- Jan 1: Ties of Power, by Julie Czerneda (Trade Pact #2)
- Jan 6: Foreigner, by C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner #1)
- Jan 7: Invader, by C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner #2)
- Jan 9: Inheritor, by C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner #3)
- Jan 10: Chobits vol. 1, by CLAMP
I love this world to bits, and everyone who recommended it to me is very very right. It's a lovely starter-manga, for those who want to start learning how to read Japanese stories. Funny, touching, knowing, just enough Japanese Weird to start getting used to it while you learn to read the panels right-to-left and what the conventions mean. - Jan 11: The Canary Trainer, by Nicholas Meyer
A deft Holmes pastiche (his previous similar efforts are The Seven-per-Cent Solution and The West End Horror). In this one, Holmes takes on the Phantom of the Opera -- no, really. :-> I rather liked it. It's unabashed Watsonian fanfic, and I don't think much like what Conan Doyle would have written, but I like it. - Jan 13: Precursor, by C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner #4)
- Jan 15: Defender, by C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner #5)
- Jan 18: Explorer, by C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner #6)
- Jan 19: The Heart of Valor, by Tanya Huff (Confederation #2)
- Jan 20: Destroyer, by C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner #7)
- Jan 22: Ties of Power, by Julie Czerneda (Trade Pact #3)
- Jan 23: The Machine's Child, by Kage Baker (The Company #?)
- Jan 26: Mother Aegypt, by Kage Baker (short stories)
- Jan 29: Phoenix and Ashes, by Mercedes Lackey (Elemental Masters #5)
- Jan 30: Wintersmith, by Terry Pratchett (Tiffany Aching #3)
- Jan 31: Consequences, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Retrieval Artist #3)
- Feb 2: The Grand Tour: or, the Purloined Coronation Regalia, by Stevemer and (Cecy & Kate #2) (reread)
- Feb 3: The Mislaid Magician: or, Ten Years After, by Wrede and Stevemer (Cecy & Kate #3)
- Feb 4: Paloma, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Retrieval Artist #5)
- Feb 5: Recovery Man, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Retrieval Artist #6)
- Feb 6: Midshipman's Hope, by David Feintuch (Seafort Saga #1)
- Feb 7: Challenger's Hope, by David Feintuch (Seafort Saga #2)
- Feb 7: The West End Horror, by Nicholas Meyer
- Feb 10: Bios, by Robert Charles Wilson
- Feb 10: The Last Colony, by John
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scalzi (Colonial Union #3) - Feb 11: Rollback, by Robert J. Sawyer
- Feb 12: Ha'penny, by Jo Walton (Farthing #2) [L]
- Feb 12: Legacy, by Lois McMaster Bujold (Sharing Knife #2) [L]
- Feb 13: Reserved for the Cat, by Mercedes Lackey (Elemental Masters #6) [L]
- Feb 14: New Amsterdam, by Elizabeth Bear [L]
- Feb 16: Rules of Engagement, by Elizabeth Moon (Familias Regnant #6)
- Feb 17: Change of Command, by Elizabeth Moon (Familias Regnant #7)
- Feb 18: Prisoner's Hope, by David Feintuch (Seafort Saga #3)
- Feb 20: Fisherman's Hope, by David Feintuch (Seafort Saga #4)
- Feb 21: Reap the Wild Wind, by Julie Czerneda (Stratification #1) [L]
- Feb 24: Halting State, by Charles Stross
- Feb 26: Dust, by Elizabeth Bear (Jacob's Ladder #1)
- Feb 28: Hunting Party, by Elizabeth Moon (Familias Regnant #1)
- Feb 29: Winning Colors, by Elizabeth Moon (Familias Regnant #3)
- Mar 1: Against the Odds, by Elizabeth Moon (Familias Regnant #7)
- Mar 3: Carthage Ascendant, by Mary Gentle (Book of Ash #2)
- Mar 4: A College of Magics, by Caroline Stevermer
- Mar 5: Physik, by Angie Sage (Septimus Heap #3)
- Mar 6: Peeps, by Scott Westerfeld
- Mar 9: The Black Dossier, by Alan Moore, et al. (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #3)
- Mar 10: Greywalker, by Kat Richardson (Greywalker #1)
- Mar 10: Death du Jour, by Kathy Reichs (Tempe Brennan #?)
