Abernaith's Reading Cat

Contrary to what you may think, this place isn't about cats. It isn't much about Abernaith either (although she's got a couple of sections to her own). It's actually all about TOP QUALITY READING MATERIAL.

You see, ever since Abernaith was a wee little girl, she loves to read. And she loves nothing better than to read Really, Really, Really Good Books. Unfortunately, she has found, much to her dismay, that not all the books in the world are Really, Really, Really Good. Most are just about Really Good, and even those are getting rarer. (Which perhaps is the reason why she's dreaming of being a writer herself, in order to bring back, hopefully, some Really, Really Good quality into the world of literature...But that's another story.)

Her dilemma about the devolving quality of books in general has just increased as the years rolled by, which includes a brief period of roof-crashing peaks that almost drove her to epileptic fits when she learned about the rapidly encroaching evil of Self-Help Books (that grow like monsters in the dark of the closet). And so, at present, it has driven her (after much mental nagging and consequent migraines) to create this little recs site, where she can be free and happy to keep the rare Really, Really Good Books close to her heart.♥

General Advisory..

A Friendly Warning:

These reviews are based solely on abernaith's taste--which ranges from run-of-the-mill to highly eccentric. Reviews are written with minimal censorship really, with little discretion for cursing and profanity. However, you can trust abernaith to handle her writing with a distinguishable ounce of professionalism and sense of propriety. I'm a crazy writer, not a bad one (at least I think so, most of the time), and I respect and value words.

If you've got any questions and/or complaints, please feel free to voice them at The Reading Cat's Guestbook. Cheerio!

Abernaith's "Reviews and Recommendations": General Disclaimers

"The Reading Cat" is a personal site, first and foremost, and all material within that is written by Abernaith, the site's sole owner/maintainer/contributor, are made for personal satisfaction and are in NO WAY intended to collect monetary or any other kind of profit/award/recognition of significant value. Reviews and recommendations, as written by Abernaith, are first and foremost her personal opinion, and are in no way intended to degrade or devalue the works of others, published legitimately or not. Opinions stated are intended for the viewing pleasure of Abernaith and her peers.

On Books...

With regards to the Amazon.com links:

I like supporting Amazon.com. I think theirs is a great place to look for books you want to read, what with an abundance of "So You'd Like To..." guides and Listmania reading lists that other customers come up with to help one another beef up their book collections. Hopefully, I'll have all the books mentioned here come with a link to their pages in Amazon.com. They're actually the best thing for book aficionados, especially those who want to broaden their knowledge of various genres and want to try new stuff they've only ever heard of in passing. Books usually come with a back cover blurb, and popular ones have a note from publishers, reviews from magazines and newspapers, and even testimonials from other customers. I hardly take the reviews seriously, both praises and/or criticisms, but I consider it a good precaution to take their advice, even with a pinch of salt, before heading off to grab a new book.

RATINGS GUIDE

If you are baffled by the ratings I dole out, worry not, for I am just as baffled as you. Once you look at the pretty quills though, I don't think it's that hard to figure out what's Good and what's Even Better. It's quite elementary my dear, if you'd only gauge the quality by the perfect score, which is 5 Golden Quills.

Gold Quills

Value: One Whole Point apiece

Maximum number of Gold Quills in a rating are 5. Each Gold Quill stands for a specific merit of the book, adding up to its overall quality. Sometimes, at Abernaith's leisure, she'll explain to you what exactly are the merits of a book to gain such and such a rating. Definitely though, ratings will be usually based on the Quality of Writing (with technical aspects such as Grammar, Word Usage, Clarity of Sentences), on Plot Sensibility, and of course, the Development of Characters. All of these, I consider to be important in the high standards of a book. It's hardly worth reading, you know, if none of these things are present.

Silver Quills

Value: Half-Point apiece

Basically, Silver Quills are for when I'm uncomfortable in giving out whole-number ratings. If I feel that there a certain lack in the book, say I found some parts boring or trying to read, and most especially when I feel that I'm over-compensating for the author by drawing much too much from my Bank of Suspended Disbelief, then I'll probably put a Silver Quill instead of a Gold one. Well, it's my own personal opinion, so that's all I need to justify my rating scheme. But I'm pretty reasonable about the whole idea, so no worries.

Twin Silvers

Value: ???

If you've encountered this kind of rating: and thought, "WTF! This doesn't make any sense!", then fear not, for Abernaith actually has a sensible explanation for you. Really really.

