Introductions/Re-introductions

[rowana.livejournal.com]

Sounis turned two years old at some point this week. It's been two years since we first started generating discussion about Megan's books, (amongst other things), and in that time we've gained over 200 members, discussed almost every aspect of the books, (though I'm sure we'll manage to find more to rummage through), and generated an awful lot of crack.

To mark the occasion, I thought it might be nice to get to know everyone a little better. So, whether you're a shy lurker, could simply never think of something to say, have only commented a few times or post in every thread and never leave chatzy, introduce, (or re-introduce) yourself in a comment. You can talk about anything - where you found the books, why you like them, how you found Sounis, what else you like to read, or who your favourite character is and why. :)

Comments

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

Hello!

My name is Jade. I'm a sophomore in college in the United States, and I have been reading The Queen of Attolia since I was thirteen years old and randomly picked it up off the shelf because I needed a book to review for the school newspaper. (I still have that original review.) I discovered The Thief after that, and reread QoA after that, and suddenly found myself hooked.

When I discovered KoA was coming out, I screamed and ran around the house.

I found Sounis because I joined LJ at the same time as my best friend (mainly because I convinced her to do it--I discovered Avatar: The Last Airbender, and then LJ, and told her to follow me so I wouldn't be alone XD), and she mentioned this community in passing, and I went OMG WUT and sought it out. I tentatively wandered into Chatzy (not knowing what I would find--but I promise guys, it's really welcoming!) and ended up having two pages of discussion with Willow about Star Wars books. So I figured I'd fit in.

And then, somehow, less than three months into my stay here, I was having a tragic love affair with Costis (which, I am happy to say, ended on a positive note and is still going strong today) and having the time of my life with people I never would've met in any other way, and I'm incredibly grateful that this community exists.

Hm...I like Star Wars, and fantasy. Literature in general, though I don't always just pick books off the generic fiction shelf. I'm an English and Philosophy major, which I means that, for some reason, I enjoy reading tortuously long and complicated texts and spending hours analyzing them for the brief-lived feeling of accomplishment when I finally attain enlightenment...until I pick up the next book.

Attolia is my favorite character, hands-down. She was the first one to strike a chord with me when I read QoA and her story--the complications of her life, how much she's had to hide away--gets to me every time. I adore her (and fear her, too--she is always "Attolia" to me. I daren't get familiar with her and call her Irene, because she's Attolia. Yes, I have strange quirks like that XD).

OKAY I'LL STOP TALKING NOW (I love to talk, too).

*can't wait to see what everyone else says*

[hikari-cyhan.livejournal.com]

D: That is a filthy lie! You told me you don't call her Irene because you don't like the name!

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

*waves*

I got to run around Dayton with Megan and Checkers and Bear not too long ago, pretending to be a librarian. It was just about the most fun EVAH.

and I really really love the Japanese editions of these books, even though I can't read any parts of them.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

I knew this was going to happen. I knew I was going to post a long reintroduction, and then everyone else would post like two lines about them.

*stalks off to sulk in the corner with her John Green shirt for company*

... Hi?

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

Eerm, guess I'll start... just hope I don't say too much.

So I joined... just a couple months ago? Seems longer than that. Hmm. Yes, well, Hi. I'm Rosalee LuAnn... call me Rose or Rosie. (Rosa is not a nickname for Rosalee. Sorry. ;-) I post fairly often and I like to annoy the people who hang around in Chatzy by being oblivious and ranting about how AWFUL acrylic paints are. ;)

How I found the books... I THINK it was Readerville.com, but I'm not entirely sure. You see, when I'm on the computer and I see a book that looks interesting, I just copy and paste the title and author, (and sometimes the paragraph describing it, so I know why it sounded interesting) into my TBR list Word Document. (TBR, for those who don't know, stands for To Be Read. Its a handy little acronym I picked up from the folks over at Readerville. The idea to paste recommended books all into one document also came from Readerville.)

