Book Review: The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot

The Waste Land and Other Poems by T.S. Eliot


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
While I have been told that my own writing is pretentious, I can't say that I love reading anything that is purposefully esoteric and pretentious. I sort-of enjoyed my trip down memory lane, recalling my studies of Greek, Roman and Shakespearean literature. But I think, at this point in my life, I'm more attracted to literature that welcomes, not isolates. I should have read this ten years ago - I would have appreciated it more then. Who knows what the future has in store, though. I'll revisit T.S. Eliot sometime to come and see how I've changed.

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Book Review: Wizard and Glass by Stephen King

Wizard and Glass by Stephen King


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I completed the fourth and last of Frank Mueller's narrations of King's Dark Tower Series. Though it fills me with a bit of sadness, I think I'm ready to move on to someone else's interpretation. Wizard and Glass was over 25 hours long - the longest by far - and was not, on the whole, as entertaining as the previous installments. I do love this series, but I found myself more than relieved when Roland's re-telling was over and we were once again back with Eddie, Susannah, Jake and Oy. The ending sort of reminded me of the ending of an episode of a mini-series. I feel like I've been on a Dark Tower bender, and maybe it's time to pull back, get some perspective, and come back when my passion for this is rekindled. The next book, Wolves of the Calla, is even longer! But still, I can't wait to find out what's to become of Roland's ka-tet.

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Traveling the Warrior's Path

I stayed up until almost 1am last night trying to finish a rather difficult scene in EoG. I even woke up at 6am this morning and went back to writing until 7 just to get that much closer to the end. In the end I only wrote 6 pages or so, but the worst of this scene is over. Somehow, within those six pages, I managed to finish chapters 6 and 7, and am nearly done with chapter 8. Even though this story is sort of challenging, what I love about it is how a myriad of possibilities open up at each twist and turn. I can spend weeks figuring out exactly how a scene is going to go and, when I finally sit down to write it, it's like doors open up and I see how many different ways the scene could go, each changing the story, some slightly and some drastically. I think that feeling is the best part of writing.

This scene that I've been worrying over since my hermitage is a fight scene, the first for the story. I'm sort of fond of reading fight scenes and not at all fond of writing them, so I think a lot of my angst was simply fear and dread. I have to thank Stephen King and the Dark Tower Series for giving me that final push to just write it and get it over with. When I got home yesterday, I spent about five or six hours just listening to Wizard and Glass before I finally jumped up from my bed, ran my cat around for a few minutes and went back to my comupter and started writing. Listening to the Tower Series always makes me feel a little crazy, so I'm not actually sure if what I wrote was good, or even makes sense. I'm not going to think about it too much until Saturday when I can get some feedback from the Writer's Circle. My goal right now is to finish chapter 8.

Gareth is taking his first steps from being a boy to becoming a man. I keep yelling at him to move it and hurry up, but he is a meticulous one, and will not be hurried for anything. Perhaps I can learn something about the value of patience from him...

Alchemy and The Waste Lands

I started two new books today: Al-Ghazali's The Alchemy of Happiness and T.S. Eliot's The Waste Lands. Both are part of my writing research. These are relatively short books, and I hope to be done with both of them by week's end. I had read Alchemy in college for an Islamic Philosophy course. It struck me then as a good read, and I'm revisiting it now to help with the religious aspect of the Lisiria Chronicles. Eliot's poem, though also labeled "research", is more just for my personal interest. I've been wanting to read this poem for some time, and never quite got around to it.

I really need to hunker down and write in something this week; I had nothing prepared for the Writer's Circle last week, so that's one strike against me. One more and I'll have to face "punnishment". (I hate writing exercises!) If I can't get the next scene finished in EoG, I'm thinking of taking a break and working on Sanguine Summer, the sequel to the CdB. I have some good ideas for that story, but I really want to continue in EoG and move on to the next part of the story. Hopefully I won't be too exhausted when I get home tonight and can get some work done!

Parallel Worlds: Conquered!

So, I finally finished this mammoth book (not in size but content). Check out my review on goodreads.com. I'm so excited to be done with this one, it took way too long. What a mistake to try to read a physics book on my daily commute! I kept having to put it down and just try and digest what I'd read over the din of irritating school kids and babies crying, evangelists and all that makes the NYC transit system so unique. I just decided when I got home today to hunker down and finish the last 50 pages. I had an idea that the second half of the book would be far more interesting than the first, which goes over a lot of what I already learned in school and read in other books, like Einstein's Relativity. I took a lot of good notes, and even got a burst of ideas for possible future stories. Kaku-san throws out a lot of sci-fi ideas, like consciousness independent of physical forms, beings existing in multiple states simultaneously, a universal song, etc. He also notes a lot of science fiction novels and authors, many of whom I'm not ashamed to say I'd never heard of before. He spends a good deal of time explaining some of the stories relevant to his topics, and while I wouldn't run out and buy every title he mentions, it certainly gave me some fodder to work with. As I've mentioned before, I'm very new to the sci-fi literary genre, so getting some tips on potential authors is always a bonus. It also gives me an idea of what's already been done.

In other news, I spent my vacation two weeks ago hunkered down and writing in Education of Gareth. I got three and a half chapters completed, a personal accomplishment. Since then, I've been on a sort of extended siesta. Perhaps it's the lack of focus on writing and increased focus on gaming and movie-watching. A friend of mine lent me the Alternative Realities Star Trek Fan Collective and I think I finished it in the span of three days, with the exception of the Enterprise episodes, which I will never watch. Not the best use of time, perhaps, but it's been hard to concentrate after working so hard! I need to get back my focus though; this book isn't going to write itself!

Book Review: Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku

Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos by Michio Kaku


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a fascinating book to start me on my journey learning about string theory and cosmology. I got quite a lot of ideas for not only current writing projects but future ones. Kaku-san does such a good job of bringing together cosmology, quantum physics, theology, morality and ethics, environmental issues, and more. Towards the end it got a bit overwhelming, but I worked through and took diligent notes. I don't know that I agree with Kaku-san's belief that we are living in the most desirable time for humanity, but I do agree that we are on the cusp of achieving something really big - or loosing it all. If you're interested in getting a "bigger picture" look at where we are (as of 2005), I highly recommend this read. You won't be disappointed.

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