Saturday Night...

I'm enjoying a relaxed Saturday night shift.

Saturday is normally a relaxed shift, but this week has been more hectic than usual. Coming off an intense weekend, Thursday (normally a fairly hectic work day for me) proved just a hair more hairy than the norm. Then last night's shift was more challenging than usual. So now, with work settling back down to normal, my shift feels particularly refreshing.

On my way to work last night I picked up psychic Tiffany Johnson's latest book Picture Yourself Developing Your Psychic Abilities and read the first couple of chapters.

AWESOME!

I became a fan when I heard her on Spooky Southcoast, then heard her again on Beyond Reality Radio. She's not only one of the few psychics that TAPS will sing the praises of (being based in the scientific process, TAPS would rather debunk paranormal claims than call them paranormal, and they -- as an organization -- are exceedingly wary of anyone claiming to have information via sources than can't be scientifically verified), but she's disarmingly down-to-earth and "normal".

And she's hysterical, too!

Her attitude about being psychic is basically the opposite of most so-called psychics' 'tudes. She doesn't affect an accent of any sort, she'll make a joke about herself or her abilities before you even get the chance to, and she makes the whole topic of psychic-ness and the paranormal seem shockingly mundane, everyday, sort of ordinary.

So ordinary, in fact, that she firmly believes everyone has psychic abilities, and she's happy to tell us how to develop them.

Plus, I bought Chris Balzano's Picture Yourself Ghost Hunting when it went on sale, so owning a second Picture Yourself... book about the paranormal, written by another Friend Of Spooky Southcoast was appealing to me. :)

But the main reason I snatched Psychic Tiff's book last night was because Brian is the one who discovered it's out there and he's excited to read it. When I left for work this evening he was reading it. So I might not be returning to the book until after he's finished it.

Which is just as well because...

I'm finally reading C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels!!! :D

Like many people, in the late-1990s I fell in love with the character as played by Ioan Gruffud in the BBC/A&E TV movies. I had a curiosity about the character for decades because he was Gene Roddenberry's inspiration for Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek! And if you know the character, you can actually see the similarity, particularly in the classic TV series.

And back then, I bought a few of the novels with every intention of reading them...

...I just never got around to it, lol. I think I read about half of Commodore Hornblower, and enjoyed it, but then something took my attention away from it and I just never got back around to it.

But I scored audiobook versions of the entire series, and I've made my way through Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, and am about 3/4 through Lieutenant Hornblower.

AND I'M LOVING THEM!!! :D

Whenever there's a good movies series based on a series of novels, it usually goes 1 of 2 ways: The novels are far better than the movies because the movies couldn't come close to fitting the entire world into 2-hour chunks (like any film based on a Michael Crichton novel, or the Harry Potter flicks, for instance), or -- especially if the source material is half a century old or older -- the way the novels are written puts your ass to sleep every time you try to commit yourself to the dry, stilted, fuckin' BORING prose!

At least, that's been my experience...

But the Hornblower novels are a surprise. I can't honestly say that the novels are necessarily better than the films, or vice versa! It's like the original Dawn of the Dead as compared to the remake: I love them both! I own them both! I get in the mood for one or the other of them from time to time -- not like an either/or, but I will specifically be in the mood to watch Romero's version, or I'll specifically find myself in the mood to watch Snyder's version.

This isn't to take away from either format. But Forester's writing is surprisingly cinematic in that he doesn't get lost in his prose, and he never ever forgets to show, rather than tell. He was quite an amazing writer! He uses nautical jargon without any fear of losing you, but he also never loses you! You always can sense what he's talking about, even when the terms themselves are completely alien to you.

By contrast, I tried to read one of another popular author's sea-faring tales and I found the jargon distracting and the prose exceedingly stiff. It was as though the author wanted to make sure you, the reader, knew that he (the author) is smarter than you are. I won't mention the name of the author because, in all honesty, I haven't read another of his books since and my being put-off by his writing might have just been me at that time, and not had anything to do with his actual writing style.

But Forester writes in such a way that he just sort of carries you along with the characters, and even the brutality of shipboard life in the 1800s feels home-y and welcoming -- though Forester certainly doesn't confine you to a ship in the novels!

People talk about how Hemingway never wasted a word, and his his sparse, simple style of writing was so effective. I find the same to be true of Crichton's writing. I think you could say the same of Forester. He provides flavor and texture to his world and characters, but seems to know the exact balance of what gets the feeling or image across without spending a single syllable longer than necessary in any given place or moment.

Masterful! :D

Oh, and I'm reading the books in chronological order.

There is, apparently, a debate among literary Hornblower fans about how the series should be read. One camp is (I believe, quite logically) in favor of reading the books as they happened in the timeline of the world of the characters. The other camp is (I believe, quite pretentiously) in favor of reading the books in the order in which they were published (as Forester wrote them out of chronological order).

I think that if you're, like, studying Forester's progression as a writer, then the second camp has a point.

But if you're reading the books because you want to follow a super-cool character on his adventures at see... ;P

The same argument arises among fans of the Narnia books, as Lewis wrote those out of order, too.

I think the Order-of-Publication folks are just looking for an excuse to tell you about how smart they are, lol. Their "preference" (assuming it's not a complete affectation so they can separate themselves from people who merely read novels for enjoyment, rather than as some badge of intellectual prowess) gives them something to talk about at dinner parties, but I doubt it provides any particular enjoyment beyond that.

Although I read a very wise post on a thread about one of these series (I can't remember if it was about the Narnia books or the Hornblower books) -- the thread was debating the virtues of chronological order versus publication order -- wherein the poster pointed out that he, as a kid, picked up one book because it captured his interest. I believe it may have been a gift. He loved the book, and saw (maybe at a second-hand book store) another of the books in that series. He grabbed it and read it and loved it. He continued this way, reading the books in no particular order, just reading the next one he could get his hands on, until he had read the entire series.

He suggested that the order in which the series is first read is completely unimportant to the reader who is just discovering this amazing world! These aren't chap books. Each novel is brilliant and is its own story. The joy is in the reading, not in the order of the reading.

That poster is wiser than I am. Because I will still argue with a Order-Of-Publication freak (even though to do so is just as pretentious as I'm accusing him/her of being). But I SO agree with that cat: Any Narnia or Hornblower book that is read is going to be a joy to the reader, so it's just cool that that person gets to experience that joy! :)

But really... whats' really important to me... is the fact that I'M getting to enjoy the series now. ;P

It's a really cool Summer kind of series, somehow. I guess maybe because being at sea -- surrounded by water -- is appealing to me during these super-hot Austin Summer days? Also, Summertime reminds me of when I was a kid and had the summers off from school, and so my days were filled with imaginary Adventure! And the Hornblower stories are classic adventure stories! Like Zorro or Robin Hood or King Arthur, I think the Hornblower stories are sort of the archetypal examples of their genre or niche (or whatever you would call it). They're sort of definitive sea adventures.

Whatever the reason, I'm really, really enjoying being in this world, and I'm SO EXCITED that after I finish this novel I still have 9 MORE NOVELS TO GO!!! :D

Oops! Okay, I should probably return my attention to work now, lol.

HAVE ADVENTURE!

:D