Party pooper LJ!

[wiseheart]

Well, folks, it seems that LJ has decided to crash our birthday party - the original post is no longer visible. But I still have most of the comments in my inbox, and will re-post the original entry and list the available comments with the simple mentioning of the names, if it's all right with you. If not, tell me, and I'll delete yours.

We won't allow LJ to crash our party!

Original post

Hi folks! *waves*

Time is flying by, isn't it? It's that time of a year again - I'm getting older. In this case, I'm turning 56 on October 9, which means I'd have been retired for a year already, back under the old regime. Women could retire at the age of 55 back then. So I've decided to ignore all that fantastic headway we've supposedly made towards democracy in the last two decades and have considered myself retired for the last year, blithley overlooking the fact that I'll have to work another 6 or 7 or only God knows how many years.

So, let's party! Last years virtual birthday party yielded 943 comments on 7 pages, which won't be easy to top, but we're good, aren't we? WE CAN DO IT! WE CAN BREAK THE 1000-COMMENT-BARRIER! So, let's give it a try! In the recent years, it has always been great fun, so let's have fun again!

You're all cordially invited to help yourself to a slice of virtual cake of your choice. If you want to post your favourite recipe in a comment, be my guest. If not, just drop by and say hello.

Cheers!

Note: The party will be closed on October 9, at midnight, sharp.
Join us and have fun! Feel free to start any thread, any topic you want; we can discuss it, mock the general stupidity of life and laugh at it.

Last count was 1328 comments on 6 pages.

NB: Shoud the original party post mysteriously reappear, I'll delete this one.

Comments

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Indeed! It is from Garth Nix's Abhorsen series, more precisely the second book Lirael where the titular character works as an assistant librarian. Part of the uniform she is issued on the first day of her job is a dagger. It is a really cool library; my friend L who gave me the Abhorsen series of books for my birthday sold me on them by mention of the library. :-)

[bk_forever]

Ah! I haven't got those yet, although I planned to. Could never find the first volume on sale, only volumes 2 and 3. This often happens to me, the first volume of a set is often the last one I get so they sit on shelves waiting until I can get the first part. I can't stand reading things out of order.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

You definitely want to read these in order. Sabriel, which is the first book, really sets the scene slowly introducing you to the world of the Old Kingdom. In Lirael you jump right in, and I think a number of things wouldn't make sense without having read Sabriel first. There is also the fact that Lirael contains massive spoilers as to the plot of Sabriel what with being a sequel and all. They are really good books, so I definitely recommend reading them. Oh, as I mentioned at some other point in this party, Lirael and Abhorsen are very much part 1 and part 2 of the same story, whilst Sabriel is a finished story in itself. If you don't like cliff-hangers, make sure to have Abhorsen handy when you get to the end of Lirael.

[bk_forever]

I'll make sure to get all three before I start the first one! Then I'll read straight through, I love doing that with series, I can immerse myself completely in another world. I suppose that's why my choice of reading is generally SF or fantasy. They take me completely out of my own life.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

As I mentioned before my friend L gave all three of them to me for my birthday and I read them all within a week: Sabriel in instalments on week-day nights and then Lirael and Abhorsen straight-through on the week-end. It was a great rush immersing myself in that world, but very sad at the end of the third book to know that the adventure had come to an end. There is apparently a novella set some time later in the same world, and Garth Nix's webpage does make mention of a possible prequel, so there is hope I will get to visit again...

[bk_forever]

If it's a world I really enjoy, my reading slows right down towards the end because I don't want to get there, lol. The worlds the best authors create just pull you right in and it's hard to let go at the finish. I find myself going back to re-read my favourite parts and once or twice I've finished a book then started from the beginning again. Some books stand up well to re-reading, others you pick up again years later and they've just lost their magic. Trouble is, you never know before re-reading one which category it will fall into and sometimes it tarnishes the memories you had. Some are just timeless though.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I do like re-reading books, but I have had a few bad experiences with the book not living up to my memory of it. In most cases, books I liked when I read them the first time I like when I read them again. And because I am a different person with different experiences each time I read them I usually find something new in them each time. For example, once I re-read Swallowdale while travelling to the Lake District by train, having to change a couple of times with my train being delayed. It turns out that the Walkers were also travelling to the Lakes by train at the beginning of the book and that Susan found it an exhausting experience trying to keep track of everybody and make the changes. I had absolutely no memory of that from my previous encounters with the book!

[bk_forever]

I re-read Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen a few years ago. It was read to us at school when I was 10 or so, then I bought a copy with Birthday money a few months later and read it myself. I hadn't read it for years, but despite it being a children's book it was as creepy as ever and I was aware of a lot of things I hadn't noticed as a child. But a book my sister and I had read in our teens and both loved, turned out to be really dated on re-reading. I couldn't find a trace of the book I'd enjoyed so much. Oddly enough, my sister still likes it. It was a gothic romance so perhaps my tastes have changed a lot since then, I don't know. There are a few books I've re-read a number of times and still love, but I have so many I want to read that re-reading is rare.