Written Word Wed. - I Don't Like Spiders and Snakes . . .

I got about halfway through Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys last night, hope to have it finished soon. I'm not enjoying it as much as I have most of Gaiman's stuff, for some reason, although I did start to get into it a bit more after the first 80 pages or so. I think part of my problem with it is the constantly put-upon nature of Fat Charlie, the main character; he strikes me as a particularly British character, in a very Arthur Dent (who, honestly, was my least favorite part of any of the Hitchhiker's Guide novels) sort of way, and despite having a smidgen of the Anglophile in me, the "nothing ever goes right" jinxy character often gets on my nerves, especially when he's put in situations where everyone treats him like he's an idiot for no good reason . . . hey, G'ovich, I think I just remembered something else that annoys me about Meet the Parents . . . anyway, I think that the plot is moving away from that direction at this point. *knock on wood*

One thing that struck me as I was reading this book was how familiar Fat Charlie and his brother Spider seemed to me. Here you have Fat Charlie, who worries about everything and is convinced the world is out to get him and who practices his arguments in his head well in advance of having them, and then there's Spider, a smooth talker who can talk anyone into anything and who seems particularly adept at messing with people's head, especially the paranoid Fat Charlie; why does that sound so familiar to me . . . and why do I have the sudden urge to change Earth-K G'ovich from a snake-man to some sort of "spider"-man? Ooo, I kind of like that, it has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Dang it, now I can't get that Jim Stafford song out of my head *sigh*

I'm hoping to not only find the time and frame of mind to finish up Anansi Boys soon, but also Terry Pratchett's Thud!, which I just got from the public library for the second time, after never even opening it up the first time due to obsessive blogging. I also just got George R. R. Martin's A Feast For Crows in the mail today and am looking forward to reading it and seeing just how much I've forgotten from the first three books.