Wed Reading Meme ?

[shadowkat]

Very odd, the ceiling sounds like it is farting again. At least I think it is the ceiling. It might be the sink? I can't figure it out. It comes and goes. Renting apartments in NYC is always an experience.

I haven't read anything interesting in a long time. Or at least it feels like a long time. Big old reading slump. Also on a bit of writing slump. And a television slump. I blame February. It casts its drab exterior over everything like so much muck.

Finished The Sins of Lord Easterbrook by Madeline Hunter which I don't recommend. Boring. Shouldn't have been. We had a somewhat autistic lead, who sensed others feelings a bit too much for his own good. An exotic heroine, who was investigating the opium trade and the hero's role in it.
And well, a conspiracy by a bunch of Lords regarding said opium trade, smuggling of British secrets during the War, and their role in her father's demise. It should have been interesting. But alas, the writer was more interested in writing incredibly long graphic sex scenes...and in an academic style fitting with the time period. Sex scenes should not be written in that manner. Either do the darn things right or not at all.

Her book, "Stealing Heaven" which is in Medieval Times, and concerns a Welsh Princess attempting to win a War of sorts against Britain, was much better. Hunter's Medieval books are her best. She sucks at other time periods.

Now reading Courtney Milan's Once Upon a Marquess - which oddly is about the same thing that Sins of Lord Easterbrook was about, with a Marquess who has the same name, Christian, and some interesting issues. He's OCD. The heroine in this novel is into designing clockworks. Milan is a much better writer than Hunter. She also has a sense of humor, similar to Georgette Heyer, except a bit more biting and far more subtle. In this book the hero turned in the heroine's father and brother as traitors for smuggling state secrets. And he struggles with his desire for laudenum - which is basically opium. So very similar, but far better written. Also the hero isn't an domineering, controlling guy, more a joking, kind sort of guy. Beta hero instead of Alpha hero, rare for these sorts of books. Milan is one of those writers who likes to subvert the genre, as opposed to just following the template.

Next? I need to read Euphoria by Lily King for book club. But I have mixed feelings about the book club, so am dragging my feet on the book.

Really am having issues finding things that thrill or enthrall me at the moment. Everything feels so...drab.

Did love The 100 - which I binge watched last weekend. 4 episodes. Also Grey's Anatomy, The Good Wife and Scandal. Have come to the conclusion that The 100 is the best sci-fi show currently on. (Sorry, I'm not really a fan of episodica television series like Doctor Who or the X-Files, never have been, never will be...it's the short story aspect I think that turns me off. Really don't know. I keep trying. But alas, the appeal of episodic television appears to be largely lost on me. And yes, I know, both have arcs, but the arcs don't work for me...well except for the River Song arc, that worked for me. It's subjective thing. Either works or doesn't for you. I used to think math wasn't subjective, but I've changed my mind. I think everything is subjective. Even how you view yourself and your world. There is no such thing as objective...which sort of shines a weird light on awards shows, doesn't it?)

Getting to back to why I no longer think math is subjective? There's this question on Facebook, one of those social media math memes...in which they tell you to calculate a bunch of numbers without using a calculator. What fascinated me was the responses.

Here's the math question:

Take 1,000
Add 40
Add 1000
Add 20
Add 1000
Add 30
Add 1000
Add 10

As quickly as you can.



1. 5000
2. 4100

(oddly about 50% got 5,000 and 50% got 4100)

3. 3090 (1 person)

Me? Bewildered by anyone who didn't get 5,000. How did they figure this out? I've done it two ways and still get 5,000. (My math phobia makes me question whether that's the correct answer. LOL!)



I like words better. More honest. You know there's multiple translations and interpretations going in.
Math reminds me of the historical fiction genre...it lies to you. And gets off on it too. Yet, somehow, I managed to find a way to do it for a living (math not historical fiction -- if only it were the latter, although probably far less lucrative).

Comments

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

That would be the one Korean marine biologist and son of Mexican American migrant workers who became an army medic until losing his legs in Afghanastan.

I don't usually read contemporaries either, but I quite like this one.

And Rose Lerner (another romance novelist) is interesting to follow on Twitter (though she's amusingly obsessed with the musical "Hamilton").

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Hmm...Has Rose Lerner seen Hamilton? I ask because that musical is impossible to see. (It's the big thing right now, apparently. Got two 60 Minutes reviews, a lengthy interview on PBS, and a standing ovation at the Grammy's.) Also, tickets are sold out until 2020. I know, I tried to get some. Resale tickets are available between $600-$1200.

I refuse to get obsessed over that musical. (I am a musical theater geek, so this could legitimately happen. "Hamilton" is basically catnip to musical theater geeks and history geeks. Also works really for politically correct/conscious geeks. Luckily, I only fit the musical theater geek category.) But I'm not that masochistic -- if it's not available, then I won't be obsessed with it. It's insanely painful to get obsessed with theatrical productions, for one thing, you can't really rewatch them, well you could, but it's too expensive to do so and time-consuming.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

No clue. Just that her Twitter feed is peppered with factoids about Hamitin and Burr