Well, it seemed like a really brilliant idea at the time, I promise you. Climb palm tree. Wait for brains to go by. Jump out. BRAINS! Simple, really. But there was an unknown factor that came to play straight away: palm trees are tricky. From a distance you would never realize, but as you can hopefully see in this picture, they are pokey.

But Pieces persevered and got to the top, and waited. And waited. And then when it finally happened and a brain walked by and he went to make his daring jump for the prize-he was stuck. He was skewered. It took a good ten minutes to get his young body free and by then the brains had long gone by.

Like I said. Palm trees are tricky.

Meet Pieces. It wasn’t that long ago that his life began in the labs at think geek, but since then his adventures have taken him far for such a young zombie. While trying to keep his parts together, he is currently exploring the Sonoran Desert in his unending quest for brains.

Tune in on Fridays for his dangerous exploits with cactus, playgrounds, and the dangers of youth.

It all started when Buffy graduated high school. I’d seen enough sitcoms (Boy Meets World, Saved by the Bell) to know that when they leave high school and head off to college they’re about to ruin my damned show. It really broke my heart to see it happen to Buffy, especially after we’d just had such an amazing ending to Season 3, but alas, I knew it was true. We were going to college. Angel was leaving. A spinoff show? Yeah, ’cause THAT always goes well…. Farewell, sweet show, I loved you so.

And while I know a lot of people rag on Season 4, I really liked it. There are some low points, but there are some amazing ones, too. How can you be mean to a season that has Hush, Something Blue, and my favorite Halloween episode, ever?

And Angel! Oh, Angel! You’re not bad at all. You make me weep like a baby, but I can work with that.

So, okay, Joss. I’m still with you, after all. Oh, Season 5 Buffy is mysteriously getting a little sister? Why do you do this to me. You’re ruining my show!

Oh…okay…this is interesting…..

A MUSICAL?! WHAT THE?! … oh my god, it’s the best thing, ever….

And you’d think I’d have learned, after going through all of that, but I didn’t. And when I was at my weekly Joss meet up group and someone brought up that there was a new Joss show, I got excited—until they said “scifi western”. It filled me with dread. It got canceled after thirteen episodes? Well, of course it did, my god. If it weren’t for the peer pressure of a bunch of geeks wanting to watch it RIGHT THEN, I never would have given it a chance at all.

Oh. My. God. Firefly… Okay, I see the error of my ways now, Lord.

I went home that day with an important lesson that has stayed with me and given me an important motto. In Joss We Trust. We never question the Joss until after we experience the phenomena, to avoid feeling embarrassed about our ridiculous lack of faith later. So now when I hear something like he has a new film coming out in April and someone starts trying to tell me what it’s about I stop them. “No, no, that’s okay, I don’t need to know what it’s about. I have the faith.”

Most evenings I can be found lounging in bed with my husband. We both have a kindle in hand and we’re often accompanied by a few comic books, possibly some fruit, and hot chocolate. The only sounds you hear are the occasional laughs where we then stop, shake the other out of their book, and proceed to tell them all about what just happened. We often end up reading the same books (most recently Ready Player One) but we talk just as much about ones that only one of us has read. We always take our characters lives seriously and get upset when the others favorite character dies as if it were their close friend. These are the days of our lives.

I suppose I just always assumed that for the most part that if you are a reader then your partner was one too. I recently came across a forum post, fifty comments long, full of people talking about how their partners complained about their reading or how they’re mostly left alone while their partner watches television.

After reading through the thread I immediately went to my husband. “Do you know how lucky you are to be married to a geeky girl like me, Mister?” I can’t imagine how frustrated I would be if I couldn’t have all of those long conversations about books with Robert.

So, it has me curious. What about you? Does your partner read? Do they complain about your reading? Do you ever talk about books?

The Guild by Felicia Day Jim Rugg and Dan Jackson – I was so impressed with this. It really kept the feel of the series, both in terms of the voices of the characters and the flow of the show. And the artwork was really gorgeous-I kept pausing and staring at it. If you don’t know, this was a prequel to the series, telling the story of Cyd getting into the game. You also get a look at what the other characters were up to before they became a guild. I can’t wait to check out the one shots they’ve done for the characters. This is safe to read if you’ve seen the show or not, but I’m sure it’s more fun if you’re familiar with the show.

The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins – Yes, I read all three of these in under a week. I know there are a lot of “I told you sos!” owed to me out there on this one, I don’t know why I put off reading it for so long, but I’m so glad that I’ve read it now. I’m obsessed.

Each book in this series had such a different feel to it. The books get compared to Harry Potter and Twilight (even though those two series are very different themselves) and The Hunger Games is again, very different. This series is about war and the effects war has on children. It takes place in the future, which helps it also make a lot of comments on society today. It’s fast paced, exciting, interesting, and really sucked me in quickly.

Stone of Tears (Sword of Truth #2) by Terry Goodkind – I stopped halfway through this book back in January, and I just came back to it. Little did I know what I had stopped before that I was just a few minutes of reading away from where this book got good! There was still a LOT of rambling and I kept wanting to pull out a red pen and fix the writing in this book. Despite the repetive speeches, the second half of this book got really exciting and I’m looking forward to diving into the third one. Where hopefully there will be a lot more Gratch! Also, I feel obligated to tell you that Richard does not look anything in my mind like he does on this book cover.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray – I had no idea what this book was about when I started reading, which was for the best. It made it an even stranger read, if that’s possible. This book is not going to be for everyone, simply because it is such a strange ride, but I really loved it for that exact reason. Somehow, it manages to put you in these most ridiculous situations, which you’d think would make for fluffly light reading, but then it all has all this depth and things to think about mixed in. It’s a hard one to recommend to people because I’d hate to spoil it for you, but I will say it’s a journey about learning to live.

What have you read lately?