MikShorty


Only Nonfiction I’ve Read by Mikael
February 18, 2011, 3:52 pm
Filed under: Literature, Memes, Remembering, Roam

 

The only nonfiction book I have ever read (or recall reading) is The Complete Jack the Ripper by London crime expert, Donald Rumbelow.

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Ever since my wonderful adventures in England two summers ago, I’ve been completely enthralled with anything involving Great Britain. And the stories of Jack the Ripper are some of my favorite because they always leave me asking questions. I had the opportunity to go on the “Jack the Ripper” walk in London with Rumbelow. Of my 12 different London Walks I went on, it was undoubtedly my absolute favorite of the bunch. So fascinating! So I bought his book and had him sign it for me. Lucky for me, it was the last copy he had.

***
Day 01 → Your favorite song
Day 02 → Your favorite movie
Day 03 → Your favorite television program
Day 04 → Your favorite book
Day 05 → Your favorite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy (Fave Things About My Internship)
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy (Somewhere)
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy



Some Fictional Reading~ Gargoyle by Mikael
February 15, 2011, 6:23 pm
Filed under: Fiction, Good Things, Literature, Memes, Stories | Tags: , , ,

I guess I’m supposed to share a fictional book for Day 13 of the meme?

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The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson is one of my all-time favorite books. I’ll share Amazon’s summary of it…

An extraordinary debut novel of love that survives the fires of hell and transcends the boundaries of time.

The narrator of The Gargoyle is a very contemporary cynic, physically beautiful and sexually adept, who dwells in the moral vacuum that is modern life. As the book opens, he is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and suffers horrible burns over much of his body. As he recovers in a burn ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned, he awaits the day when he can leave the hospital and commit carefully planned suicide—for he is now a monster in appearance as well as in soul.

A beautiful and compelling, but clearly unhinged, sculptress of gargoyles by the name of Marianne Engel appears at the foot of his bed and insists that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly injured mercenary and she was a nun and scribe in the famed monastery of Engelthal who nursed him back to health. As she spins their tale in Scheherazade fashion and relates equally mesmerizing stories of deathless love in Japan, Iceland, Italy, and England, he finds himself drawn back to life—and, finally, in love. He is released into Marianne’s care and takes up residence in her huge stone house. But all is not well. For one thing, the pull of his past sins becomes ever more powerful as the morphine he is prescribed becomes ever more addictive. For another, Marianne receives word from God that she has only twenty-seven sculptures left to complete—and her time on earth will be finished.

Already an international literary sensation, The Gargoyle is an Inferno for our time. It will have you believing in the impossible.

I know it makes it seem largely like a romance novel but it is seriously the most riveting story I have ever read, jumping seamlessly through time and different kinds of adventure. It will make your jaw drop, your heart race, and pique your curiosity in new ways. This is the book that largely influenced me to learn Italian so I would be able to read Dante’s Inferno in it’s original language. I highly recommend it. =)

***
Day 01 → Your favorite song
Day 02 → Your favorite movie
Day 03 → Your favorite television program
Day 04 → Your favorite book
Day 05 → Your favorite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy (Fave Things About My Internship)
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy (Somewhere)
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy



My Fave Book by Mikael
January 16, 2011, 11:40 pm
Filed under: A Little Me, Literature, Memes | Tags: ,

Talk about another hard question to answer on this meme… do they get easier yet?  I’m a movie, music, and a literature freak!   How can they expect me to just pick one?!

But I can pretty much narrow it down to a few, is that ok? I think each of these covers each of my favorite genres as well.

Harry Potter by JK Rowling (6 and 7 are my particular favorites of the series)

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The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

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Who’s That Girl? by Alexandra Potter

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19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult

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The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

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So what’s your favorite book?

***
Day 01 → Your favorite song
Day 02 → Your favorite movie
Day 03 → Your favorite television program
Day 04 → Your favorite book
Day 05 → Your favorite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy



Am I really that big of an HP nerd? by Mikael
May 19, 2010, 12:43 pm
Filed under: A Little Me, Friends, Laughs, Literature, RaNdOm, Stories

***There are spoilers if you haven’t read the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows… Just telling you now.***

So the last night, we went to a friend’s house for a Harry Potter slumber party of sorts.  AKA: play the movie till we all stop flirting and fall asleep.  One thing led to another, and pretty soon everyone in the room was trying to think of a Harry Potter question that I couldn’t answer.

Here’s what is sad: I was coming up with questions that stumped them on top of the fact that I answered all of their questions with ease.  In fact, here’s how one question went:

B1-Who is above Dumbledore?
Me– No one is above Dumbledore in Hogwarts.  Do you mean the Minister of Magic?
B1– Yeah, that one.
Me– Well, in the first 4 books, it’s Cornelius Fudge but then he get’s sacked and Rufus Scrimgeour takes his place in the 5, 6, but is killed in the 7th by Death Eaters who take over.  Kingsley Shacklebolt steps in as a temporary minister at the end of the 7th book after Voldy falls.
B1– You suck.

For about the first ten minutes, the people were impressed and intrigued to think of a question for me to answer… but by the end, one of the boys even said he was getting pissed because they couldn’t think of one.  They even started throwing out questions that weren’t in the books or in the movies to throw me off… one even started asking questions about Halo (which I don’t play anyways) to stump me.

Yep, I’m a tried and true Harry Potter nerd.  Deal with it.  In fact, I dare you to try and think of a Harry Potter question that I can’t answer off of the top of my head.  Honestly.  Go.