Me
S'up, my name's Rachel, I'm a twenty-twothree year old medical student. You may offer me your congratulations on having reached this, the highest pinnacle of nerditude. My defining characteristics are a disgusting love of pink (it's stealth ninja, okay - I have a theory. A long one) and a fear of falling down stairs. Don't run with scissors, guys. Otherwise, I write fanfic.

Tags include:
Bandom fic, Harry Potter fic (ETA: I don't write this any more! If you're friending hoping for updates, you're on to a losing streak), Prince of Tennis fic, House MD fic, Entourage fic, Sky High fic and Stargate Atlantis fic. There's even the odd original fic shoved in there somewhere.
For fic that's not actually posted on my journal, because I am the ultimate lazyass, try my del links.

Of late I've become heavily invested in bandom, because something ate my moral compass (I suspect Ray Toro's hair). Fair warning that most if not all my future entries will drag Ryan's scarves/Brendon's tattoos of fail/Spencer's hair/Geeway saving lives/Mikeyway is also into cats/Pete and necklaces made of honey/Joe winning at life into the equation somehow.

My policy from hereon in is friending anyone who comments on THIS HERE POST. While I read my entire flist most every day - look mom, no filters! - I am an indifferent commenter. I also fail at keeping up with who's friended me, despite multiple alerts. That's what happens when you read your email at one am after hours of refreshing assays into the fascinating world of microbiology. Comment here to be added! Or don't! I'm easy. I have pink tights.

The end.

P.S. Feel the need to vent/rant/critique all over my writing? Here's your chance! Anon is on.

Oh yeah, and I love those little lj v-gifts. YES, THIS IS A HINT.

I think I'm finally over it.

... it only took four and a half years.

\o?

It was a dark and stormy night ...

( ... when my city was FLOODED. )

... SOMEONE TELL ME THERE'S RED/ANDY FIC IN THE WORLD. Because, seriously - no offence King, Darabont, FREAKING MORGAN FREEMAN, you might have intended differently - I could not watch this as anything other than a gay romance. I tried. It was made in the nineties! It's about prison! But you could move a mountain and still not convince me that Andy and Red did not love each other. THE END. SERIOUSLY.

I also didn't realise, until Mik uploaded the song for Ryan and Brendon's wedding, that Peter Gabriel sang Solsbury Hill. I have pretty much thought until now that Pete Gabriel and Peter Gabriel were the same person, and wondering if the former had some sekkrit musical talent everyone else in the world bar me was privy too. UM, OOPS? MY POP CULTURE FAIL, LET ME SHOW YOU IT.

Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray

I last tried reading this book in 2001. I can be that exact because I was using a one pound Book Week token from 2001 as a bookmark. It's fascinating to see how my tastes have changed; I gave up on it originally because the romance wasn't nice enough and I discovered the 'Book without a Hero' tagline, which rent my little teenage soul.

Clearly, my idea of a hero and Thackeray's are vastly different. Dobbin is one hundred percent hero, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. Becky and Amelia, on the other hand, are not heroines. They're just people, and interesting by virtue of their very normalness.

( More blather. )

Previously, on Book Glomp 2009:
He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope |The Bostonians, Henry James | ♥ For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway | ♥ For Esme - with Love and Squalor, JD Salinger | The Outsider, Albert Camus | The Princess Diaries: Ten out of Ten, Meg Cabot | The Vicar of Bullhampton, Anthony Trollope | Molesworth, Geoffrey Willans | Villette, Charlotte Bronte | The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James | The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler | Cecilia, Fanny Burney | ♥ The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark | Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut | ♥ Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann | Siddhartha, Herman Hesse | The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga | The Duke and I, Julia Quinn | Brave New World, Aldous Huxley | North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell | Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee | Catch-22, Joseph Heller | ♥ Bright Shiny Morning, James Frey | Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck | The Demon's Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan | ♥ The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton | jPod, Douglas Coupland | 'Are these my basoomas I see before me?', Louise Rennison | Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer | Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman | The Accidental Sorcerer, K.E. Mills | ♥ Ethan of Athos, Lois McMaster Bujold | V., Thomas Pynchon | The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway | ♥ The Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb | Orlando, Virginia Woolf | The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath | Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk | Crush, Richard Siken | Trust Me, I'm a Junior Doctor, Max Pemberton | The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart | ♥ Call Me By Your Name, Andre Aciman | Young Miles, Lois McMaster Bujold | He's Just Not That Into You, Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo | The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand | A Classical Education, Caroline Taggart | The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope | Two Cures for Love, Wendy Cope | Unseen Academicals, Terry Prachett | Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand | Diary, Chuck Palahniuk

In the continuing saga of life as a FINALMEDFINALMED...

