Spontaneous Musings

Managed to buy four books today, but not, alas, the one I wanted. I may order it via one of the three bookstores I frequent. Am considering doing that instead of using Amazon - for two reasons, 1) don't have to worry about getting it delivered to my home (deliveries only work if you have a doorman, live next door to a UPS place, have a house in the burbs, or someone home all the time - but if you live on the top floor with no doorman, not so much), 2) it helps the book stay in print longer if a book store orders it for customers, also makes more people aware of the book's existence.

Books I got:

1. The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama - decided it was about time I learned a bit more about this guy outside of his speechs and what others say about him. You know, the whole, informed voter thing.
2. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan - which kid bro kept raving about.
3.Janet Evanovich's HArd Eight - a fluffy funny mystery that requires no thinking, which is exactly what the doctor ordered. I know I've read 1-4, can't remember if I've read 5, 6, or 7. They sort of blend together after a while. That's the problem with writers who churn out books quickly, their plots and characters often start to become interchangeable, regardless of whether or not they are writing a series. Almost bought The Ruins but decided that I sort of want to sleep at night and my subconscious is creative enough as is, it doesn't need additional help in the nightmare department.
4. Dance Dance Dance by Hariki Murkamuri (whose name I'm certain I mispelled but am too lazy to go hunt the book down to get it right. It's in the other room and I'm in bed, fiddling when should be sleeping.) This was recommended by a friend, so decided to get it.
Loved the other one. Find the author's style and characters to be very comforting, possibly because I identify closely with them - they tend to be single, lonely, creative sorts who expect too much of themselves, think too much, and love reading and writing. The book is a science fiction/noir novel.

Anyone out there watching The Sarah Connor Chronicles? Great series. Just watched last week's episode and this week's back to back and the series is actually getting a bit more multi-layered. Surprisingly so. Was expecting a more episodic/Fugitive type storyline. It reminds me a little bit of BSG in its' thematic structure. Sci-Fi wise, both fit in the same sub-genre - bad/dark/war-torn future utopia, man vs. machine, with hefty military influence. The difference is - BSG is a space opera and SCC is a time-travel story. Both also have strong and complicated female leads, one of which is an attractive and ambiguous robot female. The male leads are equally complicated. The writers appear to be more than a little influenced by William Gibson, Asimov, Card, Orwell, and The Matrix not to mention James Cameron's Aliens and the original two Terminator films (I sort of studied Terminator one in a cinema class in college because the professor was a huge fan.)

Anyhow, this little series is turning out to be more intelligent and unpredictable than expected. Also more depth and more humor than Bionic Woman did. Tonight's episode had quite a few twists that I did not see coming which perked my interest. Have to admit that I was underwhelmed by the first two episodes of the series, but the last three changed my mind and made me think - wait, there's more going on here than I thought, these writers actually have something to say. Loving the voice over - even though it is admittedly becoming overused much like music montages. (What is with all the dang voice-overs on tv shows and films lately? Almost as bad as the handheld camera and studio cam shots that were so popular a year ago.) Here, I think it works - since it gives the series a definite point of view, and goes along with the whole concept of "Chronicles" or journal keeping.

So, if you didn't stick with it? You might want to give it another chance, assuming of course you like dark utopian sci-fi with tough women at the center. Not everyone does. Also it is serialized, another turn off for some folks. You can't just jump into it willy-nilly. Sort of like Heroes, BSG, Torchwood, and Lost in that respect. Less like the more episodic and far lighter in tone Star Gates and Doctor Who, which you really can jump into willy-nilly and still be able to figure out what is going on, more or less. Not to mention much darker. The non-episodic shows for some reason tend to be darker. No idea why. Nor do I completely understand why I prefer the darker sci-fi series to the lighter ones. I'm admittedly non-discriminating when it comes to sci-fi, but for some reason or other I find the lighter shows such as the Gates and Flash Gordon difficult to watch, my attention always wanders during them. While I'm riveted by stuff like Lost, Heroes, BSG, Torchwood, SCC...Go figure. (Shrugs). Doctor Who may be the exception - I'm sort of enjoying it, even if it gets really silly at times. ;-)