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shadowkatDang-nabbit, internet, is persuading me to buy books again. (I really do not need to buy any more books. Although at least they are e-books - which is either a lease to read it on the Kindle, so not really buying ...I don't know, the whole thing confuses me to no end. And I can't afford a Kindle and a Kobo. Plus buying books on Kindle is easy and cheap, so there's that and I get points. )
1. I bought Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Safron - about a boy in late 1940s Barcelona or post WWII Barcelona who is charged with protecting a book, long out of print, and rare - from the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. The Book in question is also entitled "Shadow of the Wind". Thank you Sarah Michelle Gellar for perking my curiosity enough for me to purchase this book. Much appreciated. (She said in an interview broadcast on Instagram that her two favorite books were Donna Tartt's Secret History (which I loved and devoured in the 1990s) and Shadow of the Wind (so I got curious about Shadow of the Wind - which Stephen King also adored). The book is difficult to describe with a convoluted plot - I apparently like to read and write these types of books, which makes my life more difficult but far less dull.
Then grabbed, "Locked-In by John Scalzi" - which I'd flirted with previously, as when he first published it ages ago, but got persuaded when he posted that a bunch of people in Texas (it's always one of the Southern States - must be all those hot days? Bakes the brain?) had chosen to ban it. He was upset about it. (I'd have been too.) Apparently it's never happened to him before. (which is interesting - he's certainly liberal and political enough). So, I got curious - and decided to get it for $6.99.
Which is admittedly more than usual, but there you go. It's a sci-fi/mystery hybrid with a convoluted plot. Has a Black Mirror vibe to it. I've read a couple of his "stand alone" books: Red Shirts, Starter Villain, Kaijiu Preservation Society...the last two were read by Will Wheaton. Scalzi is a nerdy sci-fi writer, and usually has nerdy protagonists. He's kind of similar to Andy Weir? Except I like Weir's books slightly better.
As an aside? I'm fundamentally against censorship. Are there books that I despise? Yes. Do I think they should be censored? No. The challenge of "free speech" is folks you don't agree with have to have it too - in order for it to work. There were librarians commenting on Scalzi's post stating they sent out books they despised all the time.
I'm not going to tell folks what to read or shame them for what they are reading. I wouldn't want them to shame me. Also the author or creator tends to drop away when you read or listen to a book - it's just you and the book's characters interacting. You can interpret it any way you want - the author can't control how we interpret what they write. I know I wrote a book and some of the people who read it interpreted it the way I wanted, most interpreted it in ways that never ever occurred to me when I wrote it.
Stories take on a life of their own and cease being the authors once they get out there. And deserve to be read and shared. It's not up to me or anyone else to chose or judge what stories should or shouldn't be shared? We don't know what someone else may or may not learn from them or react to them, except it will be different than how we did. That's the only given - that their reaction whatever it is will be different on some level from ours.
If you want to read problematic authors like JK Rowling, Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman, Rosemary Rogers, Bret Easten Ellis, Warren Ellis, Virgina Woolfe, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, TS Eliot, Ronald Dahl, etc...go for it. You can even do it without giving them a dime, believe it or not - because there's a little thing known as a library making that possible. And libraries now allow you to borrow books electronically. Censorship be damned. I don't know about anyone else? But I make it a point to read banned books.
And finally a Dark London Mystery/Romance Series novel entitled Winterblaze by Kristen Callihan which was $1.99,
and a second chance romance between an estranged married couple, in a paranormal verse. "Poppy Lane is keeping secrets. Her powerful gift has earned her membership in the Society for the Suppression of Supernaturals, but she must keep both her ability and her alliance with the Society from her husband, Winston. Yet when Winston is brutally attacked by a werewolf, Poppy’s secrets are revealed, leaving Winston’s trust in her as broken as his body. Now Poppy will do anything to win back his affections." The second chance ex-lover trope is a huge kink of mine. (I prefer older romances to young ones...for the most part.)
I love books. Books are my friends. They've seen me through some tough times.
