Category: General

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted September 30, 2014 by in General / 0 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is “Top Ten Books That Were Hard For Me To Read”. Which… it should be an easy one for me, because I get embarrassment squick really easily, and there are various topics that don’t do my brain any good. My mind’s gone blank as I type this, but let’s see what I can do.

Assassin’s Quest, Robin Hobb. Stop hurting Fitz! That’s pretty much a universal in Hobb’s books, but still. The books are great but oh my god, stop hurting Fitz.
Hold On, Alan Gibbons. I read this way back because my sister asked me to. Both of us were bullied pretty badly in school, so it was difficult to read both because it’d happened to me, and because I knew it was still happening to my sister.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling. Yeah, I doubt this one is going to show up on many other people’s lists. But it’s true. I’ve studied it 2-3 times in English Lit, and between that and the massive hype, I have difficulty picturing myself enjoying it now. Or I did: I think I’m starting to feel like giving the series another go now.
Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Solely because I read it too much.
The Mermaids Singing, Val McDermid. Rape, torture, gore, violence, suicide, all kinds of triggers. It upset me very much back when it was a set text for a Crime Fiction module, to the point where I actually requested in the end of term feedback that the lecturer put a warning about it on the syllabus, particularly for the benefit of people who have been raped or have the kind of gender issues described. (The lecturer said no and called me a fragile flower in front of the entire lecture hall, but that’s another story.)
The Farthest Shore, Ursula Le Guin. I never used to like going past the first two books of the Earthsea series. I didn’t like how Le Guin developed the world, and the way her concerns within the world changed from fairly typical fantasy tropes to something much more examined. I’d like them better now, I think, particularly now I’ve read the final book and seen how it all comes together.
The Double Helix, James Watson. I have actually enjoyed more recent work by Watson, but this memoir of the discovery of the structure of DNA drove me nuts. He’s so dismissive and awful about Rosalind Franklin and her achievements, with numerous comments on her appearance and how a bit of makeup would improve her. Ugh.
The Innocent Mage, Karen Miller. I loved what Miller did with building up characters, even with world-building. But it was so slow, and her villain was practically a cartoon. I expected him to say “mwahahahaahaaa!” any moment.
An Evil Guest, Gene Wolfe. Gene Wolfe is a really clever writer, but this book seemed like a mess. I can’t even really remember much about it; I certainly didn’t enjoy it. Sadly!
Revealing Eden, Victoria Foyt. It may be possible to do justice to this idea, in the hands of a very good writer. Flipping racism around so that white people are the ones without privilege… it could make for a really interesting story, I guess. But oh man, did Foyt not think it through.

Looking forward to seeing what other people pick!

Tags: books, Gene Wolfe, Robin Hobb, Top Ten Tuesday, Ursula Le Guin

Stacking the Shelves

Posted September 27, 2014 by in General / 12 Comments

I haven’t gone on such wonderful buying sprees this week, but I did go to two different libraries (go on, guess how many library cards I have). So it is not particularly a small haul, all the same. And I did get some books — my partner spoils me.

Ebooks

I read Graceling a few years ago, and liked it well enough, but I wasn’t bowled over. I’m going to give Kristin Cashore another chance, evidently; my ex-housemate Ru will be pleased with me. The Language of Spells was a somewhat random choice, while Fair Game is necessary for me to read last week’s review copy of Fair Play.

Review copies

I tried to have restraint this week, see?

Library books

More Heyer, which surprises no one; I keep meaning to read Sarah Addison Allen and since I’ve misplaced Garden Spells, I may as well start there; archaeology! paleontology! and… Matt Fraction. My usual hectic mix.

What’s everyone else been up to?

Tags: books, comics, non-fiction, SF/F, Stacking the Shelves

Thursday Thoughts: Novellas

Posted September 25, 2014 by in General / 1 Comment

This week’s prompt from Ok, Let’s Read is about novellas.

What are your general opinions on novellas or short stories in a series or otherwise? Have you read any novellas? Do you always make sure to read the novellas in a series? Do you read them where they belong (i.e. between the correct two books) or are you not too bothered about that sort of thing?

