Category: General

Weekly Roundup

Posted January 25, 2021 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Greetings, folks! This is very slightly late, but I’m determined to get it out of the door anyway and get back into the habit…

Books acquired:

Cover of Slay by Brittney Morris

Books read this week:

Cover of The Books of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin and Charles Vess Cover of Sabine's Notebook by Nick Bantock Cover of The Golden Mean by Nick Bantock Cover of A History of the Paper Pattern Industry by Joy Spanabel Emery Cover of He'd Rather Be Dead by George Bellairs

Reviews posted this week:

How’s everyone else doing? Lots of reading?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted January 21, 2021 by Nicky in General / 1 Comment

Here goes, only slightly belated (there was a work thing to do!).

Cover of Abaddon's Gate by James S. A. CoreyWhat are you currently reading?

Fiction: Abaddon’s Gate, by James S.A. Corey, since it’s time I got on with rereading this series and got onto the new books. Abaddon’s Gate is the last one I read before, which makes it both easier and harder to read — easier, because I know what’s coming. And… harder, because I know what’s coming. There’s a bit where someone gets framed for something they didn’t do, and it’s agonising!

Non-fiction: A World Beneath the Sands, by Toby Wilkinson — slow going, but I’ve got through Champollion and a couple of gentleman dilettantes, and I’m kinda hoping there’ll be some more obscure stuff next. Also A History of the Paper Pattern Industry by Joy Spanabel Emery, which is pretty interesting. Paper patterns were usually made of acid-free paper and have survived better than textiles as a result, despite their seeming flimsiness! That makes them useful for studying the history of fashion.

Cover of The Books of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin and Charles VessWhat have you recently finished reading?

The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula Le Guin. I need to get my review posted with all of my thoughts… it’s always been a favourite, because it’s full of really graphic, resonant imagery. Even I can almost see the Empty Throne, the black-clad priestesses, the eerie standing stones in the desert… and I’m completely aphantasic!

What will you be reading next?Cover of Black and British by David Olusoga

Beats me. Nominally, I have a stack of ‘next up’ books that I should be paying attention to, but I think they need a rotation, because none of the current five are grabbing me right now. That said, I should pick up Black and British by David Olusoga, ’cause it’s a book club read this month.

That’s it for me — what’s everyone else reading?

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Weekly Roundup

Posted January 17, 2021 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

And here we are, a proper weekly roundup. At a ridiculous hour, because apparently we’re reliving our teen years and making bad sleep decisions on the weekends.

Books acquired this week:

Cover of Defekt, by Nino Cipri Cover of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum by Emma Southon

Thanks to Arbieroo, since it was his Christmas gift that got me A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (plus Griffin & Sabine, which arrived a bit sooner).

Books read this week:

Cover of The Case of the Famished Parson by George Bellairs Cover of The Bookseller's Tale by Martin Latham Cover of The Citadel of Weeping Pearls by Aliette de Bodard Cover of Blood and Circuses by Kerry Greenwood Cover of Ruddy Gore by Kerry Greenwood

Cover of The Books of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin and Charles Vess Cover of Defekt, by Nino Cipri Cover of Life in Miniature by Nicola Lisle Cover of The Tightrope Walker by Dorothy Gilman

Reviews posted this week:

So how’ve you folks been doing?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted January 13, 2021 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Greetings, everyone! My wife has now fixed the issue where I wasn’t getting notification emails, and I got inbox zero again for the first time in a few months, so I’m back!

What are you currently reading?

Cover of The Books of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin and Charles VessFiction: A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin, which is of course a reread for me. But it’s the first time I’m reading the beautiful version illustrated by Charles Vess. Funnily enough, I’m finding that I know it so well, I can identity individual words that have been changed/corrected (some for the better, others for the worst) in the new text.

Non-fiction: A World Beneath the Sands, by Toby Wilkinson, which is a history of Egyptologists rather a history of Egypt itself, although of course the two are inevitably interlinked. I’m not far into it yet. I’m also reading A Life in Miniature, by Nicola Lisle, which is about dolls’ houses. It’s… very descriptive, delving into the exact furnishings of specific dolls’ houses. Not sure if I will stick with it.