- Mar 11: Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
- Mar 12: Cagebird, by Karen Lowachee (Burndive #3) [L]
- Mar 13: The Big Over Easy, by Jasper Fforde (Nursery Crime #1) [L]
- Mar 15: The Reverend Guppy's Aquarium, by [L]
- Mar 16: Making Money, by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #??) [L]
- Mar 17: Endless Blue, by Wen Spencer (Sargasso #1)
- Mar 17: Shatterglass, by Tamora Pierce (Circle Opens #4) [L]
- Mar 18: The Will of the Empress, by Tamora Pierce (Circle Reforged #1) [L]
- Mar 19: Exile's Honor, by Mercedes Lackey (Valdemar #??)
- Mar 20: The Herodotus File, by Mark Mars, Eric Singer, et al. (Aeon Flux #3)
- Mar 20: The Wild Machines, by Mary Gentle (Book of Ash #3)
- Mar 21: The Barsoom Project, by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes (Dream Park #2)
- Mar 21: Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis #1) [L]
- Mar 22: The Dream Thief, by J.M. DeMatteis (Abadazad #2) [L]
- Mar 22: Persepolis 2: the Story of a Return, by Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis #2) [L]
- Mar 24: Dream-Maker's Magic, by Sharon Shinn (Safe-Keeper's Secret #3) [L]
- Mar 25: Bound, by Jo Napoli [L]
- Mar 28: Ilario: The Lion's Eye, by Mary Gentle (First History #1) [L]
- Mar 31: Sons of Heaven, by Kage Baker (Dr. Zeus #?) [L]
- Apr 1: Red Seas Under Red Skies, by Scott Lynch (scott_lynch; Gentlemen Bastards #2) [L]
- Apr : Cartoon History of the Universe, Volume 3, by Larry Gonick
- Apr : Cartoon History of the Modern World, Volume 1, by Larry Gonick
- Apr : Fact or Fiction, by (Ex Machina, #3)
- Apr : The Tarnished Angel, by Alan Moore et. al (Astro City #?)
- Apr 11: Whiskey and Water, by Elizabeth Bear (Promethean Age #2) [L]
- Apr 12: Majestrum, by Matthew Hughes [L]
- Apr 14: Victory Conditions, by Elizabeth Moon (Vatta's War #?) [L]
- Apr 14: The Bone Key, by Sarah Monette [L]
- Apr 16: Gods and Pawns, by Kage Baker (Dr. Zeus #?) [L]
- Apr 22: 1634: The Galileo Affair, by Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis (Ring of Fire #3)
- Apr 24: The Gladiator, by Harry Turtledove (Crosstime Traffic #?) [L]
- Apr 26: Misquoting Jesus, by Bart Ehrman [L]
- Apr 27: A Dirty Job, by Christopher Moore
- Apr : 29A Stroke of Midnight, by Laurell K. Hamilton (Merry Gentry #)[L]
- May 1: Mistral's Kiss, by Laurell K. Hamilton (Merry Gentry #)[L]
- May 1: The Atrocity Archives, by Charles Stross (Her Majesty's Occult Service #1)[read aloud to John]
- May 2: Break No Bones, by Kathy Reichs (Tempe Brennan #9) [L]
- May 5: Poltergeist, by Kat Richardson (Greywalker #2) [L]
- May 5: Pride of Baghdad, by Brian K Vaughn, et al. [L]
- May 6: Extras, by Scott Westerfeld (Uglies #4) [L]
- May 11: Bones to Ashes, by Kathy Reichs (Tempe Brennan #10) [L]
- May 14: Blindsight, by Peter Watts [L]
- May 15: March to War, by Brian K. Vaughan (Ex Machina #4) [L]
- May 15: Smoke, Smoke, by Brian K. Vaughan (Ex Machina #5) [L]
- May 15: Power Down, by Brian K. Vaughan (Ex Machina #6) [L]
Ideally, I'm going to get through all 133 books I read in 2007 in month-at-a-time posts, but we'll see. :->
( Books 1-11 of 133 within. )
( List within. 133 books this year. )
( 144 books for the year (as of 12/27). )
- Mood:
accomplished
Last year's total: 151, including a bunch of multiweek hiatuses of no-books-read and one stellar 7-books-finished day. This year? Who knows, though I find that keeping a list ups my output.
