18.08.31

Sometime around 2006, I read a bookseries where the ending was so intense, sad, and incredibly different from where it was “supposed” to go, that I ended up crying throughout the whole night, and woke up sick with horrible cramp-like pains the next day. (They were not really cramps, but located somewhere in proximity to the solar plexus (if I recall correctly… Which I might no longer do)).   I continued waking up sick with this horrible stomach ache every day for the next two months. Then it suddenly ended, two days before I finally got a doctor’s appointment, with no clue as to why.

Every now and then, the morning pains would make an unexpected return; always in the morning, for about 2-4 hours immidiately after waking up.  During the worst of the first few months, I sometimes woke up hours before school started, just so I could lie in bed with the pains running their course, before dragging myself up in time for the first class.

I started some pretty weird (and probably unhealthy) eating habits to prevent these unexplainable pains, as it seemed eating a bunch of food in the evening, especially right before bedtime, eased the ache the next morning. But I never figured out what they were, or what really caused them.

Anyways;  I vaguely recall re-reading the last chapter of the book many years later, and it wasn’t all that bad. It felt like blah fanfiction with a bad twist ending.
Debating whether or not to re-read the whole series again, since I remember loving it up ’til those very last chapters.

Read Full Post »

Majestic osprey is majestic.

“A new sound answered my scream. Shrill and far away, it seemed familiar and completely foreign. I listened, ears straining over the roar and crackle of the fire and the distant groan of metal. It repeated, closer. A bird. Not just a bird. It was no robin or sparrow crying out for me. It was a bird of prey.  (…)  The bird cried out, its lovely song nearly in my ear.”

SO MAJESTIC!

Read Full Post »

In which I try to write.

We are currently in the NaNoWri-Month.

I am not a writer.

.

Sometimes when I sit by myself on my bed, lost in my own thoughts, I play through various scenarios and conversations in my head.  This is not unusual by any stretch of the imagination, by the way, apparently this is something everyone does more or less regularly. It is quite similar to dreaming, which is probably why it is most commonly known as “daydreaming”.  Anywhoozle, these scenarios that run through my brain are most often “what if” situations played out or explored.  “What if I had said yes instead of no?” “What if I knew this person and had to explain my life to them?” “What if I got transported back in time?”  These are but a few examples.

What annoys me is that I can do this for a really long time, basically playing out half a movie in my head, and I never write it down.  I don’t think I`ve ever written one of these down.  Earlier today I realized that I am basically writing bad novels in my head without writing them down.

.

We are currently in the NaNoWri-Month.

Let’s try to write something.

.

To be continued…

Read Full Post »

We’re Alive – my lil’ theory

SPOILERS under the cut for season 1 and 2 of  We’re Alive.

You should totally listen to it before getting spoiled by my theory, yo.

No, seriously, it’s really good.  Go listen to it right now.

.

Ok, here goes..

Read Full Post »

Dentistry

This post contains several references to the Harry Potter universe, because I needed to vent my pained feelings to somebody who would know what I meant when I use the Cruciatus curse to describe a particular kind of pain. 

.

I was at the dentist’s some 12 hours ago, and fixed three more molars* (whole bottom jaw has now been tortured through), and now only have two more appointments to go before I am hopefully out of that office for YEARS to come (unlike previous years, with all the breaking and cracking of molars**).  The local anesthetic*** lasts for about 5-6 hours, and I started to feel tiny twinges of pain in the middle molar (of those fixed) around that time. “Oh no”, I think to myself, as I have already gone through more than a month of not being able to chew properly with the left side of my mouth because of similar pains in the opposite molar, “Good thing I`m going back there tomorrow anyway”.  After a few hours of small twinges now and then, there’s a slight pause. “It’s over!” I hope. And then the mother of all pains shoots through my tooth, and it is like being hit with the Cruciatus curse for a millisecond before being almost immediately let go again.  And as you stand there, trying to catch your breath, someone hits you again, and even though you were merely hit by the curse for a millisecond, you can feel the ghost of the pain shooting through your whole body, immobilizing you before turning you into a quivering mess, anxiously waiting for the next twinge.  Sometimes a few minutes pass inbetween, sometimes almost an hour. Maybe you start to forget. And then it hits you again; A short burst each time, but it’s enough to drive you mad.

.

*  Including a couple of baby teeth, as I have 2 of those instead of proper teeth because my body is stupid.
**  Seriously, I was breaking whole teeth once a week for a while!
***  Not mentioned: My crippling needle phobia and how I have bravely (and less bravely) defied it more times during the past three months than the Potters defied Voldemort.

.

