Friday, November 24, 2006

Also known as lazy blogging

I took another quiz, on what Tarot card I am:




You are The Moon



Hope, expectation, Bright promises.



The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.



The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.



What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Is it just me, or does it sound like if I take drugs or alcohol, I will cause irereparable damage to the drugs and alcohol? Maybe the "them" is my past mental problems; I wouldn't want to damage those.

I also have a list of the 50 Most Significant SFF books (1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club). I'm supposed to bold what I've read, strike-through anything I hated, italicize anything I've started but never finished, and asterisk anything I loved. So here we go:


1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien.*** I've read this book at least every five years since I first read it at 14. I don't know if I'll keep that up in my 90s, but it's been about five years and I've been hankering to dig into it again.
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov. But in all honest, I liked his robot series with Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw better. I know, I'm a heretic.
3. Dune, Frank Herbert. I've even managed to stay awake through the movie version once!
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein.*** 4 times. I keep intending to read all of Heinlein's books, and I keep getting sidetracked reading this one over and over again. My husband's cat is named Valentine after Valentine Michael Smith.
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin.*** I would love to see a Peter Jackson version of this. I didn't bother with the Sci-Fi channel disaster.
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson.*** 4 times on this one as well. Our second cat is named Molly, which is a shared reference to the Molly in this book and Molly Bloom from Ulysses. (The third cat is Spike, a shared reference to Cowboy Bebop and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is totally not literary. I should be ashamed).
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke. Eep. Actually, I have a list of authors whose work I plan to dive into next, and his name is on it. Honest, I fully intend to read this.
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick. And this too. I actually already own this, I've just never read it.
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley***. When I first read it, it absolutely blew me away. The sequels haven't come close to Mists, but frankly that bar may be set too high. This book is brilliant.
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe. Wolfe is also on that list. I've read a lot of his short fiction and a couple of his novels, but not this one.
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr. I've read this at least twice. The first time was when I was in junior high; I'm fairly certain this was the first straight-up sci-fi I ever read (although I was a fiend for sci-fi movies, even the crappy ones).
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov. Oh there you are, Caves of Steel.
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett. Pratchett's name is on the list (I'm telling you, it's a mighty long list. I started with the women writers, most of whom don't even appear on this list. I'll get to the list-making men someday).
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison . No, but this one is on my list for Christmas (a large portion of my gifts received are in bookstore gift certificates, so I start making my lists now. I don't want until Dec. 26 to spend those gift certificates!).
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison.
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester. Another one I own but have not yet read.
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card. Italics for this one, although I still intend to finish it someday.
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling.*** It's probably best if I don't tell you how many times I've read this one. Everytime a new one is coming out, I re-read all the previous ones back-to-back. I read them all again everytime a movie is coming out. Since this is the first book in the series, I'll let you do the math.
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams.*** Second after Canticle in my sci-fi reading. I was quite popular in junior high for being the only girl anyone knew who'd read this and could quote it like it was Python (I was going to say "Shakespeare", but I'm pretty sure I was the only one also quoting Shakespeare) (also, the word "popular" here refers to a very restricted social circle. I was popular with the geeks).
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice.*** 3 or 4 times with that one as well. To be honest, I like her Mayfair Witches books better. (yeah, heretic again).
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin.**** Quite possibly my favorite LeGuin, and that's saying something. Love is not strong enough a word.
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke. Yes, I'm ashamed not to have read this one. It's on the list!
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven. I own this but haven't read it yet. I've read 6 other Niven books, though.
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien. I don't know anyone who's finished this. How did it make the list and no The Hobbit?
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester. Another one I own but haven't read yet.
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein. 3 times. I could get a lot more reading done if I could stop reading the same books over and over, eh?

47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock. Own it, haven't read it.
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks. I've never seen the appeal. Dragonlance gets sneered at, but those books are nowhere near as badly written as the Shannara books. Sometimes I just don't understand human behavior.
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

16 out of 50, plus 3 I've never finished. Better hit the books!


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