely priceless she, Louis, and Lestat are together in their little vampire family. Someday, I would like to reread Interview with the Vampire. I think it'd be interesting to read it with a greater knowledge of Lestat, Armand, and Théâtre des Vampires. Perhaps I would like it more than when I initially read it.

It's rather late and I'm very tired. I stayed up watching a meteor shower last night, and today I finished my summer assignment dealing with Oedipus. I am incredibly excited by this. Tomorrow, I plan to sleep late, exercise, start another summer assignment, and read more of this mentioned book. I sort of left off at an Akasha bloodbath scene, so we'll see how that works out. Say, I'm not sure if the correct title is Queen of the Damned or The Queen of the Damned. I can't properly tell because my version has the movie promo cover. Ick. I hate movie promo covers. Well, it was that or a beastly hardcover, so I decided to go with a scantily clad Aaliyah and a half-naked Stuart Townsend in a compact paperback form. Oh, the things I do for purse-sized books....

I bid thee goodnight.

Oy!

The blog is all dusty and musty. I don't like it. Consider this post to be like a Swiffer.

Many blog-worthy events have come and gone un-blogged, and I feel sort of guilty. After all, what else is a blog for? So: I'm going to make a list of all the things I wished I blogged about but never got around to, complete with brief descriptions and comments, etc.

In June, I went to a David Sedaris reading/signing in a lovely little book store! It was amazing! I must have been smiling the entire time, I was so excited. He is very friendly and rather short in person. He read us two new (well, new at the time) essays, in addition to parts of his diary and a couple other things. Everybody was laughing and having a marvelous time. The setting was very intimate and was so happy to be able to go. He signed my copies of Me Talk Pretty One Day and Naked, and gave me a condom (he was handing them out to all the teenagers). This book event has got to be one of the highlight of my life so far, and I love him to pieces!

Also in June, I saw Third Eye Blind with a bunch of friends at a free concert in a park. Excellent, much? They were fantastic live and played a lot of my favorite songs. The entire day was an adventure and a smashing good time.

On a more somber note, huge funding cuts have been made to the public libraries in my area. The new hours-- which became effective July 1st-- are truly devastating. I continue to volunteer and drop by often. Hopefully these cuts will be revoked when the state budget gets back on track someday, as I believe libraries to be among the most precious of resources.

Speaking of reading, this summer I've gathered up the courage to finally read Anne Rice. I've always seen her work labeled as horror, which made me steer clear of her for a long time (I'm not really one for horror, you see). However, I was reassured by other readers that her writing is more gothic than horror and my curiosity eventually won out. As of today, I've read Interview with the Vampire and am getting very close to finishing The Vampire Lestat. I find I'm more fond of the latter, but I did like Interview, too. While the book as a whole did have its weak points (i.e. Rice's tendency to write in such a flowery manner it's often distracting), I found it overall a good read. I find I've been much more motivated while reading Lestat, probably because I really like Lestat. It's good stuff, I tell you. (As a side note, I thought I'd tell a little story about my early experiences with Anne Rice. I used to babysit these darling little girls, and prominently displayed in their living room were all of Anne Rice's works. I'd read the ghoulish titles and see the macabre cover art and be very afraid [I was also afraid of the Gollum bookends and oriental masks, but they really are very, very kind people.] Anyways, I think it's a funny way to first become acquainted with an author.)

And what was I most looking forward to in July? The big screen adaption of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, of course! My two friends and one of their moms saw a late show downtown. We dressed up and had a wicked time! I must say I was impressed with this film and thought it far better than the last one. I was satisfied with the portrayal of teenage Tom Riddle, who I feared would be butchered, and I swooned often over Alan Rickman (and Tom Felton, who appeared quite a lot). I thought they did a lousy job of explaining who the real Half-Blood Prince was in the end. In the book, it's so enchanting, because who doesn't believe Snape is made of win? Yeah, nobody. Overall, I liked it very much. Also, did anyone else notice that the wonky, smooth black bricks from the department of mysteries made a comeback? They were in the orphanage. I guess David Yates loves those bricks. I also was impressed with Slughorn's performance and character portrayal. I thought it to be one of the film's strong points. I really must reread the series one of these days!

If anyone read all that (and I realize it's a beast) I really am flattered and applaud your perseverance. Of course, loads of other things happened and are happening or will happen, but I thought it'd be nice to skim over the main points in my life as of late. Now, with the clear conscience of a good blogger, I shall move on to my one of my summer assignments, which is what I really should have been doing for the past hour. Cheers!