a Sunday reading post: ebooks edition
Jan. 20th, 2019 01:03 pmI am a little bit sick, I think; tired even after two nights of very good sleep, and some discomfort in my throat and a little congestion. Nothing large, but it makes me glad to have a domestic Sunday ahead of doing laundry (oh so much laundry) and playing with the children and at least for this moment writing here -- and tomorrow is a school holiday so I do not need to rush too much to have things primed for the week, there is more time to spread it out.
Recently Finished
I am reading slightly less fanfic at the moment, mostly because I have so many other books to read, some of which are on paper and from libraries and thus insistent upon my time and attention. I am also working on the ToB shortlist; the one I have finished thus far -- So Lucky by Nicola Griffith -- did not excite me much, which was something of a surprise as I am passionately fond of Hild and have liked her other books... although now that I am settled to think on it, I think that aside from Hild I have often admired her work rather than loved it, and this book felt much the same. It is well put together and interesting and I fully believe that OwnVoices books are incredibly important in our world, but I just did not love the book; it did not surprise or excite me.
Binti: Home and Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor -- I enjoyed these, especially Home as it focused on new places and relationships and discoveries, and less upon the action-adventure plotline. The shape of these books was very strange to me; nothing happened at the time I expected it to, and in the third especially I could not figure out why Binti was not doing particular things; for instance, (( spoilers for 3rd Binti book ) I am curious to read more Okorafor and see if these structural/pacing things are in all of her books, part of her way as a writer, or just something about these in particular.
On the Go
I am always reading a dozen at once, so this is just a selection.
First, for the ToB, I am reading Census by Jesse Ball, which I expected to hate and am instead provisionally loving. It is dream-like and obscure and perhaps allegorical, a man who is ill, his son with Down syndrome, they are heading out from a centre (what centre?) to take a census (for some sort of state/community, but exactly what is vague) and it is the story of the journey, interleaving with memories of the past, and I think the journey/census is a thing of many layered meanings, but it is not clear for me yet. This is the sort of book which may end up being marvelous and may end up bitterly disappointing, and I am too early in it to even guess which.
Also for the ToB I am a little ways into The Parking Lot Attendant (Nafkote Tamirat) and The House of Broken Angels (Luis Alberto Urrea) -- the first of these is about an Ethiopian girl and her father and I think some sort of cult? separatist community? they have become involved with, and the second is a story of a large Mexican-American family in San Diego. I am not in love with either, although the first is more my sort of thing, but I am interested enough that I am continuing with both for now.
The attentive reader may note that I am rather vague on what is happening in all of these books; one of the things that I love about the ToB is that it is available as just a list with titles and that is how I read them, without in most cases knowing anything about the book at all -- So Lucky was an exception, since I was familiar with the author and the genesis of the work both. But the rest I am just picking up and reading and figuring out what they are a page at a time, and it is one of my most favourite ways to read, without any expectation or knowledge, just the words on the page.
However, books come to me in many ways, and so there are books I am reading with a good idea of at least the outlines of what I am getting into -- specifically, I have been inspired by all this new community I am finding on Dreamwidth to prioritise the speculative fiction that has been accumulating in my ebook collection. So I am reading The Exile Waiting by Vonda McIntyre, fascinating so far, and slowly going through![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
yhlee's collection of flashfiction, The Fox's Tower and Other Tales. And...
Upcoming
I have several more books by fellow DW users queued up, such asgraydon's The March North and Forget the Sleepless Shore by sovay. It is wonderful to be excited by spec-fic again after a long time of feeling like there was not much in the genre for me.
I am considering doing individual posts on some of these books as I finish them, and also on some of the books I finished over the vacation that I have not mentioned here, but it is also a little bit daunting, since I think I would need to organise my thoughts better than I usually do when I just ramble from thing to thing.
Recently Finished
I am reading slightly less fanfic at the moment, mostly because I have so many other books to read, some of which are on paper and from libraries and thus insistent upon my time and attention. I am also working on the ToB shortlist; the one I have finished thus far -- So Lucky by Nicola Griffith -- did not excite me much, which was something of a surprise as I am passionately fond of Hild and have liked her other books... although now that I am settled to think on it, I think that aside from Hild I have often admired her work rather than loved it, and this book felt much the same. It is well put together and interesting and I fully believe that OwnVoices books are incredibly important in our world, but I just did not love the book; it did not surprise or excite me.
Binti: Home and Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor -- I enjoyed these, especially Home as it focused on new places and relationships and discoveries, and less upon the action-adventure plotline. The shape of these books was very strange to me; nothing happened at the time I expected it to, and in the third especially I could not figure out why Binti was not doing particular things; for instance, (( spoilers for 3rd Binti book ) I am curious to read more Okorafor and see if these structural/pacing things are in all of her books, part of her way as a writer, or just something about these in particular.
On the Go
I am always reading a dozen at once, so this is just a selection.
First, for the ToB, I am reading Census by Jesse Ball, which I expected to hate and am instead provisionally loving. It is dream-like and obscure and perhaps allegorical, a man who is ill, his son with Down syndrome, they are heading out from a centre (what centre?) to take a census (for some sort of state/community, but exactly what is vague) and it is the story of the journey, interleaving with memories of the past, and I think the journey/census is a thing of many layered meanings, but it is not clear for me yet. This is the sort of book which may end up being marvelous and may end up bitterly disappointing, and I am too early in it to even guess which.
Also for the ToB I am a little ways into The Parking Lot Attendant (Nafkote Tamirat) and The House of Broken Angels (Luis Alberto Urrea) -- the first of these is about an Ethiopian girl and her father and I think some sort of cult? separatist community? they have become involved with, and the second is a story of a large Mexican-American family in San Diego. I am not in love with either, although the first is more my sort of thing, but I am interested enough that I am continuing with both for now.
The attentive reader may note that I am rather vague on what is happening in all of these books; one of the things that I love about the ToB is that it is available as just a list with titles and that is how I read them, without in most cases knowing anything about the book at all -- So Lucky was an exception, since I was familiar with the author and the genesis of the work both. But the rest I am just picking up and reading and figuring out what they are a page at a time, and it is one of my most favourite ways to read, without any expectation or knowledge, just the words on the page.
However, books come to me in many ways, and so there are books I am reading with a good idea of at least the outlines of what I am getting into -- specifically, I have been inspired by all this new community I am finding on Dreamwidth to prioritise the speculative fiction that has been accumulating in my ebook collection. So I am reading The Exile Waiting by Vonda McIntyre, fascinating so far, and slowly going through
yhlee's collection of flashfiction, The Fox's Tower and Other Tales. And...Upcoming
I have several more books by fellow DW users queued up, such as
graydon's The March North and Forget the Sleepless Shore by sovay. It is wonderful to be excited by spec-fic again after a long time of feeling like there was not much in the genre for me.I am considering doing individual posts on some of these books as I finish them, and also on some of the books I finished over the vacation that I have not mentioned here, but it is also a little bit daunting, since I think I would need to organise my thoughts better than I usually do when I just ramble from thing to thing.
