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mood |
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 nostalgic |
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music |
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Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness |
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Stopping by the bookstore never bodes well for my wallet.
Dark Horse Manga has licensed a handsome, omnibus re-release of Clover, one of CLAMP's most beautiful, but little-known works. It's short, it's sweet, and it's utterly unlike anything else I have read -- a gem, a true experiment in artistry and minimalist storytelling. So, of course, I had to get it, especially given that I have not read it in years. I am utterly stunned by the obvious care and love that has gone into every detail--lush eyes, baroque wings, intricate, hand-drawn lace. The story is brilliantly-written, every word perfectly placed, much in the way of poetry. And, I am reminded of why I was so utterly in love with the CLAMP of the 90's. What happened, guys? Tokyo Babylon is my all-time favorite manga, and I have read a *lot* of manga. The first few volumes of X are masterpieces of visual art. In my humble opinion, Cardcaptor Sakura was the last truly great CLAMP masterpiece (not counting Clover, which came a year after), and from that point, the quality started to deteriorate. I felt the passion leach out of the drawing and storytelling. Angelic Layer is the last CLAMP fandom I ever really got into, and that was 95% Icchan's fault. Compared to the old stuff, Tsubasa is NOTHING. It pains me that there is an entire generation of new fans who think Tsubasa is the end-all, be-all of fucking awesome, and really, compared to CLAMP's 90's lexicon, it is a mere shadow. I can only encourage those old fans to take the time to find CLAMP's old works, those upon which the Tsubasa world are built.
I also browsed the teen fantasy section, as I am wont to do (shut it), and I desperately want to re-read The Song of the Lioness quartet. That was junior high for me, right there. They're easy as hell (two hours max to get through the first book, and that's if I am distracted), but damn it, they're unadulterated fun. Much as Twilight is brainless fun for girls who want to get rescued, Tamora Pierce novels are brainless fun for girls who want to do the rescuing themselves. More than anything, I wanted to be Alanna. Actually, I'm much more an intellectual/mage than a knight, and I dreamed about disguising myself as a boy to go to the academy where Thom goes, but that's neither here nor there. You know what I mean. I picked up the first novel in the Provost's Dog series. Pierce's writing has improved dramatically since her first publications, but the books are still just plain fun.
Also, I did not know that the light novel for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya had been translated. I had been considering reading it in the original Japanese, but I have enough other potential, untranslated stuff on my reading list that I felt no qualms about picking it up in English.
And I still need to finish Quicksilver. I'm about three-quarters done.
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wary![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
amused
giddy
disillusioned
numb
pissed
indifferent
lazy
accomplished
bored
bemused
indescribable
cynical
good
relieved