They can be interesting. Sometimes they drive me mad because they’re in some obscure anthology, which I only want for that one story. Or they’re just not available anymore. Still, they can add something interesting to a series, and I do try to read them where they belong in a chronological order. Sometimes, that really doesn’t work — I read The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, by Sarah J. Maas, for example, back before the first novel was released, and I didn’t really care enough. It’s an interesting method of trying to whet people’s appetites, but you have to make it really good if you’re going to do that.

I have a lot of opinions about short stories because I like to write them. You can’t just think of them as a watered down novel; they’ve got to have all the elements of a good novel, but concentrated. You’ve got to tighten up the writing until every word is important, every paragraph advances something. I don’t mean just plot-wise; a good paragraph could help build up the world, the characters, or yeah, the plot.

For sci-fi fans, I’d definitely recommend Alastair Reynolds. I loved Troika, which is a 100 page-ish novella, and I remember being very enthusiastic about Diamond Dogs, as well. Reynolds has that knack of taking an idea that could fill a whole novel and focusing in on it, staying with it without getting distracted, and delivering something really powerful.

Tags: Alastair Reynolds, books, Thursday Thoughts

What are you reading Wednesday

Posted September 25, 2014 by in General / 0 Comments

What have you recently finished reading?
FF: Fantastic Faux, by Matt Fraction. Which is heavily linked to the Fantastic Four title in the Marvel Now lineup, which I haven’t read, so made very little sense. On the other hand, Fraction deals very deftly with a transgendered character, making it so normal and the transition so well done that it barely registers as a big issue at all.

And you’ve gotta love the line “All of you pale before our hetero-normative cisgendered classification of family!”

What are you currently reading?
The Fellowship of the Ring. Oh, Tolkien. Oh, Frodo.

The Enchantment Emporium (Tanya Huff). Can’t remember if I mentioned this last week, but so far it’s very fun. I do have to switch my brain onto the Mary Stewart/Georgette Heyer cousin-marrying-is-okay frequency, but I do have that frequency, so that works. Casually queer, all kinds of family stuff, interesting magic.

What will you read next?
Well, Tolkien aside, I’m gonna dig back into We Are Here (Michael Marshall Smith) and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Thomas Sweterlitsch), since I’m halfway through both and certainly owe a review for the latter.

Tags: books, comics, Marvel, Michael Marshall (Smith), reading meme, Tanya Huff

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted September 23, 2014 by in General / 4 Comments

This week’s top ten list prompt from The Broke and The Bookish is “Top Ten Books On My Fall To-Be-Read list”. Which is a little difficult for me, because I don’t really sort my books into appropriate seasons or anything. I just have a perpetual, massive, glorious to read list. But here are some books I’m looking forward to getting round to…

Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal. This is actually a reread of a book I wasn’t wild about the first time round, but now I have this urge to reread it and read the rest of the series, and I suspect I’ll like it more this time around. We’ll see, but I’m hopeful.
Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett. This is a reread, too. I know I’m going to love this one because I always have before, though I somewhat over-read it so that I could virtually quote it, and thus have given it a couple of years’ rest.
River of Stars, by Guy Gavriel Kay. I’ve had this since it came out, but it’s at the end of a long list of rereads of GGK’s work, so I can watch his craft developing. I started pretty well but stalled on A Song for Arbonne, which is funny, because I do like that book and it covers exactly the sort of historical period I’m very familiar with and have done work on. So hopefully I’ll get through them all and get onto this new one sometime this fall.
Friday’s Child, by Georgette Heyer. Because I haven’t read it yet, and it’s Heyer.
Blindsight, by Peter Watts. Because it’s been recommended to me a couple of times, I got a free copy, and it’s been mentioned quite a bit in one of my book groups.
Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie. Because it’s about bloody time.
Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean. Ditto. And the opening, with starting at university and settling in and all of that, it seems a good time of year for that, even if I’m not a student this time.
Possession, by A.S. Byatt. Speaking of scholarship and stuff, I’ve been meaning to read this for a long time.
Little, Big, by John Crowley. I’ve had this book around far too long, and I’ve been meaning to read it. I just… never seem to have found the time. About time I fixed that.
Steelheart, by Brandon Sanderson. I generally enjoy Sanderson’s work, and this one includes superheroes. So very sold.

What about everyone else? Comment, link me, you know the drill.