Anyway...The Thief got pasted into my TBR document a few times. (I can't remember all the titles on there, so repeats happen fairly often.) So, I got it from the library and read it. Loved it, of course. Now, heres the somewhat embarassing part... I read QoA when I was in the middle of a Readers Slump. (Writers get writers block, Readers get Readers Slump.) I read it at a time when I was just Depressed About Life, and Gen being Depressed About Life didn't help me at all. I liked it, but... I admit that the first time I read it, Gen & Attolia just didn't quite work for me. And I lost the copy I checked out from the library... and I NEVER lose library books. So... I wasn't that anxious to read KoA. And I had to find QoA to turn it into the library...

That was last spring... around May, I think.

A couple months pass... its summer. Time for a library trip. I go through the TBR list looking for books that Need To Be Read. I saw KoA... Oh, yeah. I started that series in the spring. I might as well finish it.

I got KoA from the library. Read it in one sitting. I was absolutely blown away. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Read it three times in a row in less than three days. Got Thief and QoA from the library and loved them even more the second, third, fourth (etc.) times around.




And that was MUCH longer than it was supposed to be, so I'll sup myself up now.

Re: ... Hi?

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

[karatelunch.livejournal.com]

Super-lurky lurker! I have made perhaps two posts in this community, and I rarely comment.

My name is Nina, and I just turned 18. I read TT for the first time when I was 11; it wasn't until I picked up QoA the following year that I fell hopelessly in love with these characters. QoA and Garth Nix's Sabriel were the books that lived in my backpack during middle school.

I found Sounis because I emailed Megan after I got my hands on KoA and told her (with stilted fangirl gushing and much verbal genuflection) everything in the paragraph above. Not only did she reply promptly (!), she informed me that I was just the type of person she'd written the books for (!!!!!!!). She also mentioned that there was a livejournal community called Sounis that I might want to check out, and I was introduced to lurkdom thereof.

I read everything, ever, all over, voraciously! I am currently on a mission to devour every book about the Romanovs, fiction and non-fiction, that has ever been written.

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

Yay for de-lurking!
You e-mailed Megan? And she replied? Coolness. I'm one of those timid people who can never e-mail their favorite authors because... well, what if they think I'm an idiot? Or what if I get my hopes up and... they never reply? What if, what if, what if. ;) I commented on Robin McKinleys LJ a couple weeks ago... it took serious willpower to do that... AND SHE REPILED. I FELT SO SPECIAL.

Ok, I'll be quiet now. Being a Co-Founder of the Long Introduction Club doesn't mean that I have to write long, random, useless comments on EVERYthing. I think.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

I shall re-introduce myself!

My name is Alison. I live in Ontario, Canada. I'm 19-years-old, and currently embarking upon my first year of university. I'm taking my courses through a distance program right now, but I plan on transferring to a traditional university once I'm finished with them at the end of March. I'm majoring in History, but thinking about adding English and Creative Writing, so I'll possibly be double majoring. I haven't decided whether I'm that crazy or not yet.

Anyway, I first discovered the books way back in 2006, when I was looking for something to read on the train. I saw King of Attolia, and thought it sounded awesome, but for some reason didn't buy it. I went home, found out that it was the third in a series, and went back and bought The Thief and QoA. I'm glad I decided to read them in order! And I've been hooked ever since.

I'm also a writer. One day I hope to publish books for young adults, or maybe historical fiction, or, uh, anything else I feel like writing.

I love MWT's books for so many reasons, but a few of them are: the characterisation. I'm a sucker for great characters, and hers are so amazing; political intrigue! Gotta love it; as a history nerd, I appreciate all the references and homages to historical things; and mostly, the incredible plotting. There are so many twists and turns, and she always manages to surprise me, and I love that. And, of course, the writing is spectacular. Seriously, I could go on for hours about all the things I love in these books... that's why I'm in this community!

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

Yo!

I go by Ki (short for Kilerkki, behind which there is a very long story) here on the Interwebs, and I ran into The Thief long before I knew anything about the Net at all. Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but I wasn't any older than 14. I checked it out of the middle-school library three or four times (and I think I was the only one to read it, which makes me sad), and then promptly forgot all about it. I was seventeen, and on vacation, when I ran into Queen of Attolia in a random bookstore visit. The cover attracted me first, I think; it was the one with Gen and Attolia in the boat, and though I think QoA has had some pretty awesome covers in its run, that one is still my favorite. (Although the new cover is much creepier.)

