It’s Raining Arrows!

Mainstream rediscovers the original projectile weapon.

I had fun watching the Avengers movie when it opened at the end of April, and while Iron Man is generally the scene-stealer, it can be argued that Hawkeye had the most presence in the movie, almost single-handedly fleshing out Loki’s grand evil scheme and scoring an astronomic hit-kill stats in the final battle. And this is despite the fact that his weapon of choice is a bow and arrow, as compared to the others who used laser beam, lightning, a rebounding shield or sheer brute strength. Coincidentally, some other recent productions also featured a protagonist that’s extremely skilled in archery. With a bit of digging, I’ve come up with a list of the best archers in recent memory:

Waiting for the Next Big Literary Epic

 

2012 continues the search for the next big epic fantasy or sci-fi series, with most of the most popular literary works reaching their end of the line from last year until this year. The Lord of the Rings trilogy came and went, bagging Academy Awards and all, with one last ditch effort to cash in on The Hobbit soon. Harry Potter had all but exhausted all 7 books, producing an output of 8 movies in the process. Twilight is following the same strategy, with the second part of Breaking Dawn to be shown a few months from now. There had been a lot of attempts to replicate the success of these series, but so far, most received lukewarm response from viewers, as was the case with Chronicles of Narnia, The Golden Compass, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The pressure is on The Hunger Games, which had its airing last March with excellent results (I’ll reserve my judgment later, having neither seen nor read the title). I wasn’t too keen for Ender’s Game, it doesn’t appear to be a good material for a movie. I am also wondering if a Dark Tower series will ever materialize, with yet another book coming up. And I don’t understand why no one seems to take interest in Wheel of Time, 13 books and all.

I have nothing against books getting the visual treatment. While it’s common knowledge that the book is always better than the movie, and we must not judge a book by its movie because it’s usually going to be dumbed down in order to appeal to the least common denominator, there are benefits to making a movie out of it. One thing I look forward to is seeing the settings and characters come into life, whether it’s Middle-Earth or the castle of Hogwarts or even the sleepy town of Forks, and seeing the cast who will eventually populate this world. 

→ I’m running out of titles.

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What If I Ended Up Being in the Night Watch?

…and means to say the words with no intention of breaking the oath. Is anyone capable of still doing it today?

Hear my words, and bear witness to my vow,
Night gathers, and now my watch begins.
It shall not end until my death.
I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children.
I shall wear no crowns and win no glory.
I shall live and die at my post.

I am the sword in the darkness.
I am the watcher on the walls.
I am the fire that burns against the cold,
The light that brings the dawn,
The horn that wakes the sleepers,
The shield that guards the realms of men.

I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch,
For this night and all the nights to come.

#addictedtoGameofThrones

Repost: Book Report: The Thief of Always

Sadly, most of my drafts were still only half-done, so to compensate for the dearth of articles on my blog, I decided to import blogposts from my previous blogs. (Yes, I started plenty of blogs, so many that in fact, I have forgotten the URL’s or the login info for the majority of them. LOL) I’ll be posting them on a regular basis.

For my first repost, I decided to enter a book report for a book I finished. If I thoroughly enjoyed a book, I sometimes write reviews or book report, basically as an affirmation that I finished the book.

I have several of these, most of which were shared to students who are in dire need of projects for their literature subject.

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Quick Post: Readership

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?
No, it’s messy and distracting.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
When I was a kid, I had lots of doodles in a book. [I can't find the book anymore. I actually loved the drawings there.] This is probably the reason why I don’t mind writing inside books. I just don’t see the point of doing it now.

Book Review: Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol”

On the day Dan Brown’s new book got released, I unleashed my google-fu skills to acquire an electronic version of the book, the same way I did whenever a new Harry Potter book is released. Admittedly, it’s the only way I can possibly enjoy new and premium titles. I can’t buy the book; on checking peyups.com, I was stunned to find its prize ridiculously expensive. I was able to acquire a genuine copy, and I’m proud to say that it was a tough find, particularly because fake versions are also in the wild. The P2P community was, of course, still warming up to the release and will probably be releasing download links within a day or two. I couldn’t wait another day however, I have always been impatient.