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apocalypsosTwo cherry limeades and I picked up the copy of "Dead and Dateless" I bought at the grocery store the other day.
I don't know why I did, though.
Nothing against the book, really -- I mean, it's fun enough where I'm going to finish reading it even taking into consideration what I don't like about it -- but I think I need to start avoiding books with female characters whose main character trait seems to be an addiction to shoes, clothes and/or makeup. Like, to the point where brand names are being dropped so often I expect someone to literally stop in the middle of the action and pick one up in the course of the plot.
I know I sound like I should be one to speak, considering how much time I spend obsessing over Project Runway, but that's always been more of a watching-the-creative-process-at-work kind of a thing, not to mention the fact that I do know how to sew (you know, given a pattern and a machine, hence why Real Men Don't Make Cheesecake required no real research other than a quick look at the back of a pattern envelope for measurements) so I understand most of what they're talking about. I mean, I pick up Wet and Wild makeup because it's the cheapest and the hypoallergenic stuff if I can afford it, which I usually can't. I consider shopping at Target for clothes splurging on the good stuff. The only shoes I can really say that I currently obsess over are my black hooker boots with the three-inch heels I got at Walmart and the sequined kids'-size clogs and black ballerina slippers I got at Target that'll have to wait for warmer weather before I can wear them, and all of those cost about fifty bucks COMBINED.
I just have a really, really hard time liking a female character who spends an entire book worried about the condition of her shoes and clothes, usually when people are trying to kill her. It's not even some big feminism issue, although God knows I have moments where I want to throttle said characters, because I can accept a little airheadedness in something that's sort of meant to be literary candy. But I don't know ... I can't really sympathize with someone complaining about their shoes when they're being chased by the police or some supernatural creature trying to eat them or something. Comes with having a lot of clothes picked up at the Salvation Army because I ruin so many of them at work, maybe.
Maybe that's why the main character in the Books of Boggs is male. Hmm.
(I really do have to do a series centered around a female character. I did have the first novel of one written a while ago, although the rewrites involved in making it presentable to ... you know, people, would be MASSIVE.)
EDIT: You know when I know I like a female character? When she either bolts in a pair of three-inch heels and can run in them without breaking an ankle or says, "Fuck this," and either snaps the damn heels off or hides and takes the shoes off. Or if they're stiletto heels and she uses them as weapons. Or pretty much anything that doesn't result in, "Oh, my poor Manolo Blahniks! *cries*"
SON OF EDIT: On the plus side, I've always got Jim Carrey doing David Caruso's scene-enders on CSI Miami to make me happy.
BRIDE OF EDIT: I'm three cherry limeades down and I plan on staying up until at least seven o'clock in the morning so that I can call work and ask if I have overtime tonight. Which I probably don't. And I don't plan to stop drinking after this one. Woo for drunk-dialing work! (Or not. I'm sure I'll somewhat sober by then. Heh.)
PIZZA DELIVERY GUY OF EDIT: I continue to be amused that I'm still able to type correctly while drunk. Okay, mostly correct. I know enough to fix it, don't I?
I don't know why I did, though.
Nothing against the book, really -- I mean, it's fun enough where I'm going to finish reading it even taking into consideration what I don't like about it -- but I think I need to start avoiding books with female characters whose main character trait seems to be an addiction to shoes, clothes and/or makeup. Like, to the point where brand names are being dropped so often I expect someone to literally stop in the middle of the action and pick one up in the course of the plot.
I know I sound like I should be one to speak, considering how much time I spend obsessing over Project Runway, but that's always been more of a watching-the-creative-process-at-work kind of a thing, not to mention the fact that I do know how to sew (you know, given a pattern and a machine, hence why Real Men Don't Make Cheesecake required no real research other than a quick look at the back of a pattern envelope for measurements) so I understand most of what they're talking about. I mean, I pick up Wet and Wild makeup because it's the cheapest and the hypoallergenic stuff if I can afford it, which I usually can't. I consider shopping at Target for clothes splurging on the good stuff. The only shoes I can really say that I currently obsess over are my black hooker boots with the three-inch heels I got at Walmart and the sequined kids'-size clogs and black ballerina slippers I got at Target that'll have to wait for warmer weather before I can wear them, and all of those cost about fifty bucks COMBINED.
I just have a really, really hard time liking a female character who spends an entire book worried about the condition of her shoes and clothes, usually when people are trying to kill her. It's not even some big feminism issue, although God knows I have moments where I want to throttle said characters, because I can accept a little airheadedness in something that's sort of meant to be literary candy. But I don't know ... I can't really sympathize with someone complaining about their shoes when they're being chased by the police or some supernatural creature trying to eat them or something. Comes with having a lot of clothes picked up at the Salvation Army because I ruin so many of them at work, maybe.
