Category: General

What are you reading Wednesday

Posted October 5, 2016 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Wait, it’s Wednesday again already? Ack!

What have you recently finished reading?
I finished my reread of The Fellowship of the Ring! I’ve already written a long and rambling review, but suffice it to say, trekking across Middle-earth in Lord of the Rings Online has really enhanced my appreciation of the books and the work Tolkien put in. This time, I could see everything so much more clearly. It’s not Tolkien’s fault I couldn’t before; that’s all down to my lack of visual imagination. But with LOTRO to base it on, wow, suddenly there’s a whole new layer of complexity.

I’ve also been reading Ultimate X-Men, the first four volumes, and I’m… not greatly impressed. I guess the Avengers are more my team?

What are you currently reading?
I’m technically still reading Blood Pact, which I was reading last week. I haven’t really got any further with it, to be perfectly honest. I generally enjoy Tanya Huff’s work, but this series just doesn’t seem to work for me. It’s a shame, because Vicky Nelson in herself is an awesome character, but something about the rivalry between Celluci and Henry just makes my eyes roll.

I’m also reading Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe, by Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee. I have the same problem with it I always do with books about life in the universe: we have a sample size of one. They have compelling arguments, and yet even when you expand it to what we know about the potential for life just in our solar system, that’s still only a sample size of one. We only have intimate detail on one way a solar system is formed. Even then, there’s plenty we don’t know. So I’m enjoying the science, but still unconvinced by the premise.

I’m still reading Emma, via Serial Reader. That’s okay, but I’m glad I’m reading it in small chunks. I keep getting terribly embarrassed for Emma when she misinterprets things and thinks herself so… superior. I know how it ends, but I can’t quite see what the gentleman in question sees in her given his general practicality.

What are you planning to read next?
The Two Towers, definitely. I’m not going to let this reread be derailed! But tomorrow I’m travelling all day, and I think I might beguile the time with some of Tor.com’s upcoming novellas: I’ve been approved for Winter Tide (Ruthanna Emrys), A Taste of Honey (Kai Ashante Wilson), Everything Belongs to the Future (Laurie Penny), The Lost Child of Lychford (Paul Cornell) and Hammers on Bone (Cassandra Khaw).

Tags: books, reading memes

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted October 4, 2016 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

This week’s theme is villains! Instead of picking out favourite specific villains, I’m going for lists of things that make good villains (you know what I mean)! Or, if not good villains, then villains that I find interesting.

They don’t just hate everyone. There are people and causes they care about; there are reasons for why they do what they do. Especially good is if they have people that care about them, who might not deserve the pain of losing them. Tasty conflict for all!
They’re not just mentally ill. Half of the time it’s just a lazy way out anyway, and it’s also an excuse to stereotype mental illness, etc.
They have a sense of humour. I’m sorry, I’m a sucker for a snarky bad guy.
They have a cause, and it may even be a good one. Bring on the moral complexity! Someone going about something that’s worth doing, but doing it in the wrong way? Yeaaah, works for me.
You can understand them. If they have a stupid grudge from a minor accident they had as a child, you can’t sympathise with that. The most powerful villains — to my mind, anyway — are the ones you can understand.
You can’t understand them at all. On the flipside, a completely enigmatic villain can be amazing too. Especially in something with horror elements. It makes things more unpredictable.
They have a sense of honour. They won’t strike a man while he’s down, etc. This goes hand in hand with a lot of the other stuff; they’re on the wrong side of the conflict, but you can’t help but wish they weren’t.
They are redeemable. If they’re not, then you don’t have to worry if they’ll do the awful thing — you know they can and will. But if there’s hope of redemption, you can hope they won’t do the awful thing.
They don’t reveal their own plans. I mean, really. If it needs saying…
They do not have an evil laugh. That’d be a dead giveaway, right?

Okay, so tongue in cheek for some of those. I’m looking forward to seeing if anyone’s reccing some good villains!

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Author opinions

Posted October 3, 2016 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

This discussion post was somewhat inspired by Chuck Wendig’s rant about the idea that writers and creative types should keep their political opinions to themselves. It’s Chuck Wendig, so, uh, expect profanity. I know that from the reader side of things, people often don’t want to know what the opinions of authors they like are — who wants to think about the fact that the man who wrote Ender’s Game is a homophobic, racist asshat?