Anyway, I devoured QoA and then took it home for my mother and sisters to devour it in turn. My little sister forced me to leave it, and my copy of Thief, at home when I went away to college--but in return, for my 21st birthday, she bought me an autographed hardcover of King of Attolia. I had no idea there was even going to be a third book. I read the first half and was puzzled. Then I read the second half, finally clued in, and squealed. Then I went online and found sounis. And then I started lurking, dropping in once in a while to make a fool of myself through babbling. (I also started work on an Attolia/Vorkosigan crossover (http://kilerkki.livejournal.com/193926.html#cutid1) of which I will some day write more.)

Anyway. Um. I'll try to tie this up. I'm now 22 and trying to juggle my senior year of college, law school applications, and a novel-in-the-making. I study English Language, mostly so I can geek out about grammar, and I work as a TA for a Civilization class called "The Pen and the Sword," in which I would argue that we should read the Attolia books if they counted as an original source. (Mostly we read Homer and Thucydides and Aristophanes and Plato). Right now I should be either translating The Dream of the Rood or working on my book, but I'm rereading QoA instead and trying to figure out when Attolia first began to love Eugenides. Even if she didn't realize it at the time.

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

[i]The Dream of the Rood[/]! I remember loving that in my Anglo-Saxon course! "Rod waes ic araered" is the only actual line I remember at this point, though (and I was remembering it a little bit incorrectly - I just checked and fixed it).

I wonder about when Attolia first began to love Eugenides, too.

(Oh, and look: there's a website! www.dreamofrood.co.uk )!

[fabricalchemist.livejournal.com]

I'm bear, and you all know that. I cause lots of mischief.

*laughs at Jade's consternation, but loves her surly Franco icon*

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

ah-hahaha. After the Sophos contest, I try to have a Franco icon in every batch. That one is particularly surly. ♥

[pcw-rcw.livejournal.com]

We're Perri and Richard. We've been members of sounis for a month or so. We've commented here once or twice; more often in the comm's sister site, queensthief_fic [where we met two neat people who have become members of our flist!]. We heard about KoA, in particular and Eugenides in general, from a member of one of our LJ-comms, the_mirador. We got The Thief out of the public library since it was the first [one of us being a bit compulsive that way...], but hadn't gotten more than a chapter or two into it going out and getting all three. They're wonderful! We especially love Eugenides' humor and MWT's fantastic plotting and characterization. We've been talking the books up wherever we can and have hopefully gotten at least a few people to try reading the books. One of the things that we always tell people is that the YA label is misleading, that in these books this just means that there are no overt sex scenes or graphic, gratuitous violence. Otherwise the books can hold any adult's attention [even those past 'young', as we are]. But we're 'preaching to the converted' here, of course.

We love the analytical way that the books are discussed in sounis, as well as the info presented about things such as the recent convention appearance by MWT and what the Japanese versions of the books look like.

As for us personally, Perri is a chemist who retired [early!] from teaching pharmaceutical chemistry to pharmacy students at one of the Big Ten universities. Richard has degrees in Medieval Studies and in Library Science. He works as a librarian at the same university. Finally, as we say in our Profile, we have three cats and tens of thousands of books.

Is this long enough? We can go on...

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

Do I espy some Sarah Monette fans? :-)

[hikari-cyhan.livejournal.com]

Sup, everybody! I'm Hikki or Kari. I've been on LJ for, uh...six years? Seven? I can't remember, and I can't be bothered to check. Yeah. I'm a freshman in college, about to declare myself as an English major. YA lit is my passion and my life. I also said that about anime four years ago, when I was a weaboo.

I was introduced to the books by Jadeykins, who said, "OMGWTFBBQREADTHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE!!!!!!!!!!!!" So on one of my (many) trips to Borders, I picked them up and didn't read them for about two or three months. Then I read them and was like, "Um, WOW."

What else is there to say? I love books, Avatar, video games, costuming, period dress, and long, romantic walks on the beach. Also, I wish my life were a musical.

