Sunbird

When you're writing an essay about feudal Japan and have to stop yourself from calling the peasants "skaa." True story.

Well, if anyone ever criticizes your grammar, just tell them you're imitating Spook. That'll set them straight.

Wow! Sounds like you read even faster than I do! (I average about a book every 2 days, depending on length.) Welcome! Since you've read all the WoT books, maybe you can help me decide whether I want to read them. I've read almost everything else Brandon has written at this point, but have been reluctant to pick up Wheel of Time. I have friends who rave about how awesome they are, but I've also heard that the later books (before Brandon took over) are dull. Is it worth slogging through the whole long series to get to the parts Brandon wrote? Also, I second the Jim Butcher recommendation. I haven't gotten to the Codex Alera yet, but I very much like the Dresden Files and his latest book, The Aeronaut's Windlass (which IMHO was even better than most of the Dresden Files).

I soooo want to help with this. (Having the Kindle version makes it easy ) From Steelheart: "It wasn't like blowing smoke. It was like...like singing. From my hand." "It's like...a banana farm for guns." "I'm not smart, I'm just persistent. My friends who were smart, they didn't have to study at all. I had to study like a horse for every test I took." "They looked so dangerous, like alligators. Really fast alligators wearing black. Ninja alligators." "We were like deaf people trying to dance to a beat we couldn't hear, long after the music actually stopped." "The weapons merchant looked so nervous you could have turned milk into butter by sticking his hand in it." "I hadn't thought there was a flaw in my plan. I'd worked all those out, smoothing them away like cleanser removing the pimples from a teenager's chin." "But getting the words out of my mouth felt like trying to push marbles through a keyhole." "Imagine holding a swarm of bees in your mouth, then spitting them out and trying to keep them pointed in a single direction by the sheer force of your breath and will." "Steel dust fell down around my arm, showering to the ground below like someone had taken a cheese grater to a refrigerator." "But since then you've acted like I was a gorilla at your buffet." "I was letting myself get distracted, like a rabbit doing math problems instead of looking for foxes." "I'll bet I could drive one of these things, I told myself. It doesn't look too hard. Like slipping on a banana peel around a corner at eighty miles an hour. Piece of cake." "I was like the guy who had brought the spoiled shrimp cocktail to the party, causing everyone to throw up for a week straight." "Prof's ability makes mine look like a piece of rice. And not even a cooked one." "It would be like trying to sneak up on a lion while armed only with a squirt gun."

From the reading from Stormlight 3 Brandon's been doing on the Shadows of Self tour:

A few Reckoners memes: David meeting Megan for the first time Maybe a little spoilerific for Firefight

Sunbird becomes a little flustered at all the attention she has garnered. She bows to hide her blush and says, "I'll gladly accept an Alcatraz bookie, provided it is nothing like the hemalurgic cookie I was offered by an unsavory character earlier. I turned him down, of course." Dodging a weasel scampering past her feet, Sunbird attempts to sit down in a dignified way on the beanbag Alomantisist has brought in, but another weasel trips her and instead she flops down haphazardly. Attempting to salvage some semblance of composure, she blurts out in high speed, "I believe I am best suited to the life of a Forumlurker! I will read that which has not been read. I will stay silent amongst many words. I will enjoy without being upvoted."

Hello fellow BYU Sanderfans! I am very interested in joining you all, but I am a little confused about when and where the next meeting is. Could anyone clarify that for me?

Around here "cookie" is the code word for "hemalurgic spike", so I would think twice before accepting one.

Tentatively Sunbird enters the room, looking around at the various Knights Awkward engrossed in their books. She takes a deep breath and declares to nobody in particular, "I wish to join the Knights Awkward, if they will have me." "Books before friends. 17th Shard before the real world. Release dates before birthdays."

I was first exposed to Brandon Sanderson when I was in high school. I had a friend who said I had to read the Alcatraz books, so he lent me his copies, and I loved them. I was reluctant to read his other work after that, though, because I had heard a lot that he did tons of worldbuilding, and being the naive and ignorant high schooler that I was then, I thought that meant tons of boring description. So it wasn't until 2013, after I had moved out to Utah to go to BYU, that I got interested in his epic fantasy. I randomly stumbled upon one of Brandon's signings at the Orem Barnes and Noble and was convinced by other attendees to buy all 4 of the Mistborn books that had been released at that time and get them signed. Once I read those and enjoyed them, I trusted him and his writing ability enough to dive into The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance. The Stormlight Archives being as awesome as they are, they prompted me to start getting my hands on everything else by Brandon I could find, and now I am a devoted Sanderfan. =)

When you read a sign and think it says "Fresh Slontzes" when actually it says "Fresh Smoothies." When the thing you consider most important on your calendar for February is the release of Calamity.

