Reading List, Birthday to Christmas
Dec. 26th, 2007 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
subplotkudzuTime to assess how well I did on the semi-annual reading list.
not too bad. I missed the following
The Complete Novels of Jane Austin volume 1 - Pride & Prejudice, Mansfield Park
I just could not get into Mansfield Park. I think it was watching the dumb people set themselves up and knowing that our low born but happy heroine would set the day right. I'm shelving that one, but will keep P&P on the next list.
The Works of Jules Verne - From the Earth to the Moon, Round the Moon and collected short stories
I found time for Twenty Thousand Leagues, but it was hard going. I've read books with unreliable narrators, or with ignorant narrators too dumb to figure out the events they're relating, but Arronax is an unobservant narrator who simply does not provide enough information, being so damn infatuated with fish. Nonetheless, the Moon books are on the next list as well.
The Ghosts of 42nd Street: a history of America's most notorious block by Anthony Bianco. Just ran out of time, having gotten infatuated with the copy of REIGN that ladegard bought me.
I addition to the list, I did get to:
Our Lady of Darkness and Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber (the latter was a reread, packaged with the former as part of the Tor SF Double line)
Passage by Connie Willis. This was damn good.
The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez Reverte. Enjoyable, but the author has to get over his women issues.
Things Will Never Be The Same by Howard Woldrop. Genius.
Spook Country by William Gibson. Not as good, alas, as Pattern Recognition, but enjoyable.
A few comments on last year's books.
The Hope Diamond: the legendary history of a cursed gem by Richard Kurin was dry to start but ended up being a very engaging history of an artifact over time. Great GM fodder, if you can find it.
The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox. Danger, Will Robinson! It opens with the central character sacrificing all sympathy for himself, then jumps back into flashbacks that try to elicit sympathy, only to end with him being an absolute total nitwit with a plot "twist" that my cat probably saw coming as she read over my shoulder. I'll admit that it's bibliophilic and historic with some nice writing, but the last 100 pages were an absolute chore.
The Complete Novels of Jane Austin volume 1 - Pride & Prejudice, Mansfield Park
I just could not get into Mansfield Park. I think it was watching the dumb people set themselves up and knowing that our low born but happy heroine would set the day right. I'm shelving that one, but will keep P&P on the next list.
The Works of Jules Verne - From the Earth to the Moon, Round the Moon and collected short stories
I found time for Twenty Thousand Leagues, but it was hard going. I've read books with unreliable narrators, or with ignorant narrators too dumb to figure out the events they're relating, but Arronax is an unobservant narrator who simply does not provide enough information, being so damn infatuated with fish. Nonetheless, the Moon books are on the next list as well.
The Ghosts of 42nd Street: a history of America's most notorious block by Anthony Bianco. Just ran out of time, having gotten infatuated with the copy of REIGN that ladegard bought me.
I addition to the list, I did get to:
Our Lady of Darkness and Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber (the latter was a reread, packaged with the former as part of the Tor SF Double line)
Passage by Connie Willis. This was damn good.
The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez Reverte. Enjoyable, but the author has to get over his women issues.
Things Will Never Be The Same by Howard Woldrop. Genius.
Spook Country by William Gibson. Not as good, alas, as Pattern Recognition, but enjoyable.
A few comments on last year's books.
The Hope Diamond: the legendary history of a cursed gem by Richard Kurin was dry to start but ended up being a very engaging history of an artifact over time. Great GM fodder, if you can find it.
The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox. Danger, Will Robinson! It opens with the central character sacrificing all sympathy for himself, then jumps back into flashbacks that try to elicit sympathy, only to end with him being an absolute total nitwit with a plot "twist" that my cat probably saw coming as she read over my shoulder. I'll admit that it's bibliophilic and historic with some nice writing, but the last 100 pages were an absolute chore.