[bookaddict88.livejournal.com]

Ooh, you spell your name like my sister does!

and I wish my life were a musical, too...

[estarria.livejournal.com]

I joined this comm a little over a year ago, but didn't make an intro post because I am shy and making a big public post scared me. :P

I read QoA before any of the other books, when I was just starting high school, and Attolia immediately became one of my favorite literary characters ever. I read the other two books and loved them (rarely have I been as excited about the publishing of a sequel as I was about KoA), but QoA is still my favorite.

I'm in college, majoring in computer science (weird isn't it? so many people on here seem to be majoring in some sort of liberal arts). Oh, and minoring in Spanish, yay languages. :)

[bookaddict88.livejournal.com]

I'm minoring in computer science, so you're not alone. Well actually, I may be switching my major from math to history (though I'll keep math as a minor), so maybe I don't count...

[cabin-boy.livejournal.com]

Hello! I am Cabin Boy (who is really a girl and continually forgets her name suggests otherwise.) I am a fledgling illustrator- fairly fresh out of college- and other than YA lit, I like video games and costuming. I am a bit of a lurker- I comment occasionally but not often.

I was introduced to The Thief several years ago by mycenaeth and quickly agreed it was the best. thing. ever. She told me about Sounis when she discovered it, but I hemmed and hawed about joining until I had read the sequels (which I have as of last summer, and they are yay.) My favorite character is Gen, which is not very original but so it goes. It's the snark. <3

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Hello! I usually lurk, though I have done a few comments in the past. As for introductions... I'm afraid I don't do brief.

I first came across The Thief when someone recommended it on a children's books newsgroup on Usenet. It hadn't been published in Britain then, and back then American-published books were really available on Amazon.co.uk, so I had no easy way to getting it. However, I'd happened to mention it to an American friend in email. As luck would have it, my birthday was coming up, and on my birthday I received a bundle of books from her, including... yes, The Thief!

This was in November 1998, I believe. I started The Thief in bed one morning, read it all in one sitting, liking it well enough, reached the big reveal at the end, and... Wow! I fell head over heels in love, and read it straight through a second time.

QoA I came upon by chance in a bookshop when on holiday in America. I hadn't realised there was a sequel, so was excited to find it. I read it on the plane home, and was a bit disappointed by it. However, I happened to discover the existence of KoA very shortly after publication, ordered it, again read it in one sitting, and fell it love with the series all over again.

What else? Let's see... I'm a children's librarian, a folkie and Morris dancer, a fantasy geek and RPG player, and a writer of fanfic. Other books I adore are A Song of Ice and Fire, The Lymond Chronicles, and anything by Diana Wynne Jones.

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

I am the CRAZY one with COOKIES.

What? Everyone else has done a long introduction?! Okay...

I found sounis randomly about a year and a half ago and ended up stressing out with Ro about exam results in chatzy. Now the conspiracy room owns my soul.

In trying to find who was behind the Costis Letters Conspiracy, I ended up dating Aris. A year later, I still am :P

I used to read The Thief once a day - it was my favourite book and the only book I would read except Rosemary Sutcliff's books. I wanted to email Megan to thank her but her website only had Sharyn November's email address, so I emailed her, became a teenreader and discovered all sorts of other fun books. And now I love reading.

Um...I have a goat which lives on my bookshelf. And wears underwear...

OH AND I GET TO MEET MEGAN AND HEBE AND EMMA AND RO IN DECEMBER!

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I'm utterly normal. Look:

0000000000000000000;-))))))))))))))))))))

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

I'm Philia (aka Pirate of Mercy), because I firmly believe in Philia of the ten gold cups, no matter what anyone else says. I'm old -- older than Megan! -- and live in the Boston area. I am a very unsuccessful writer of children's/YA fiction. I found Thief through the Horn Book years ago, so I've pretty much followed the books as they came out. I have a background in Classics and linguistics. I am also an amateur musician and I practice Aikido, a Japanese martial art, which makes it easier for me to appreciate the fight scenes with practice swords. Oh, and let's see, emerald is my Assistant Muse, and I used to be her imaginary cat. Don't ask.

