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Wed Reading Meme
Mar. 4th, 2015 07:30 pmThe singer/song-writer Janis Ian posted on Facebook the following: Instead of buying me a drink in a bar, people should offer to buy me a book in a bookstore. It would impress me a lot more, and further their goal.
[Or something to that effect, I can't remember the exact wording. I thought, yeah pretty much. Plus bookstores? Less noisy and crowded. Much rather hook up or be picked up by a guy in a book store.]
Walk to work improved my balancing skills. Or skating skills. Since I pretty much skated the whole way there. Walk home was dirty and grimy, but relatively free of ice and snow, just in time for the snowstorm tonight. To prepare for the temperature drop, the apartment's radiators are on full blast. So it's warm and cozy.
I'm working on being grateful. Ranting less, complaining less, being more positive with my own thought patterns...wish me luck. Probably be more effective if I didn't speak for an hour with my mother each night (she's still struggling with her knee replacement surgery). On the other hand, I'm grateful to be able to do so.
1. What I just finished reading
Among Others by Jo Walton which won the Hugo and the Nebula Award a few years back. I don't think it was recent. I don't tend to read recent fiction for some reason. Also, it's probably worth stating that I've jumped genres again. This is a speculative science-fiction/fantasy novel.
Here's the review that I wrote for Good Reads and Amazon, or rather an edited version of that review:
Among Others is an odd book - the writing style is in some respects reminiscent of Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, except in the first person. Told completely in the voice and point of view of a 15 year old girl growing up in Wales and Shropshire, during the late 1970s and early 1980s (circa 1979-1980). If, like me, you came of age in the 1980s and late 1970s, you'll probably identify a great deal with the book. Particularly if you were a science-fiction/fantasy fan. (I was a bit broader in my reading tastes than the protagonist or the author apparently, in that I read across genres, much as I do now.)
It's written primarily in "diary" format, chapters are dated, and often not much longer than a sentence or two. And for a while it feels like nothing much is happening, since the story is more of an internalized or psychological narrative than an external action packed page turner. Fans of Harry Potter will most likely be bored.
( vague plot spoilers )
Slow to start, but ultimately compelling and haunting. It sticks in your mind long after you read it. Mori wonders at various points if there is a downside of escaping completely into books. If she is shutting herself off? Yet it is through her books that she finds others like herself, and evolves. The act of reading - expands her consciousness and allows her to let go of her childhood, and past grievances. In some respects, the science fiction novels she devours ultimately heal her.
2. What I'm reading now?
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon - a book that I attempted to read several years back and have recently, upon a co-worker's recommendation, decided to try again. Granted it is the same co-worker who recommended Roger Zelzany's Lord of Light, but generally speaking he understands my taste.
Outlander, despite its marketing, is not a romance novel. It's more of a historical science fiction fantasy novel with elements of romance. The focus isn't really on romance. And it breaks a lot of the rules of the romance genre, so does not fit neatly within it. Romance readers find it irritating, because it's not "romantic".
For one thing there is a lot of violence in the novel, which makes sense due to the heavy war theme and the time period.
The story is about a WII Army Nurse who accidentally travels back to the 1700s. It's in some respects a what-if tale. What if an English Army Nurse who had just recently served on the front lines of WWII (in this case France), finds herself back in 1743 Scotland around the time of the Jacobite Uprising? How would she survive? What issues would she have to navigate? What are the differences between how women were treated in the 1940s vs. the 1700s?
( Read more... )
3. What I'm reading next?
No clue. Depends on how I feel about Outlander, if I continue the series. I may jump to something else. I sort of let the spirit guide me in these endeavors.
[Or something to that effect, I can't remember the exact wording. I thought, yeah pretty much. Plus bookstores? Less noisy and crowded. Much rather hook up or be picked up by a guy in a book store.]
Walk to work improved my balancing skills. Or skating skills. Since I pretty much skated the whole way there. Walk home was dirty and grimy, but relatively free of ice and snow, just in time for the snowstorm tonight. To prepare for the temperature drop, the apartment's radiators are on full blast. So it's warm and cozy.
I'm working on being grateful. Ranting less, complaining less, being more positive with my own thought patterns...wish me luck. Probably be more effective if I didn't speak for an hour with my mother each night (she's still struggling with her knee replacement surgery). On the other hand, I'm grateful to be able to do so.
1. What I just finished reading
Among Others by Jo Walton which won the Hugo and the Nebula Award a few years back. I don't think it was recent. I don't tend to read recent fiction for some reason. Also, it's probably worth stating that I've jumped genres again. This is a speculative science-fiction/fantasy novel.
Here's the review that I wrote for Good Reads and Amazon, or rather an edited version of that review:
Among Others is an odd book - the writing style is in some respects reminiscent of Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, except in the first person. Told completely in the voice and point of view of a 15 year old girl growing up in Wales and Shropshire, during the late 1970s and early 1980s (circa 1979-1980). If, like me, you came of age in the 1980s and late 1970s, you'll probably identify a great deal with the book. Particularly if you were a science-fiction/fantasy fan. (I was a bit broader in my reading tastes than the protagonist or the author apparently, in that I read across genres, much as I do now.)
It's written primarily in "diary" format, chapters are dated, and often not much longer than a sentence or two. And for a while it feels like nothing much is happening, since the story is more of an internalized or psychological narrative than an external action packed page turner. Fans of Harry Potter will most likely be bored.
( vague plot spoilers )
Slow to start, but ultimately compelling and haunting. It sticks in your mind long after you read it. Mori wonders at various points if there is a downside of escaping completely into books. If she is shutting herself off? Yet it is through her books that she finds others like herself, and evolves. The act of reading - expands her consciousness and allows her to let go of her childhood, and past grievances. In some respects, the science fiction novels she devours ultimately heal her.
2. What I'm reading now?
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon - a book that I attempted to read several years back and have recently, upon a co-worker's recommendation, decided to try again. Granted it is the same co-worker who recommended Roger Zelzany's Lord of Light, but generally speaking he understands my taste.
Outlander, despite its marketing, is not a romance novel. It's more of a historical science fiction fantasy novel with elements of romance. The focus isn't really on romance. And it breaks a lot of the rules of the romance genre, so does not fit neatly within it. Romance readers find it irritating, because it's not "romantic".
For one thing there is a lot of violence in the novel, which makes sense due to the heavy war theme and the time period.
The story is about a WII Army Nurse who accidentally travels back to the 1700s. It's in some respects a what-if tale. What if an English Army Nurse who had just recently served on the front lines of WWII (in this case France), finds herself back in 1743 Scotland around the time of the Jacobite Uprising? How would she survive? What issues would she have to navigate? What are the differences between how women were treated in the 1940s vs. the 1700s?
( Read more... )
3. What I'm reading next?
No clue. Depends on how I feel about Outlander, if I continue the series. I may jump to something else. I sort of let the spirit guide me in these endeavors.