04 May 2015
Book Sale of D00m
My public library has an annual book sale. I don't usually go, but this being the last one they're planning on having (the district is opening a book store at a new location), I decided it would be fun to give it a go. And I went two days with a book-lover friend. This was either a brilliant idea or the worst idea ever. Because I got A LOT of books. I can't help it. All that info, all those stories, all that cool stuff to learn about!! How am I supposed to pass that up?!
22 April 2015
Discworld
Don't get mad, but I haven't read much Terry Pratchett in the past. I've read two Discworld books, actually. Wyrd Sisters, which I acquired in college when dating a Discworld fanatic, and recently the Colour of Magic. And this isn't because I don't like Pratchett - I love him - it's just that my reading history often doesn't go in the same directions as most. I didn't grow up reading as much fantasy and I just...missed it. But I am going to fix that. I plan on continuing to read Discworld books, though not right away, in a row.
What is interesting is the argument as to HOW to read these. I assumed, like most, that you could read them in the order they were published. But some, like my college ex, will jump around and scream a lot if you suggest this. They think that the books should be read chronologically. I've also seen them divided up by characters or groups. What stands out the most for me is the fervor that this topic can insight in people. It's scary. And often entertaining. Of course, when someone re-arranged all the Discworld books in our college Sci-Fi library from being alphabetical to being in order they came out, it was neither. This was aggravating and there followed much violence.
I have not decided on a best course of action for my reading. I got The Colour of Magic on my kindle, but it's likely that going forward my reading will be more a 'as-I-acquire-them' sort of order. I have a used book store nearby that is my friend, but you have to take things as they come in.
Hey, if the Disc doesn't have to answer to your rules of science and order, then neither do I!
What is interesting is the argument as to HOW to read these. I assumed, like most, that you could read them in the order they were published. But some, like my college ex, will jump around and scream a lot if you suggest this. They think that the books should be read chronologically. I've also seen them divided up by characters or groups. What stands out the most for me is the fervor that this topic can insight in people. It's scary. And often entertaining. Of course, when someone re-arranged all the Discworld books in our college Sci-Fi library from being alphabetical to being in order they came out, it was neither. This was aggravating and there followed much violence.
I have not decided on a best course of action for my reading. I got The Colour of Magic on my kindle, but it's likely that going forward my reading will be more a 'as-I-acquire-them' sort of order. I have a used book store nearby that is my friend, but you have to take things as they come in.
Hey, if the Disc doesn't have to answer to your rules of science and order, then neither do I!
21 April 2015
Reading and Writing about Reading
As a long time book nerd, it was a little unsettling when I realized just how little I read these days. With work and activities, and coming home tired, I was continuing to amass books at home, enlarge my "to read" list, but never do anything about them! My living situation became a lot about sitting in front of the tv and not having a place to read comfortably. Now, my new living situation affords me a more comfortable space to quietly read, but I would still find myself in front of the tv with my computer on my lap. I'd go to bed, more often then not, with a headache from the eye strain or my neck angle. And I wasn't reading. I wasn't escaping to a fantasy world or learning anything, or just having those quiet moments to myself.
So I decided to change that. I've decided to go back to always having a book or two being read. And I'm going to track them again on GoodReads. I also made a brand new LibraryThing to catalog the ones I own. Because I need to. Because reasons.
Another part of my new leaf (or returning to the old leaf, I guess) is that I want to write about my books more. Sometimes you just need to get ideas and thoughts about a character or story out of your head, put feelings in to words. Hopefully that means a return to Bibliorantics.
In the meantime, a quick overview:
So I decided to change that. I've decided to go back to always having a book or two being read. And I'm going to track them again on GoodReads. I also made a brand new LibraryThing to catalog the ones I own. Because I need to. Because reasons.
Another part of my new leaf (or returning to the old leaf, I guess) is that I want to write about my books more. Sometimes you just need to get ideas and thoughts about a character or story out of your head, put feelings in to words. Hopefully that means a return to Bibliorantics.
In the meantime, a quick overview:
- I just started a book on the history of surveying the US. Looking forward to some nonfiction!
- Recently read Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic finally. I'd read so little Discworld in the past so I want to start at teh beginning and work my way through.
- Started the new Ms. Marvel series, reading volume one (issues 1-5) No Normal. I LOVE IT. Kamala, the new Ms. Marvel, is instantly likable and relateable. I need more immediately. I forsee myself devouring this series.
- Just finished a cute YA book called A Taste for Red by Lewis Harris about vampires. But it's a different spin, and it's really light and adorable. I wish the author would write more about the main character, Svetlana. It would be a great series for young kids who want to read about vamps and the supernatural.
06 November 2013
Been a long time
Blogging about my reading has definitely fallen by the wayside, but not because I don't get thoughtful about my reading choices. Just time and focus.
