Tuesday, November 29, 2011

NaBloPoMo prompt: What is the last thing you do before bed?

I am horrible about keeping routines, and even worse about really "getting ready" for bed. I'll be sure to wash my face to get rid of all makeup, moisturize, pull back my hair, plug my phone into the charger....but when it comes to putting on pajamas, shutting down my laptop, or even shutting of my  overhead light, I am not so reliable.

Quite often, I'll put some TV show or movie on my computer to play while I try to get to sleep. I live with two roommates, so having a strong noise to focus my brain on means outside stimuli is likely to keep me awake or even wake me up. I prefer putting something on my computer rather than my actual television, because that automatically stops after a while and I don't want to annoy my roommates or possibly keep them up either.

Maybe as I get older I'll get better about making and keeping a routine.

Book Review: A Rush of Wings by Adrian Phoenix

So...vampire books are very popular these days. And vampire novels with other supernatural creatures? Oh boy! Blame it on Twilight, blame it on True Blood (or even the much better books that inspired the series - the Sookie Stackhouse series), or even blame it the smut that actually used to be vampire/supernatural novels, the Anita Blake books. Whatever reason you choose to believe, more and more supernatural and vampire novels are hitting the shelves of bookstores.

A Rush of Wings seemed like an interesting story - FBI agent tracking a serial killer gets pulled into the underworld of vampires, hardly believing what is happening around. Buuuuuutt....while the story was interesting, it was definitely not in a way I liked.

First, there was the constant use of other languages. I speak French, so the lack of translation there was not a problem for me. The Hebrew, however, was a problem. The author decided to weave in some mythology regarding angels and use Hebrew (or maybe even Aramaic? Heck if I know) words to describe the different kinds of angels and companions. Don't get me wrong, angel mythology and nephilim fascinate me, but introducing the plotline halfway into the story out of nowhere just makes things jumbled. Overly dramatic, even. It helped to resolve the plot in some ways, and left the book open for a sequel, but I think it could have been woven in more smoothly.

The characters, subject matter, and plot of the book are all very dark. I fully believe vampires should live in the dark and are not sparkly. But I can also freely admit my wimpiness and not want to read about how exciting and erotic serial killers find killing people. Or just how much that rockstar likes his drugs. I get it, both happen in the real world. But books are my escape from the real world, so I don't want to read about things that upset me there.

All in all, the book was good. I got through it in like a week, reading 2-3 hours a day. But I plan to pass it along to one of my geeky gal friends rather than keep it.