I often think of little stories to post, but I'm never too sure of how they'll be received. I spend a lot of time staving off boredom and have become expert in the technique of 'leaning against a wall picking my cuticles while waiting for something to happen.' I'm even looking forward to next year, when you are so busy and sleep-deprived that you pass through to the other side and can go out clubbing afterwards. Sure, saying a basic sentence like, "How much is that sandwich?" takes about five hours longer than it should, but that's the price you pay. At least then I'll have something to do. In case anyone was in doubt, hospitals: not the most exciting places in the world.

Then, of course, things all come on in a rush. Like the Day of Cancer, where a man who'd lost his stomach and his voice was told what he already knew: when the doctor talked about 'treatment', he didn't mean 'cure' and he didn't mean 'life,' so he and his wife held hands so tightly the skin nearly broke and he asked the doctor to keep him out of pain. "I can do it," he said, by which he meant I can die, "if I'm not in pain." Pain is scarier than death. (Incidentally, nausea is scarier than pain.) I walked out of there and into a patient whose daughter had died of the same rectal cancer she recently developed, and who wanted no interventions because she'd seen how her daughter suffered. The multi-disciplinary meetings centred around cutting people open, pulling out the diseased bits and trying to poison the rest with chemo. I left early that day and went straight to bed after nearly breaking down at the lunch table. Sometimes this whole thing just gets to you.

Of course, there's also the run-of-the-mill grossness, like The Hamster Story (no! wild horses will not drag that story from me. Unless you're really desperate, in which case I can email it), or gallbladder surgery (my text to Helen: like an ass having a baby). I was told by a consultant that I'd pass my final clinic, like everyone does, but he wasn't impressed with my core knowledge - because I couldn't tell him how much sodium is contained in stomach secretions and how much you'd have to vomit to become deficient in it. Fair enough, I should probably know that.

Mostly it's a laugh, but of the kind that makes no sense unless 'you were there.' Our German tutor today was trying to drag out of my friend how you inject contrast in an IVU (the IV is the hint: intravenously). She knew but, as is often the case, couldn't say it. Her hands were fluttering nervously and he played with her, saying, "In the eye? No, you say? Thanks god!" ... yeah, I don't know, we were in stitches.

It's all Stockholm Syndrome.

Diary, Chuck Palaniuk

I was puzzled by this book. Mainly, I was puzzled by how bad it was.

Magical realism was never my favourite thing, but now that it's been adopted by people like Marian Keyes and Cecilia Ahern, it's become positively passe. I admire more the story that can succeed in being creepily interesting without it.

( Spoilerific example. )

Previously, on Book Glomp 2009:
He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope |The Bostonians, Henry James | ♥ For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway | ♥ For Esme - with Love and Squalor, JD Salinger | The Outsider, Albert Camus | The Princess Diaries: Ten out of Ten, Meg Cabot | The Vicar of Bullhampton, Anthony Trollope | Molesworth, Geoffrey Willans | Villette, Charlotte Bronte | The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James | The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler | Cecilia, Fanny Burney | ♥ The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark | Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut | ♥ Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann | Siddhartha, Herman Hesse | The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga | The Duke and I, Julia Quinn | Brave New World, Aldous Huxley | North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell | Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee | Catch-22, Joseph Heller | ♥ Bright Shiny Morning, James Frey | Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck | The Demon's Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan | ♥ The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton | jPod, Douglas Coupland | 'Are these my basoomas I see before me?', Louise Rennison | Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer | Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman | The Accidental Sorcerer, K.E. Mills | ♥ Ethan of Athos, Lois McMaster Bujold | V., Thomas Pynchon | The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway | ♥ The Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb | Orlando, Virginia Woolf | The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath | Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk | Crush, Richard Siken | Trust Me, I'm a Junior Doctor, Max Pemberton | The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart | ♥ Call Me By Your Name, Andre Aciman | Young Miles, Lois McMaster Bujold | He's Just Not That Into You, Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo | The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand | A Classical Education, Caroline Taggart | The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope | Two Cures for Love, Wendy Cope | Unseen Academicals, Terry Prachett | Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

