Not the thing I meant but

So I just finished reading all the yuletide stories I wanted and in the upcoming week I'll check out some rec posts for any works that I skipped that look good. I'm always amazed at how fast others get through it and start posting recs when I don't think I finished last year's collection.

I'm still massively behind on going through the Reading in 2011 Posts and I do want to post about movies and television this year as well, but some of that will probably bleed into 2012.

Someone besides me posted in itstartswith the community I created but never promoted or mentioned. Yeah. I am going to do something about that: like start posting and promote it on some comms. I even made an icon for it that still doesn't look too shabby.

Besides inkingitout I signed up for poetry_fiction for 2012; it doesn't look like much but if I do this on time it will be a first for me in writing something in a timely manner for a challenge.

I need to find it within to subscribe to some other people, especially new journals. I remember what that was like.

Reading in 2011: the thirties

39) Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan. Fresh in a standard way I'm used to with these two; that sounds like backhanded praise but what I mean is that if you've read their other collaborations you will understand the tone set out in this novel. I still contend that the two of them are essentially writing the same story just with minor differences but I do enjoy reading this story so that is not a complaint.

38) Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth by Adrienne Rich. Poetry collection I picked up because I was in love with the author's previous work, I probably should have just left it alone. There are some good poems in here but nothing that moved me the way The Dream of a Common Language

37) view with a grain of sand by Wislawa Szymborska (There's an accent mark missing here but I can't figure out how to insert it without pasting from elsewhere). This is probably one of my favorite books ever. I definitely plan on buying a physical copy of this one: Szymoborska just contains so many layers and weaves together these grand details...ugh, I still have to post some to the poetry comm.

36) Nemesis by Phillip Roth. Okay, I picked this up on a whim and on its small size. It was okay, the protagonist felt so distant and I pressed on because I was interested in the scenario surrounding the story but then there was this narrative switch at the end that felt like a copout that I can't get over. But I do plan to read something this author is noted for to get a better feel.

35) Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar. Pleasant book, real clean prose that just moved along without notice; but this book hit on my issue of the double standard of Older women sleeping with teenage boys vs Older men sleeping with teenage girls. His stepmother was, I think, twelve years older than him and closer to his age than she was to his dead father, but still.

34) Tonight No Poetry Will Serve by Adrienne Rich. Paste what I said about #38.

33) Goliath by Scott Westerfeld. Nice cap to a rather good trilogy though I wish the romance part hadn't happened.

32) Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda. Lovely collection.

31) The Magician King by Lev Grossman. I did enjoy this one more than the first, mostly because the crew managed to mature a bit though I still couldn't stand the protagonist and I'm glad he sacrificed something for someone instead of the other way around, though I was hoping Alice would turn out alive. I am more interested in the third after reading the second than I was for the second after reading the first.

30) Crush by Richard Siken. After seeing parts of this poem all over my flist, lj, and on tumblr I had to track down the full thing and I wasn't disappointed. It's not often I can use visceral and not feel cheap.

do not try and predict trends

Today I upgraded my account for a month mostly for the icons, though the extra 3 points were nice but ineffective. With my new icon space I deleted some (there are still more I need to get rid of) and added some, changed my default--love it though that was the opposite expression I wore with Misfits' latest finale.

Right now I'm trying to resist starting this WIP update because the author is not done posting and I'm already tired and it's better if I wait and just speed through it in the morning instead of F5ing a ridiculous number of times.

My new layout has all CAPS in certain parts, is there a way to changed that? Also to add some space between the journal title and recent entries or reading page within the header?