But the thing is, we can’t have it both ways. We can’t interact with authors on twitter, get excited about them interacting with us and RTing silly pictures of cats, and then get annoyed because they’ve expressed an opinion on Brexit or the US elections. If we want them to be humans we can interact with, then we’ve gotta accept that they have opinions too — and also, of course, that they will make mistakes, say the wrong thing, and otherwise be flawed humans like the rest of us. We’ve got to accept that they live in the same world as us, and that by giving them an audience we’re also giving them a voice. It’s not a voice we have to listen to, but it is a voice they can use, if they so choose.

As for where I stand on whether I’ll read books by people I disagree with, it’s complex. I don’t want Orson Scott Card to profit by me, for example. But I do accept that authors are going to make mistakes and say things I find less than palatable — I’m thinking, for example, of Elizabeth Bear’s involvement in the fandom discussions called Racefail ’09, or Robin Hobb’s rant about the medicating of mental illnesses. In the end, for me, it’s a matter of degree, and also heavily ruled by gut feeling, and tempered by whether the person seems to have learned from or changed since a given meltdown or argument or horribly expressed opinion. I’ve bought Bear’s books, and I will probably buy more of Hobb’s in future (though goodness knows I’m behind on reading her series). I can’t foresee myself buying Card’s books, though. And I’m on the fence about Benjanun Sriduangkaew.

This is getting away from the point, and I’ve covered it before in my post about Liking Problematic Things. The thing is, I would never contest that people have the right to decide that someone’s politics preclude supporting them financially (by buying their books or tie-in merchandise, or whatever). Likewise, I wouldn’t contest that you have the right to say you like something anyway, and you’re not going to make your escapism a political act by buying or not buying particular books based on the authors’ views. Or any part of the spectrum between those two.

The thing now is that people are saying authors shouldn’t express their opinions. They’re interested only in their art and they don’t want to know what they think of feminism or gay marriage. Well, okay, that’s totally fine — so just read their work, and don’t follow them on social media. If someone turns out to be unpleasant as a person on social media, unfollow them and keep reading their books, or never pick up another again, it’s up to you. (Me? I don’t follow Nnedi Okorafor or Ekaterina Sedia anymore, for various reasons; I still read their books.)

But it’s surely not revolutionary to point out that authors are people, who have to live in the same world as us. If they have any influence, any platform, it’s what we give them by being interested in their lives outside the pages of their books. Of course they’re going to use that to get across their opinions — and it’s our responsibility to opt out if we’re not interested.

Tags: books, discussion

ShelfLove October Update

Posted October 2, 2016 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

ShelfLove Update!

The goals where I’m ahead are in blue; bang on are in green; behind by up to five books are in orange; anything else is in red. I now have a running total to show where I should be for the month too (e.g. by June I needed to read 182 books overall).

Targets:
- 250 or fewer books bought;
- 366 books read overall;
- 200 books read which I owned prior to 2016;
- no more than 10% of income on books per month.
Books bought this year so far: 171/180.
September books bought: 16/20.
September budget: £26/£30.
Owned books read this month: 18/16.
Books read this month: 34/30.
Owned books read overall: 145/150 (5 books behind).
Books read overall: 269/274 (5 books behind).

So as you can see, it’s been a really productive month: for September, I was ahead on all my goals, and I caught up with the deficit from previous months. Let’s hope I can keep that up as I plunge into the second year of my BSc, taking double the amount of credits I was before…

This month’s theme for the challenge is to talk about books and bookish gifts I’m hoping for in my Christmas pile. Well, Genevieve Cogman’s The Burning Page is due on the 15th December, so I’ll probably ask for that, and Dennis Hopeless’ Spider-Women has a pretty big price tag so that’s probably going to be saved for then.

Other than that, I don’t know yet. Probably some comics-related stuff — there’s a Winter Soldier hoodie I want, and a Spider-Gwen one. But my partner is making me a Captain Marvel hoodie, so there’s that. We’ll see, I guess! Normally I wait a little longer to make my wishlists.

As for a TBR for the month, here’s a bunch of books that I either need to review or are part of series I’m trying to finish!