I really, really wish I'd recorded my thoughts on this book before I came to the Infamous Speech (which pretty much ruined it for me). In my head, I was scampering around yelling, "This book is changing my life! I never realised I was so naturally right-wing! Also, I'm a headless chicken!"

( Then IT happened. )

Previously, on Book Glomp 2009:
He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope |The Bostonians, Henry James | For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway | For Esme - with Love and Squalor, JD Salinger | The Outsider, Albert Camus | The Princess Diaries: Ten out of Ten, Meg Cabot | The Vicar of Bullhampton, Anthony Trollope | Molesworth, Geoffrey Willans | Villette, Charlotte Bronte | The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James | The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler | Cecilia, Fanny Burney | The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark | Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut | Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann | Siddhartha, Herman Hesse | The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga | The Duke and I, Julia Quinn | Brave New World, Aldous Huxley | North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell | Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee | Catch-22, Joseph Heller | Bright Shiny Morning, James Frey | Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck | The Demon's Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan | The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton | jPod, Douglas Coupland | 'Are these my basoomas I see before me?', Louise Rennison | Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer | Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman | The Accidental Sorcerer, K.E. Mills | Ethan of Athos, Lois McMaster Bujold | V., Thomas Pynchon | The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway | The Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb | Orlando, Virginia Woolf | The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath | Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk | Crush, Richard Siken | Trust Me, I'm a Junior Doctor, Max Pemberton | The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart | Call Me By Your Name, Andre Aciman | Young Miles, Lois McMaster Bujold | He's Just Not That Into You, Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo | The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand | A Classical Education, Caroline Taggart | The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope | Two Cures for Love, Wendy Cope | Unseen Academicals, Terry Prachett

Entourage, Seasons 5 and 6

I WANT THERE TO BE ARI/VINCE IN THE WORLD. SOMEONE WRITE THIS. MRS ARI (DOES SHE EVEN HAVE ANOTHER NAME?) WOULD BE OKAY WITH IT PROVIDED SHE COULD WATCH. :D? :D?

Glee, Season One, Episode 8

Glee continues to be amusing yet stupid.

( Spoilers )

True Blood, Season One, Episode 1

THIS WAS 120% BETTER THAN I EXPECTED.

( I am PLEASED. )

This may be* the weirdest thing in the world.

When I was in high school, I had a crush on a guy from my village. I grew out of it ... literally; he is a tiny, tiny guy nowadays. And I am not a tiny, tiny girl. However, his sister is now a long-stay patient of the hospital I'm doing a rotation in; she has anorexia and requires 24-hour monitoring so she doesn't try to replace her IV fluids with shower water or whatever. She waves at me every time she sees me in the corridor, smiling with that virtually pathognomic oversized mouth all anorexics seem to have. I've never spoken to her before in my life, but she must be bored out of her tree. I MUST go visit her tomorrow.

*I said 'may be'!

One day I'm going to devise a doctor-patient translation guide. It will include definitions of things like 'fainting' and 'palpitations' and explain why, if you ever demanded an antibiotic from your GP for a viral infection, you have no right to complain about the MRSA 'epidemic'. It will be beautiful and HUGE. And no one will read it.

I think I kind of love Charles Bukowski? Sorry, Mik!

Today, I am proud of me.

No grand or proper reason, I just am.

The feeling is so novel, I wanted to record it before it died.

Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett

( A fitting #50, I think. )

Previously, on Book Glomp 2009:
He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope |The Bostonians, Henry James | For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway | For Esme - with Love and Squalor, JD Salinger | The Outsider, Albert Camus | The Princess Diaries: Ten out of Ten, Meg Cabot | The Vicar of Bullhampton, Anthony Trollope | Molesworth, Geoffrey Willans | Villette, Charlotte Bronte | The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James | The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler | Cecilia, Fanny Burney | The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark | Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut | Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann | Siddhartha, Herman Hesse | The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga | The Duke and I, Julia Quinn | Brave New World, Aldous Huxley | North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell | Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee | Catch-22, Joseph Heller | Bright Shiny Morning, James Frey | Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck | The Demon's Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan | The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton | jPod, Douglas Coupland | 'Are these my basoomas I see before me?', Louise Rennison | Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer | Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman | The Accidental Sorcerer, K.E. Mills | Ethan of Athos, Lois McMaster Bujold | V., Thomas Pynchon | The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway | The Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb | Orlando, Virginia Woolf | The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath | Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk | Crush, Richard Siken | Trust Me, I'm a Junior Doctor, Max Pemberton | The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart | Call Me By Your Name, Andre Aciman | Young Miles, Lois McMaster Bujold | He's Just Not That Into You, Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo | The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand | A Classical Education, Caroline Taggart | The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope | Two Cures for Love, Wendy Cope

I'm bored, a little sad, deeply unmotivated, and with no time to write. Ergo, I watch TV.

Glee, Season 1, Episodes 1-4

( You think this is hard? )

Entourage, Seasons 2-4

( ♥ )

Greek, Season 1

I really wanted to like this. I did. My flist has been spazzing about it for approximately an age. Sadly, for me, it was the poor man's Gossip Girl.

( :((( )

Leverage, Season 1, Episodes 1-2

Katie enthusiastically recommended this to me. I suppose I should like a modern-day take on Robin Hood – it’s practically a law – but so far it has failed to impress me.

( A stolen thought or two. )

Yeeeeah, I think that pretty much exhausts my opinions for the moment. (Thank god, sez you.)

OH YEAH - please don't spoil me!

Two Cures for Love, Wendy Cope

Hmm. I am not sure where I stand in my opinion of Cope. (Also, this was a very sparse selection of poems on which to formulate an opinion. And expensive, too, at 9.50. Not impressed.) I liked Valentine and Being Boring, but I liked those before I read this anthology, so the value-added is ... zero. She can be clever and witty when it comes to love and cynicism, but anything else leaves her grasping. Although that could be my bias against nature-poetry (YUCK) showing.

Previously, on Book Glomp 2009:
He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope |The Bostonians, Henry James | For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway | For Esme - with Love and Squalor, JD Salinger | The Outsider, Albert Camus | The Princess Diaries: Ten out of Ten, Meg Cabot | The Vicar of Bullhampton, Anthony Trollope | Molesworth, Geoffrey Willans | Villette, Charlotte Bronte | The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James | The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler | Cecilia, Fanny Burney | The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark | Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut | Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann | Siddhartha, Herman Hesse | The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga | The Duke and I, Julia Quinn | Brave New World, Aldous Huxley | North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell | Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee | Catch-22, Joseph Heller | Bright Shiny Morning, James Frey | Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck | The Demon's Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan | The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton | jPod, Douglas Coupland | 'Are these my basoomas I see before me?', Louise Rennison | Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer | Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman | The Accidental Sorcerer, K.E. Mills | Ethan of Athos, Lois McMaster Bujold | V., Thomas Pynchon | The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway | The Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb | Orlando, Virginia Woolf | The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath | Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk | Crush, Richard Siken | Trust Me, I'm a Junior Doctor, Max Pemberton | The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart | Call Me By Your Name, Andre Aciman | Young Miles, Lois McMaster Bujold | He's Just Not That Into You, Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo | The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand | A Classical Education, Caroline Taggart | The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope

The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope

Oh lord, this book. It has been squatting on my conscience for over a month. That's how long it's been since I actually finished it, and how long it's been since I've been putting off writing about it. Which is not to say it was so terribly bad - in fact, if that were the case, I'd probably have ranted tout suite. It was just ... there. I enjoyed it more than anything else I've read of his; this, however, does not say very much.