PS:  My dentist is new (to me) and he is infinitely better than my many other ones, even though he always insists on sticking a needle in me.  At least he does a proper job, even IF my nerves end up being effed up in the process. ;_;
PPS:  I am going back tomorrow to fix yet another tooth, and HOPEFULLY I can get something done. But if it is anything like the left side, it cannot be fixed. I`d rather lose my whole tooth than go on for days (or MORE??) with this.
PPPS:  I am not writing this to get pity, it was quite therapeutic to just get it out in writing.  I just really needed someone to understand what I mean when I describe a tooth ache by using the Cruciatus curse.

Read Full Post »

“I always worried someone would notice me, and then when no one did, I felt lonely.”

― Curtis Sittenfeld

Read Full Post »

Writer’s Block

“A picture says a thousand words. Write them.”

aka  I WROTE A THING!

.

After one miserable swing, she put her rather pathetic-looking ax immediately back down again and turned around to address her not-so-silent follower.

”You know, you could actually help me with this?”

There wasn’t exactly an answer, but the great lump waiting in the background blew out a small gust of air in what sounded suspiciously like a huff of laughter.

“Some friend you are.”

She heaved her ax again, and hit the giant trunk once more. This was going to take possibly forever, and she was so not looking forwards to however many hours of work it would take her to fell this great-grandfather of a tree. How old was this forest, anyway? She’d tried asking the creature a couple of times, but getting an answer out of that one was a lost cause on most days. She guessed she would have to settle with counting the rings of the tree-trunk or something equally tedious.

“Couldn’t you at least do something other than just sitting there doing nothing?”

No answer. No movement, either. If the creature had closed its eyes at that moment, it would be almost impossible to discern it from the surrounding nature. Said eyes might have shifted a bit, giving the tiniest indication that at least the light was on inside – pun not intended. She had absolutely no idea why the creature’s eyes did that glowing thing in the hours around dusk and dawn, and of course she could never get a straight answer out of that one, whatever it was. Now that she thought about it, it dawned on her that it was already getting fairly late in the evening. There was no chance whatsoever of her even reaching halfway into the trunk before full night would be upon them, never mind actually felling the whole tree. And why had she felt the need to overpower such an old entity all by herself? As she scratched her neck in thought, the light continued to withdraw from their surroundings. Ah, that was why: Shelter; Desperate times, and all that. There weren’t really any other trees of useful size growing in these parts, even if one happened to count the tiny apple tree holding on with its rather impressive roots to the great lump with the now fading eyes, who was not being the greatest of help at the moment.

.

Read Full Post »

2013 Reading Challenge

VatuBarok has
read 17 books toward her goal of 70 books.

hide

17 of 70 (24%)

view books

Read Full Post »

With tLotR on top, let’s just say I had a BUSY Thursday.

Read Full Post »

Live-tweeting to The Pledge #1 (w. minor spoilers)

• #Reading #ThePledge, and so far nothing has happened.  We just met this guy in a seedy bar, and I suspect he’ll be a future Love Interest.

• So this guy, Max, is a military guy.  But he’s talking directly with The Queen?  Is he perhaps related?  It would fit his language.

• If I’m right in this assumption of him being Royal, I’ll bet money on his full name being Maximillian.

• I was 100% right in every assumption up until now, name and everything.  The story has yet to grow interesting.

• I give up, this book didn’t even pick up by the end, no tension or excitement.  It wasn’t bad, though.  Just boring.

• Only thing I liked was the not-giving-in-to-torture-of-parents bit. But then she just gave up when her sister entered the picture?  #Pushover

.

Read Full Post »

Live-tweeting to The Body Finder #1 & #2 (w. minor spoilers)

The Body Finder

• I am 99% sure that the guy just described in the search group is the killer. He had no murder-feel? CALLING IT!
• …he has no sound of a killer, but HE DIDN’T REALLY #KILL THEM, which gives him no resonance with Violet.
• …also, there’s some #ObviousLampshading.  He was described as unimportant, BUT with more than five words, all corresponding with killer’s POV.
• I could be wrong, though. The writer might actually not make this a huge twist and instead go along with her original (but unoriginal) idea.
• (I’ll be so disappointed if it’s not the unassuming military man. It’s a freaking #brilliant plot twist, having the killer not actually kill.)

• OK, they caught someone else, someone with all the “kill-feels” about him. I don’t like this. It’s way too early in the book to catch him.
• There’s a second guy. KNEW IT! Military man fo sho. He has no “trace” because he didn’t kill the others. He’s the hunter/gatherer.

• Oh yes, go for a run all alone with a killer out there. That sounds like a smart thing to do. #Moron
• Oh yes, leave the targeted girl alone in a public girls’ bathroom at prom, that’s totally safe! #Morons
• “I didn’t really kill them, you know, not really.” #HAH! NAILED IT!

.

