Mynmyn's Wanderings

Any advice on where to go other than the obvious: Powell's City of Books, Kinokuniya, a Japanese bookstore in Beaverton, the Chinese/Japanese/International Rose Gardens, and the Omni center?

We may just have to make a stop at the world's smallest park.  I've heard that its only 24 square inches in size.

Or more appropriately, I bought Pokemon Pearl.

Deal with it Erin!

Yes, Yes.  I know.  I'm horrible and I should post more.

Let's see.  I'm going to go see Spider-man 3 on Friday. 'nuff said.

Just Kidding.

No one told me that the Wii also played Gamecube games.  *sighs* I have way too many games purchased lately and I haven't finished one of them.

Here's the list:

City of Heroes/City of Villians Good Vs. Evil Edition
Guild Wars
Tomb Raider Legend

Gamecube games:
Eternal Darkness Sanity's Requiem.....out of print and our rental copy got pulled so I had to pick it up since I've always wanted it.
Animal Crossing...I'm crazy I know
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 0

Do the Wii games count?  I don't think so but I did get Wii Play for the extra controller and minigames and a used copy of Legend of Zelda.

I know I go through phases and buying sprees with books or games or movies.  Oh I also bought Elder Scrolls Morrowind for the pc for like 5.00 after discount and I must say....not impressed which is disappointing since I've wanted it so long.  Thank goodness I got the jewel case version and not the 19.99 one.

Oh well.  I'm sure I'll get something later this month or next.  Mmmmm Pokemon. 

*glee*

Wii

My friend code to follow later.

I just read about this website the other day:

http://www.librarything.com/
info: http://www.librarything.com/about.php

I haven't tried it out yet but I'm thinking about giving it a go.  I need a master list of my books but I don't know if I want to start out a spreadsheet.  I figured I would share the website to all my other book crazy friends.

Ok, I sat on it for a while and decide that I can't help myself and speak up, and not because I used to read romances.  I mainly feel like I have to speak up because I work in a bookstore and deal with all kinds of readers so there are so many observations I can make.

There are many kinds of readers and I will focus on adults because they're more fun and kids are generally more open.

1. Nonfiction/current events/political readers aka fiction snobs.

2. Book club/literary readers aka I would never read that kind of book i.e. romance, mystery, or science fiction.

3. The avid genre/popular fiction reader and this covers the romance readers, the mystery readers, and the scifi/fantasy/horror readers get hell from everyone else.

I've worked in a bookstore since 2000 and there's one thing I've noticed.  The nonfiction/literary fiction readers are the most stuck up and snobbish about their reading and tend to look down at genre fiction.  I'm always amused by this because the majority of times its the sales of genre fiction that subsidizes the sales of everything else. 

I've also noticed that the most maligned readers are romance and science fiction/fantasy/horror readers.  They must be stupid or bored or to be pitied.  Of course it doesn't matter that nearly 63% of romance readers have attended college or have college degrees.  http://www.storyforu.com/stats.htm These stats are from 2003 but I do know that almost 20% of the book market, not including children, are romance books.

You would be surprised at how grateful romance readers are when I'm helping them and they discover that I'm not patronizing, rolling my eyes, or making fun of them in one fashion or another.  I've dealt with that before years ago.  Of course the same could be said about science fiction and fantasy fans.  They're ecstatic to realize that I actually know what their talking about.  Hehe, of course some of that does deal with the fact that: WOW! you're a girl and you know this.  I have noticed an increase in the number of woman who seem to be reading science fiction and fantasy.

Now, I won't argue that over 90% of romances are written poorly but there's one thing I've noticed about bestselling authors in popular fiction:  the majority can't write to save their lives.  I know Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code is one of the bestselling books ever but damn, I couldn't even get through it the writing was so bad.  Of course, the history was laughable too in my mind.

There's almost this aura about writers...an ideal.  We know how hard it is to get published in the writing industry but there's just something so romantic about aspiring to write.  I blame the library where I worked at for nearly 10 years for making me more aware of actual writing styles.  If something is written so poorly or edited so badly, it doesn't matter how interesting the story is I just can't force myself to read the book unless it's a favorite author or something unique about the book that allows me to ignore that (rarely happens).

I don't think that there are many writers now who can really write, and I don't think that the majority of readers care.  Big name authors don't get published because they know how to write well.  They get published because they tell a good story.  That is why they get paid the big bucks because they are good storytellers with a large audience who want to read their works.

