Gris's Journal

Deep sleprivation

Guuuuuh. In the immortal words of Dr. Indiana Jones, "Sallah, I said *no* camels. That's *five* camels. Can't you count?" Oh. Wait. Not that one. Um... oh, yeah. "I'm getting too old for this sh!t."

I *started* to go to bed early last night. Well, earlyish. A little. For me. (Alright already, it was about 12:30. I generally turn in by about 1.) I wasn't immediately tired, however, so I decided to get a start on the new book I'd just brought home, Shannon Hale's Princess Academy. I greatly enjoyed her Goose Girl, and so was delighted to discover a new title of hers on the new acquisitions cart. (She's a YA author, too, so she's a very quick read for me-- easy to slip in between all the OTHER reading I'm not getting to.)

I should know better. I really, really should. It was a quick read, and it was so very easy to keep going-- the chapters were short and didn't really provide a satisfactory stopping point, and the book really flowed. In fact, the first time I reached something that felt like a good stopping point, I was already two-thirds of the way through the book. Now, two-thirds of the way through a YA title is sort of like getting two-thirds of the way through a pint of Ben & Jerry's in one sitting-- you've gone THAT far, it would be silly to just *stop.* (ha.) So I finished it. At about 4:30. AM. God help me.

And this morning... well... thank goodness for yerba mate, but I SO want a nap.... and I'm still thinking about going to a Potter party tonight... ergh.

And although I am currently obsessed with the notion of sleep (for your amusement, the top two spelling suggestions OneLook offers for "sleprivation" (as in "deep sleprivation") are silverpoint and serpivolant, and and a quick google of the spoonerism turned up a pretty neat blog called decaffeinated (apropos, no?)), I am horrible about napping. I have to be falling-down tired to even attempt it, and even so, I generally wind up lying awake listening to the cars go by in the road outside.

(What's that? The book, you say? Yes, actually, the book was quite good. I like Shannon Hale for her strong-yet-human girl characters, and the folktale feel of her stories. (Goose Girl was, in fact, based on one of my favorite Brothers Grimm fairy tales, The Goose Girl (and, why yes, I *did* read the bloody version, growing up. No bowdlerizations for itty bitty me).) I also really like the way she handles the unsympathetic characters. Well, I like that she *has* unsympathetic-but-not-evil characters that the main character still has to work and get along with. But she makes them three-dimensional; not only does the main character's view of them change as she matures, the characters themselves are allowed to mature (quite unlike the "bad guys" in a traditional fairy tale).

Princess Academy is (I think) an original story about a young girl from a dirt-poor mountain town who is forced to go to "princess academy" along with nineteen other girls from her village. A prophesy says that the lowlander Prince's wife would come from their mountain village, and the lowlander kingdom of which their mountain is an outlying territory wants to make sure the girls are up to snuff and fit to become princesses. (And if you hear "mountain" and "lowland" and are reminded of the Highlander/Lowlander rivalries of Scotland, you've got a good idea of the social dynamics of the book.) Great characters, a moving story (I went through several tissues), good pacing, action, adventure, romance, a satisfying ending... what more could one ask? How about cool, very well-written lyric/poem fragments to head off each chapter? Bonus that Hale turns out to be a decent poet, too. ^_^ Two thumbs up.)

Posted by gris at July 15, 2005 02:36 PM