I have been reading a good deal of sci-fi and fantasy lately. I wanted to continue the Old Man's War series by John Scalzi, and finally got to reading Ghost Brigades, the second in the series. I highly recommend it. His universe is full and unique and amazing. My favorite part is just how un-special humans are in it. We are not the grand conquerors, and maybe our universe view is skewed. Really great perspective on the future. If you've read all the classic sci-fi, you need to read Scalzi. His stories are reminiscent of the old ones in style, but with a modern wit and perspective. I cannot recommend his work enough. If in doubt, read Redshirts, his Star Trek parody. And then Fuzzy Nation. If you're not sold on my recommendations, just head over to his blog (going since we invented the idea) - Whatever.Scalzi.com
I have been getting through the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. I wanted to read it after a friend and I marathoned the first six episodes of the first season. There are great parts and so-so parts. It is not your childhood medieval fantasy, but that has a charm to it. I have always loved the Eddings books (Belgariad series, etc,), but where Eddings creates tales and adventures around medieval literary archetypes, Martin throws us out of the fantasy and in to a more reality-based situation. But with magic and dragons.
Slow to the party, I FINALLY read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I know! Somehow I managed to be a woman of the twentieth and twenty first centuries and NOT read Austen. I still haven't read Brontes, but I plan on rectifying this! Austen is my girl. I never realized that the movies are snarky because she was. It was not the overly romanic drivel I was expecting. It was great.
AND NOW for something completely different:
This article came across ye olde Facebook page today, discussing the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope in literature and television. As a feminist, this is something that comes in to my thoughts a lot. I am increasingly horrified at the state of girldom in my country these days. There are television shows too many to count that not only show women being vapid and bitchy, but encourage this behavior. All of the "Real Housewives" shows, the sitcoms. It goes beyond the Manic pixie trope, but enforces an idea that women are only worth how pretty they are and the men they can attract. It encourages woman against woman, not banding together to protect our rights as human beings, defending feminism. The article begins with a definition:Like scabies and syphilis, Manic Pixie Dream Girls were with us long before they were accurately named. It was the critic Nathan Rabin who coined the term in a review of the film Elizabethtown, explaining that the character of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl "exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures". She pops up everywhere these days, in films and comics and novels and television, fascinating lonely geek dudes with her magical joie-de-vivre and boring the hell out of anybody who likes their women to exist in all four dimensions.
It is a particular aspect of sexism in storytelling that pretends to not be sexism. Instead of the bombshell damsel in distress, we get a smart, quirky girl. It seems we have a real person! Except she only lives to support the men in her life. The example used at the start of the article is Doctor Who. Now, I love DW. Like hard. Figurines on my desk and tardis ringtones hard. But I cannot deny this problem in the writing. There are a lot of men who write for the show, and always have. It began in 1963, when women really were expected to be a certain way. And yet, I can remember bits of the first Doctor's granddaughter being much more than just a boost to the Doctor's ego. She had her own sass, she pushed him, and she allowed him to teach her. She was a modern gal. Fast forward to the reboot (2005) and we have STRONG!WOMEN in Rose (series 1&2), Martha (Series 3), Donna (series 4), River (series 4-8), and Amy (series 7-8). But, how strong? In all cases (except River - she is a discussion for another day completely) we have women who look to be these exceptionally independent and tough gals, but spend most of the episode just crying out for the Doctor. They take care of him, physically and emotionally. And sometimes it bothers me. True, they are extraordinary circumstances, but just the sound a girl voice screaming all the time grates on my nerves. It is a part of Who that tears at my heart, a little. Conflicts me. But in terms of Manic Pixie Dream Girls, I don't know that it fits the definition. These women aren't necessarily the quirky odd ones out. And they have more dimension than just taking care of the Doctor. All of them (except Donna, poor dear) continue the path he sets for them, sometimes alone and sometimes with someone. I haven't seen too much of the "sensitive geek boy" fan looking to these women as sexual objects as I think happens with the Manic Pixie gal. These women have issues that stem from their male writers' own issues, but I don't think that this is it.
I have been reading a good deal of sci-fi and fantasy lately. I wanted to continue the Old Man's War series by John Scalzi, and finally got to reading Ghost Brigades, the second in the series. I highly recommend it. His universe is full and unique and amazing. My favorite part is just how un-special humans are in it. We are not the grand conquerors, and maybe our universe view is skewed. Really great perspective on the future. If you've read all the classic sci-fi, you need to read Scalzi. His stories are reminiscent of the old ones in style, but with a modern wit and perspective. I cannot recommend his work enough. If in doubt, read Redshirts, his Star Trek parody. And then Fuzzy Nation. If you're not sold on my recommendations, just head over to his blog (going since we invented the idea) - Whatever.Scalzi.com
I have been getting through the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. I wanted to read it after a friend and I marathoned the first six episodes of the first season. There are great parts and so-so parts. It is not your childhood medieval fantasy, but that has a charm to it. I have always loved the Eddings books (Belgariad series, etc,), but where Eddings creates tales and adventures around medieval literary archetypes, Martin throws us out of the fantasy and in to a more reality-based situation. But with magic and dragons.