I hated Felix and Lady Carbury, but their comeuppance was disappointing. FIRE AND BRIMSTONE, DUDE. FOR REALZ. I also hate the fact that Trollope is, in essence, a romance writer, except one who never seemed to realise the fact, or exploit the concept of people falling love - as opposed to people already being in love, but with a more suitable suitor in the wings whom they eventually reject so they can live in happy poverty. EVERY TIME. I KID YOU NOT. The stuff about Melmotte is never carried through and from what I can remember, there's a lot of repetition from chapter to chapter. I also remember finding it quite witty, but sadly let down by the ending.

Also the title sounds like a soap opera.

I think I've given Trollope enough of a chance. I'm not labouring through the Barchester series or anything else just to be disappointed more thoroughly. Adieu, dude with the hilarious last name!

Previously, on Book Glomp 2009:
He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope |The Bostonians, Henry James | For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway | For Esme - with Love and Squalor, JD Salinger | The Outsider, Albert Camus | The Princess Diaries: Ten out of Ten, Meg Cabot | The Vicar of Bullhampton, Anthony Trollope | Molesworth, Geoffrey Willans | Villette, Charlotte Bronte | The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James | The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler | Cecilia, Fanny Burney | The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark | Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut | Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann | Siddhartha, Herman Hesse | The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga | The Duke and I, Julia Quinn | Brave New World, Aldous Huxley | North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell | Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee | Catch-22, Joseph Heller | Bright Shiny Morning, James Frey | Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck | The Demon's Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan | The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton | jPod, Douglas Coupland | 'Are these my basoomas I see before me?', Louise Rennison | Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer | Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman | The Accidental Sorcerer, K.E. Mills | Ethan of Athos, Lois McMaster Bujold | V., Thomas Pynchon | The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway | The Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb | Orlando, Virginia Woolf | The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath | Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk | Crush, Richard Siken | Trust Me, I'm a Junior Doctor, Max Pemberton | The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart | Call Me By Your Name, Andre Aciman | Young Miles, Lois McMaster Bujold | He's Just Not That Into You, Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo | The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand | A Classical Education, Caroline Taggart

A Classical Education, Caroline Taggart

I picked this up on a whim in HMV. It's pretty much what you'd expect from a book about classics sold in a DVD shop. I already knew 50% of it and had heard of 75% of the rest, but it was a nice refresher course - even if, yet again, it made me bitter that I don't get to study this stuff for real. The breezy style inevitably grated, but only to cheese-paring levels very occasionally.

Previously, on Book Glomp 2009:
He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope |The Bostonians, Henry James | For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway | For Esme - with Love and Squalor, JD Salinger | The Outsider, Albert Camus | The Princess Diaries: Ten out of Ten, Meg Cabot | The Vicar of Bullhampton, Anthony Trollope | Molesworth, Geoffrey Willans | Villette, Charlotte Bronte | The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James | The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler | Cecilia, Fanny Burney | The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark | Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut | Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann | Siddhartha, Herman Hesse | The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga | The Duke and I, Julia Quinn | Brave New World, Aldous Huxley | North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell | Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee | Catch-22, Joseph Heller | Bright Shiny Morning, James Frey | Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck | The Demon's Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan | The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton | jPod, Douglas Coupland | 'Are these my basoomas I see before me?', Louise Rennison | Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer | Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman | The Accidental Sorcerer, K.E. Mills | Ethan of Athos, Lois McMaster Bujold | V., Thomas Pynchon | The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway | The Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb | Orlando, Virginia Woolf | The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath | Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk | Crush, Richard Siken | Trust Me, I'm a Junior Doctor, Max Pemberton | The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart | Call Me By Your Name, Andre Aciman | Young Miles, Lois McMaster Bujold | He's Just Not That Into You, Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo | The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

Bandom fic: Brendon in Real Life
Brendon/Spencer, NC-17, 6000 words

Written for fiddleyoumust in the popoffacork challenge.

"I'm in jail," said Brendon. "You have to come bail me out, Spence, please?"
Brendon deals with his feelings for Spencer in a very adult manner.

a/n: Helen insisted I post this, so blame her for the spam today! I am indebted to her, softlyforgotten and murklins for their habitually stellar beta-work. &youguys!;

( Read on, Lizzie! )

The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

... Yeah, I still don't know why this was called the Fountainhead. Noticeable lack of fountains, with and without heads, all the way through. A better name might have been 'The Anti-Communist Manifesto.' Ellsworth Toohey is the spectre haunting Europe!