So below you will find, in table format, the books I've read in the first half of this year, with some comments. If you see R after a title, it means I've read it before (i.e. this time is a reread); L means I got it from the library that opened near my house in early June.
( Big-ass table follows: 45 books. )
knitmeapony was reviewing YA lit she'd read recently, and she asked for recommendations from the floor. I went back through my books-read-this-year posts (1, 2), and pulled some out to babble about ... and it got long, and I realized I might as well put it here. I also need, clearly, to go back through those posts (and last year's) and put little reviews on the ones I haven't yet babbled about.So if you're shopping for someone in the 8-12 range (or just someone who doesn't mind that a good book is labeled as being appropriate for kids), here's a list of potentials.
In no particular order (ok, in the order I read them this year), I highly recommend the following:
( Quite a few books. )
scs_11, who got it from bcjennyo:1. Copy & paste.
2. Bold the ones you’ve read.
3. Add four recent reads to the end.
( Lots of books.. )
If you're curious what else I've read this year, the list is here. Discussion welcome, either there or here, of anything I've read that you loved/hated/were curious about/other.
So I've read all three of the Jenny books[1], and loved them to varying degrees. I've seen her talking about her upcoming books, and antici ... pated. Therefore, when the Chicago Public Library finally got in Blood and Iron, I immediately put it on hold, and when it came in I read it right away.
To be honest, I'm kind of underwhelmed. It's not a bad book, in any sense of the word, but it's a difficult book, and not the book I was expecting (not that that's her fault in any way!).
The prose is so dense, and yet so pared-down at the same time, that it reminded me of the many women in the novel whose cheekbones are described as 'sharp enough to cut yourself on'. By halfway through the book, I learned to just roll with it when a character said something like, "Here, I redeem my oath to you, *does something*" because I couldn't remember what A had promised B four chapters ago.
What really disconcerted me, though, is that I never felt like I knew or understood a single character in the entire book. Looking back, I think it's because I didn't sense any actual emotion in the entire book. There were plenty of very specific details of description, but most of them were 'telling[2]' rather than 'telling[3]', if that makes any sense. She TELLS you they feel pain, she TELLS you they love, but it was just this wham-bam-boom roller-coaster ride of visuals and sensory detail and headlong plot and at the end of it, I am honestly unable to extrapolate any behavior at all as being 'characteristic' or 'uncharacteristic' of any of the characters. The soulless fae can fall in love? Sure. The ordinary humans can kill and maim and never feel remorse? Fine. Mothers and children do the most intricately complicated (and unfollowable) betrayals? Sure, why not, but what happens next in the PLOT?
Which I guess is really why I was unsatisfied. There was cool worldbuilding. I really liked the lion in particular, and some of the underpinnings of Faerie. But none of the characters ever gave me enough to know whether I cared about them or not, and slipping other people's minds on like a glove is a major reason I read in the first place, so.
Which doesn't mean I'm going to swear off her books; anyone who writes in her blog the way she does is bound to pop out a book I'll enjoy sooner or later. And the plot was, I guess, kind of cool (when I could follow it -- it was like trying to read billboards out the window of a speeding train).
- the Jenny Books: Hammered, Scardown, and Worldwired. Collect the whole set. VR, hightech bodymods, geopolitical maneuverings, and leftover super-advanced alien tech.
- tell transitive verb: 2 a : to relate in detail : NARRATE (told the whole story to us) b : to give utterance to : SAY (could never tell a lie)
- tell intransitive verb: 3 : to have a marked effect (the pressure was beginning to tell on him);
4 : to serve as evidence or indication
To narrow the field somewhat, I can show you what I read last year and this year (there are also notes there about what I thought of them), and request that recommendations take into especial account that if it's come out since 2000, it's highly possible I haven't read it yet, since, well, no budget.
However, I have this shiny new library just a few blocks north of my house, and they can put anything on hold for me that the Chicago Public Library owns more than one copy of (with a few other caveats and complications), so go right ahead and suggest things that aren't out of hardcover yet.
