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Wed Reading Meme
Mar. 18th, 2015 07:29 pmYesterday, which was St. Patrick's Day in the US, although not so sure it is celebrated elsewhere. The US has some interesting ethnic holidays that appear to be unknown outside of the US. Cinco De Mayo for example is not recognized in Mexico.
Anyhow...the Irish Center for Arts decided to give away books at Atlantic Avenue Terminal yesterday morning. And they got there bright and early. As a result, I was able to snag four, pristine, new books from their table. This made my day. Apparently it doesn't take much to make me happy. Free books? Brand new? I had to take off before I snagged more than I could possibly carry.
The one's I snagged?
* A new hardback edition of James Joyce's Dubliner's.
* Zolie by Colum McCann - which is about a Romanian Gypsey in the former Soviet Union who manages to emigrate to Ireland. It apparently won the National Book Award at some point.
* The China Factory: Stories by Mary Costello
* An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor - who is apparently a Canadian/Irish author, who has written a series of books about a bunch of doctors in Ireland.
I took it as the Universe's belated birthday gift. Made me very happy at any rate. I love getting free books - even if I don't exactly have the room for them.
Regarding the Reading Meme - I'm still reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, which is about 800 pages in length. Yes, she's almost as verbose as George RR Martin, although more interested in graphic sex scenes than graphic battle scenes, although there is a smattering of both.
The Outlander television series follows the Book rather closely, actually. More than I thought it did. And in various ways, it's actually better written. I'd recommend the television series over the book. It fixes a few things, and there's less, ahem, gratuitous sex scenes. In the book, they appear to do it constantly and just about everywhere. It gets old and I began to skim after a bit. (Galbadon is not that good at sex scenes. Sex scenes are apparently difficult to write. Hint - less is more. It's the opposite of an action scene, you don't need to describe things in that much detail, imagination works a lot better.)
Anyhow, the television series is tighter, better paced, and more realistic.
For example?
( spoilers for both the book and tv series )
I may give up on the books and just stick with the tv series.
Feel weirdly the same way about Game of Thrones - I like it better as a television series as well - it's tighter, less rambling, and the characters better defined. Also, a lot less frustrating. Although, I'm beginning to think the people writing the television series are far more sadistic regarding what they like to show done to their characters than GRR Martin, which I didn't think was possible and is saying something. According to what I've read in EW about Game of Thrones (they donate most of a magazine to it) - they are veering quite a bit from the books this season. Completely dropped two subplots - one in Dorn and one in the Iron Islands, moved Jamie to Dorne to bring back Myrcella, and may speed up Tyrion's plot line. They've also sidelined Bran completely - he won't appear. I'm not unhappy about this turn of events, all three of those items slowed down the plot considerably. As much as I wish they'd drop the Theon subplot - I know it's important to the whole Stannis/Jon Snow plot arc.
Also, rumor has it that they plan on killing a bunch of characters that survive in the books. (Really? As if Martin doesn't kill enough characters on his own? And they say television writers aren't blood thirsty...Personally, I think they just like to shock the audience. Although the audience is becoming rapidly shock proof.) Oh, and Lena Headly has a nude stunt double - apparently she has an anti-nudity clause in her contract - which ahem explains a lot. Wonder if the guy who plays Jamie does too?
Anyhow...the Irish Center for Arts decided to give away books at Atlantic Avenue Terminal yesterday morning. And they got there bright and early. As a result, I was able to snag four, pristine, new books from their table. This made my day. Apparently it doesn't take much to make me happy. Free books? Brand new? I had to take off before I snagged more than I could possibly carry.
The one's I snagged?
* A new hardback edition of James Joyce's Dubliner's.
* Zolie by Colum McCann - which is about a Romanian Gypsey in the former Soviet Union who manages to emigrate to Ireland. It apparently won the National Book Award at some point.
* The China Factory: Stories by Mary Costello
* An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor - who is apparently a Canadian/Irish author, who has written a series of books about a bunch of doctors in Ireland.
I took it as the Universe's belated birthday gift. Made me very happy at any rate. I love getting free books - even if I don't exactly have the room for them.
Regarding the Reading Meme - I'm still reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, which is about 800 pages in length. Yes, she's almost as verbose as George RR Martin, although more interested in graphic sex scenes than graphic battle scenes, although there is a smattering of both.
The Outlander television series follows the Book rather closely, actually. More than I thought it did. And in various ways, it's actually better written. I'd recommend the television series over the book. It fixes a few things, and there's less, ahem, gratuitous sex scenes. In the book, they appear to do it constantly and just about everywhere. It gets old and I began to skim after a bit. (Galbadon is not that good at sex scenes. Sex scenes are apparently difficult to write. Hint - less is more. It's the opposite of an action scene, you don't need to describe things in that much detail, imagination works a lot better.)
Anyhow, the television series is tighter, better paced, and more realistic.
For example?
( spoilers for both the book and tv series )
I may give up on the books and just stick with the tv series.
Feel weirdly the same way about Game of Thrones - I like it better as a television series as well - it's tighter, less rambling, and the characters better defined. Also, a lot less frustrating. Although, I'm beginning to think the people writing the television series are far more sadistic regarding what they like to show done to their characters than GRR Martin, which I didn't think was possible and is saying something. According to what I've read in EW about Game of Thrones (they donate most of a magazine to it) - they are veering quite a bit from the books this season. Completely dropped two subplots - one in Dorn and one in the Iron Islands, moved Jamie to Dorne to bring back Myrcella, and may speed up Tyrion's plot line. They've also sidelined Bran completely - he won't appear. I'm not unhappy about this turn of events, all three of those items slowed down the plot considerably. As much as I wish they'd drop the Theon subplot - I know it's important to the whole Stannis/Jon Snow plot arc.
Also, rumor has it that they plan on killing a bunch of characters that survive in the books. (Really? As if Martin doesn't kill enough characters on his own? And they say television writers aren't blood thirsty...Personally, I think they just like to shock the audience. Although the audience is becoming rapidly shock proof.) Oh, and Lena Headly has a nude stunt double - apparently she has an anti-nudity clause in her contract - which ahem explains a lot. Wonder if the guy who plays Jamie does too?