What Has Harso Been Up To?

Well, it’s kinda hard for me to believe that it’s been so long since I’ve done a post on here. After all, I’ve been reading tons, listening to music, watching TV. But I’ve also been busy. School, and practicum keep me busy, and all my free time has gone to those aforementioned activities that apparently I live for. Of course, the truth is, I think that stuff keeps me sane.  But I have meant to write my thoughts on a few things I’ve read recently. I actually have a list written down somewhere. But first the ones on top of my head. So, here we go.

The Night Circus

This book really, really impressed me. It was fascinating. The writing style was really and truly unique to anything else I have read ever I think. Everything was written in the present tense, which I found to be an interesting device. Also, it was probably the most complex story I’ve read since The Way of Kings. Not as complex as The Wheel of Time, which is definitely the most complex storytelling I’ve ever encountered. Neither was it as complex as War and Peace. At least, I don’t think so. But all told, an excellent piece of work.

Deja Dead

I recently started following Kathy Reichs on twitter, and that’s almost certainly what inspired me to read her debut novel. I love Bones, the TV show that is rather loosely based on her novels, which as far as I can tell are based loosely on Reichs’s own life—after all she is one of the premiere forensic anthropologists in the country. Again, the writing here is quite different from what I’m used to, and through it I can see why Brennan’s character is portrayed the way it is on the show. Though it could also be that I’m reading outside of my core genres of fantasy/science fiction here. That said, I’m inclined to go with it being Reichs strong writing voice coming out.

The rest of these it’s been awhile since I’ve read, so hold on. I also read Dr. Seuss & Mr. Giessel recently, which as you might guess, was a biography of Dr. Seuss. It was quite fascinating. I liked it enough that I’ve now picked up a biography of Walt Disney. We’ll see how that goes. Okay, now we’re really moving on.

Richard Castles Deadly Storm

Have I mentioned that I like Castle? The TV show about the writer who gets to hang out with the NYPD homicide detectives? Well, I do. So, about a month or so ago I guess while I was browsing the Graphic Novel Section as I’m occasionally prone to do, this caught my eye. When I saw that it was written in part by Brian Michael Bendis I just knew that I had to pick it up. I had no more choice in the matter. It was game over. It was good though. I still have some questions though. What really happened to Clara Strike? This is supposed to be castles first Derrick Storm novel, and I know she’s supposed to be in the next ones as well. I guess I can only hope for further additions.

Ultimate Spiderman Vol. 5

I know I already mentioned Bendis, but here he comes again. Actually this particular volume, which is a reference to the big hardcover editions, not the littler compilations is mostly noteworthy because I’m pretty sure I pretty big chunk of it was actually from The Ultimates. But this was okay, if only because it filled in some pretty big gaps in the Ultimate Spiderman storyline. Okay, they never really bugged me before, but since it was also a Spiderman adventure it really made sense and fit well here.

Battle for the Cowl

Switching comic book publishers, I really remember little of this comic now, except for that I’m pretty sure this fits very well into the Batman arc I had read previously. Yes, that’s right, this is the part that explains what’s going on in Gotham after Bruce is sent back into the past after killing Darkseid. Yeah. This seemed kinda dark actually—though since this is Batman that might go without saying. The anthology ends as I recall with Vicki Vales lightbulb going off. Bruce Wayne is Batman, which leads nicely into some of the previous Batman works I’ve mentioned.

War Games

This is one of my favorite movies. I watched it a while ago. That is all I really have to say

Firefly

I got the urge to rewatch this again, so I did. When I was home last weekend I asked if I could borrow this, so naturally I spent the first couple days of this week watching the whole thing over again. I’m just amazed by this show. This show did things in just fifteen episodes that other shows take over five seasons to get too. That is the sign of something truly special. Of course, the show was created by Joss Whedon, and had Ben Edlund working on several episodes as well. How can you go wrong with that?

Heroes Vols. 1&2

Honestly when I saw these graphic novels on the shelf at the library, I thought for sure they’d just be the TV series in a graphic novel format. I was wrong. These were actually put on their website during the series as a supplement to the show. And they weren’t bad either. Though I found Vol. 1 to be superior to Vol. 2, mostly because of the Hana Gitelman story arc.

So, that there is about all I wanted to talk about. At least, as far as I can remember. Not only that, but I only talked about the books, very little about discovering them, or strange asides about nothing at all. Possibly coming soon: Rick Riordan’s, of Percy Jackson fame, first novel. A mystery work called Big Red Tequila.

And I really thought I was done, but I thought I’d give some more explanation as to why I haven’t been posting much the last month or so. My efforts have mostly been directed towards filling out an application for the National Guard, and more recently for a crazy internship for next year. That’s all! And yes, they both were rather intensive applications, the National Guard more so than the other. Finishing them both has actually left me rather directionless this week.