Subjects I particularly adore, a nonexclusive list: gender issues, really *alien* aliens, realistic, rigorous worldbuilding, puzzles, sardonic humor.
But I've run through the things that I *knew* I desperately wanted to read and hadn't, and, well, I feel insecure with less than five books working their way through the hold system. I mean, I might return the last of a batch of books and find *nothing* enticing waiting for me when I get there! The horrors! Save me! :->
What books did you devour and adore? What books should I, for my own good, make sure to have read before I die? Inquiring minds want to know.
Let's try that again:
I say, kind readers, I had a most felicitous discovery this evening on my journey home from grand-mère's. Haply, the public library at the top end of our block's cross-street -- whose convoluted construction process my better half and I have been watching with much interest -- opened to the public this past Friday. I have now visited it, received a replacement card (mine old one is sadly buried deep in the sedimentary layers of my clutter), and borrowed a small spate of books.
Plus put some on hold, a new-to-me practice that
jerusha speaks highly of.OMGsqueeLIBRARY. Books! That I don't have to pay new-book prices for! And it's a short walk away, so I can stroll over with the dog if he's only going to be tied outside for five or ten minutes (as I return a stack and accept a stack of holds).
Almost makes up for over 5 straight hours of grandma-ing, phone tag, and bureaucratic AAAAAAAH. But it will definitely make the impending day-of-plane-ride plus-week-of-AAAAAAH far more congenial. BOOKS. *NEW*(-to-me) books! That I haven't read, and that I've WANTED to read for lo these many years!
- Location:home sweet home
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
( Massive table follows. )
- Mood:bookish and methodical
regyt. She won't mind. It's more for me to keep track than for anyone else, but feel free to read along and comment if you want to. There are now multiple installments of this, due to LJ puking when it got long; this is Part 1. Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. Each contains (or will contain) appx 3 months of reading.( Snip snip snippy snip hide snip. )
- Mood:bookish
( Itemized report, more for me than for you. Nyah. :-) )
Additionally, our dog received presents from his grandfolks on John's side -- sent through the mail, neatly addressed to him specifically. But they get their own entry. :->
Also, to continue the 'cute tissue-box-covers' gift theme from his family, John's sister gave him a rather nice, heavy, molded-plastic tiny replica of one of those Easter Island heads (picture). The tissues come out through a hole under the nose. It's terrifyingly cute. Fits the old-standard tissue boxes (before Kimberley-Clark decided to give you 80 more per box, grr). I'm sure you know someone it'd be perfect for. :->
Of course, what we both desperately wanted was Peace On Earth, Good Will Towards Men, but that's kind of hard to either get at a big-box store or put in a lovely gift-wrapped box under the tree. So we'll have to wait and see if we got it or not.
- Mood: thankful
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book_icons, I have these:| For poetry posts, and other times I think it might be appropriate. | |
| Because it's true. Though, admittedly, I read some really messed-up books in my morals-forming stage. | |
| Also because it's true. Yes, I AM in the SCA, and highly geeky about medieval clothing. I put the text on it in MSPaint because I am ignorant of these magical icon-editing software things, but it worked all right. | |
| Hitchhiker's Guide reference, of course. Because some days are just flowerpot days. | |
| Screencap from the Langoliers TV-movie. Because sometimes you're on a deadline. And sometimes the deadline has whirling, mystical steel teeth that devour reality. |
Full credits to the makers on my userpics listing. No takee without (a) telling the makers and (b) crediting thoroughly.
I still don't have an adequate book-addiction icon, but I can wait till I find the RIGHT one. :->
I find myself inordinately pleased by this fact for no reason that is clear to me.
I also have no idea why I'm still awake at midnight-thirty. Lately I've gotten hit in the teeth with Sleepy on my way back from Grandma's (or at Grandma's, or in an hour or so after leaving), pushed through it while refusing to give in and sleep, and then been stuck up until 2AM or so. I dislike this pattern rather strongly, but see no way to stop it. I've already cut out absolutely all caffeine, period, so that's not it. I can also do without the extremely strong, "Hey! Hungry now." messages I get from my stomach very consistently sometime between midnight-thirty and 1AM. Every morning. Neither ignoring it nor getting up and feeding myself seems to make me particularly sleepy. More data when I have it.
