Did Not Finish Friday

I have a confession to make: I am a cultural phenomenon whore.  If a book, movie, game, artist or trend is getting a lot of attention in the media, I have to know all about it.  It’s like a compulsion.  Sometimes, the results of said compulsion are great: Harry Potter, Halo, and Percy Jackson are a few that come to mind.  Sometimes, I waste hours of my life I can never get back: Twilight (and subsequently, The Host), Spiderman 2 & 3, Uncharted 2, and now The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I had been resisting this one for a long time because it just didn’t interest me.  But then I got my Entertainment Weekly with this book plastered throughout, and I was all “Alright, I get it! I will check it out!”   Sigh…and then I wasted more hours of my life.  I gave it a valiant effort, really, I did! I made it all the way to 40% before I wanted to claw my eyeballs out.  The level of benign detail in this book was unlike anything I have ever read.  The final straw for me was when I had to read about what computer programs one of the main characters was using.   I mean, really?? Isn’t this a murder mystery??  Blah. 

Anyway, from what I hear, I stopped reading just before “it got good” at 50%.  But IMO, 50% is WAY too long for a world-wide phenom to get good.  I read books on a daily basis that suck me in from start to finish, that make me ignore everything around me (including my poor husband and dog) and you will never see them on a best-seller list.  So what is it about this book that has the whole world smitten?  Are people too scared to go against the grain and admit that at least the first half was torture?  Or am I just too shallow to appreciate the level of detail necessary to describe 47 family members who may have committed murder?  I just don’t get it.  Thoughts?

Don’t hate the player…

There is another side of Kindlelicious.  I am a gamer.  Fairly hardcore, but often disillusioned by recent games.  I guess I am old-school in that I am sick of games where cut scenes fill the majority of play time (looking at you Uncharted 2!).  I don’t mind cut scenes, if they are crucial to game play, but I prefer to be actually playing my games.  Sadly, I don’t find many games these days where cut scenes are kept to a minimum.  Luckily for me, Transformers: War for Cybertron came out this week.  I have this thing for Transformers, you see.  My inner tom-boy squeals with glee anytime Optimus is on the screen.  My husband and I are so crazy about Transformers in fact, that this was our groom’s cake:

Pretty awesome, eh?  I know what you are thinking…my husband is indeed a lucky man.  😉  Anyway, I doubt many people looking for PNR/UF reviews could care less about how awesome the game is, but just in case…IT ROCKS.  Seriously, so much fun.  I won’t get into lengthy discussions on graphics and all, because honestly, most ps3/Xbox games look great these days.  What I will say is the switching between humanoid and vehicle form is very well done (and yes, you can switch in mid-air. WOOT!), the weapons are awesome (some more than others) and you get to play with all the best characters from the cartoons and movies.   Currently, my husband and I are playing the Autobot campaign in co-op mode with a friend how lives 1.5 hours away and having a blast.  My poor Kindle though, is in the corner pouting, this is the longest she has been neglected in a while.  Poor thing.  Oh well…back to Optimus.

Rating: 9

Friday Fantasticalness: Snoop Dogg’s tribute to True Blood

No need to ruin this with words…just watch.  Happy Friday!

Cover Contemplations

If you can’t tell, I have really been into urban fantasy and paranormal romance for a while now.  I love the fun plots, the crazy action, and the super sexy men.  I have recommended quite a few books to my friends that read the Twilight series and wanted more sexy vamps and possibly even ::GASP:: sex! (Twilight is the gateway drug of PNR, I swear).  The problem is, I talk up the book, rave about the hotness and then when they go to buy, they shy away from the covers.  I don’t think about book covers much anymore because of my glorious Kindle, but others really struggle with toting around a book with writhing bodies or random half nekkid chicks on the cover.  I can’t argue with this, especially if you are someone who likes to keep your book with you at all times.  The last thing you need is some skeezer walking up and starting a conversation with you because he sees you reading some smutty (but fantastic!) romance novel at a doctor’s office or worse…work.  Especially if said skeezer walks up right as that vamp/shifter/were threesome you’ve been waiting on for 200 pages really takes off!!  I have no issue with covers that accurately depict what a book is about even if it does look like most others, like Kim Harrison’s Black Magic Sanction.

The heroine, Rachel, admittedly likes slutty clothes (it’s a running joke in the series), and there actually is a gargoyle in the book, so this cover makes sense.  But some covers have the random bare-midriffed chick on the cover, when she isn’t actually in the book.  For example, I just finished A Rush of Wings by Adrian Phoenix.  Here is the cover: 

 

The heroine, Heather, is an FBI agent with long, red, curly hair.  Throughout the book, her attire is described as slacks and a sweater or button-down shirt.  No leather, no halter tops, no going undercover as a stripper, no secret half-succubus DNA, just a plain Jane government agent.  So who the hell is this on the cover??  Are we putting the random bartender that was mentioned on one page on covers now??  Has there been some sort of study that links bare-midriffed women to UF/PNR book sales?  And why are there never any faces?? Just midriffs and tattooed backs.  A tramp stamp does not a good book make!  Like I said, none of this actually bothers me, but I am really sick of raving about books like the Immortals After Dark series and my friends being like “there is no way I am toting this around:”

What can you say to that? I wouldn’t carry it around either! Well…yeah I would, but only because I know how great they are!  It’s really hard to suck people into the genre if they treat the book cover like it’s smeared with syphilis!  But not all are like this; I LOVED the cover of Acheron: 

 

Even dudes could carry this around shame-free!  So I am wondering, why are most UF/PNR covers so cheesy?  Is this a shout-out to romance purists who just can’t let go of the Fabio era?  DO these covers actually increase sales?  Are most not concerned with this? Are my friends overly snobby and/or too concerned with their street-cred?  I mean, no one is asking for all covers to look like Pride and Prejudice (sans zombies), but if they must feature scantily clad women, could these women actually be in the book?  Just wondering.

(I know I am not the only one who notices this, here is a link to UF book cover parade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxSwr130ptw)

On my wishlist

Upcoming, new and not-so-new books I want to read:

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Woozie Update

Not sure why I never went to the official woozie site, but what a treasure trove of goodness! Check it out: http://www.woozie.com/

Don’t think I won’t be getting some custom ‘Kindlelicious’ woozies!

Summer Reading Gear

I am a classy lady.  No really, I am.  I have a raging potty mouth, a blog that pretends to be about books but is really about hotness, and the only wine I drink is pink and comes out of a box.   I also like to tote my Kindle around in a plastic storage bag when in or around large bodies of water.  It’s effective and super fancy.  But this past weekend was my 29.10th birthday and one of my lovely lady friends got me a woozie: 

Yep, that’s right, a wine glass koozie.  My woozie has inspried me to step my game up in the reading accessory department.  Luckily, the people over at M-edge are ready to make that happen for me.  Check it:

It’s the Guardian Case for Kindle.  And it floats…upright.  That’s right…when I get all…happy with my pink wine woozie, I don’t even have to worry about holding my kindle.  IT. WILL. FLOAT.  All I have to do is find a way to push the buttons.  Sweeeeeeet.  Alas, my polycarbonate savior isn’t for sale yet, according to M-edge it will be available in “Spring 2010.”  Hopefully this actually means Spring and not June like it does for the a**holes at Universal who are making me wait until then for a butterbeer at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. 

So, come “Spring,” I will be even fancier.  Just need to find a plastic wine glass for the woozie and some sort of Franzia floatation device (any help on this would be great) and then I will be in complete Kindlelicious-Skin-Cancery-Bliss.  Cheers!

M-edge Guardian:

http://www.medgestore.com/products/kindle2-guardian.psp