Reviewy things

Internet is currently shut off, but I've been able to find a pirated signal by sitting on my steps, which I'm doing right now.

I'm in the middle of reading Dante's Divine Comedy right now. It's a spectacular, and obviously very very dense read. The imagery of hell is haunting in ways that I've not seen it before, and should provide some interesting pieces to draw from when I get around to writing again. Writing is something I've not done a lot of lately. I wanted to be done with the Rider by March 1, but at this point I'll be lucky to have finished Act I by then, let alone the whole book by the end of March.

I've finished 2 books so far this year, which is good for me. A friend and I got to talking about books we read last year, and it took me far too long to think of what the last book I finished was. Eventually it came to me. Soon I Will Be Invincible by (I have to look this up) Austin Grossman. It wasn't very good, but it did have moments of success.

So far this year I've read Under the Dome, which was a surprisingly competent and riveting read. The ending was surprising and King's ruthlessness with his characters was very surprising, and refreshing. It took a helluva long time to read, but then again it's a huge book.

The other book was Go Go Girls of the Apocalypse, by Victor Gischler. It was a post-apocalyptic comedy, which is of interest to me considering the story idea I'm working on, Bombed! Go Go Girls was a competent read, but not as spectacular as I was hoping. There are moments of sheer genius (the survival of the Jack Daniels distillery comes to mind first) and there are moments of bland (the rushed climactic battle and rather cliched movie ending). All in all I'd recommend it for its fun popcorn read. It left me with the vibe of an author's first novel. A ton of ideas, and a ton of work, and it'll never be as refined as their later work, but it's the clunky intensity and the sheer labor of love that makes it enjoyable.

Other fun things has been in music. Angels and Airwaves put their album out last weekend, Love. It's one of those that is just so ridiculous and over the top and utterly absurd and intense that you can't help but love it for its many failings. And anything negative I've said about Sleeping at Last's 2009 release, Storyboards, is completely rescinded. That album was a work of pure staggering genius.

Anyways. I leave for LA in 5 days, and I graduate in 59. Life is good.