Starting the New Decade Out Clean

According to the count on my LibraryThing.com inventory, I have 320 books on my TBR shelf.

I'd have to read one book every 1.14 days to get through my pile by the end of 2010.

I'd have to read one book every week to get through them all by the end of 2015.

And this is assuming that I don't buy a single other book to add to the pile. Plus, it doesn't count the dozen or so books on my daughter's TBR shelf that I never entered into my LibraryThing inventory but would really like to read. Nor does it include the four-page Wishlist I keep adding to on Amazon. Or the upcoming releases that I'm anxiously awaiting in the next few month. I swear, it never ends.

I'm going to commit now to the following New Year's Resolutions for 2010.

1) I will not buy any new books without having either read one from my TBR pile or having determined that I will never read a certain title from my TBR pile and remove that book from the premises, either as a UBS submission or library donation. Strictly a tit-for-tat deal only, goal to maintain the status quo at the very minimum.

2) I will read at least one book a week from my TBR pile. I qualify this by allowing that I might also simultaneously read a favorite or a new book, but I'll have a TBR in progress at all times.

3) I give myself permission to Give Up. If I get a third of the way through a book and it hasn't really captured me, I will stop reading and call it a day. I simply don't have the time for guilt reading. I think it's fair to say I've given a book the old college try if I make if a third through.

4) Some of the books I have flagged as TBR are actually reference materials I've picked up thinking they may come in handy some day or that apply to some project or other that I've been working on. I think a thorough skim-through will be enough to qualify it for removal from the TBR list, keeping in mind that reference books are to be referred to more so than read through.

Oddly, I make this promise just as I've determined to branch out into genres that I've never experienced before. Specifically, today at Borders I picked up The Color of Magic, book 1 in Terry Pratchett's hugely popular Discworld fantasy series, and Storm Front by Jim Butcher, which looks to be a cross between mystery and paranormal.

New Moon: A Review

Okay, I figure instead of whining about how badly others have handled the reviews of New Moon, I should offer up my own opinion on the movie.

I waited until a Monday, at 3:30 to see the show so that I wouldn't have to endure a theater full of squeeing fans. This proved to be a good plan as the theater was perhaps no more than an eighth full and I heard not a single squee the entire duration of the film.

My overall impression of New Moon: I found New Moon the movie to be an improvement on New Moon the book. I genuinely liked the movie. After the cut are my specifics.

What Is the Point of Reviewing New Moon?

I've spent a lot of time reading reviews of The Twilight Saga: New Moon.* For the most part, they all contain the same opinions of the movie, and I'm not remotely surprised by any of the reviews. In fact, I could have predicted the exact response of the critics, who for the vast majority fall far outside the fan demographic by nature of their sex and/or age. I will claim that without having seen so much more than the handful of trailers and clips circulating the interwebs, I could at this very second write a review of this movie that would probably sound a lot like those of the professionals out there, and not just because I've been reading the reviews ad nauseum.

I could have written these reviews six months ago.

The reason I could have written these reviews without even seeing the movie? I've read the book.

Actresses Behaving Badly

I'm sorry. I admit that I don't know her personally at all. And I also don't have any idea what it must be like to have the public laser-focused on pretty much every single move that I make. Nor can I imagine how hard it might be not to be able to run to the grocery store or sit in a restaurant or see a movie without people approaching me and bothering me all the time. I'm sure being famous has many drawbacks.

But I've pretty much come to the conclusion that Kristen Stewart needs a serious attitude adjustment.

Warning: what follows after the cut is a rant, so if you are a serious fan, you may want to back away slowly.

Heart of Gold Notwithstanding

I'm a big fan of Joss Whedon's Firefly series, although I didn't discover it until after it had been taken off the air, so I'm forever sorry I wasn't part of the effort to save it. Nathan Fillion's Capt. Malcolm Reynolds falls solidly on my Favorite Top 10 Heroes Ever list. And the particular phrasing and word patterns Whedon used for all of the show's dialogue is nothing short of genius. If you've never watched the show, I highly recommend picking up the DVDs at your earliest convenience.

There is one aspect of the show that, despite many viewings now, never quite worked for me. This is the character of Inara Serra, played by the breathtakingly lovely Morena Baccarin.

You Have Something On Your Face

I'm reading J.R. Ward's newest book, Covet. Despite all of my issues with the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, I find Ward endlessly readable. Affected dialogue patterns and her habit of turning nouns into verbs aside, her characters really appeal to my love of uber-protective alpha heroes.

I am having one tiny issue, however. One of the secondary characters (who, I suspect, is in line to become a primary character in a future book) has been described as having several face piercings. I'm only about eight chapters in, but I already know he has a ring in his lip. And it's been made clear this isn't the only place on his face that he's poked holes into.

I personally find face piercing a disgusting from of self-mutilation.

TSTL: Not Just for Heroines

I've been watching this season's TV darling, Glee. It's cute. The music is really fun (although I have yet to feel the urge to download any of the performances off iTunes so that phenomenon escapes me), and the characters are interesting. The show clearly sees itself as camp because most of the characters are so over-the-top cartoonish no one could be expected to take them seriously. Between the cheerleaders who ALWAYS wear their cheerleading uniforms to the bombastic bully of a cheer coach, Sue, and the germaphobe guidance counselor Emma, nuance is a concept that is ignored completely.

But I do have one fundamental problem with the show that is getting to the point where I'm thinking of bailing.

Warning: this post includes SPOILERS for Glee. Don't read after the cut if you don't want to read SPOILERS.