I saw a blip of utopian sci fi today that suddenly reminded me of the Culture novels, and made me desperately want to read more. Unfortunately, I've already mainlined this series, so Use of Weapons is the only thing left for me :x Which is why I've been been holding off for soooooo long, because it is literally the only Culture text left, I am going to go into horrible withdrawal afterwards.

But then! I went to Wikipedia and saw:

Consider Phlebas (1987) ✔
The Player of Games (1988) ✔
Use of Weapons (1990) X
Excession (1996) + ✔
Inversions (1998) + ✔
Look to Windward (2000) ✔
Matter (2008) ✔
Surface Detail (2010) ✔
The Hydrogen Sonata (forthcoming October 2012)

AHHH YESSSSS. NEW BOOK!!!! It's been two years since Surface Detail (which I really liked), so it is about damn time *__* The final cover was only announced five days ago, too, and it looks awesome. And apparently The Hydrogen Sonata is going to be the longest Culture book so far! FUCK YESSSSSS

Anyway, this means that I can safely read Use of Weapons without compunction. And I'm excited. I'm an unmitigated stan of this series -- I go on about it at great length with anyone who'll let me -- and I just cannot get enough of his 'verse, which is a problem when there are only so many books. I drink your universe, I drink it up.

Hello, Livejournal! Who's still around?

I never use this site anymore, though I poke my head in every so often to glance at the flist. I'm in the process of trying to build myself a smarter online presence, and thus tightening up loose ends: I've privated every single entry before August 1 2006 & friendslocked everything else. I'll post a public entry every so often, mostly to retain membership in some communities, but the days of having my life laid bare to the public are, erm, over.

In the process of cleaning out the journal, I revisited my ancient posts and it was awful. Straight-up awful and embarrassing, which is only to be expected when you're 13 years old and blogging. I tried to figure out where the appropriate cut-off point would be, and then finally decided that it should be right before I left for university. I'm still embarrassed by myself six years ago, but not as much as (count it) eleven years ago. And this way, the first friendslocked entry is also a really, really great heartfelt conversation I had with a friend; it was a good point to draw the line between Old Julie and New Julie.

I can't see myself returning in the same capacity since everyone's scattered to the winds, which is a bummer considering my permanent account. Mainly, this LJ will revert to its origins as a cathartic, in-depth journal going over the emotional stuff that no one cares about, but those entries will be private. Trust me, it's nothing you want in on.

Feel free to follow me on tumblr, though!