You would think I'd be more adult about my books...

I'm filled with glee over this book:

The cover doesn't do the book justice. It's not about Wolverine exactly, but at the same time it has all the wonderful things that I love about the character. It's actually about a young mutant named Eric. As it is a Young Adult Novel, the protagonist needs to be a young adult and I’m fine with that. In fact, I’m thrilled with that. Wolverine is always best when kids are involved. Eric has “the suckiest mutant power ever” and he’s close to right. It’s your basic coming of age story with lots of being true to yourself and learning to be the best “you” you can be in a world that doesn’t understand you.

All the stuff that makes me read YA novels to begin with. *grin*

It’s short, occasionally illustrated and only in hard cover, but it was worth the price for just the first 20 pages. The book is written in the form of an on-line journal and the author has a wonderful feel for the medium. I’m greatly amused that the voice in the book has the same feel as Myria when she chats or journals. The one line of “Because I’m helpful like that”, sounds so much like Myr that I hear it in her voice when I read it.

A sample of that which is good:

Now, sometimes when people get surprising news, they say something like, “It blew my mind!”

I have to tell you: this news from Wolverine didn’t just blow my mind. Oh, no. Basically, it was like having a professional demolition team – those guys who blow up buildings on TV – crawl into my head through my ears, place dynamite in all the right places, lay down their wires, crawl back out, give the “Go!” signal, and then detonate the explosives, totally destroying my brain.

What I’m saying is, this news blew my mind professionally.

Granted, most of the humor comes from knowing the characters and the comics, but it’s all good. In that geeky, totally-a-fangirl way, mind.

What I really like about the book was this kid wasn’t your proto-typical angsty/angry teenage – even though he had every right to be. Add this character to Alexis, the daughter from Castle, and you have a very short list of the portrayal of good kids in fiction.

But I digress.

As an added bonus to the book, there are thee comics at the end of the novel – starring The Power Pack (young sibling superheroes) in three different adventures with Wolverine. While they're good comics, I mention it only because it reminds me of one of my favorite Wolverine comics: (Uncanny) X-Men 205 The cover alone is worth the comic, but actually happens before the events in the book, which deal with Wolverine and Katie Power from the Power Pack.

Yes. I have favorite Wolverine comics. For example, I absolutely adore the Kitty Pride and Wolverine mini-series. If I had my druthers, they would make a Wolverine movie out of that series.

Again, I digress. (Twice in as many paragraphs, time to stop typing!)

Basically, I just wanted to say: *glee*.

Song of the Week

In my ongoing mission to illustrate that I have nothing in common with my flist (nor, perhaps, all of livejournal), I've decided that I'm going to post some links to some of my favorite music. Not withstanding the fact that I'm currently listening to Queensryche, I'm going back to my roots and share music I that will lay odds no one who is reading this has ever heard of: old country music, to be specific. This post talks about about what I like in music, although I'll point out that I listen to almost any type of music provided it has a melody and lyrics I can sing along with (or at least understand).

My first selection is a song that illustrates one of the things I love best about country music -- it doesn't have to make sense. This song came out when I was five, so I will use that as an excuse for my mad love for it.

"Tennessee Bird Walk", Jack Blanchard, Misty Morgan

ETA: GIP

Not a Team Player...

The thing about fandom -- the real, when-you-get-right-down-to-it thing about fandom -- is that fandom is made up of like minded people. Fandom (especially groups fandom) is really not about diversity. At least not diversity of opinion or interest.

Don't misunderstand me: I'm not saying that it's right or wrong, because this isn't a right or wrong thing. It just is. Fandom is all about finding other fans who are alike. It's true of any type of fan: media, sport or political.

The Internet has only made it more so. When you head out into the internet looking for fandom friends, you go out there looking to find other people who like the same things you do. With luck (and a good search engine) you can find people who not only like the same thing you do, but like it for the same reasons. Do you like just a particular show? How about a particular character on that show? Or a specific (relation)ship? How about that specific 'ship set in an S&M setting with a solid NC17 rating on all the posts? I'm sure there is just the community for you.

And that's great. There's nothing better than finding a place where you belong.

Until you don't. Until you are really into something, only to find out that no one else cares. Until you have a great view on a character, only to find that others view them in a completely opposite way. Until no one else sees what you do and no one else wants to, either.

It's just no fun playing in a sandbox all by yourself, no matter how beautiful the sandcastles are.

You can modify your views, of course, and most times it's neither hard nor painful. If you squint right (and aren’t too invested in your own, differing view of the characters) it becomes really easy to start seeing the world the way everyone else does. Read enough fanfic you can see the 'ships that everyone raves about. It’s easiest just to fall into a group where you don’t have any real stake in any side and just go along with the majority view. Fandom is just a hobby after all.

But I’ve rarely ever been good at playing in other people’s sandboxes.

Most times, I'm fine with that. I'm a loner by nature, both in real life and on-line. I'm usually content to hang around the edges. But sometimes.. sometimes I wish I could share. Join in. Be part of the big group. Jump on that bandwagon and really, truly believe in that bandwagon. Because that would be a fun ride.

For a while, at least.