Reading and Panicking

So . . . . I have a paper on "Beowulf" Due on Friday, a Russian quiz on Friday, a Physics quiz on Friday, a Jeopardy! style quiz on Athens tomorrow morning, and about sixty pages of Hawaiian studies reading to do. 

Panic ensues.

The worst of it is, I'm so not sure about what I should study first or focus on first, I just kind of dither and end up not getting anything done at all! Ai! I think I'll do a good solid couple hours on the essay, or at least an hour, and then I'll switch over to Russian, and then I'll switch over to studying Athenian trivia, and then repeat. Gah, I hate tough decisions. 

One good thing about today: I walked to the public library about twenty minutes from campus and checked out four books: Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson; Sabriel, by Garth Nix; Dragonspell, by Donita K. Paul; and Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. Unfortunately, due to the old building being knocked down and a new one being built, the library no longer has the enormous selection it used to (Fire and Hemlock is gone!!), and is actually housed in little trailer things on the grounds of an elementary school. But at least I was able to find four books I was interested in, eh? I got Kidnapped because my mind has been inexplicably filled with Alan for the past week or so, Sabriel because I hadn't finished it when I had to return it to the library last weekend, Dragonspell because I believe one of you recommended it, but I forget who (stand and be recognized!), and The Graveyard Book because this way I'll be able to finish it without wearing out the copy at Barnes & Noble.

Tomorrow marks one month (Aug. 24-Sept. 24) of sophomore year for me. Goodness, it seems to have gone by quickly. No complaints from me in that regard, though; it means that Christmas is coming closer!

Now I'm off to the ancient land of Heorot and meres, where dragons flow like gold across the sky and young warriors can grow old and still die heroes. Goodness, I love "Beowulf".

A Return to the World of Bartimaeus!

"Here’s some news. I’m working on a new Bartimaeus project. Actually, I’ve been working on it, off and on, for about a year now, with a big break in the middle to do the Heroes tours. I’ve kept pretty quiet about it up until now for a variety of reasons, partly because I wanted to be sure it was going to work, and partly because I wanted to get the contractual side of things sorted. But (at long last) I think the time’s right to go on the record about it here. The current plan is to aim for an autumn 2010 publication, both in the US and UK, which would be fantastic, and also match up nicely with the proposed publication of the Amulet graphic novel, about the same time. If this is going to work out, though, I’m going to have to write my socks off for the next six months or so, because there’s still a LOT of work to do. Currently Bart resides in two slightly garish pink ring- binders, one comprising text and the other notes. The aim is to turn all this into a nice, neatly stacked pile of manuscript by the spring.

As for the details of the book… small things like plot and structure are still proving slightly fluid, so I won’t make any public predictions just yet. But I’ll let you know more right here, just as soon as I can. In the meantime, I suppose I’d better get back to work. I’ve got a djinni waiting."

Found here, dated September 4. Excellent news for any fan of the Bartimaeus Trilogy! I for one am extremely excited, though I wonder what exactly it will be about. The trilogy itself was rather perfect--Indeed, I often describe it as the only perfect trilogy I have ever read apart from "The Lord of the Rings" (which isn't even really a trilogy at all, but I'll pass that issue over for now), although the "Space Trilogy" is also very good (hush, Linden!). So I don't see how Stroud would continue the story. I can only assume that he would write an entirely different story, and merely set it in the same world. Presumably Bartimaeus will again be a main character. Without Nat and Kitty, however, will he still have the appeal as he did in the trilogy? Only time--and Stroud himself, of course--will tell, but as of this moment I am both apprehensive and delighted ^_^

(Oh, and for the record: Nathaniel is miles awesomer and better than Harry. I just found the depiction in the above pic (source here) too funny and well-done to resist.)