A Discovery of Witches, and An Ignoring of The Number 31

     Oh thirty, thirty, wherefore art thou, thirty? It seems like just yesterday when I was all depressed at leaving my twenties and turning thirty. Can I have that back now? Or can I freeze time and just stay thirty forever? Although, if I'm going to do that, I might as well freeze myself at 28. Or 25. Nah, maybe 21... Maybe I'll just never celebrate a birthday again. Unless presents are involved. And cake. And dinner out. Ha! I'm such a brat. But hey- it's my party and I can be a brat if I want to.
     Anyway... I want to say a quick thanks to Krista and Kayeleen who organized the LDS Writer Blogfest yesterday and for letting me participate. It was really great to read everyone else's comments on the talks. I got, like, triple out of general conference this time.
     I haven't blogged about any books lately and that's because I read two vampire books that are both part of a different series (House of Night, Vampire Academy) and I don't feel like blogging about those until I'm done the series'. Then it took me a week to read my next book, which was this:

     A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. Basically, I could describe it as Twilight for adults. There are a few similarities. But lots of differences too, I guess. Instead of a vampire falling for a human, in this book he falls for a witch. Oh and there's daemons around too. So I liked her take on vampires, witches, and daemons. I felt like she made it her own. I liked the love story. And I loved how she referenced a lot of historical stuff (the vampire was born in the 500s). I like me some history.
     What I didn't like: It was really long but had little action. Kind of slow. And with all the history she mentioned, she also mentioned A LOT of science. The quickest way to get me to fall asleep is to start talking science in a novel. Yawn. But that's just me- I have no scientific (or mathematic) brains whatsoever. Others would love that in the book, me- not so much.
     There was something I realized while reading this book. I was trying to figure out what was really stopping me from loving the book- I never wanted to quit reading it, I was interested to know what would happen, and I thought of it occasionally (not tons) when I wasn't actually reading it. So, why wasn't I loving it?
     Well, aside from the slowness and the science, I just wasn't connecting with the main character (Diana the witch). Part of the problem could have been that she never actually mentioned an age, so I started off thinking Diana was in her 20s. It wasn't until later that I figured out she's probably in her early 30s. This threw me off. And then the clothes Diana wears were just so old lady to me. Not that I'm this fashion maven or anything, but I swear all the girl wears is black trousers with sweaters or blouses. Trousers? Really? I just didn't get that. I mean, I know she's academic and all that, but you'd think she'd own at least one pair of jeans! Aside from that, there were times when she was calm and brave, and other times when she'd panic for little reason. The author sort of explains why this is, but I still couldn't help but step back from the book when she's panicking all of a sudden and be like, why is she freaking out? There are probably other things too but I just didn't really connect to her. In fact, I connected more with the old vampire dude than her (how messed up is that?). That's what really stopped me from loving the book. The book is good though and others might not have this problem with the main character, so I'd still recommend it.
     Well, since it's my birthday, I'm going to quit this and do... absolutely nothing. I think I'll go watch Shrek with my girls. Happy Birthday to me.