[avian-xj.livejournal.com]

I'm Av. I'm younger than pretty much everyone here. I have a shiny yellow car. I draw and paint. I'm in Louisiana. I can be found in Chatzy most days. I originally read the books in the 4th grade while just grabbing a few random ones that looked promising from the library shelves, and I loved them. Then, I stumbled across Sounis.... hm, a while ago. some small time after KoA came out. Wow, has it been 2 years?

I have to say I love Gen the most, but I'm sure that's the common response. Can't help it. sorry. love him to death.

I read just about every type of book, but that's mostly fantasy and some historical fiction. I love The Once and Future King and everything Arthurian. Jane Eyre's a favorite. Robin McKinley, Lord of the Rings, Diana Wynne Jones *is too lazy to think of more at the moment* also, it's too early.

turned 18 eight days ago

[karatelunch.livejournal.com]

man, I'm excited if you're younger than me! I'm usually the smallest in any of my online communities.

[cleo]

I found sounis through a link on the Wikipedia page on Turner. twtd (my wonderful girlfriend) and I wiki things randomly all the time. *shrugs*

And again, I'm Miri. I'm a graduate student in English with an AB in music (voice) as well as English. I write a lot of fic in other fandoms--Law and Order SVU, Hellsing, etc--and original fiction. I found queensthief_fic through this comm and met pcw_rcw there, which was lovely.

twtd reads the Turner books one Christmas and insisted upon reading The Thief outloud to me. I protested because I generally do not like the style in which YA fiction is written (Tamora Pierce's stuff, for example...though, she has read some of those to me too). I fell in love with these books, though. I gave them to one of my professors to read, who in turn gave them to another professor. And it seems like everyone in the department might just get hooked.

[jazzfish]

Er, hi. I'm Tucker. I picked up Thief and QoA at a big bookfair thing a couple years back and read them, um, February 2006 on a beach trip (yes). While I was there I wandered into a bookstore and passed a hardback that looked like it said _The King of Attolia_. I blinked, thought "That can't be right, I must have misread _QoA_" and went about my business. Took another couple of months to realise that yes, there was in fact a third now. :)

I reread the first two when KoA came out in paperback, so I'd be fresh for the reading of it. I think it's my favorite but it's hard to say; I have some slight quibbles with it that probably won't gel until I read it again (in a year or so, likely). But they're all quite good.

Other than that, I'm a technical writer in the DC area. I do some role-playing and a lot of board gaming. I read mostly SF (adult and YA, and sometimes the YA is better); current favorites include eBear, John M. Ford, Ursula Le Guin, and Gene Wolfe, but I'll read most anything.

Cheers.

in contention for lurker of the year

[rain-ing.livejournal.com]

Hello, I am Rain. I spent/am spending this entire year lurking/hibernating, and I live in a place where certain examinations define a student's existence for an entire year. I am pretty nocturnal, which actually works fine because then I can talk to people on chatzy (not that I've been there much this year, unfortunately).

I read The Thief when I was 10 (that was two years ago, I am 12 forever!!!!111), Queen of Attolia when I was 11, found out that King was out last year, squeed, read it, wrote an embarrassing email to MWT, and was directed here.

I've been here for approximately a year now! (three quarters of which was spent in self-imposed exile, although that should change in about... 23 days time). I uhh, spend most of the being awed by the intelligence of the fantastic people here, and because of the fabulous people here I taken to reading YA/fantasy books to while away my convalescence.

Favourite character is Gen, I think. I love his brains. Which just about covers everything about him (his intelligence, wit, personality, and his brain controls his um mobility?). I also like the Magus, because he's really smart.

also I think that Checker's (and aged_crone's) legottolia stories are just about the best things that have happened in a long while.

Re: in contention for lurker of the year

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

23 days ?!?!? Good luck! We've missed you!