I'm confused as to how things are timed with the quota. I was online last night around 11pm Mountain Time and hit the quota. Then today at about 2pm I hit the quota again after only upvoting like maybe 5 people. Does this mean that the quota doesn't fully reset at midnight, but rather lets your available upvotes trickle back in a full 24 hours after you used them?

Thanks for the tips, guys. Based on what you said, I'll probably stick with my everyday T-shirt and jeans ensemble.

I second the Percy Jackson recommendation, but I disagree with the negative assessment of Rick Riordan's other books. I have enjoyed them all very much, particularly Magnus Chase. Another middle-grade series that I've enjoyed is the Origami Yoda books by Tom Angleberger. They're quirky and silly kind of like Alcatraz, but deal with middle schoolers in the real world. (And, obviously, there is much Star Wars involved.) If your son liked the Janitors series, I would also recommend the Cragbridge Hall trilogy by Chad Morris. There's a good deal of silliness in these books as well, and the author kept surprising me with awesome plot twists.

Well, I do know that you can buy signed (if not necessarily numbered) copies of Brandon's books from his website store at brandonsanderson.com , so I'm betting you'll be able to get a signed copy there once the books are all (re)released. Or if you know somebody who lives in Utah, they might be willing to go to a signing personally and get you a copy and ship it. That's what I do for my Sanderfan friends on the east coast sometimes.

I second this. I read Eragon for the first time when I was still in elementary school (because everyone else was reading it), and in hindsight, I now realize that the magic system's level of sophistication in those books was rather unusual.

This is one of my favorite chemistry jokes. I have some others to share: Lame pickup line: "You must be made of copper and tellurium, because you are CuTe!" Q: What do you get when you chop up an avocado into 6.022 x 10^23 pieces? A: Guacamole. Q: What do you do with a dead chemist? A: Barium. Q: How do you tell a chemist from a plumber? A: Ask them to pronounce "unionized." I was going to make a chemistry joke, but all the good ones argon.

I certainly know the feeling of having too many books to read! My to-read shelf on GoodReads has been hovering at a count of about 150-160 books lately. Every once in a while I have to go and prune it so it doesn't keep expanding endlessly. XD Part of my problem is that I buy hardcopies of books when I go to book signings (and there a storming LOT of signings in Utah County!) and then they sit on my shelf for ages before I get around to reading them because I am easily distracted by books on my Kindle and books from the library. I've seriously got a stack like a foot tall sitting on my nightstand of books I own but haven't read yet. At some point I need to go back and re-read all the Skulduggery Pleasant books, because I've had the final book in the series sitting on my shelf for like a year, but I haven't actually read it yet because I forgot what all led up to it. You're in for a treat if you're reading most of Brandon's work for the first time. It's a magical experience (pun very much intended). Have you read the Alcatraz books yet? They were my first exposure to Brandon's work, so they occupy a special place in my heart.

I think I will decline the welcome cookie... Being a good guy is more up my alley.

Of these, I have read The Aeronaut's Windlass and thought it was absolutely phenomenal--even better than the majority of the Dresden Files, if you've read those. Cool magic, political intrigue, likeable characters, the trademark Jim Butcher snark: this book has it all.

I am planning to go! It'll be my first time. Any tips from veterans of the convention? Like, what is the dress code? Is it a comic-con type event where people dress however and cosplay, or is it more businesslike, or what? I noticed there is a cosplay panel in the program, so I'm a little confused.

Okay, I guess it's not completely true that I didn't have any free time. I somehow ended up with no homework tonight, so I'm alternating between lurking here and watching Hulu. XD

Hahahaha. I didn't have any free time before, because homework. Bleh.

For sure. And there is always just the right amount of humor to keep the end-of-the-world seriousness of the plot from getting too heavy. I haven't read Bands of Mourning or Secret History yet, but I'm going to get my hands on a copy of both as soon as I can!