Desires of the Dead (The Body Finder #2)

• #Reading the sequel to #TheBodyFinder, and it’s pretty dang obvious that our new #unsub POV lady is The New Guy’s sister.
• Seriously? Now the author isn’t even TRYING to conceal #whodunit, because how much more obvious can these clues GET?!
• We have yet to meet The Dad, so I’m pretty dang sure he’s gonna be our Bad Guy of the episode. #ObviousLampshading

• Oh hai, there’s a body in the woods that insists on being found, but we think it’s an animal?  Kids, say hello to your dead mommy.
• Oh yes, identify the killer and THEN go out alone in the snow to dig up the dead “animal”. #Moron.  Lady, u dumb.
• Called it.  #TheEnd

.

Read Full Post »

Not at all Bored of the Rings

I`ve been searching for an amazing audio edition of The Lord of the Rings since I found out it was on my syllabus this year.  After testing about five different ones, I stumbled upon one only posted on YouTube.  It’s by a guy called Phil Dragash, and he made it a Soundscape project with background noise and music and lots of fun stuff, even voices. After listening to a few chapters, it is (in my opinion) the best audio out there.  (You can check it out here.)

I just finished downloading all the chapters of Fellowship.  (The audio all free for download, but you have to do one chapter at a time, which takes a good amount of time.)

Read Full Post »

Booking

I filled in my table-shelf today.

At first it looked like this:

.

But I figured that I might as well stuff all the other books in there while I was at it, since space is a rare commodity when you live in a small apartment.

.

Then I changed my mind about some of the placements and reversed or otherwise changed them around.  It looks much better like this, I think.

Read Full Post »

This book will be the end of me.

Read Full Post »

The presents came early this year.

PS:  The box is FILLED with even more authors. 

Read Full Post »

JOY!

Just added ten new audio books to my library.  I shall finish this zombie trilogy first, and then get going on The Fault In Our Stars.

 

Read Full Post »

I samme sekund som hovedpersonen i lydboken jeg hører på observerte et vogntog passere rett foran bilen hans, så fikk jeg en melding på mobilen som pep til med en tog-lur jeg ikke har hørt før. Det passet så bra inn i historien at jeg et øyeblikk trodde jeg hørte på et radioteater istedenfor en vanlig lydbok.

Read Full Post »

Packing

I finally began packing today.

I have about a week left of my contract, and then it’s OUT.  I`ve been packing a little here and there for a couple of weeks, though nothing big enough to notice.  But I finally gathered up my courage today and began boxing my books.

I still have about two shelves left, but the two most important boxes (the ones that I`ll take with me to Oslo) are done.

I almost began sniffling when I packed down Harry Potter.  It’s been four years since I actually held those darling books in my hands.

Read Full Post »

Lydbokmangel

.

Hvorfor finnes det ikke bedre opplesingsprogram for eBooks og liknende tekster?  Stemmen som leser for meg er ei dame som ikke klarer å uttale noesomhelst i et naturlig toneleie, eller med riktig intonasjon..  Dette er fryktelig irriterende, for jeg har ikke alltid tid til å lese alt jeg må lese! (Ja, dette har sammenheng med at jeg neste uke har en stor prøve i litteratur.)  Opplesingsprogramvaren burde oppdateres.  Eller at de lager lydbøker av bøkene!  Sistnevnte BURDE vært aktuelt, ettersom bøkene jeg trenger å lese faktisk er klassikere!

.

Nå må det nesten innrømmes at tre av de fem bøkene allerede finnes på lydbok (og jeg har dem selvfølgelig), men det godtgjør ikke den lille detaljen at det ikke finnes spor av de to andre noensteds i verden.

Read Full Post »

Fantastic fantasies..

.

If you ever decide to write a book, make sure you incorporate EVERYTHING people love into it, even what they’ve already read in countless other books!   I am talking of Fantasies, people!

.

For example:   Eragon!

You take an untrained Link from Zelda, and make him into a blond Harry Potter living in something like the Old Days.  Then you take the Daemons from Philip Pullman and turn them into dragons.  Then you make monsters a la Robert Jordan, and a Dark Lord a la Tolkien, and also mix in a Niklaren/Dumbledore/Numair kind of mentor with a past (which also includes swords), and make sure to bring in elves as well!

Oh, and the mentor DIES.  Make sure to bury him in an AWSOME tomb!  As the hero levels up, so does the enemy.  Why this suddenly happens at the same rate is never explained.  Mix in some clever wittiness to cover up poorly written character development, and kill off a few good guys to make the baddies look even baddier.

.

If all else fails, make SPARKLEPIRES!!  Cuz EVERYONE loves those glittering teenagers with temperamental problems and bad eating habits who watch you sleep for months and then leaves you to die of grief and then goes suicidal themselves because they left you, right?

Right.

.

I love Eragon.  It`s unoriginal, like all other Fantasies, but I love it.

Read Full Post »