Amour-Fou♥Net

I just finished ’Salem’s Lot by Stephen King this morning (it took me all of 36 hours or so to read it, despite being really long) which means I’ve officially read 10 books this summer! Check out the list, yo.

In honor of finally reaching my goal (though I’m going to keep reading and recording my books for the rest of the summer, obvs), I’m going to say a few review-y words about the books I’ve read. I think it would be a little much to review all 10 at one time, though, so I’m going to do it in parts. Today, because the latest book I read was a vampire book, I’ll review all the vampire-y stuff I read this summer.

’Salem’s Lot: Shallow Page-turner

Despite being super-long, I read this book in like a day. Which should mean that it was really good. And it was, to a certain extent. But for some reason I can’t place, ’Salem’s Lot hasn’t left me with many of the feelings that I’m accustomed to from vampire novels.

Usually a good vampire book (or vampire other form of art like a movie or TV show or whatever) leaves me conflicted, or creeped out, or intrigued–especially by the specific form of vampire myth that the art at hand has chosen to employ or create. But with ’Salem’s Lot, I feel none of that. It wasn’t scary because I’m very jaded when it comes to vamp stories. It wasn’t that intriguing because the way the vampirism was transmitted was pretty boring (just a bite, nothing else) and so was the way to kill them (crosses, stakes, the usual).

Most annoyingly, though, is that ’Salem’s Lot is completely black and white. The vampires are evil; the people who fight the vampires are good. Some people may also be evil, but not a single vampire isn’t. Which is a shame because part of what makes the vampire monster thing so appealing (at least to me) is that vampires are still kinda human–usually they can act at least a little human, and often they can feel human(ish) emotions. But not in this version of the story.

A quick read, and so so well written (this was the first Stephen King book I’ve read), but way too emotionally simplistic. I doubt the story will stay with me past tonight.

(more…)

Yesterday we picked my baby (okay, she’s 13 now) sister up from camp. Before that, though, she wanted a makeover for her room. She asked for there to be vines on her wall, so my mom and I painted a small mural of ivy.

Even though it was a small project, the mural reminded me how much I missed painting, which is one of the reasons I hope to get into a painting class this semester. I got really into doing the shading on the leaves (all done by me!), and it also reminded me of my senior project from high school, which was a series of four huge paintings done on each side of a refrigerator box.

That ear is kind of the pride of my life. The black part is actually a hole that we (my friend with whom I did the project and I) cut out in the shape of an ear hole, so you could see into the box (long story), and the edges of the ear are papier-machéd to be shaped like the inside edges of an ear. But I’ve gotten waaay off topic.

The point is, I had fun painting my sister’s wall. And I realized that I think I like painting for the same reason that I like web design: In both cases, you do a lot of really small, mundane, boring things (either different strokes of a brush, or pieces of code) that alone, don’t look like or do anything. But then when they are all combined, they make something much bigger and prettier. Very satisfying.