Things I've thought about lately...

Last night it struck me that if I could think of a catchy, beautiful fully instrumental theme from a movie, it was John Williams 9 out of 10 times. The Harry Potter theme was stuck in my head, and I confirmed with Brent that it was John Williams. Then I thought about Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, etc., and they all these amazingly beautiful and catchy songs.

The ones I'm thinking of specifically: "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter (Williams scored the first three movies, this theme is now used in all of them.) Pretty much anything from Star Wars, but specifically "The Imperial March" and "Princess Leia's Theme" (I threw in an extra special video for "The Imperial March, btw.) Also, the main theme from Indiana Jones and "Welcome to Jurassic Park."

Two side factoids: I could completely ruin "Duel of the Fates" from Episode 1 for you, but I won't. And every ringtone I've ever had with the exception of Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode version) has been a John Williams song.

Last night, Brent was being surveyed by some government thing, so I needed to get out of the house. I drove down the street to Borders, and grabbed one of the Stephanie Meyer books that they are heavily promoting right now. I didn't want to like it. I dislike reading books that are heavily hyped (I didn't start reading Harry Potter until just before the fifth book came out,) and to be quite honest, I was nervous about the author. I didn't want another Tracy Hickman level... thing. But, I had an hour to kill, so I grabbed the first book, Twilight. And damned if it didn't catch my interest.

Previous to reading the book (which I finished last night,) I had read something about the author, in which she said something along the lines of writing enjoyable, intense romances without the sex. I don't have anything against sex scenes in book as a general rule, but I can see her point. I don't mind them on principle, but I have read quite a few books where I thought "Oh, for crying out loud, not another one,"--here I'm thinking you, Laurell K. Hamilton, or where I've thought "But... but... you didn't need that sex scene, it doesn't fit in with the rest of the book!"--here I'm thinking of Jim Butcher.

/tangent I wanted to like the Harry Dresden novels. I just couldn't get past the main character. I guess when I read popular, for entertainment novels, I really need to stick to ones where the main character is female. Or, doesn't evaluate the breasts of every single woman he ever meets. / end tangent

Anyway, Twilight was a quick ( I finished in maybe three hours) and enjoyable read. It helped that both main locations of the book were places I've lived before--Phoenix, Arizona, and the Olympic Peninsula. It also does romance between a century old vampire and high school girl WAY better than seasons one through three of Buffy. So, evidently I have another young adult series to read. I promise my reading tastes will grow up one day. I'm currently reading a Japanese novel about sheep.