Yes! Fairyland is so great. The Marquess especially. She has to be one of my favourite villains ever. And September is so wonderful. But you didn't find the book at all depressing? I remember it getting me pretty down at times (I'm thinking the well, the Marquess's story, the Death mushroom thing).

Oh I was totally blanking on what my feel-good thing would be, until you said Azumanga Daioh… as I imagine it's probably very similar to Nichijou, which would be my pick. Watching Nichijou just makes me really really happy.

With Marvel there's Hawkeye, Daredevil, The Superior Foes of Spider-Man… It probably isn't a bad idea to check out the comments section of any of the AV Club comics features that run every so often, where people always post what new stuff they're into.

The related short story collection The Ladies of Grace Adieu has some pretty great stuff too.

Hmmm i thought having JT's son kill the guy was interesting when it led to cult leader calling son out on his w/e attitude about the killing. Made me think, like: in world where ppl disappear magically, would killing feel like no big deal?

You know, the teen party scene, when the daughter's done choking the guy and she's left the bedroom and is wandering through the house, and she happens to open the bathroom door on two dudes, both naked, one taking a bubble bath (a bit of blue foam in his hair) and the other sitting cross-legged on the floor with his…

Oo! I think I'll check this out too then.

Anyone mention Skins? I loved how they tweaked the theme song just a little bit every week, to match whoever's episode it was.

That's sort of like something Kelly Link talked about in an interview I saw on YouTube… The topic of her new collection came up, and she was asked if there was a kind of sameness to the stories, because aren't collections supposed to be tied together with a theme or tone or something? And she said no, the stories need…

oh my god… the cat pass

Persona 5 for PS3!

Yay! I'm excited for Murakami too. But I'm a little scared I won't like it… I didn't like the last one I read with the translation done by Philip Gabriel.

You can actually read a bit of the new book now. Grossman has a Magician's Land story in an anthology that came out in December called Dangerous Women.

Codex I really liked. It's like libraries and video games… There's
this cool Arthurian story within a story. I think it's definitely less, I
dunno, polished? than The Magicians. Like you can tell it was written
by a less experienced Lev. But still definitely worth reading.

…Pineapples. Magic, wars, and pineapples…

I'm reading Trouble by Kate Christensen, who I don't see getting talked a lot about here. (I picked up the book because Lev Grossman mentioned Christensen in an interview.) I like it quite a bit so far. What struck me was how microscopic the storytelling can get—it details the narrator as she copes with the knowledge…

I enjoyed the pilot a fair bit, enough that I'd like to stay optimistic about the show. Let's think of some nice things that we liked from this episode!:

Oh man. Anyone know what this means for CW pilot Blink? (about: comatose dad… and his family) Like could it get a midseason pick up??

Shout Out Louds… reminds me of like The OC, and One Tree Hill. Those shows, The OC especially, influenced what kinds of things I used to listen to.

Anime movies are more visually attractive than most series are, too! Both in terms of animation (like, fluidity) and the amount of detail that's drawn in each shot. A lot of shows have like no budget, with just one-colour backgrounds and around episode five the character designs will start to look wonky.