Coworker: Are you one of those people who always has a book in your hand or with you?
ME: Definitely
If I had to choose between books, television and movies - I'd probably pick books - easier to carry around and less noisy.
1. I bought Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Safron - about a boy in late 1940s Barcelona or post WWII Barcelona who is charged with protecting a book, long out of print, and rare - from the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. The Book in question is also entitled "Shadow of the Wind". Thank you Sarah Michelle Gellar for perking my curiosity enough for me to purchase this book. Much appreciated. (She said in an interview broadcast on Instagram that her two favorite books were Donna Tartt's Secret History (which I loved and devoured in the 1990s) and Shadow of the Wind (so I got curious about Shadow of the Wind - which Stephen King also adored). The book is difficult to describe with a convoluted plot - I apparently like to read and write these types of books, which makes my life more difficult but far less dull.
Then grabbed, "Locked-In by John Scalzi" - which I'd flirted with previously, as when he first published it ages ago, but got persuaded when he posted that a bunch of people in Texas (it's always one of the Southern States - must be all those hot days? Bakes the brain?) had chosen to ban it. He was upset about it. (I'd have been too.) Apparently it's never happened to him before. (which is interesting - he's certainly liberal and political enough). So, I got curious - and decided to get it for $6.99.
Which is admittedly more than usual, but there you go. It's a sci-fi/mystery hybrid with a convoluted plot. Has a Black Mirror vibe to it. I've read a couple of his "stand alone" books: Red Shirts, Starter Villain, Kaijiu Preservation Society...the last two were read by Will Wheaton. Scalzi is a nerdy sci-fi writer, and usually has nerdy protagonists. He's kind of similar to Andy Weir? Except I like Weir's books slightly better.
As an aside? I'm fundamentally against censorship. Are there books that I despise? Yes. Do I think they should be censored? No. The challenge of "free speech" is folks you don't agree with have to have it too - in order for it to work. There were librarians commenting on Scalzi's post stating they sent out books they despised all the time.
I'm not going to tell folks what to read or shame them for what they are reading. I wouldn't want them to shame me. Also the author or creator tends to drop away when you read or listen to a book - it's just you and the book's characters interacting. You can interpret it any way you want - the author can't control how we interpret what they write. I know I wrote a book and some of the people who read it interpreted it the way I wanted, most interpreted it in ways that never ever occurred to me when I wrote it.
Stories take on a life of their own and cease being the authors once they get out there. And deserve to be read and shared. It's not up to me or anyone else to chose or judge what stories should or shouldn't be shared? We don't know what someone else may or may not learn from them or react to them, except it will be different than how we did. That's the only given - that their reaction whatever it is will be different on some level from ours.
If you want to read problematic authors like JK Rowling, Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman, Rosemary Rogers, Bret Easten Ellis, Warren Ellis, Virgina Woolfe, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, TS Eliot, Ronald Dahl, etc...go for it. You can even do it without giving them a dime, believe it or not - because there's a little thing known as a library making that possible. And libraries now allow you to borrow books electronically. Censorship be damned. I don't know about anyone else? But I make it a point to read banned books.
And finally a Dark London Mystery/Romance Series novel entitled Winterblaze by Kristen Callihan which was $1.99,
and a second chance romance between an estranged married couple, in a paranormal verse. "Poppy Lane is keeping secrets. Her powerful gift has earned her membership in the Society for the Suppression of Supernaturals, but she must keep both her ability and her alliance with the Society from her husband, Winston. Yet when Winston is brutally attacked by a werewolf, Poppy’s secrets are revealed, leaving Winston’s trust in her as broken as his body. Now Poppy will do anything to win back his affections." The second chance ex-lover trope is a huge kink of mine. (I prefer older romances to young ones...for the most part.)
I love books. Books are my friends. They've seen me through some tough times.
Coworker: Are you one of those people who always has a book in your hand or with you?
ME: Definitely
If I had to choose between books, television and movies - I'd probably pick books - easier to carry around and less noisy.
no subject
Date: 2026-03-27 08:42 am (UTC)