In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 27th Year, Week 18/52 and I Go Off on a Rant about the Gilmore Girls

Only three books last week; a library book, an audio book and a book I bought from a charity shop on the way back from Lorna Doone country last March.

I love Lorna Doone.  It's one of my favourite books, and I love Lorna and John as a couple.  They're so cute!  Like when John tries to copy a feel of Lorna's arse, but pretends he was 'reaching for a flower'.  And the dirty joke about cucumbers in chapter 58, which no one ever believes until I show it to them.

Anyway, I bought The More You Ignore Me from a charity shop we stopped after spending a day traipsing round Exeter.  I didn't realise Jo Brand was a writer as well as a comedian.  I quite enjoyed the book; it's about a girl growing up in the 80s with a mother struggling with severe mental illness and a love of The Smiths.  The ending chapter is quite weak, but the journey there was fun.

I quite want to have a rant about So You've Been Publicly Shamed, because it gave me feelings.  I don't so much recommend the audiobook.  The author did the narration, and he's not great at different voices which, to be fair, isn't really his job.  However, that and his constant use of 'said' makes the many, many quoted conversations a terrible, direful drone.

Finally, You Remember Me was the sequel to Grinny which I read last week.  I might not have bothered, but the library had the two books bound in one edition, so I had it handy and it's a very quick read.

I've read very little this week, and that's due to to things.  My new (not really) hobby this week has been watching all seven seasons of the Gilmore Girls in preparation for the new episodes on Netflix.  I can't stand the Gilmore girls, and that's not bolded because I mean the characters, not the show.

I'm up to season 7, and Rory's snobby side is really coming out.  It's something Logan brings out in her more.  Their relationship begins when she takes offensive at his talking to her friend Marty "like a servant".  Logan debates his right to treat to people like servants and Rory inexplicably finds it charming.

Later, when Logan's family reject her as not good enough, Rory's upset because "I'm a Gilmore!".  Not because the whole question of her being "good enough" is the wrong one, because what does that even mean?  If we take it as meaning "suitable for this relationship" or "right for this relationship" then I don't see how that question is anyone's business other than the two people in it.  But Rory doesn't see it that way; she never expresses any problem with the Huntzbergers judging people in general, she just thinks they've not evaluated her correctly. 

While writing this, Rory and Logan tried to steal food from the Yale cafeteria just because they can.  That's classy.

Rory - and Luke - also expressed similar snobbery regarding Jess' other girlfriend Shane, who never did a single thing wrong on screen apart from express affection publicly towards someone Rory assumed she had a right to.  Luke refers to her as having a petri dish rather than a family, for instance.  What a bunch of arseholes.

Maybe Rory gets it from her father, Christopher.In season 7, Lorelei arranges a 'man date' between him and Jackson, which Christopher refers to as "having a drink with a farmer" which he clearly means in a derogatory way, using the phrase to imply that the meeting is unimportant.  Never mind that Jackson is Lorelei's best friend's husband and someone she works with regularly; his opinion can't possibly matter because he grows vegetables. for a living.

I think I only watch the show for Paris.

The other thing is that I bought myself a copy of RPGMaker 2K3 and I've been turning one of my novel ideas into a videogame.  It's great fun; like a cross between the sims, programming and playing with dolls.

In Which We Discuss Lorelai and Rory Gilmore

Now, I do know that the Gilmore girls are not a book, but I think I can justify talking about them by Rory's bookish nature, which I'll comment on a little later.

I love the show Gilmore girls.  It's very comforting, and I'm now watching the entire series through for the third time.  However, I think Lorelai and Rory Gilmore are just awful, terrible people.

 My personal favourite moment to hate is when Rory, a character whose defining trait is "bookishness" claims to have only read two-hundred books by the age of sixteen.  That was not written by a reader.  In a later episode, Rory shows us the five books that she's carrying - one for the bus, an alternative for the bus, one for lunch, one short stories and one essay.  That's similar to what I carry around, only I have a Kindle which cuts down on the bulk.  As you know, I read around two-hundred and fifty books per year, while attending college and working twenty-five hours per week.  If Rory is carrying out that many books, and is implied to have been bookish since childhood then, what, she's actually getting through half a page per day?  Or she's rereading the same two-hundred books, starting over every nine months?  Ugh.

Right now, I watching season three, in which Rory is a terrible person to Jess.  To summarise;

Jess is a troubled teen, and the nephew of Luke Danes.  He's sent to Star's Hollow by his mother in the hopes that his uncle will straighten him out.  Luke does his best to do so, despite the town taking against Jess immediately.  In fairness, Jess does not help himself by stealing a beloved gnome.

At the time, Rory is dating Dean, her farmboy first boyfriend.  In later seasons, he will get married and Rory will have sex with him, causing him to leave his wife.  Anyway.  Rory and Dean are happy enough, but Rory is the only person in town that Jess actually seems to like.  Fate - helped by Jess - keeps throwing them together, making Dean suspicious and paranoid, in a way that isn't always healthy. 

Luke, who thinks Rory will be good for Jess, asks her to tutor him so he'll do better in school.  During their tutoring session, Jess persuades Rory to go for a drive with him.  When it's time to come back and work, and he offers her the choice of doing so or of continuing to drive around town,  she chooses to keep driving.  Jess crashes Rory's car, resulting in Rory spraining her wrist.  This causes the town to hate him even more

Rory and Jess kiss right before Rory leaves for the summer.  When she comes back, she is shocked and angry to find that Jess has found a girlfriend and has not been pining for her all summer.  Bear in mind that she has not actually broken up with Dean.

While Jess tries to move on with his life, Rory is passive-aggressive and reaches the point of egging his car - a car he has worked and saved for, unlike Rory, who was given hers.  Everyone is still on Rory's side.

Jess and Rory eventually get together; god only knows what Jess did to deserve this.