Cover of The Citadel of Weeping Pearls by Aliette de BodardWhat have you recently finished reading?

A reread of Blood and Circuses, by Kerry Greenwood — I felt like spending some time with Phryne Fisher, though this is kind of unrepresentative given it follows a case where she joins a circus to figure out what’s happening!

I also finished The Citadel of Weeping Pearls, by Aliette de Bodard, which reminded me that I really want to track down more of the Xuya stories and read more in that universe.

Cover of A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem by Manda CollinsWhat will you be reading next?

Big shrug, as ever. I’m tempted by A Lady’s Guide to Murder and Mayhem, by Manda Collins; sounds like it should be fluffy fun.

What are you currently reading?

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Weekly Roundup

Posted January 10, 2021 by Nicky in General / 7 Comments

Well, it’s been a while! I’m not going to do a full roundup, because it really has been too long, but this will serve as a placeholder for hopefully getting back to business as usual. So here’s a selection of books I got recently/for Christmas…

Books acquired:

Cover of A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark Cover of She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan Cover of The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

Cover of The End of Everything by Katie Mack Cover of What Stars Are Made of by Donovan Moore Cover of A History of the Paper Pattern Industry by Joy Spanabel Emery Cover of A World Beneath the Sands by Toby Wilkinson

Cover of The Nobody People by Bob Proehl Cover of A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem by Manda Collins Cover of Long Live the Post Horn! by Vigdis Hjorth

As ever, a pretty eclectic mix, and I look forward to ignoring them all equally while I reread older books… okay, okay, not really — I hope to read some of these very soon! But we all know what I’m like…

So, how are you all doing?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted January 7, 2021 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

It’s been a while since I posted one of these here! But I’m trying to be more present again now… So let’s have a reading check-in!

Cover of The Gabriel Hounds by Mary StewartWhat are you currently reading?

Long Live the Post Horn! by Vigdis Hjorth. It is… not really my thing; the rambling reflective narration is not working for me. It’s mostly for Postcrossing’s blog, though, so I’m forging my way along, slowly. Presumably the main character is going to care about working with the Norwegian postal service sometime soon.

I’m also partway through rereading The Gabriel Hounds, which I have fond memories of — partially memories of buying it while I was in Italy, my BA graduation present oh these many years ago, and reading it on the train between Naples and Rome.

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of Holy Shit by Melissa MohrGriffin & Sabine by Nick Bantock, also for Postcrossing’s blog — it never rains but it pours; I’m stocking up blog posts for the next little while in case I come over all contrary and don’t feel like reading anything about postcards/postal systems. (This is bound to happen at some point.) I loved it; it’s a very tactile experience, since it actually contains the letters in actual envelope-like pouches, so you have to carefully slip them out and unfold them. I’m intrigued by the mystery of it.

Before that was Holy Shit, by Melissa Mohr — thank you to whoever recommended me that, though I’ve forgotten who. It was great; the chapter on oath-taking in the Bible was particularly fascinating.

Cover of The Books of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin and Charles VessWhat will you be reading next?

Sadly, it will not be Sabine’s Notebook (the sequel to Griffin & Sabine) because that’s in the post to me, having been only ordered today when I closed Griffin & Sabine on that cliffhanger. As ever, the answer is probably a shrug emoji, though I do want to go back to and finish Monstrous Regiment (Terry Pratchett), and a revisit of A Wizard of Earthsea seems indicated, because it’s a book club book (we all got together and picked our favourite books, then 12 of those got picked out of the hat to serve as prompts for a year of reading) and I still haven’t read the illustrated edition.

What are you currently reading?

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Game of Books 2021

Posted January 2, 2021 by Nicky in General / 1 Comment

A "Game of Books" image, based on the Iron ThroneGame on!

Since 2017, I’ve sort of stopped having reading goals about how many books I’ll read in a year. I felt pushed towards reading shorter books faster, always looking for more more more, instead of enjoying longer books like I used to.

Since then, I’ve moved to a points system, which lets me award myself more points for reading the stuff I want/need to read — books that have been on my backlog for a long time, for instance, or longer books.

This is that system! And it’s adaptable to whatever goals you like: whatever you want to incentivise, you can assign it a points value.

