The new year is starting out very nicely.

First, we're a finalist for The Best of Blog Awards 2004. Voting is open, by the way. Vote early and vote often.

In looking over the stats, I noticed a link from BlogCruiser, a blog that rates other blogs. We were given a 9-star rating. Go us!

A member of Christopher Moore's bulletin board posted about our discussion of The Stupidest Angel. Moore stopped by and took a look at our discussion, probably because the poster mentioned that most of us "don't seem to get it." Personally, I think we got it; we just all didn't like it. And that's okay.

The Stupidest Angel is kind of like a TV reunion special- If you watched the original series, you’ll love the reunion. If you hadn’t seen any of the characters before, you’ll probably still enjoy it but won’t get all the inside jokes. That’s kind of how this book was for me. I had heard that the characters in The Stupidest Angel also appeared in Practical Demonkeeping; Island of the Sequined Love Nun; The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove; and Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, so I ordered these books with high hopes of getting through them all before tackling Moore’s newest. Needless to say, at the busiest time of year- I didn’t. But I still immensely enjoyed this fun, funny, eccentric novel.

I did manage to get through Practical Demonkeeping and was introduced to both Pine Cove and Moore’s style of writing. It’s like Empire Falls but make all the characters slightly insane, drunk, high, self-absorbed and introduce the supernatural. It all worked for me. I find that sometimes when authors introduce something far out there (e.g. Zombies), it can come off as unbelievable and take you right out of the story. Moore has a knack, I think, for introducing the weird, the weirder, then the weirdest and you go along with it, saying to yourself, “Ha hah haa ha haa.”

So here are my questions:

1. Has anyone read any Moore before?
2. If so, was reading The Stupidest Angel like returning home to beloved family members (or something slightly less maudlin)?
3. Did you enjoy the story? (Eh, maybe this should have been question number one.)
4. What did you think about Chapter 13?
5. Chapter 16?
6. There are lots of characters in this book; did you ever get lost or confused?
7. The ending- A total and complete cop-out or a relief?
8. The next Moore book you plan on reading because you just have to read more of [enter character’s name].

Our discussion of The Stupidest Angel kicks off tomorrow, so I’ve got some serious reading to do today since I’m only on page 118. I’m really enjoying it, by the way. It’s a welcome relief from the good cheer that always aggravatingly accompanies the holidays.

During a time-wasting bender, I poked around Christopher Moore’s web site and discovered his web log, which comes in the form of a bulletin board. He is clearly not a conventional blogger and is probably a fan of Star Trek.

[Note to self: Must create a page of links to published authors with blogs. Some links on the original post are dead, some have moved, and other authors need to be added.]

Hi, I just wanted to make a post informing you about my selection for December: Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror. It's hardcover, but still the same price as a paperback (unless you get it from Amazon- only ten dollars!). It'll be a nice, light holiday read...