In which the Mahdi explains being an educational hermit.

I've been pretty scarce lately, socially speaking, and I want to let you people know why:

1 6-page paper on a book for "History of Modern Japan" I haven't even cracked open yet.

1 7-page paper on Melville's Moby Dick. My focus: The whale as divine punishment for Ahab's seeking of forbidden knowledge.

1 10-page paper on Dune. Focus: as yet unknown.

1 6-page paper on Social Linguistic Pragmatics (for which I'll be gathering those willing to be my unnamed subjects).

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As you can see, that's a shit-ton of work to do in one month. So please excuse my scarceness until Finals are over.

Exception: Groomsmen, we'll need to get together in early May to get fitted for our tuxes. I'll let you know when as we get closer to it.

(no subject)

1. What is the one book that you reread over and over again?

There is no one book; I reread many books often. However, I'd have to say the book I've reread most often is Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, which is my favorite among the first three books of the Dune Saga.

2. What is your favourite genre?

Speculative fiction, without a doubt. That covers Science Fiction, Fantasy, and assorted "mid-realm" books -- everything from Dune to The Lord of the Rings to the "soft" sf work of Harlan Ellison, as well as "modern supernatural" tales and the like.

That said, my favorite is believable hard-SF (or "near hard") space opera. I love vast civilizations that span multiple star systems, starships that have theoretically plausible FTL that doesn't make me think "BULLshit!" when I read about it, and set against that backdrop, epic tales of struggles against great odds, sacrifice, and believable triumph. I generally don't respond well to pat, "we won" endings -- there has to have been a price for victory, even a small one, or I'm not happy.

I think I feel a long post coming on.

3. Do you usually buy your books or visit the library?

I generally buy books. If I love a book, I want to own it. This means, of course, that someday my home will be crammed to the ceiling with books, but I do cull occasionally.

Curiously, I tend to borrow nonfiction rather than buy it, unless the topic is VERY interesting to me.

4. Who is your favourite author?

Good question. I love so many ... the obvious answer is Frank Herbert, but it's not really true.

Hmm. I'm going to say that C.S. Friedman is my favorite author. She's one of only two authors I actually get happy about when I hear she's got a new book coming out. Her The Madness Season is one of the best books about identity and what it means to find one's self that I've ever read. In Conquest Born is amazing, and I eagerly await the release of the sequel in paperback, because I can't afford the hardcover (and my ICB is in paperback, anyway, and I want them to match.)

I'm also currently on a David Drake kick, because I read the first of the Honor Harrington books (finally) and loved it.

5. What book have you read that you absolutely hated?

I never finished it, because I hated it. I don't even remember the title, but it was the third book in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series. It ought to be called The Wheel of Total Ripoffs of Better Writers' Intellectual Property.

A sort of poll

If you HAD to tell someone what my totem animal was, what would you say? Please tell me why you say that? And please, don't be a smartass; I'm actually trying to judge something from the answers I get.

Comments will be screened so no one can copy another; when I stop getting responses I'll un-screen unless you ask me not to and then give you my own thoughts.