Speaking of Grandma, she loved Mars Attacks, which we watched on Monday. Still seeking a pattern for the films she (a) can watch and follow, now, and (b) enjoys. She used to like Spider-Man etc, but we tried Spider-Man 2 and its cut-cut-cutness baffled her before he even talked to Dr. Connor. Besides Monday, the only movie we've watched to completion since her hospitalization was Finding Neverland. Suggestions solicited. Note: she refuses any 'kid' movie on principle, likewise anything animated. Refuses to even try. Despite the fact I think she'd adore Shrek and Finding Nemo, if only I could get her to accept them as proper grownup movies. Some traits that seem to help: non-cut-cut-cut editing style; time to breathe and think around the introduction of characters and plot information; lack of 'implicit' or oversubtle impartings of plot and character information (The Terminal completely failed on this one, what with nobody saying what they meant for a while there).
( Grandma-task record-keeping within. )
- Mood:
awake
- I got to see the in-laws some more. I enjoy hanging out with/talking with them muchly.
- Lots and lots of good restaurant food. Which I didn't have to pay for. There is no bad here. [1]
- I saw a movie the marquee at the theatre insisted on calling "Charlie and the Chocolate Fact". I enjoyed it, though, like the restaurant food, I'm kinda glad I wasn't paying. Review to follow at some point.
- Yay for brother-sister silliness, esp. involving my husband! Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans may have to become a new party-game icebreaker. The out of context quotes were just too good. [2]
- Thanks to Grandma B, I finally talked myself into a Netflix membership. Currently watched-through-them: Spider-Man 2 [3] and The Terminal (partial, so far; I'll watch the rest with John soon and send it back). On the way but not yet watched: Finding Neverland.
- Jo gave me a copy of Finding Serenity, a Firefly-litcrit book which is REALLY REALLY GOOD. Like Take the Red Pill, only not about The Matrix.
- Social meters nicely topped up and comfy-full.
- I was 'out in public' and 'on', socially, the ENTIRE DAMN EVENING at any time I wasn't sleeping. Period. This is really wearing.
- Lots of Grandma B stuff, which is really, REALLY wearing, and also terrifying and confusing.
- Not enough sleep.
- Not enough coping-strategy recharging.
- Didn't get any chores of any sort done all weekend, so lawn is less watered and there were huge mounds of laundry I'd already been ignoring. I've done most of the laundry now, which is good. And it's not like lawn-watering is something we're compulsive about in the best of times.
- I don't even want to think about how many times we were at Old Orchard over the weekend. [4] I think we were up there every single day between Friday and Monday. Not that I dislike Old Orchard per se, just it got old.
- It was fecking hot all weekend. I blame the in-laws. They clearly brought Toronto's heat-and-humidity wave with them, 'cause today it's much cooler and they just left. :->
Tonight we're going to be in Grant Park watching Annie Hall for free in open air; if you're going, I'd love to talk to you, though I'm going to be nipping in right as it starts projecting, because I work till 9. If you see John (picture) setting up chairs, feel free to snag a place nearby, or introduce yourself, or both. "I read your wife's LJ" is a suitable introduction and will not confuse him. :->
And I catalogued another two boxes of books into Readerware ... and didn't checkpoint the database, so when it crashed out while looking stuff up online, poof gone all the work. Dammit. I know far better than that.
( Angsty I-suckness within. )
Footnotes
- Restaurants - The Celtic Knot in Evanston, despite being 'an Irish Pub', has KICKASS food, and amazing service, and is very very good and recommendable. Also, I was startled by the large number of staff members with the appropriate accent. Apparently there is live music some nights.
- Bertie Botts humor - "Well, I don't know what these two are, but they could be either Vomit or Spaghetti, given the box. Here, you take one and I'll take the other."
*eats* "Uhm. I think you got the Spaghetti, because this is DEFINITELY not it."
"No, dude, this is NOT spaghetti."
"Eew. I guess we both got Vomit. Here, have a Soap, it helps."
"That's not half bad, really. Kind of floral. Though I like Grass a lot better."
