A lot of rereading this week. Class Trip, The Dice Man, Absolutely Normal Chaos, and Small Gods were all books I originally read between the ages of fourteen and seventeen.
The Dice Man is probably the one that had the biggest effect on my psyche. Although I have no intention of making any or all decisions with dice, I found the idea that you could break character fascinating. You don't have to be consistent with what you think you are - you can do something different. This also solidified the idea, for me, that being 'nice' or 'kind' (for example) didn't make sense as describing a person or personality, only in describing an action. You can be a person who has done kind things in the past and who is likely to do kind things in the future, but only the things, the actions themselves, are kind, not the person. This also means you can change negative parts of your personality by noting the actions and trying not to do them any more. You may be a person-who-is-inclined-to-be-impatient-and-snappy, but you can change that to being a person-who-is-inclined-to-be-impatient-and-snappy-but-who-stops-and-thinks-and-doesn't-snap. This book convinced me that reinvention is easy - a series of small changes. A case of breaking character.
I disagree that you should break character to the point of no longer having one, which was the basis of Rhinehart's dice life. Just break out of the one you don't like.
Class Trip was part of a collected edition of three teen horror novels that my mom owned. My favourite in the volume was actually Horrorscope, but Class Trip was intriguing because of the twist at the end, which I haven't actually seen replicated anywhere. It was pretty unique. I liked it.
My mom recently gave a pile of books to my grandmother, including that one. It's mine now.
I first read Absolutely Normal Chaos because I loved the sequel, Chasing Redbird. The other two in the series, this and Walk Two Moons aren't nearly as good. I have a serious problem with Walk Two Moons which I will elaborate on in next week's post, since I'm already halfway through. I am only reading these two to build up to Chasing Redbird.
Small Gods is a Discworld book, one that I listened to as an audiobook. Read by Nigel Planer, who performed it very well. I love that book.
Small World is by Tabitha King, Stephen King's wife. I've owned it for several years now - seven, at a guess - and I read it now as part of my chronological reading project. It was pretty good. I felt like Leyna gave up too fast though, and I don't see how she had a reason. At the time, it seemed like she didn't understand the extent of her situation, and thus didn't know if it was hopeless or not.
Dancing Girls was another one I've owned for a while. Atwood is okay. I don't like any of her books as much as I liked The Handmaid's Tale, but I keep hoping.
Class Trip was part of a collected edition of three teen horror novels that my mom owned. My favourite in the volume was actually Horrorscope, but Class Trip was intriguing because of the twist at the end, which I haven't actually seen replicated anywhere. It was pretty unique. I liked it.
My mom recently gave a pile of books to my grandmother, including that one. It's mine now.
I first read Absolutely Normal Chaos because I loved the sequel, Chasing Redbird. The other two in the series, this and Walk Two Moons aren't nearly as good. I have a serious problem with Walk Two Moons which I will elaborate on in next week's post, since I'm already halfway through. I am only reading these two to build up to Chasing Redbird.
Small Gods is a Discworld book, one that I listened to as an audiobook. Read by Nigel Planer, who performed it very well. I love that book.
Small World is by Tabitha King, Stephen King's wife. I've owned it for several years now - seven, at a guess - and I read it now as part of my chronological reading project. It was pretty good. I felt like Leyna gave up too fast though, and I don't see how she had a reason. At the time, it seemed like she didn't understand the extent of her situation, and thus didn't know if it was hopeless or not.
Dancing Girls was another one I've owned for a while. Atwood is okay. I don't like any of her books as much as I liked The Handmaid's Tale, but I keep hoping.
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