A Book Log
Dude, I loved Eddings too, although I was about a sophomore in high school when I started the Belgariad. I can still recall buying the second or third book of the Mallorean when I was a freshman in college and it came out in hardback. Then I flamed out on the third series (the Elenium?), when I realized it was pretty much just the same as the first two, and besides, I wasn't in high school anymore. So, I have a lingering fondness for that stuff, but I don't dare go back and read it again, 'cause I'm pretty sure it wouldn't hold up.
P.S. Like the new look. Were you in a re-designin' mood?
Trent (trent.goulding@mho.com) (http://home.mho.net/trent.goulding/books/blcurrent.html) -- Sat Jan 25 17:27:37 2003
Probably wouldn't hold up, no -- there was quite a lot in this book that would have really irritated me if I hadn't been predisposed toward charitability and low expectations.
As for the look, I was playing around with the alternate stylesheets feature (If you use Mozilla, look at the View->Use Style menu item -- it lets you select from multiple author-specified stylesheets, or (for that Netscape 1.0 look), no stylesheet at all. And if you don't use Mozilla, you should. It is to IE 6 what IE 5 was to Navigator 4 -- a clearly superior browser in every way.), and I realized that I liked my alternate style better than the default one. It's probably just the novelty, but there you are.
Mike (web@klio.org) (http://www.klio.org/weblog/) -- Sat Jan 25 23:22:48 2003
Dude, I hate to tell you, but Eddings sucked before he started sharing credit with his wife. (This is probably an age-related thing; I didn't read his stuff in 7th grade or high school, but during college.)
I like the new style, too, FWIW.
Pam (http://home.uchicago.edu/~kor2) -- Sun Jan 26 23:34:17 2003
The burning question, left unanswered by your review, is: "Does the plot of this book involve wisecracking characters chasing a magic blue rock?"
It's not old-school Eddings without Magic Blue Rocks.
The new look sucks, btw. All aesthetic decisions made by people other than me and Kate suck! People who paint brick should be roasted in tandoor ovens! People who put pink tile in bathrooms should be publisly flogged!
What? Oh, sorry.
I'm better now. Really.
Off to paint...
(The new look is fine.)
Chad Orzel (orzelc@earthlink.net) (http://www.steelypips.org/principles) -- Tue Jan 28 08:40:41 2003
Wisecracking characters: Yes. (You know they're being funny because the people they're talking to break out laughing. It's not otherwise clear from context.)
Blue rock: No! I was shocked by the omission, I must say.
Incidentally, on reflection, I think this book sucked a little more than I admitted in that review.
Mike (web@klio.org) (http://www.klio.org/weblog/) -- Tue Jan 28 10:26:20 2003
Aesthetic decisions: You would have loved the leopard-print themed bathroom in one of the houses Anne and I looked at last week. Very much a "What were you THINKING?" moment.
Mike (web@klio.org) (http://www.klio.org/weblog/) -- Tue Jan 28 10:29:36 2003
Pink tile in bathroom doesn't sound too weird. Even the leopard-print bathroom isn't out of the realm of conceivability[1], but painting brick? What's up with that.
Having lived in many, many houses over the course of my life, I think that you get especially weird decorating choices in bathrooms, as a rule. Maybe it's because it's a small room, and so it's an easy testing ground for crazy home-decor ideas that pass through homeowners minds. Just off the top of my head, my family has lived in houses with 1. a nautical-themed bathroom, and 2. a bathroom with shiny foil butterfly wallpaper. (Not both in the same house, thankfully.)
Pam (http://home.uchicago.edu/~kor2) -- Tue Jan 28 14:16:31 2003
Leopard... print... bathroom.
That just doesn't compute.
But more and more, I love my apartment.
Novak (http://cegt201.bradley.edu/~jsn) -- Wed Jan 29 11:53:16 2003
True story: While hanging around a lighting store trying to pick out bathroom lights, I overheard two appalling snippets of conversation between a woman who was discussing lighting choices with one of the store employees:
1) "That would've been perfect, because we're doing the whole room in leopard, but it was just too expensive."
2) "Oh, that'll be perfect, because we're planning to put a couple of deer heads on the wall."
I hope to God she was talking about lamps for two different rooms...
(The lights still haven't come in, but the rest of the bathroom remodel is done, and it looks very nice. "Before" and "After" pictures will probably be posted at some point...)
Chad Orzel (orzelc@earthlink.net) (http://www.steelypips.org/principles/) -- Wed Jan 29 17:44:26 2003
I think deer heads can class up any bathroom.
Mike (web@klio.org) (http://www.klio.org/weblog/) -- Thu Jan 30 09:59:56 2003
Our master bathroom is mint green, with peach accents. The 60's were not a good decade for color coordination. The house is horribly laid out, so a mint green bathroom doesn't seem like such a big deal compared to the 44-foot hallway and the Worst Kitchen of All Time.
Amy (faile19@yahoo.com) -- Thu Jan 30 15:46:55 2003