Etc. Comedy gold. Esp. at 11 at night, with the parents boggling that they're even eating the horrid things.- Spider-Man 2 - Second viewing for me, first for John and Grandma -- though she lost the thread early on and we stopped. She loses track of what's going on in a movie disturbingly fast. But as long as she enjoys it, I suppose.
- Going to Old Orchard - Starting Friday night, when my littler little sister talked us into taking her to the Harry-Potterathon party at Buns&Noodles. Which we left at about 11, because we were sick of sitting there; she had no money on her; if I was going to blow $20 on a hardcover I was reading it FIRST, dammit; and we figured they'd run out anyhow. So we went home. And everyone on my friends list is talking about the damn book and I'm TRYING to be GOOD here folks and not blow the money but damn I want to see what all these interesting people are saying about it. Pooh. :->
- Mood:
exhausted
- Post a comment below with the title of a book you have not read in the subject line. Write whatever you like in the body.
- Read the other comments' subject lines, and if you HAVE read a book someone else says they haven't, comment it with the words 'Read it' in the subject line (and whatever you like in the body of the comment).
Scoring: Whoever's comment has the longest chain of 'Read it' comments attached whenever I decide to declare this thing done, wins. When choosing what to enter as your 'haven't read it' book, consider what other people who read this journal are likely TO have read, as it will increase your score. Remember that many people are forced to read certain books in school, in addition to their pleasure reading. If you wish to just have a conversation, instead of dibs in with 'Read it,' please make sure the subject line of your comment is not those two words. Scoring will be based solely on subject lines, for my sanity.
You can also just read through and put 'Read it' comments on other people's choices, if you don't feel like entering a points-garnering comment of your own. In fact, for statistical reasons, checking the whole list to see whose you've read is encouraged. :->
I'll put one in for a start, but I don't necessarily expect to do well in points. It's just to give you guys an idea.
Needless to say, no lying.
[ I got it from angevin2, who has a more detailed description of the origin of the game -- fittingly, in a book! -- in her entry. She says she got it from
Not that we're in this for the points, but ... ( A table with some score summaries. )
So last night I get home, and I was kind of tired (though not as bad as all weekend, still out of it). I contemplate going to lie down in bed with a book, then realize that that might not be politic, first night home and all, so I take some hamburger out of the freezer and try blearily to think of something 'productive' I can do. I ended up scanning a whole bunch of books into my ReaderWare database, which was fun in a compulsive sort of way. :->
John came home, and since we had to move the car anyway, we went off to buy me some Type II audiocassettes for my Tascam 4-track recorder. That was nice - the weather was *gorgeous*. I managed to get a picture of John, one of the car, and one of the front of the house (I want to sketch the front of the house as an illustration for my little newsletter). We went to Best Buy, wandered the Nintendo 64 and PC-game aisles for a bit, but ended up only buying the cassettes.
So home, and more bookscanning. My computer has acted strangely slow ever since we moved it out into the dining room, and I'm starting to seriously wonder what's up with that. It's a cooler (temperature-wise) location, and I can't think of much else that's changed, other than installing the hardware-monitoring software (which is why I know it's cooler - processor temp, etc, are displayed now). I suppose that latter could slow it, but hopefully not as much as we're observing! Oh, well, I don't know.
I do have a rather large number of books without ISBNs, it's turning out. Unfortunately, ReaderWare only does autolookup by ISBN, not Library of Congress number (which most of the remaining do have, except my old-and-rares, and I wasn't expecting them to be anything but 'type it in by hand' anyway). I'm discovering a few duplicates, and enjoying remembering that I *do* own some of these books.
For example: The Beekeeper's Apprentice, by Laurie R. King. I rather like Holmes pastiches, and this one is quite charming. Plus, just yesterday, I discovered that it has sequels! I must buy! But first, I'm rereading the one I have (of course). Just the obligatory quote to suck you all into reading it too; this is the first paragraph of the novel proper (though not the book - the book starts with a preface and an 'Author's Note' from the point of view of the main character, who supposedly wrote it, in a Watsonesque manner).