Tags: Ann Leckie, books, Brandon Sanderson, Georgette Heyer, Guy Gavriel Kay, Mary Robinette Kowal, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Top Ten Tuesday

Reading Habits

Posted September 22, 2014 by in General / 1 Comment

I’m not sure where I picked this up from, but it seemed like fun, and touched on some stuff I’ve never thought to mention before. So, another meme!

(1) Do you have a certain place for reading at home?
Mostly, I flop down on my bed for it when I’m with my grandmother. I used to have all sorts of hidey-holes where I’d go to read, but I’m bigger now and can’t fit into them so well, or Grandma’s filled them with boxes or junk or something. When I’m at home, I generally read at my desk with my feet on something, or up in my bunk bed. If I’m feeling particularly bleh, I make myself a blanket fort by hanging blankets down the sides of my bunk bed and curling up on the sofa underneath.

(2) Do you use a bookmark or a random piece of paper?
Mostly bookmarks. A random piece of paper may happen if I can’t find one, but I don’t really have a good excuse for that since I have a pile of about fifty bookmarks. Wherever I go, I try and pick up some bookmarks if they’ve got any free or cheap ones. I have some very nice ones from the Bodleian library shop.

(3) Can you just stop reading or does it need to be at the end of a chapter or a certain number of pages?
I have rules about this shit. It always has to be at the end of a page or, if the paragraph goes onto the next page, the end of that paragraph. I much prefer to stop at paragraph breaks or, even better, the end of even-numbered chapters. I remember when I was a kid, I didn’t like finishing at even the end of a chapter if the last sentence was dialogue.

(4) Do you eat or drink while reading?
Yep. Snacks, water, pop — it sometimes depends, though. If I’m reading something by a writer who is really good with the sound of words, I don’t eat/drink while reading so that I can whisper the words along. I’m a synaesthete, so the words have a ‘taste’, and for writers like Tolkien, Le Guin or Richard Fortey, that’s a part of the experience I wouldn’t want to miss. I don’t eat at mealtimes; Dad trained me firmly out of that.

(5) Do you read one book at a time or several at once?
Many, many at once. I shouldn’t, in that I inevitably end up neglecting something, but I like to have different things on the go for different moods and situations. I don’t read stuff by the fine prose writers in public, because I’m embarrassed about the fact that I want to whisper them. But seriously, ‘swept’ and ‘stepped’ and ‘crept’, or pretty much anything Tolkien ever wrote, they have such a satisfying mouth-feel and taste: I don’t really get why other people find that concept so strange.

(6) Do you read out loud or silently in your head?
Oh, I didn’t notice this question in advance! Silently, mostly, but with fine prose, in a whisper. I don’t like reading aloud to someone else, though. That’s when I start stammering and tripping over the words, which is not fun for anyone involved.

(7) Do you ever read ahead or skip pages?
I don’t mind spoilers, so yes, sometimes I do. Especially in comics, I find. I flick through the book, stop at a pretty page, and end up reading quite a bit to try and figure out what’s going on. Whoops. Obviously, I don’t end up doing this with ebooks, because it’s much harder to skip ahead. And I would never, ever skip the section with Tom Bombadil, and I don’t care what everyone has to say about that.

(8) Breaking the spine or keeping it new?
Keeping it new. And therefore not lending it to my mother.

(9) Do you write in your books?
Neveeeer.

(10) What are you currently reading?
Oh, cripes. The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff, primarily. And also We Are Here by Michael Marshall Smith. And… and… it’s a long list, let’s just leave it at that.

Tagging:
As usual, whoever wants to!

Tags: books, Michael Marshall (Smith), reading meme, Tanya Huff

Creating more storage space on a Kobo

Posted September 21, 2014 by in General / 0 Comments

I don’t know about any other Kobo owners, but I’ve reached the limits of my Mini’s tolerance. It’s had enough, it won’t download any more books, it won’t let me put any more on via Calibre, it is so done with me. That’s part of the problem of having a small, casual type of ereader: I never came to the end of the space on my 3G Kindle Keyboard.

Fortunately, the internet provides. It turns out that the storage on a Kobo — any kind of Kobo, I think, not just a Mini like mine — is a micro SD card. That SD card has the operating system on there as well, so it’s not as simple as pulling that one out and sticking a new 32GB SD card in. According to my extensive research (read: I googled), it’s pretty simple, though. So here goes.

First thing to do is get the stuff you actually need. All in all, excluding a false start with a converter that didn’t work, my Kobo upgrade cost me £15.