Slow to the party, I FINALLY read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I know! Somehow I managed to be a woman of the twentieth and twenty first centuries and NOT read Austen. I still haven't read Brontes, but I plan on rectifying this! Austen is my girl. I never realized that the movies are snarky because she was. It was not the overly romanic drivel I was expecting. It was great.
AND NOW for something completely different:
This article came across ye olde Facebook page today, discussing the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope in literature and television. As a feminist, this is something that comes in to my thoughts a lot. I am increasingly horrified at the state of girldom in my country these days. There are television shows too many to count that not only show women being vapid and bitchy, but encourage this behavior. All of the "Real Housewives" shows, the sitcoms. It goes beyond the Manic pixie trope, but enforces an idea that women are only worth how pretty they are and the men they can attract. It encourages woman against woman, not banding together to protect our rights as human beings, defending feminism. The article begins with a definition:
It is a particular aspect of sexism in storytelling that pretends to not be sexism. Instead of the bombshell damsel in distress, we get a smart, quirky girl. It seems we have a real person! Except she only lives to support the men in her life. The example used at the start of the article is Doctor Who. Now, I love DW. Like hard. Figurines on my desk and tardis ringtones hard. But I cannot deny this problem in the writing. There are a lot of men who write for the show, and always have. It began in 1963, when women really were expected to be a certain way. And yet, I can remember bits of the first Doctor's granddaughter being much more than just a boost to the Doctor's ego. She had her own sass, she pushed him, and she allowed him to teach her. She was a modern gal. Fast forward to the reboot (2005) and we have STRONG!WOMEN in Rose (series 1&2), Martha (Series 3), Donna (series 4), River (series 4-8), and Amy (series 7-8). But, how strong? In all cases (except River - she is a discussion for another day completely) we have women who look to be these exceptionally independent and tough gals, but spend most of the episode just crying out for the Doctor. They take care of him, physically and emotionally. And sometimes it bothers me. True, they are extraordinary circumstances, but just the sound a girl voice screaming all the time grates on my nerves. It is a part of Who that tears at my heart, a little. Conflicts me. But in terms of Manic Pixie Dream Girls, I don't know that it fits the definition. These women aren't necessarily the quirky odd ones out. And they have more dimension than just taking care of the Doctor. All of them (except Donna, poor dear) continue the path he sets for them, sometimes alone and sometimes with someone. I haven't seen too much of the "sensitive geek boy" fan looking to these women as sexual objects as I think happens with the Manic Pixie gal. These women have issues that stem from their male writers' own issues, but I don't think that this is it.
14 June 2012
Detectives
I read things! I swear!
It's been a year since I last posted, but a year of reading I assure you. Most recently I have been reading, and in some cases re-reading, the stories of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Part of this was spurred on by the recent BBC (and masterpiece Mystery) program entitled Sherlock, written by the brilliant and twisted Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. I really love this updated version of Sherlock, though at times I sit there shaking my head and muttering that canon is better. But that's because I'm a nerd.
Recently it has been fun re-reading the stories that Moffatt and Gatiss have made in to shows, and seeing the differences. I do like that Dr. John Watson is smarter on the show than in canon, and I think the more asocial Sherlock is funny. It sort of makes sense how a man like that would cope in the 21st century, where he couldn't as easily hide away in Victorian mens culture or opium dens. My favorite updates are the whole RACHE things flip and making Irene Adler a dominatrix. That bit was brilliant!
/
Mystery stories have always been my core reading love. The first series I ever loved was the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories. I read the little paper back stories that came out in the 1980s. My little elementary school library had a whole bookshelf of them, and I just devoured two a week. I would read the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goosebumps series by RL Stine, and some of his teen books. Mystery with a touch of horror, which I liked. My family kept trying to ell me they were too adult, so I moved on to Agatha Christie which is more so, but more acceptable in my household. We watched Poirot stories at home on Masterpiece (I only had PBS, no cable), so I was eager to delve in the books about him, and then Miss Marple ones. This started in middle school, where my peers were reading the Hobbit and The Outsiders. I didn't care for fantasy stories and only Patrick Swayze could make me care about S.E. Hinton. I wanted to solve mysteries, sink my teeth in to a good murder. Sherlock stories on tv always fascinated me, and I am little sad that I didn't start reading them earlier. 
Recently it has been fun re-reading the stories that Moffatt and Gatiss have made in to shows, and seeing the differences. I do like that Dr. John Watson is smarter on the show than in canon, and I think the more asocial Sherlock is funny. It sort of makes sense how a man like that would cope in the 21st century, where he couldn't as easily hide away in Victorian mens culture or opium dens. My favorite updates are the whole RACHE things flip and making Irene Adler a dominatrix. That bit was brilliant!
10 May 2011
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