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Entry tags:
"Writer's Block: Forbidden Reading"
[Error: unknown template qotd] (Woohoo, somp'in ta waste ma tahm wiv.)
I don't think my parents ever tried to stop me from reading a book (probably because they either "wanted me to grow up an enlightened child" or (more likely) were too lazy(mother)/clueless(father) to bother), but there are a few vaguely relevant bits I can remember:
First; when I got into my mother's considerable stash of trash novels around the tender age of...oh...I was probably eight or ten, I don't think she was too happy about it--but that was mostly because I would squirrel the ones she wanted to read/was in the middle of reading away into my room and it would take a team of professional excavational spelunkers to find them again.
Second; in school I was always reading something under the desk/table when I was supposed to be paying attention, and while this ticked the teachers off, it wasn't until I'd switched from my regular fare (Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Sweet Valley High, Babysitters' Club, Goosebumps, Wishbone, American Girl, Boxcar Children, Anne McCaffrey, Tamora Pierce, Diana Wynne Jones, etc.) to what was clearly soft-core porn that they attempted a full-on intervention. Also, when I (in my early primordial flailing attempts at pre-otakuness) was reading the novelized versions of the Sailor Moon anime, I would get embarrassed and recover them with paper and pretend to be reading something more intelligent than watered-down cartoonish pap that couldn't even spell the word "whoa" (it seems that, even then, I was something of an elitist).
Third; my friend Kate (who I first met when she was a beleaguered summer camp counselor and I a whirling precocious seven-year-old hellion with a vivid imagination, high IQ and a penchant for biting people; over the past decade or so, she's been something of an amalgam of teacher, mentor, babysitter, godmother, sister, idol, and friend) once forbade me from reading The Lovely Bones until I was old enough; for the first time in the history of my life I actually did what I was told, and when it was on my summer reading list in high school, she gave me her copy.
I think that's it. EDIT: Ooh, ooh, also! My friend Jessica B-L (I know waaay too many Jessicas) gave me her copy of the Necronomicon when she moved down to South North Carolina with her Iraq vet combat-medic husband; before that, I would flip through it when I was over at her parents' place (I thought--and still think--that it's the most adorable thing ever), and I would randomly pick a page and read melodramatically and she would freak out and tackle me and wrestle the book away (it didn't matter whether I was reading from "The Conjuration of the Fire God" or the Acknowledgements).
(Hee, downstairs I can hear my cat fussing and scratching in her labohratohree; three guesses what that is. Socute. ♥)
I don't think my parents ever tried to stop me from reading a book (probably because they either "wanted me to grow up an enlightened child" or (more likely) were too lazy
First; when I got into my mother's considerable stash of trash novels around the tender age of...oh...I was probably eight or ten, I don't think she was too happy about it--but that was mostly because I would squirrel the ones she wanted to read/was in the middle of reading away into my room and it would take a team of professional excavational spelunkers to find them again.
Second; in school I was always reading something under the desk/table when I was supposed to be paying attention, and while this ticked the teachers off, it wasn't until I'd switched from my regular fare (Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Sweet Valley High, Babysitters' Club, Goosebumps, Wishbone, American Girl, Boxcar Children, Anne McCaffrey, Tamora Pierce, Diana Wynne Jones, etc.) to what was clearly soft-core porn that they attempted a full-on intervention. Also, when I (in my early primordial flailing attempts at pre-otakuness) was reading the novelized versions of the Sailor Moon anime, I would get embarrassed and recover them with paper and pretend to be reading something more intelligent than watered-down cartoonish pap that couldn't even spell the word "whoa" (it seems that, even then, I was something of an elitist).
Third; my friend Kate (who I first met when she was a beleaguered summer camp counselor and I a whirling precocious seven-year-old hellion with a vivid imagination, high IQ and a penchant for biting people; over the past decade or so, she's been something of an amalgam of teacher, mentor, babysitter, godmother, sister, idol, and friend) once forbade me from reading The Lovely Bones until I was old enough; for the first time in the history of my life I actually did what I was told, and when it was on my summer reading list in high school, she gave me her copy.
(Hee, downstairs I can hear my cat fussing and scratching in her labohratohree; three guesses what that is. Socute. ♥)
recs!
Lady Indecisive's Real Smile isn't bad, though a bit long: T, romance/angst, 259,505 words, girl!Allen, main pairing KandaAllen but nothing has happened yet (I was deliriously happy over a fic where the main objective was plot over pr0n); characterisation is good, and if you ignore the copious internal monologuing it's an all-around good read.
Riku-dono's Smirking Shadow is special special Finnish!bad-English genfic: T, drama, 109,725 words, Allen-centric; focuses on a situation where Tyki planted, like, a Tease in Allen's soul or something and now he's got multiple personalities, one of which likes to kill people, and he's taken in by the Noahs
for the lulz. Allen's characterisation struck me as unnecessarily (and, in some instances, disturbingly) childish, but what the hey.Firey-Moonlight's In Cold Embraces isn't that bad either, if you don't mind a bunch of OCs, xover characters and minor characters brought to life: T, Adventure/Romance, 291,997 words, Noah!Allen, KandaAllen w/side TykiLavi and RoadLenalee (both of which are actually somewhat bearable, surprisingly enough); AR in which the Earl has this "New Child" project trying to create Noahs like the Order was trying to create Exorcists, except more successful. Allen has been part of that project, and is the program's greatest success, and when a team of Exorcists runs across an Accommodator in the Noahs' hands they immediately set about retrieval, resulting in Noah infiltration of the Order. Allen's character is of course altered, but is fairly decently portrayed; this fic is actually one of the better ones on the list. A lot of this fic is dedicated to politics, subterfuge and other delicious delicious plotty aspects that were like candy to me after so many PWPs. If you can stomach the mad OCs and xover characters, this fic is def. worth it.
And then of course there's the pretty pretty origins!speculation!gen of artbug's Mana and Cross and Komui and Dhampir72's Bookman and perhaps that Kanda Gaiden thing I haven't gotten around to yet.
[[cut b/c my verbosenessess is too hot for LJ to handle
read: Judy is incapable of shutting up]]