James Patterson hardly even writes his own work anymore.  If you see one of his books where he is the sole author listed then you know that he wrote it (most likely) but if you see a secondary author listed you know that Patterson wrote a detailed 30 page outline and that the other author actually wrote the book.  That's how he has 6 books coming out this year.  While I abhor the idea I realize that that is just the way it is now.  Check out his article at USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2007-02-04-james-patterson_x.htm

Romance readers get hell for people thinking they read crap.

Science fiction and fantasy readers get crap for being geeks, nerds, and generally out of touched with reality and other stereotypes.

Graphic novel readers get hell for not really reading (uh?).

What do I think?  I don't care what they read.  I am just happy that they are reading.  Books compete with television, tivo, video games, computer games, dvds, and a multitude of other things people can do for fun and relaxation.  I welcome the romance readers who come in multiple times a month buying more than one book at a time the same way I look forward to my science fiction fans coming in looking for something new or the next book in x author's series  just as much as I welcome the every other reader who comes to my store.

Be careful judging what other people read, after all they probably think that what you're reading is a bore.

So for those of you who may not know, I'm now Cafe manager at the store I work at.  I'm still in the process of fixing and learning and making the department better.  I hope that things don't get boring after that though.

I fear I may end up buying a Wii as a reward....you know if one could actually be found.  Shhh.....I know the truth, it's just a big gigantic ruse from Nintendo....the Wii doesn't exist!  L & D have some sort of mutated DS in their apartment I'm sure.

My weekends are shot now.  I work Saturday afternoons/nights and Sunday morning/afternoons.

Not much else to say atm.

You might think that you're prepared but you're not!

This devious, evil, fluffy yet totally stupid creatures will crush you!

Rayman Raving Rabbids Launch Trailer

My gods people!  Didn't you see my last post about World of Warcraft Burning Crusade coming out?!  I got mobs to kill and levels to attain.  Oh well, its not like my sweetie A and I don't go out and do things first before we sit down in front of the PC for unmentionable number of hours.

I'm pretty open about things so its kind of hard for me to come up with 5 things people don't know about me but I'll try.

• Many know that I lived overseas in Okinawa as a kid.  Air Force brats for the win!  It was during that time that I watched the first episode premiere in 1986 of Dragonball.  No, I'm not talking about Dragonball Z but the very original Dragonball on Wednesday nights at 7pm to be followed by Maison Ikkoku by Rumiko Takahashi the creator of Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, Inu-yasha, and the top selling manga artist in the world.  Yep I saw it first before all these snot nose brats yelling about Dragonball Z. =p  Of course, I also watched as a kid those tv shows that were the precursors to the Power Rangers in America.

• I like revenge stories.  Kill Bill and the recently viewed and loved Oldboy.  Yeah I know that I'm not supposed to like 'violent' vengeance films or stories but a good revenge flick especially with some intelligence always holds place in my heart.  Oldboy in particular surprised me with how the story was plot out. Warning:  Oldboy is very violent if anyone wishes to see it.  It also has subtitles since its a Korea film.
  

• Speaking of Korean films.  I enjoy foreign films, the horror or psychological ones.  While I like a good drama once in a while I much prefer watching something else.  American horror movies tend to be all guts and gore.  They're more disgusting then scary.

Fatal Frame 3

• I love survival horror video games.  I especially enjoy the ones based on Japanese folklore like the Fatal Frame series but I do enjoy a good Resident Evil game or Silent Hill.  To this day, the atmosphere in the original Silent Hill movie can scare the dickens at out of me.  While I like shooting zombies and such I much prefer more innovative ways of dealing with things whether its using a camera to capture ghosts and spirits ala Fatal Frame or having to actually avoid confrontations and hide ala Clocktower 3.  The more 'different' game play is likely to be the more I'm intrigued about playing it.  After all I have played video games since the Atari.  Yes I know I'm so dating myself.

• I was a very quiet, introvert child.  One of my favorite activities as a child was to pack up a lunch in my picnic basket, grab one of my little blankets, and walk down the hill to my elementary school and have a picnic lunch....by myself.  I did most things by myself actually.

I'll add one or two for extra measure.

• 

  HK toaster
  I have a weakness for cute.  My gnome mage is cute.  Then there is my hello kitty collection that includes a phone, a camera, and a toaster.  I have a little totoro doll sitting atop my computer next to two hello kitty dolls.  Kittens, pandas, puppies...damn my weakness for cute things.

• I've watched every episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. =p