Ilona Andrews, Magic Binds.
Marie Brennan, In Ashes Lie.
Mira Grant, Deadline.
Mira Grant, Blackout.
Joseph Hansen, The Man Everybody Was Afraid Of.
Joseph Hansen, Skinflick.
Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, Certain Dark Things.
Emma Newman, After Atlas.
Cherie Priest, The Family Plot.
John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades.

I’m gonna keep it to those ten, this month, and see if having a short list encourages me to get round to all of them.

Tags: #ShelfLove, books, challenge, TBR

Stacking the Shelves

Posted October 1, 2016 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

Another week gone! And this one brought me plenty of books. I’d say oops, but we all know I love it.

Books acquired:

All pretty impulsive purchases; my sister bought me the one on HIV for my birthday. (I promise, I find it an interesting topic.) Behind the Throne sounds like a lot of fun.

Books to review:

Thank you, Open Road Media and Dover Publications!

Books finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:
–A History of Ancient Egypt, by John Romer. When I think back to the stuff I knew about Egyptology as a kid, it was mostly about the later Pharaohs, despite the compellingness of the Great Pyramid. This book covers the early part of Egypt’s history, up to the end of the period where the pyramids were built. Very worth it, even though it might not be what people expect from a history of Egypt. 4/5 stars
–Stories of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang. I’ve found myself wanting to suggest this collection to several friends since I finished it, and I’m very interested to see what the movie version of the title story does with a very linguistically based plot. The writing impressed me, even when I wasn’t a huge fan of the stories themselves (and mostly I did enjoy them). 4/5 stars
–Off the Map, by Alastair Bonnett. I enjoyed that he referenced fiction, including China Miéville’s work, but in the end this was just too light and not what I wanted from the subject. 2/5 stars
–The Door into Sunset, by Diane Duane. It probably doesn’t say anything positive that I was glad to get to the end of the series, but really, it just kind of… wore out its welcome with me. I still love the casual queerness, and in this book, the shades of grey that were introduced. 3/5 stars
–Chalice, by Robin McKinley. I realised, rereading this again, that this is one of those warm and mostly positive fantasies which I feel so badly in need of sometimes. And if you end it without craving honey, I don’t know what you are. 5/5 stars
–Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve. If you can read the first line and not be hooked, this might not be your thing. “It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.” 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: The Moon of Gomrath, by Alan Garner. I apparently enjoyed this more than the first book; I’m kind of curious to reread it now for the mythology. 3/5 stars

Other posts:
–Survey: What’re you here for? For regular readers, a survey on the content you’re interested in around here.
–Classics via daily serial. I’ve started using the app Serial Reader to explore some classics I hadn’t got round to. How am I finding it? [Cheesy promotions voice] You’ll have to click to find out.
–Top Ten Tuesday: Fall TBR. What’s coming up for me? WELL.
–What are you reading Wednesday. Resurrecting a feature I used to do every week, which covers what I’ve just finished reading, what I’m reading now, and what I might read next.
–Totally Should’ve… A meme I picked up all about things some books/series should (or should not have done). Unfortunately, I am mostly predictable and occasionally obscure.

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Totally Should’ve…

Posted September 29, 2016 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

Well, Cait @ Paper Fury did it, so how can I resist?

1. A book that totally should’ve… gotten a sequel.

Are you kidding? You know the answer, right? The Goblin Emperor, of course. I mean, I know there’s another book in the same world due, but I want more of Maia and Csevet and Cala and…

2. A book that totally should’ve… had a spin-off series.

Impulsively, I’m going to go with The Lord of the Rings, because you know the epic adventures of Eowyn and Faramir would’ve been amazing. Or just Eowyn.

Or, I know! Marie Brennan’s A Natural History of Dragons series — spinoff with Tom Wilker’s adventures in polite society, being confronted with Lady Trent’s eccentricities. And losing his temper, because how is he meant to control that woman?

3. An author who should totally… write more books.

Katherine Addison? Is that predictable? Oh dear. Most authors I love have written plenty, but I always want more. And I’d say Tolkien, but I don’t want Christopher Tolkien to get more ideas about dragging out old unfinished manuscripts, and nor do I want some kind of zombie situation.