I was fifteen when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and nearly stepped on him. In my defence I must say it was an engrossing book, and it was very rare to come across another person in that particular part of the world in that war year of 1915. In my seven weeks of peripatetic reading amongs the sheep (which tended to move out of the way) and the gorse bushes (to which I had painfully developed an instinctive awareness) I had never before stepped on a person.
Isn't that lovely? :-> Of course, something ELSE I found while going through my books one by one to scan or type in the ISBNs is the taped-together bundle of pages from my first month of diarying. Yes, the apocryphal Black Pages, the missing grail I have sought! Ok, so that's melodrama. But still. I'm going to be inputting them here for the record, I think; either all in one looooooooooong entry, or in batches. Or perhaps just the Good Bits version, ala William Golden. :->
Today, I attempt to work. And get my film from the weekend developed - we shall see how they turned out. One of the rolls decided to autorewind after only 4 shots (which is the second time this has happened with this camera - worrying), so the fact that I almost have five whole rolls isn't nearly as impressive as it might be. John also discovered a spare roll of 800 sitting around unexposed in my bag when he gathered up the 'done' rolls last night; I thought I'd finished all the 800, alas, so switched to 400 for the last roll. Well, at least I've shot off all my remaining 400 now - 800 TOTALLY rocks. I wish it were easier to find in big multipacks.
I should write some things for my newsletter, too, but I want to get my LJ stuff done first. Heck, then I can recycle and rewrite, of course, so it's largely the same thing. :-> I *do* definitely want to put out another edition of my songbook before OVFF (Halloween, for those who are keeping track of my social calendar), with a more complete index. Having the one I did for the whole week before ConChord, and the con itself, taught me what I want things indexed by. Playtesting! We're getting really quite close to version 3.0 on my songbook, which is as far as I've planned and plotted development. After that, either I get revelations, or I just add content without changing the basic concept.
Also on my list of 'do this before OVFF' - use the new cassettes we purchased to start actually USING my 4-track to get harmonies out of my head. Callie Hills offered to turn sound files into sheet music for me, so I really have absotively no excuse. I just need to knuckle down and do it. Of course, I probably WILL waffle until I have a more directional mike and such, but that's just me. Plus, register for classes ... I have until next Monday to do it at the cheap rate. And the Music Nights thing with J&B was a lot of fun; I wish it hadn't fallen by the wayside of busy schedules. Maybe again sometime.
For the record, Jack can be a well-meaning idiot sometimes. A little background first. We have two clocks up by our bed - the one with the alarms (MY alarms, specifically - he uses clocks downstairs to force him to actually get vertical to turn them off), which is set to The Current Time, and the clock we can see while lying down, which is set a bit fast. It used to be set 14 minutes fast (partly by accident, partly by design - it just ended up being that number). I got very used to this. A few months ago Jack reset it to 10 minutes. This threw off my mornings in very strange ways, but as 14 minutes is an odd number, I bitched but put up with it, retrained my reflexes. While I was gone he reset it to 15 minutes. And here I was wondering why I was so off yesterday morning ... gah. :-> I actually kind of liked it at 10, once I got used to it. Now to switch back, and think of a way to both thank him for being thoughtful and get him to not change things I rely upon when I'm only half awake ...
- Mood: chipper
- Music:Lots of new filk CDs from the weekend!
I found the first three books in a compendium, when I was a kid, and devoured them. The first I loved - and still do. The second was kind of more obvious in the plotting (in the sense that not only did I figure out what they'd need to do to Win about half a book before the characters did, but it was laid out so simply and straightforwardly that they'd have had to be idiots to miss it). The third was kind of interesting, in that it was a new character, with a new viewpoint on the magic thing, and the sheer scale of the plot was interesting (multiplanet, meeting aliens, etc). I kind of liked the fourth, with its new characters and the details of Irish wizardry. Book of Night with Moon was neat because the wizards were (very well written) cats, not people, but I didn't feel any real urge to read its sequel.
The Wizard's Dilemma was better than I was expecting, but still not a book I think I'll reread often. The surprising part was the almost total lack of plot. The book takes place in a single week, and almost entirely inside the head of Nita Callahan (with forays into her friend Kit's mind). It's a mood piece, and an emotional piece, and not really much like the other Wizard books. Instead of fighting the Lone Power (evil, death, entropy, etc) with massive ritual spells or universe-spanning efforts, Nita must resist strong temptation of a far more personal kind.
