...I forgot to mention that I am co-moderator of
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bibliophages. This is a themed reading discussion community -- this month, we read mysteries, and next month, we are reading "school" stories. Maybe in the month after that we can pick a theme that won't be totally dominated by British authors. ^^; The reading period for mysteries has just ended, so anyone reading this entry who has an opinion about mysteries should go over to
bibliophages and join the discussion!
Look, I'll even collect the posts for you!
- General mystery discussion post by me -- thank goodness for Charmian, or I would not have known what to write for this.
- Dorothy Sayers post by me -- I read Murder Must Advertise, Strong Poison, Whose Body?, Have His Carcase, and some short stories this month. And then I fell over wheezing and swore I'd never read another Sayers book. XD (Except that I still want to read Gaudy Night.) Major spoilers for Whose Body? and some minor spoilers for the other books.
- Post-reading discussion post by Tari that collects all of the links in one place.
Eventually we want to expand
bibliophages into a book club that does other things besides reading for a common theme every other month, but that will have to come with time and greater participation. XD One other project we have going is
bookwormhabitat, a community for posting reviews of bookstores. Tell your friends! (No, really, please tell them.)
***
What else have I read since the new year started?
Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments by Alex Boese: this was a gift from a friend who reads a lot of nonfiction and who knows that I don't read any. XD It was really good! Actually, I was surprised at how good it was, because it uses a goofy pink sixties van font and has all of these sidebars and pull quotes, so I wasn't expecting it to be very serious. I thought it would be fun but shallow, mainly trivia-oriented, and maybe not too well written. But it's very well written and the author, who has a degree in the History of Science, actually talks about where these weird experiments fit into larger scientific trends. The only thing that was kind of lame was that Boese tells the same kinds of jokes in every entry, in the same place (the last paragraph). It got old after a while. But I don't think you're supposed to read the book from cover to cover. XD Good for learning interesting facts that can be casually dropped into conversation.
Bellweather by Connie Willis: possibly the world's only 140-page book that is still too long. XD The first fifty pages are
amazing but the author begins to repeat herself soon after. It's skillful repetition -- making a joke out of repeating events, or two characters sharing a running joke -- but it is still repetition. I'm also not sure I buy the ending. But! It's an extremely funny book full of office politics and interesting facts about famous inventors and fads. Recommended to trivia fans and people who like cleverness.
Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner: I got sick of never being able to find
Swordspoint in bookstores so I drove out to the library and...still couldn't find it. XD. So I threw up my hands and checked out the sequel instead. And I really liked it! In
Privilege of the Sword, Alec's niece (the daughter of his estranged sister) comes to live in his castle and learn swordsmanship -- no, wait, that's not right. The "insane" Duke Tremontaine
makes his disadvantaged niece leave home to learn swordsmanship in his nest of debauchery. XD; It's somewhat hilarious because Katherine is so, so innocent, and Alec is so, so not. And somehow she manages to maintain her innocence and [spoiler] at the end of the book after Alec has finally [spoiled], which is slightly unbelievable (what is she going to do with [spoiler]?), but anyway. Ellen Kushner is a really good writer -- she somehow manages to make the City where all this action takes place generic, but interesting at the same time. It's Tanith Lee's Paradyse without the decent into nightmarish prose. Also, nearly all of the characters are avid readers and Katherine spends the whole book comparing herself to the swordsman in an adventure novel, it's kind of awesome. I have a theory that in Kushner's world, love of reading is a sign of inner goodness (because Lord knows Alec doesn't show too many signs of
outer goodness). The St Vier Exception reflects the fact that Richard is a
saint, even though he is illiterate.
Confession by Gackt: no commento.
***
Tomorrow is my birthday! I'll be 23, the same age as
Scott Pilgrim.
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