GIP! (It's so pretty!)

[apocalypsos]

Fandom High students took a field trip to the Plotting Zoo. And now there are pretty, pretty icons.

And now I have something to use for NaNo. :)

EDIT: Oh, did I mention I bought my brother more books today? Well, he hasn't said he's given up on the whole reading-books thing at his one job, and he looked enthused about them -- well, at least about Fight Club. (What? It's his favorite movie. I figured he'd at least give the book a chance that way.) I also bought him the first book in the Dresden Files series, which I can't recommend enough and which I really hope he gets hooked on. This way, he'll want to read the rest of the books, and then maybe he'll ask for more book series that are any good, and awaaaaaay I go with the book recommendations.

Next up ... Stephen King. Yeah, okay, it's not like I'm trying to feed Bryan high literature or anything, but honestly, he's a nineteen-year-old kid that I don't think I've ever seen read anything more complex than a gaming magazine simply for the enjoyment of it. So he reads those, and maybe he finds out he likes Chuck Palahniuk or Jim Butcher, and then it's on to Carrie, Cujo and Christine (he actually asked for "that one about the car"). After that ... erm, well, after that, I'm going to have to think on that, I guess.

Comments

[imfallingup.livejournal.com]

ooh ooh! the hot zone by richard preston.

[moshez.livejournal.com]

If you decide to move into slightly higher literature, and if (as I am racistically assuming is true) he is interested in baseball, I highly recommend Chabon's Summerland. It's a good book, but it's very easy to read -- and if he likes that, you would actually have standing to feed him a Pulitzer-winner ("The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier&Clay").

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

See, I might read that, but he wouldn't. When I say he's never read anything for recreation, I'm not kidding. I was in the young adult section today, trying to see if anything there would appeal to him. It's not that he's stupid (even though he's flunking his English classes, which is part of the reason I'm trying to get him interested in reading), it's just that his lack of experience means that I have to give him candy before I can give him some real meat. (Let me put it this way -- when I was three, my mom started handing me books. When my brother was three, my aunt and grandmother gave him a Game Boy. It's a pretty prophetic statement of how we both turned out. :))

I wanted to buy him a copy of "Good Omens", but I wasn't sure he'd get it. I may try to get him into Discworld, because if he gets hooked on that and wants to read more, there's TONS for him to read. I mean, he likes action movies, scary movies and comedies, so I'm figuring comic horror and fantasy is what I want to start him out with.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Ooo, see, that might work. Baseball is his favorite sport along with golf, so something like that would be right up his alley.

[imfallingup.livejournal.com]

definitely. i'm just thinking if he's ready for steven king, he should be ready for richard preston....but then i'm another one that's been reading round the room my whole life, so i'm biased. i also think most of what king writes is a load of crap, but then all i've read is nightmares and dreamscapes and about a fifth of it (and that was only slightly less painfully boring than hawthorne's the customs-house).

[wufeidragon.livejournal.com]

If you're suggesting Stephen King suggest The Shining. That one had me hiding in my room for two weeks.

[vass]

The Plotypus is SO PRETTY.

And mmm, book pimping.

How about comics? You could try him on Transmet, and if that worked it'd open the door to Hunter S. Thompson.

Douglas Coupland?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Dare I mention Harry Potter, or does he think that's too kid stuff?

If he likes Nightmare Before Christmas, he might like the kooky spooky of John Bellairs, particularly A House With a Clock in the Walls (Borders has recently reprinted the first three books as an omnibus).

And then there's Terry Pratchett - if Good Omens might sail over his head, how about a Pratchett? The YA books are usually simpler but still funny.

[silent-sybil.livejournal.com]

Rarely have I been as surprised as when my fifteen-year-old brother, an avowed non-reader, suddenly decided The Catcher in the Rye was his favorite book after reading it for school, re-read it three or four times, and started asking my sister and me for recommendations. You never know, really.

[swingangel.livejournal.com]

Or The Stand. That one got to me. I'm not a huge Stephen King fan, but that book scared the bejesus out of me.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I've tried Harry Potter before and he only got a few chapters into the first book, but then again, he wasn't actively trying to read back then. Of course, he did like the movies, which is a plus in trying to push them on him again.

I told him to get himself a library card and then I could just give him suggestions of stuff he'd like. Or better yet -- and this would never happen because of his work schedule, but I can dream -- I'd love to take him on one trip to Borders or the library and give him a guided tour, see what he likes, give him ideas based on that, etc.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've tried to give him my copy of The Stand, even though it's my baby and my favorite book of all time and the last five times I've lent copies to people, they never gave them back. The length's throwing him off, though, and he's refusing because it's so long. So what I'm going to try is to start him on the shorter, more familiar Stephen King, and then hope he likes King enough to get into the longer stuff.

[pastaqueen.livejournal.com]

Did you know they are making a 2 hour Dresden files movie/backdoor pilot for the Sci-Fi channel? http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=21629

It would be awesome if they got James Marsters for that roll. He evidently reads the audiobooks for the series. I hope they don't screw it up!

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I saw that on rachelcaine's LJ. Isn't that the best? Well, I mean, as long as they do it right. *crosses fingers*

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Take him to Barnes and Noble - I say this only because it's got those cute little hardbacked classics for $6 by the checkout; they're sturdy and a good size to just schlep around.

There's always bribery - "I'll buy you one DVD if you pick out one book."

[milkshake-b.livejournal.com]

*stares*

*slowly pales*

*starts to scream*

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

*snickers* Boy, I hope that's a good scream. ;)

[milkshake-b.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but name one SciFi channel book adaption they did well. Children of Dune does not count, because that wasn't really well, just not causing book fans to writhe in agony for a change. (Dune, on the other hand, had the book fans screaming in the corner even before Irulan marched onto Arrakis with a butterfly on her head.)

[milkshake-b.livejournal.com]

It's not. See above. I need an >.< icon.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

That's true. I'm trying to fixate on the fact that Battlestar Galactica is really good (yeah, I know that it's not a book adaptation, but that's why it's called denial) instead of the fact that Dune and Legend of Earthsea blew chunks.

[swingangel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think no collection is complete without a good, dog-eared copy of The Stand. I can see how the length would be daunting though. Maybe some of the "middle years" of Dean Koontz, before he got a bit too wierd. Like Watchers.