Ingredients:
-Kobo.
-Replacement micro SD card, with 8GB, 16GB, whatever you think you can use up.
-A set of small screwdrivers. (These are mine.)
-A converter that allows you to access a micro SD from your computer. (One that looks like an SD card is a better bet than a USB one; I got mine from Maplin.)
–Flash Drive Image Creator. (It’s free.)
–Flash Drive Image Writer. (Ditto.)
-Partition software like this. (Also free.)

Step One: Make sure your Kobo is completely powered off. For the Mini, you can achieve this by sliding the power button over and holding it until it tells you it’s powered off on the screen.
Step Two: Remove the decorative back of the Kobo. I’ve found it’s useful to get the corner up, and then slide something flat down the side, like a library card — that pops it out of all the catches without risking your nails or your patience.
Step Three: Carefully unscrew the inner back of the Kobo. There are six screws. You can just loosen them and gently pry the back off, or take them out and put them aside safely, whatever you prefer. The notches on the sides of the inner back are a good place to insert a flat screwdriver and just lever up, but be gentle.
Step Four: Take out the micro SD card you can see inside the device. You need to put that into your converter and load up the Flash Drive Image Creator software. Select your micro SD card as the device, pick a destination for the file (I named it “Kobo backup”, but it doesn’t matter at all), and click to proceed. It may take some time as it is literally copying everything on your original card: software, books, stats, wifi preferences, empty space…
Step Five: Set aside the original micro SD card. You don’t need it now. Take the new micro SD and put it into the converter, and load up Flash Drive Image Writer. Select this micro SD as the destination, find the image you created in the previous step using “browse”, and then press “write image”. Wait.
Step Six: You’ve now got the bigger SD card, but the Kobo won’t use that space without this step, so don’t miss it out. Load up the partition software. You should see your new micro SD as one of the drives listed there. Right click on the “Kobo ereader” segment and choose the option to expand the partition. Use up all the unallocated space by pulling the slider all the way to the right, but don’t touch the rest!
Step Seven: Remove your micro SD from the converter and replace it in the Kobo. Screw the back of the Kobo back on, taking care to press the inner back carefully back into place. This may require more pressure than you think is sensible. I actually achieved it by putting the decorative back on too and clipping that into place, which may take a bit more effort but seems a bit more robust.
Step Eight: Enjoy!

TIP: Older Kobo Minis seem to have come with a 4GB micro SD, even though they only used 2GB of it. It’s worth checking before you buy a new SD card whether that’s the case, because if it is, you can skip the Flash Drive Image steps and just use the partition wizard straight away, gaining yourself 3x the original space available for books.

TIP #2: If you have a Kobo Mini and you’re pretty attached to it, you may not want to risk it. The plastic clips holding the back on are pretty fragile, and Kobo Minis have been discontinued by Kobo. I’ve only obtained my spare through nefarious means! (Read: Asda had one remaining brand new unit left in the country, and I seem to have obtained it by pure luck, which seems pretty nefarious to me, as I’m not usually lucky.) The same basic information applies to upgrading a Kobo Glo’s memory, though the mechanics of getting at the SD card are slightly different.

Tags: books, ebooks, ereaders, Kobo

Stacking the Shelves

Posted September 20, 2014 by in General / 18 Comments

I have lots of excuses for a big haul this week, I promise. Reacquiring books I want to reread but have given away, ARC requests being granted all at once, book vouchers, etc. I won’t bore you with the excuses, but I promise, I’m still actually 0/10 on my until-November acquisitions allowance, and even my partner agrees. I will probably ruin that tomorrow, going shopping with my sister. Ah well!

Library

Because hey, Georgette Heyer. I’ve actually read two of these already — The Wild Girl is the only one I haven’t touched yet.

ARCs/review copies

A very mixed batch, I know! Some of them I really didn’t expect to be approved for, like Lauren Beukes’ Broken Monsters. I still haven’t read The Shining Girls… ach. But yeah, some I’m very excited about here: Josh Lanyon always works as brain candy for me, though I need to pick up Fair Game first… Such a hardship, heh.

