mercury is in retrograde

Via elisi: it appears the recent LJ modifications may not be as disastrous as they first appeared?  As summarized here, there will be some customizability, including the ability to switch off infinite scroll (thank goodness).  Also, paid accounts aren't really going away--if you have one, you'll still have one, it looks like, and if you don't have one yet, you'll be able to just buy the features you want, instead of a bundle.  If you have a paid account when that happens, it looks like you may also get some special privileges?

So that's good.  I think?  I hope.

In other news: I am very excited to get my Yuletide assignment, I don't understand permutation groups so I expect that at least one of the proofs I wrote up for my homework makes no sense (oh well), and I have once again gotten overly ambitious with the borrowing of library books and comics. (Batgirl!  Batman!  The Great Gatsby!  Wait, what?  Who thought it was a good idea to give me library cards?) 

Oh!  And I started poking at the nearly-infinite Doctor Who backlog.  I started watching in 2010, so I've seen all of Moffat Who, somewhere between half and two thirds of RTD Who, and two Fourth Doctor serials.  But I read Classic and Multi-era fanfic sometimes, and I was on an Ace/Hex fanfic binge the other day, and I thought, hmm, maybe I should, you know, actually watch some Seven-era.  So I watched Ghost Light, and I didn't understand a lick of the plot, but it was fun and spooky and Seven was great.  He is much calmer than the Doctors I am used to, and also very scary when he wants to be.  And Ace!  She was actually less big and tough, somehow, than I expected her to be, but she seems like a good companion.  Although--were the TV acting guidelines different in the 80s?  It seemed a bit melodramatic to me.  But the school library had Remembrance of the Daleks, so that's on my desk, waiting and hoping for my legendarily poor TV attention span to return to it. :P

Hello, flist!  I was wondering if any of you know of any good sci-fi books you could rec me.  I've always liked watching sci-fi more than reading it, but I just read The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) and Stories of Your Life and Others (Ted Chiang) back-to-back and now I'm in a genre fiction mood.  I generally like things that are lyrical or whimsical (although I suspect these qualities may be less common in sci-fi than fantasy).  I've previously read:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
As She Climbed Across the Table
Fahrenheit 451
1984
The Speed of Dark

as well as lots of Madeleine L'Engle and a few short stories by Arthur C. Clarke, "Epicac" by Kurt Vonnegut, and part of I, Robot (I did like it, but I never got to finishing it....).

My year in fandom...yoinked from tardis_stowaway  

( Clicky! )

1. I finished my story for girlsavesboyfic.  It's currently in beta with light_frost.  I was worried I wouldn't have time to write it, but I managed to get the whole first draft down in one sitting. 

2. I found Never Let Me Go in the university interlibrary loan catalog, so I get a second chance at it after all.  For free!

3. I finished my application for the school's genre literature magazine.  Don't know if I'll be able to follow through or not, but applications are accepted for a few more weeks so I do have time to decide. 

4. My best friend from preschool was unexpectedly passing through my college's town on a road trip cross-country, so I got to see her yesterday, very briefly.  It was a fabulous surprise. 

...especially if they are library books.  So after all that about The Time Traveler's Wife, I thought I might give it another try, and then I forgot entirely and picked up Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.  I really, really want to like it.  It's a very low-key novel with science fiction themes.  It's supposed to be atmospheric, page-turning, etc.  But I just can't get into it.  It's well-written, yeah--but it's so boring.  

The movie is coming out next week.  I feel like maybe slow and moody would work as a movie--it's got Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan, and I think it'll have some really pretty cinematography.  But I'll be back in the middle of nowhere for school, so I might not get to see it. 

Wow.  Three posts in one day.  It must be time for school to start.  I'm pretty bored. 

Anyone have any thoughts about Never Let Me Go?

So I borrowed The Time Traveler's Wife from the library, and all it's done is sit on my parents' coffee table.  I got about a chapter in and gave up.  I just can't muster up the interest.  Which feels odd to me, since there are so many reasons that I should love it.  It has time travel, the fantasy/science fiction element, lovely local details (I'm from Chicago), etc.  It comes to me highly recommended by one of my favorite teachers ever.  And it's supposed to be well-written; literary fiction and whatnot.  But I just can't get into it.  I wonder if it's just long, and that puts me off, or if it has too much sex for my taste, or if I've read one too many bad reviews. 

Anyone a TTTW fan or hater and want to tell me why I should/shouldn't just get on with it?