Like the other books, it telegraphs its punches pretty obviously, and I really don't believe the teenage characterizations, unfortunately (they felt like cardboard people written by someone who's read Sweet Valley High, to be honest). It has a couple interesting concepts, but they're either tossed off and forgotten, or explained in such detail that I stopped caring. I must admit, I personally find 'mood pieces' fairly boring unless there's plot to keep it going (contrast, for example, 'Felicity' with 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' - both show the love lives of college freshmen, but in Buffy there's OTHER things going on, and in Felicity it's all angst, all the time). Perhaps I'm just too old for this book, now.
- Mood:analytical
- Music:Suzanne Vega, 'Blood Makes Noise'
I have never read a better description of my relationship with books (except that I'm less of a serial monogamist) than is described in this entry by my longtime friend (and new lj user, yay! The disease spreads!),
cadhla. She writes so well, doesn't she? :-> I love her column. Annnnyway. </embarrass person="cadhla">I love books. I've turned to books my whole life, whenever I needed solace, whenever I couldn't deal, whenever I was bored. I got in the habit as a kid of never going anywhere (especially somewhere a wait was expected, like a doctor's office) without a paperback. I read standing in line. I read waiting for the bus. I believe strongly in the saying (though I don't remember anymore who I nicked it from - if you know, tell me! I hate having incomplete attributions), "If you've never walked into a parking meter, you're wasting valuable reading time."
It shouuld surprise nobody by this point in the entry that when I'm Too Depressed To Read, it's *really* bad. Likewise Too Tired To Read. Actually, reading is one of my more compulsive coping strategies - when I'm rockbottom, when I Can't Deal, when I would otherwise be turning a small circle with my left cheek pressed against my shoulder making little squeaking noises (and no, that's not an exaggeration, it's what happens when I Really Flip Out), I grab a book and hide somewhere with a corner I can curl into, and enough light to see by, and read.
I suppose it's escapism, if we're going to get technical. A sufficiently good book wraps me safe in some other world, in a story that carries me along, and I don't have to be Me anymore, I don't have to deal with things, I don't have to think about things. I can just hear the story in my head and make it all Go Away. The first time I really realized I used books for that was in 6th grade. We had a new teacher, and she took me aside one day and asked if I knew how much I was reading, if I'd ever tried just talking to the other kids, making friends, that kind of thing.
She made it sound so easy. I've never really had any idea how to talk to people my age. I hung out with older Important people at cocktail-type receptions with my grandfather; I sat around listening to my mom talk to her Neat Weird Friends; I babysat much younger kids occasionally. Kids my age? No idea. Of course, it's getting easier now that 'Kids My Age' are, well, grownups. But still. There are people I haven't talked to in a while, that I used to enjoy the company of (ok, awkward sentence, but I can't see a rephrase, work with me). I could, theoretically, call them up out of the blue and say hi. But what would I say after hi? Nothing ever happens, really, in my life. Nothing worth telling other people about, anyway.
I mean, I could talk about the books I've read ... and for some people, that's a great topic of conversation. :-> Must be why I like fandom so darn much, I suppose. They don't mind if I talk about books or TV - and they know enough about what I'm talking about that we can actually have a detailed conversation about it. They, to put it simply, care about the same things I care about (or enough of them have overlapping subsets, anyway, that I can almost always find someone to talk to at a convention). And if all else fails, they not only don't think it's rude that I'm reading out in public, some of them may stop and commend my choice of book. :->
- Mood:
contemplative
It's not like I'm some aliterate philistine, honest. I've gone through at least two books a week since I learned to read, about twenty years ago. I read a LOT. And I'm opinionated about what I read. And most of what bookstores shelve in 'Fiction' (no adjective, just 'fiction,' as if Romance, SF, Mystery and Horror aren't fictional) bores the crap out of me. I was trying to think of why, today, and came up with some commonalities. Be warned - Opinions Ahoy, with specific examples. :->
( My Literary Kisses of Death: No Plot, Masturbatory Writing, Coy References, Angst from Nowhere, Generic Tropes, Way Too Darn Long, Soberly Serious. )
- Mood: contemplative