Reacquired to reread

I’ve enjoyed Trudi Canavan and Maria V. Snyder’s work as light reading whenever I’ve tried it, but I gave away all my copies a while ago. Now I have them on my Kobo! And Robin Hobb, well, I haven’t given away my copies of her books, but I haven’t got the heart to get my dad to drag them all down from where I grew up to where I live now, either. Besides, having copies on my Kobo is no bad thing. Ditto for Good Omens, plus, I was reading my paperback copy to bits.

And finally, what you were all waiting for…

New acquisitions

Yep, I finally gave into the hype. Sarah J. Maas and Stephanie Perkins better be as much fun as you guys tell me! Mind you, Throne of Glass was only 99p on the Kobo Store, so it’s not like it was a major investment, particularly for a book everyone seems to adore.

What’s everyone else been getting their hands on? Link me, chat to me, let me know what you’re thinking. (Aside from the bit about my blatant addiction to books. You don’t know the half of it, guys.)

Tags: books, Georgette Heyer, Karen Lord, Lauren Beukes, Maria V. Snyder, Neil Gaiman, Robin Hobb, Stacking the Shelves, Terry Pratchett, Trudi Canavan

Thursday Thoughts: Whens and Wheres

Posted September 18, 2014 by in General / 8 Comments

This week’s prompt from Ok, Let’s Read is about where you read:

Where do you spend the majority of your time reading? Are you the kind of person who can fall asleep reading in bed? Do you read in public? Why or why not? Where would be your fantasy reading location?

I’m not really the sort to pick a place and stick to it — I read too much for that. But there are trends, of course. I read propped up near the front desk when I’m on my clinic shift; I read on the bus on the fifth seat back if I’m not getting travel sick; when I’m at my parents, I read in my desk chair with my feet on the bin; in Cardiff, I mostly end up reading sprawled out on my bed. Sometimes, when I want to ignore my computer, phone, etc, I go into the spare room and flop across that bed.

In the winter, I can often be found reading while huddled up to my portable gas fire. Now that is lovely.

I don’t fall asleep reading in bed; I do find that I’m getting sleepy, of course, but I’ve never woken up ages later with the book on my face or anything. There’s always a point where I realise I have to sleep now, and then I put the book aside. It helps that I have to wear glasses even to read, I’m that short-sighted, so I have to remember to take my glasses off and put them away safely before I can sleep comfortably.

I do read in public, wherever I can. I usually have my ereader now, which probably puts a stop to potential conversations with random people about what I’m reading, but normally I resented the interruption anyway. I do like heading off into the woods nearby and finding myself a quiet spot: last summer it was a bench under some enormous conifers. That was public, if a curious raven counts as an audience. I haven’t had chance to go back this year, but there’s another spot I’m thinking of higher up the mountain, just a little off the path, which is in a nice patch of sun — probably better than the shady spot under the conifers now we’re getting into autumn.

One thing I would quite like is to be able to just take a book and go sit in a castle to read. Castell Coch isn’t that far away, but I’m not sure how they’d feel about me commandeering a window seat near one of the arrow slits and putting my feet on the stonework.

Tags: books, Thursday Thoughts

What are you reading Wednesday

Posted September 17, 2014 by in General / 2 Comments

What have you recently finished reading?
Georgette Heyer’s Beauvallet, which I still need to review. Fun, but definitely not my favourite of Heyer’s so far, and I don’t like Beauvallet and his grabby hands half as much as I think I’m meant to. Different times, different sensibilities, I know, but still. Before that, Peas & Queues by Sandi Toksvig, review upcoming — generally pretty fun.

What are you currently reading?
As usual, too much. There’s A Game of Thrones, of course, and various other things I’ve mentioned in previous weeks, plus Wherever You Go, There You Are, by Jon Kabat-Zinn, which is about mindfulness meditation and is helpful so far, though I don’t know if I’d give it to a beginner, and I obviously don’t agree with everything/find everything useful.

What are you going to read next?
Nary the faintest idea, really. I’m actually feeling tempted to read the Harry Potter books and actually finish the series — I only ever got up to The Goblet of Fire — but I’m not sure if it’s been long enough since a) everyone wanted to force it on me and b) I studied it at college and university several years in a row. I’m pretty sure I’m never going to see the pure genius that other people see, but it would be good if I could just enjoy the books for what they are.

I’m also contemplating closing my eyes and pointing, and reading whatever book is in line with my pointy finger. Just for the sheer unpredictability of it.

Tags: books, George R.R. Martin, Georgette Heyer, reading meme