Seriously, though, I thought this book was FREAKIN' AWESOME till I finished it. Then I remembered it was all about architecture, which is not exactly the most hip and happening art subclass around, no matter how hard Rand tried to convince me otherwise.

( I am torn! )

Previously, on Book Glomp 2009:
He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope |The Bostonians, Henry James | For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway | For Esme - with Love and Squalor, JD Salinger | The Outsider, Albert Camus | The Princess Diaries: Ten out of Ten, Meg Cabot | The Vicar of Bullhampton, Anthony Trollope | Molesworth, Geoffrey Willans | Villette, Charlotte Bronte | The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James | The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler | Cecilia, Fanny Burney | The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark | Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut | Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann | Siddhartha, Herman Hesse | The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga | The Duke and I, Julia Quinn | Brave New World, Aldous Huxley | North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell | Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee | Catch-22, Joseph Heller | Bright Shiny Morning, James Frey | Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck | The Demon's Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan | The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton | jPod, Douglas Coupland | 'Are these my basoomas I see before me?', Louise Rennison | Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer | Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman | The Accidental Sorcerer, K.E. Mills | Ethan of Athos, Lois McMaster Bujold | V., Thomas Pynchon | The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway | The Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb | Orlando, Virginia Woolf | The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath | Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk | Crush, Richard Siken | Trust Me, I'm a Junior Doctor, Max Pemberton | The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart | Call Me By Your Name, Andre Aciman | Young Miles, Lois McMaster Bujold | He's Just Not That Into You, Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo

He's Just Not That Into You, Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo

This probably has a lot of good tips if you date a lot. I don't date at all, so I sat through most of it going 'Duh' and 'People really DO that?' Also, I would have swallowed it more easily if the authors didn't keep insisting that everyone is hot and awesome and worthy of a good guy, because some people just aren't. (Hi!)

Previously, on Book Glomp 2009:
He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope |The Bostonians, Henry James | For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway | For Esme - with Love and Squalor, JD Salinger | The Outsider, Albert Camus | The Princess Diaries: Ten out of Ten, Meg Cabot | The Vicar of Bullhampton, Anthony Trollope | Molesworth, Geoffrey Willans | Villette, Charlotte Bronte | The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James | The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler | Cecilia, Fanny Burney | The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark | Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut | Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann | Siddhartha, Herman Hesse | The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga | The Duke and I, Julia Quinn | Brave New World, Aldous Huxley | North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell | Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee | Catch-22, Joseph Heller | Bright Shiny Morning, James Frey | Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck | The Demon's Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan | The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton | jPod, Douglas Coupland | 'Are these my basoomas I see before me?', Louise Rennison | Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer | Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman | The Accidental Sorcerer, K.E. Mills | Ethan of Athos, Lois McMaster Bujold | V., Thomas Pynchon | The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway | The Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb | Orlando, Virginia Woolf | The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath | Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk | Crush, Richard Siken | Trust Me, I'm a Junior Doctor, Max Pemberton | The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart | Call Me By Your Name, Andre Aciman | Young Miles, Lois McMaster Bujold

I am officially 'off the wards' till our exam on Friday. I AM BANNED FROM SEEING SICK CHILDREN. YOU CAN IMAGINE HOW TERRIBLE THIS IS FOR ME. I mean, if you try really hard or something.



This video is my new favourite thing - mainly because I kept drawing parallels between the interviewer and doctors in general. I am very good at asking questions tactfully - "How's the waterworks? What have your bowel movements been like recently? Have you had any contact with prostitutes since the symptoms started?" I think 'TV interviewer' is a valid option for my future career. I could totally handle two hot guys talking about starring in each others' blowjob dreams and what they use to shiny-fy their hair. Totally.

I have to do a presentation on my project about the rats and their blood. I won't bore anyone with the details, but I am looking for cute pictures of rats (or any rodent, really, I'm not picky). Happen to have any? Please share! It will make the six slides of graphs far less mind-numbing.