Maybe that's why the main character in the Books of Boggs is male. Hmm.
(I really do have to do a series centered around a female character. I did have the first novel of one written a while ago, although the rewrites involved in making it presentable to ... you know, people, would be MASSIVE.)
EDIT: You know when I know I like a female character? When she either bolts in a pair of three-inch heels and can run in them without breaking an ankle or says, "Fuck this," and either snaps the damn heels off or hides and takes the shoes off. Or if they're stiletto heels and she uses them as weapons. Or pretty much anything that doesn't result in, "Oh, my poor Manolo Blahniks! *cries*"
SON OF EDIT: On the plus side, I've always got Jim Carrey doing David Caruso's scene-enders on CSI Miami to make me happy.
BRIDE OF EDIT: I'm three cherry limeades down and I plan on staying up until at least seven o'clock in the morning so that I can call work and ask if I have overtime tonight. Which I probably don't. And I don't plan to stop drinking after this one. Woo for drunk-dialing work! (Or not. I'm sure I'll somewhat sober by then. Heh.)
PIZZA DELIVERY GUY OF EDIT: I continue to be amused that I'm still able to type correctly while drunk. Okay, mostly correct. I know enough to fix it, don't I?
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 03:29 pm (UTC)Personally, I'd have preferred to follow that character from the short story, if it's the one I'm thinking it is...
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 03:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 03:39 pm (UTC)You know what else always bothered me about those books? She'd spend so much time expounding about the beautiful designer shoes Elizabeth owned and put her in these ridiculously ugly clothes. It was kind of like the equivalent of the way Laurell K. Hamilton dresses Anita Blake in black jeans and a fanny pack (oh, my God, woman, have you left the house since 1986?!) with the added crime of at least one part of the outfit being salvageable and therefore being absolutely criminal.
And don't even get me started on the best friend who's worth billions and dresses like a bag lady. I kept reading about these horrible outfits she'd put Jessica in and think, "Is this like when bridemaids wear ugly dresses to make the bride look better?"
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 03:44 pm (UTC)Eh, I tend to not follow fashion at all, if I can help it (unless I'm looking for a good dress to pop one of the boys into for a fic, or the like). As for fannypacks... >.> My auntie has one, and uses it all the time. *le shrug* Though I will say that Anita's taste gets changed later on in the series...
*facepalms* I don't read stories for fashion, really now. I read for the violence, the mystery, and stuff like that, lol >.>
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 03:56 pm (UTC)Though I will say that Anita's taste gets changed later on in the series...
Heh. I would have had to make it that far to find that out. That's another one that lost me a while ago.
I think my problem with the way Anita dressed in the early book is less that she's unfashionable -- hell, she's not the kind of person who would care anyway -- and more that the descriptions of her hair and clothes made me wonder why the hell two incredibly hot men would be so hard up for her. Not that I expect them to go after her solely for her looks, but her personality didn't exactly make me buy it either. (For some reason, the big thing that pissed me off was that at least once a book in the middle of all of her angsting about Richard and Jean-Claude Anita would make some throwaway comment about how she's probably going to die by the time she's thirty anyway. Oh, my God, woman, then why are you complaining about two guys going after you?! Fuck 'em both!)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 04:01 pm (UTC)Eh, it's not always about the hair or clothes (or even personality) that drives males to fixate on certain females. She's very curvy, lol. And also stubborn as hell. Sometimes those're attractive. As for her dying comments, usually I sort of zone out on that part... *le shrug* I will say, though, that the middle books were really good, imo. However, the last few books? Have her as basically more a slut than anything else and really, if I want sluts, I have fanfic for that. 'Sides, Dean/Jen and Sam/Jared are prettier, lol :D
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 04:07 pm (UTC)Heh. I agree, though ... I'd much rather read about Sam and Dean and Jared and Jensen anyway. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 04:15 pm (UTC)I forget to mention that for some reason I picked up MaryJanice Davidson's latest book she wrote with her husband about the girl who turns into a dragon, featuring the fourteen-year-old who speaks like no fourteen-year-old I've ever met in my life and not much like any adult I've ever met, either. If you're going to write an adolescent girl, then for crying out loud try meeting one first.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 04:17 pm (UTC)Ewwwww *grimaces* No thank you. Not at all my thing, thanks muchly. *facepalms*