De-lurking-re-intro

[tiloo.livejournal.com]

Hello!
I'm Laura, 14 years old, home-schooled and living in Canada
My dad and I like to read a lot together, and April 2006 we discovered The Thief, (we just chose a book at random) ^^
When we read it, I fell in love with Eugenides and then in the 5 days following we bought and read the Queen of Attolia and the King of Attolia.
I believe I joined Sounis April 2007, after seeing it a few times on the internet, it is also what led my LJ
I have re-read the King of Attolia and Queen of Attolia countless times, and always go threw and read my favorite parts. I always bring a copy of one of the three books where ever I go.
I also really enjoy reading Graphic Novels and Terry Pratchett.
And as well as many other voracious readers I love writing, and in many of my works you can see where TT, QoA or KoA has influenced me.
erm, I suppose that is it...
bye bye ^^

[traboule.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm Thessaly (don't believe my username - Thessaly was taken so I had to go for off-the-top-of-my-head).

Like 3/4 of this community, I'm in university and an English major. I'm an enormous Dorothy Dunnett fan, so I tend to turn up and plug Lymond whenever he gets mentioned (frequently here, it turns out). I'm a musician and a former dancer and I like to cook, although I am/was not particularly spectacular at any of them. When I'm not plugging Gen, I'm a huge Anglophile. I'm currently taking a lot of lit crit, which makes me sound more pedantic than I normally am. I think. I hope.

I spent last spring in Greece taking classes with legit Classics nerds and when I came back, a friend passed me a copy of The Thief because she liked it. I opened it up and found out I was back in Greece again. I read the book in about a day, making loud squealing noises every time I found something familiar...which was about every 3 pages. QoA and KoA took another two days and then I was left going, "what am I supposed to do now?" So I turned to LJ as a source of comfort. It worked out surprisingly well.

Hollaback ^_^

[seachild930.livejournal.com]

Hello! I'm Beatrice, and I'm usually just a lurker, but I LOVE this site so much! Right now I'm writing a critical analysis paper for my English class (I'm a freshman in college) on the King of Attolia, which is much more fun than writing an analysis of, say, Tess of the d'Urbervilles would be. My favorite character in these books (and in all of literature) is EUGENIDES. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH. Um, that's pretty much all there is to say about myself. I love this community :D

Re: Hollaback ^_^

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

1) Icon love!

2) WOW. I wish I could write a paper like that. ^_^

[meltintall3.livejournal.com]

Hi... I'm Meltintalle, but ya'll can call me Mel.

I was introduced to The Thief and its accompanying books like, last November. And about two chapters in, I was hooked. (The part about Sounis not being like a bear king... it reminded me of The Arkadians) And then I read Queen of Attolia and cried for half of it, and told myself I shouldn't have started only a day after The Thief.

I think I found Sounis while looking for fanart. I love fanart. I love pretty covers. I think I'm up to about four(!) copies of QoA I want, just for the covers. My shelves groan in pain.

I enjoy classic fiction, classic westerns, and warm fuzzy books. And books with pretty pictures.

I also enjoy pretty much anything related to Middle Earth. But you guessed that already, right?

[merliquin.livejournal.com]

um... My name is merlin and I am a semi-lurker. :)

I learned about the thief books from an article in the horn book and fell in love with them.
my favorite accomplishment is reading all three books out loud to my roommate, because other wise she wouldn't have read them.

anyway.... nice being re -introduced to you all!

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I feel like I'm at an AA meeting. :)

Hello, I'm checkers; school librarian and stalker, and I really like to organize things, including Sounis.

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

You! A stalker?!

oh, John Green...

[bookaddict88.livejournal.com]

I'm Jennifer, 19 years old, and a sophomore in college studying math, computer science, and history. (The first is technically my major, the second two minors, but I may switch history and math).

I don't know when I first heard about the Attolia books, but I became convinced to read them when people over at athanarel wouldn't stop talking about how much they liked them. I read the books around May of this year, loved them, and joined the community right after I finished the last book (I found out about the community through the athanarel people as well).

I love the book discussion and craziness around here, though while I've posted several times, I mostly just lurk.

[rowana.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be the icon love person in this thread, and say that I like yours. :)

(Yay History degrees, too)

Quite a few people seem to have drifted into here through Athanarel. :) Have you read 'The Fox' yet, by any chance? I'm looking for someone to spoil me.