4. A character who totally should’ve… ended up with someone else.

I have this reaction in a lot of Guy Gavriel Kay’s books, so I can’t help but frustratedly yelp about Kim and Aileron in The Fionavar Tapestry books.

5. A book that totally should’ve… ended differently.

The first one that jumps to mind is The Fionavar Tapestry again, because I don’t understand why Paul stayed in Fionavar with Jaelle, with whom I never felt he had a genuine connection. Also, anything Arthurian where Gawain dies at the end. And though I acknowledge the beauty of the plot and the sense it makes, the end of Ursula Le Guin’s The Furthest Shore (and, uh, consequently large aspects of the following books) can definitely go away. I prefer Ged with his mage powers, sorry.

6. A book that totally should’ve… had a movie franchise.

The Hobbit. Isn’t it a shame that after they did such a great job with The Lord of the Rings, adapting it so faithfully (but adjusting for the demands of the screen), that they never did the same with such a children’s classic? It would be hard to make the tone match the book and the LotR films, but hey, J.R.R. did it, so it must be possible.

Ssh, I can’t hear you. Who is Martin Freeman?

7. A book that totally should’ve… had just one point of view.

More or less anything with multiple first person segments, I’m afraid. I’m not a fan of switching between character perspectives like that, most of the time. It’d be easier for me to think of books that didn’t mess that up. Like Guy Gavriel Kay’s Tigana — okay, that’s third person limited, but it gives such differing and powerful views on the same conflict. That’s multiple POVs done right.

8. A book that totally should’ve… had a cover change.

Ummm. I’m not a visual person, so for this I actually have to go look at my shelves… Nope, nothing’s jumping out at me. Is there something which should be leaping to mind?

9. A book that totally should’ve… kept the same cover.

Kushiel’s Dart and sequels. I mean, just look. One has gorgeous art that fits the world and looks sensual. The other looks like a vampire novel. And if that is Phèdre on the cover of Kushiel’s Chosen, where is her marque?

vs.

10. A series that totally should’ve… stopped at book one.

Uh. Tongue in cheek, I declare Seanan McGuire’s October Daye books — because then I wouldn’t have so much to catch up on.

Well, I’m not tagging anyone in particular, but what about you guys? Any books that totally should’ve [x] that leap to mind?

Tags: books, reading memes

What are you reading Wednesday

Posted September 28, 2016 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

It’s been a while since I did this feature round here! I’ve been meaning to resurrect it for a while. I think it started on Dreamwidth, but it seems worth having a weekly reflection on what I’m reading right now.

What have you recently finished reading?
I just finished In the Forests of Serre, last night. It’s not exactly a retelling of Russian fairytales like Baba Yaga and Ivan and the Firebird, but those character types are in the story. I think it might be one of my favourites of McKillip’s books so far; while the prose is lyrical as ever, the story is a little less dream-like and follows quite logically. At least, most of it — I wasn’t as sure about Unciel and Gyre’s part of the story.

What are you currently reading?
I just finally started on the next of Tanya Huff’s Blood Books, which is Blood Pact. So far it’s okay; I’m sick to death of Celluci and Henry bickering over Vicky, but I’m intrigued by the zombie plot. I think it’s a little too obvious where it’s all going, but it’s an interesting take on it — almost more Frankenstein than zombies, and with a scientific background.

What are you planning to read next?
I’m not sure. I’m still behind on my backlog reading goal, so it’ll be something from the backlog. I’ve been very tempted to reread The Lord of the Rings, but that’s definitely not from my backlog. That said, I’ve got some X-Men comics on the backlog, so I might read those for that and dig into LotR — it’ll save me from taking my boxset of the books back to my wife’s, because goodness knows I have enough I want to pack without those too.