You see, when Abernaith rates her fave books, she has no problem giving solid grades, like 4 or 5 quills, or even 4.5 quills. Bear in mind that the silver quill in "4.5" would mean that the book "came up short" of Abernaith's expectations, in some form or other. (Mayhap it's because she doesn't like how the author handled the minor characters, or that some elements of the plot were unappealing or seemed unrealistic to Abernaith, or simply the happenstance that Abernaith sneezed while reading a book and found a sticky piece of booger on the page, and from that moment on can't bring herself to read the book without the uncomfortable knowledge that she'd put booger on a book she borrowed from the library...you get the point.)

Well, anyway, the same rule about silver quills apply to the "Twin Silvers". These buggers only exist when this condition is met to Abernaith's complete satisfaction: When a book strives for 4-Quill or 5-Quill quality, perhaps with its structure, plot or character development, but is unable to satisfy Abernaith's standards in more than one way, i.e. the plot is superb, but the characters are stiff as 2-D boards and the setting is all boring and unappealing. Something like that. Abernaith reasons that it wouldn't be fair to mark something that is potentially a 4-Quill quality work (out in the market) as simply 2-Quills and a Half. It's like saying the author's plate is short of a taco, when it isn't. The author's plate has a sufficient amount of tacos in his/her plate, it's just that some of the tacos are stale.

Okay, barring that horribly ridiculous analogy, I hope you guys get it.

P.S. So, okay, you now know the reason behind these "Twin Silvers". But then, you ask, what the friggin hell do I call that impossibly ridiculous rating? Well, here's Abernaith's suggestion: The next time you encounter these buggers, you say "Three Quills and a Spare". Haha, confused? Well, I am. I certainly don't have an explanation for naming them "Twin Silvers" here but calling them "Spare" elsewhere. Well, except that I think they sound good. They really sound good, no?

On Movies...

Movies outlinking to Yahoo!Movies and Rotten Tomatoes

Basically, I refer to Yahoo!Movies when I'm searching for previews to movies still to be released in theater. It's also a great place to find some bits of news about production, and trailers. Rotten Tomatoes is where I usually go for movies that are already past their prime, or if I want to read LOADS of professional reviews and critics. Their tomatometer is quite reliable, and personally, I feel that it's a lot less biased than the ratings movies get in Yahoo.

On Fanfiction...

What is Fanfiction? And what is Slash Fiction?

Fanfiction is just what it says: Fan Fiction. These are stories written by fans of a certain work, the earliest (to my reckoning) acknowledged as such being Star Trek fanfiction. It was, in a time before time, something of an obscure hobby that comic book geeks took up, and later Usenet (the old one) geeks made widespread.

Slash fanfiction, on the other hand, was started (from what I heard) by the Star Trek people too, special people (snigger), who have a penchant for seeing something special in the two good men of the sci-fi cult series, namely, Kirk and Spock. Although they write it as: Kirk/Spock, for how they are "paired", as in "a relationship". (Haha.) Hence, the Slash. Of course, by now, Slash has spread out like wildfire to the fanfiction community, infecting lots of girls (fag-hags, hehe) and gals (fags), but mostly girls and *gasp* married women with mostly nothing to do (with their lives). Quite a hobby really, for it serves as an outlet for all the pent-up snark (in my case).

For more information on Slash Fiction, I highly encourage you to visit:

Wikipedia: Slash fiction

What is Slash?

Wikipedia: Yaoi

\"Please Captain, Not In Front of The Klingons\", article on Star Trek slash by Gareth Branwyn

\"He Loves Him, She Loves Them\", Boston Globe article by Vanessa E. Jones

Rated-18 Advisory

Please don't visit the Fanfiction section unless you are 18 or older. The recommendations there are mostly dealing with MATURE THEMES, with Homosexuality and __Sexual Intercourse__. There is a Rated-18 Warning over at that page too, and please be advised that once you decide to scroll down from the warning point, read the content and/or click on any of the outgoing links that are there, you, the viewer, take full responsibility of your actions and such consequence as would directly/indirectly result from them. Please take this warning seriously, as some states in the U.S. consider such content __illegal for minors__, and also to ward any offended people off trying to sue me. Please don't sue me. This is a personal site, so I'm entitled to put such content as I please in it. The forewarning and rated-18 advisory are a courtesy to the viewers of this site.

On Writing...

Really, Abernaith, you can write!?