Will you be joining me?

That spreadsheet has most of the details and an example spreadsheet… which is good, because this year I’ve been too busy to set mine up yet. Last year’s post might also be helpful, since I knew what I was planning better back then!

I do know what goals I’m going for (I’m going to add in points for updating Litsy, reviewing books on time and commenting on other people’s blogs) and what I’ve given up on (no attempt to rate my enjoyment this time), but how exactly I’m going to make it work as a spreadsheet is a whole other question. Stay tuned, I guess…

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WWW Wednesday

Posted December 9, 2020 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Well, it’s been a minute since I did this. Oops.

Cover of The Mortal Word by Genevieve CogmanWhat are you currently reading?

I’m in the middle of The Mortal Word, by Genevieve Cogman; I was bemoaning the lack of Peregrine Vale in the previous book, and lo and behold, this one’s a murder mystery. Here’s hoping there’s plenty of Vale in this one (though I hope Kai isn’t as relegated to the sidelines as he appears to be here).

I’m also reading Murder Underground, by Mavis Doriel Hay. I can’t remember how I felt about Death on the Cherwell, but Murder Underground is doing okay — even if Basil is a silly ass who would do a lot better by not lying to the detectives!

What have you recently finished reading?

I finished up Meteorite: The Stones From Outer Space That Made Our World, by Tim Gregory. I love non-fiction books of all kinds where you can really feel that the writer loves their subject, and this is one of those. Cosmochemistry isn’t my thing at all, but Gregory’s so excited about it, it made me excited to read.

Cover of Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuistonWhat will you be reading next?

As usual, I’ve no idea. My wife’s thinking of reading Red, White and Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston, so maybe I’ll buddy read that with her? Or I’ll get back to something on the Shelf of Abandoned Books… ahem.

What are you all reading?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted November 25, 2020 by Nicky in General / 1 Comment

Greetings, friends! I just caught up on all the unanswered blog comments I could find — and I’ll try to be better here on out!

Cover of MetaZoa by Peter Godfrey-SmithWhat are you currently reading?

Without much enthusiasm, Peter Godfrey-Smith’s Metazoa. I remembered really liking Other Minds, so I am disappointed by this one, which I’m not finding very readable. I don’t expect much popular science stuff that focuses on biology to be new to me except in the finer details — I read it for a) obscure factoids and b) comfort through familiarity and order — but this one isn’t new and it’s slooow.

I’m also partway through Abaddon’s Gate (James S.A. Corey), and a reread of Fire & Hemlock (Diana Wynne Jones). It’s fun to rediscover the latter now I have a more than passing familiarity with the Tam Lin story.

Cover of Network Effect by Martha WellsWhat have you recently finished reading?

Uhhh, good question… I think the last thing was Network Effect (Martha Wells) and The Churn (James S.A. Corey). The former was a lot of fun; it is nice to hang out with Murderbot. The latter was… superfluous, I think, if you’ve read the main series. It doesn’t tell us much more about Amos than we already knew.

What will you be reading next? 

Nooo idea. My brain isn’t cooperating very much, so I think it’ll be a while before I get to reading something else.

What’re you folks reading?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted November 19, 2020 by Nicky in General / 3 Comments

Quick update, because I am tired!

What are you currently reading?

Actually, pretty much nothing. There are some books on the Shelf of Abandoned Books that I need to pick back up, but I finished a book earlier and that was pretty much all I had on my plate actually in progress at the moment.

Cover of Caliban's War by James S.A. CoreyWhat have you recently finished reading?

My reread of Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey. I remembered it pretty well, in broad strokes, but some stuff I’d forgotten. I’m enjoying getting stuck back into this world: the books are chunky (500-600 pages) but somehow I can easily sit and read 100 pages at a pop.

Cover of Goldilocks by Laura LamWhat will you be reading next?

I will be returning to some books from the Shelf of Abandoned Books, including Network Effect (Martha Wells) for the Mini Battle in the Clear Your Shit Readathon. I’m also planning to start on Laura Lam’s Goldilocks again (which I put down because my anxiety ate my brain right before it came out) and also steam on with rereading The Expanse books, with Abaddon’s Gate up next.

What’re you folks reading?

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