Tags: books, J.R.R. Tolkien, Patricia A. McKillip, reading memes, Tanya Huff

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted September 27, 2016 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

It’s time for Top Ten Tuesday, and this week the theme is our fall TBRs! I’m about to come up with my list for October, so hopefully this shouldn’t be too hard. On the other hand, I know that I’m a fickle creature, and I might well still be listing these same books when it comes round to January…

Magic Binds, by Ilona Andrews. I had the ARC and I haven’t got round to it?! What is wrong with me?
The Family Plot, by Cherie Priest. I haven’t loved any of Priest’s books as much as Bloodshot and Hellbent, but I’m totally ready to try. And this is kind of thematically appropriate for October, with Halloween coming up…
Certain Dark Things, by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia. Signal to Noise wasn’t 100% my thing, but imyril’s review sold me on this so much, if the vampires and that gorgeous cover hadn’t already.
Kushiel’s Dart, by Jacqueline Carey. This is a reread, but it’s been so long since I read it, I can’t wait to dive back in. Here’s hoping I still love it just as much.
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. For some reason I’ve been craving a reread, and I’m not going to argue. I’m just vacillating between listening to the audiobook (well, the BBC radioplay adaptation) or reading it. Or both.
The Ghost Brigades, by John Scalzi. Again, a reread, but not the first book of the series, so if I want to read them as a series and keep them all fresh in my mind, I’d better get to it. I read Old Man’s War a while ago already.
The Child Eater, by Rachel Pollack. I both own a copy (in the UK) and have a copy out of the library (in Belgium), so, you know, I should get round to it.
The Impostor Queen, by Sarah Fine. I’ve had it a while and I’m still seeing good things about it, so why not?
Deadline, by Mira Grant. I just got Blackout, so it’s definitely time to get on with this trilogy.
Time and Again, by Jack Finney. I’m partway through it, so I need to pick it back up. It’s a bit slow, though.

What about everyone else? Any big plans?

Tags: books, TBR, Top Ten Tuesday

Classics via daily serial

Posted September 26, 2016 by Nicky in General, Reviews / 0 Comments

Seeing Maximum Pop!‘s review of trying out the app Serial Reader gave me an idea for a discussion post, since it looks like that’s one of the things people are looking for around here! Serial Reader, if you hadn’t heard of it, is an app which breaks up various classic books into chunks of about 10-15 minutes reading time, and delivers them to your phone at a set time each day. I started using it a couple of weeks ago, and have already read Ayn Rand’s Anthem, and got almost halfway through Austen’s Emma.

Do I like the experience? Yes, actually. My problem with some books has been that I don’t really want to sit down with them and spend any appreciable time with them. Like Anthem, for example. Whereas reading just an extract a day — which takes me rather less than 10-15 minutes, usually — is easy. The divisions usually come in reasonably sensible places, like the end of a chapter or poem, and because I get a notification every day, I find myself reading classics very coherently by installments. I don’t think it’d work for me if I just tried to read the book a chapter at a time or something: it’s the little nudge that makes it easier.

My best experience is perhaps with reading Emily Dickinson’s poetry; I’ve never particularly enjoyed it, but with a very short selection every day, there’s no harm in focusing on what you do get. And while I haven’t suddenly been converted, I’ve enjoyed it more than I expected.

There’s quite a good range of books available on the app, too. One of my next up is On the Origin of Species, because it’s really high time I read that. But there’s also Sherlock Holmes stories, Gothic novels, American classics, H.G. Wells…

I’m not so sure about paying the (admittedly small) onetime fee to get access to the ‘read later’ and ‘read ahead’ features — after all, most if not all of these books are public domain, and you can get them free and read ahead as much as you like — but they’re not really essential to the basic idea, which I plan to stick with. I just keep my list of books to try later in my BulletJournal!

Tags: books, classics, discussion, non-book review

Survey: What’re you here for?

Posted September 25, 2016 by Nicky in General, Giveaways / 6 Comments

All of a sudden, I have a sudden rush of morbid curiosity, so here’s a survey about the kind of content you enjoy on my blog and what you might like to see more of. And since I’m at it and I’d really like you to answer, people who do respond to the survey get the chance at winning a giveaway: the prize is your choice of one book I’ve reviewed on this blog, sent via The Book Depository.

Everyone who follows here or promotes the blog will get a couple of chances, but if you complete the survey, you can get a bunch of entries by giving me a keyword in both your survey response and the rafflecopter.

Thanks in advance!

Create your own user feedback surveyTo participate without doing the survey, you can get a free entry or promote my blog on social media. If you do the survey, don’t forget to give me a keyword or phrase (“hotdog pants”, “chocolate bookcase”, I don’t know, use your imagination), so that I can confirm your participation.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
The giveaway ends on the 1st November, but the survey doesn’t have a closing date.

Tags: giveaway, survey