Adjective: used of riotously drunken merrymaking.

Noun 1: someone who engages in drinking bouts.

Noun 2: a devotee of Bacchus.

Noun 3: a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity. (Source)

Etymology: 1536, from L. bacchanalis "having to do with Bacchus" (Gk. Bakkhos), god of wine and revelry. His name is perhaps related to L. bacca "berry." Meaning "riotous, drunken roistering; orgy" is from 1711; Bacchanalia in this sense is from 1633, from the name of the Roman festival held in honor of Bacchus. Bacchae "female attendants of Bacchus" is from Gk. Bakkhai, pl. of Bakkhe. (Source)

Example: I am the biggest bacchanal I know. I have attended every bacchanalian brouhaha in town!

how can they do anything else?

Noun: a studio for an artist or designer.

Etymology: 1840, from Fr., from O.Fr. astelier "workshop," from astele "small plank, a shaving, splinter," probably from L.L. hastella "a thin stick," dim. of hasta "spear, shaft." (source)

 I love the sound of this word, probably owing to the fact that it comes from French.  This isn’t a word you see around much anymore.  It’s always studio, but never atelier!

Note on the post: I’m going to randomly be picking words, starting with A and moving to Z, that are unusual, old, or amazing.  I’ll give the definition, etymology, a comment, and maybe even an example later on. Big thanks to Definir! I’ll be using their dictionary search engine to find my words.

Sixth Book of the Year

(originally posted 3/06/2009)

This book, and the author, is now undoubtedly one of my favorites. One of the few still living authors to hold me in a fierce grip. So many things about this novel were amazing. Sure, there are a few things I could poke at and claim they are horrible - but I can blame a lot of it on translation, I’m sure. If only I spoke Sweedish…

to begin with, this is a vampire horror romance novel. NOT Twilight, no, certainly not twilight. So much of this novel is messed up.  It frightens me, too, frightens me like House of Leaves frightened me, only, perhaps, worse. Because it was violence, gory things. I fell in love with the characters, so in love. Poor Oskar! I fell in love with all of the characters. Lindqvist carried numerous plot lines, all culminating in the same horrible thing, and all holding on what was a very similar theme: lost love, becoming happy, finding  your way…essentially, letting the right one in. It’s… terrible and amazing.

I wanted to cry when I finished it, but I didn’t, probably because I’m in school. It’s such an amazing ending. Really, if the book has a horrible ending, I cannot forgive the author, but this book never had a dull moment. Sure, there were probably times where he changed POV and I’d rather be at another - but it was all so well mastered and put together.

Basically, this book makes me really, really happy. It’s horrible, and dark, and ugly disgusting brutal, but beautiful and wonderful. Among all the horrible things - happy things, problems being solved. It’s not another Anne Rice, it is just a Steven King, and it isn’t at all Stephenie Meyer. It is, wholely, Lindqvist. And I love it.

I cannot wait to get my own copy of this novel (I borrow a friend’s) because I could easily reread this in a few months. A year. I want other books by him too.

The fact that it was a book written in 2005, I believe, and had amazing characters, plot, actually had a theme (so I believe) makes me hae hope. I don’t think of this as a junk novel. It’s literature. You’d have to be in the right mind to really stomach some of it (the acid?) but it’s literature. I looooved it. It’s not JSF, but it’s up there. Most definitly, it’s up there.

What next? I have no idea. Still in the thick of The Count of Monte Cristo. And guess what ? I’m going to Chateau d’If!

Well, so, I decided to move my blog here. I seem to be such a blog mover!

My previous blog is on livejournal: The Reader 42 I’m not moving, exactly, because I don’t like my previous blog.  There are a lot of things I love LJ for, but I think there are too many things that don’t sit right with me.  Plus, I love how smooth this layout is, how clear. It’ll probably take me a bit to figure out how to do everything with it, but I like it an awful lot thus far. I’ll probably repost the last book post I made on my LJ to here, for the heck of it.  Maybe I won’t move from here in a long time, or maybe it won’t even last and I’ll go back to live journal.  Goodness knows, right? 

I’ll be using this blog to:

-Keep a record of the books I’ve read and what I think of them
-Talk/complain about my writing projects, and keep all my writing information together.
-Discuss language!

 I’m wondering what kind of things I can do here to be more fun to read for other people, language-wise.  Maybe I’ll have a daily word post, or a daily grammar post, or… goodness knows, right? Something interesting. Since it would be great to have a lot of viewers and whatnot. 

 Any clue how to post userpics? That’d be fun.