2005: the book post

[mrissa]

Books this year: 344.

Started but not finished: 29. This does not count the one I'm still reading today. This is books abandoned. This number is up from last year, which is up from the year before and so on: I didn't used to abandon books ever. I would read things that made me just miserable, but I would by God finish them. I no longer feel that this is a virtue. I have not been to the library this calendar year (and the reason is named dd_b), and my library list is five closely written pages and needs an update. There is absolutely no reason why I am a Good Kid for finishing books that aren't any good or aren't hitting me right at the moment. So I don't.

Notable rereads: I finished rereading the Vlad Taltos books and the Miles Vorkosigan books. Now I want more. Also I got Helen Cresswell's Ordinary Jack to read for the first time in almost two decades, so that was a happy thing. Oh, and Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede, a-hey-hey. Also the annual-ish reread of Tam Lin, which has lost nothing except a bit of structural integrity -- the physical object, I mean, not the narrative.

I also reread the first six Anne of Green Gables books for the first time in years, and in some ways they held up well, and in others...not as well, I guess. Anne is a bit of a Mary Sue from time to time, and my reason for liking Emily of New Moon better still holds: Emily's best friend Ilse is not a sidekick but a best friend. Neither of them would have ever stood for being a sidekick. Anne's best friend Diana, on the other hand, could not be more of a sidekick if her parents had died in a highwire accident.

Recommended: Colin Cotterill's Thirty-Three Teeth, for mystery readers, those interested in Southeast Asia, or just Book People.

Bradley Denton's Laughin' Boy, for people with somewhat sick senses of humor

Dorothy Dunnet's books, probably for people with somewhat sick senses of humor as well, but not in the same way as Laughin' Boy

Tony Griffith's Scandinavia: At War With Trolls, hilarious Scandinavian history that touches on sometimes-obscure points of life and culture in the era dealt with (that is, post-Napoleonic) -- probably a good read even for non-Scandophiles

Bernd Heinrich's The Mind of the Raven, for those who are interested in brain and social stuff

Gwyneth Jones's Bold As Love, for the all-out way she hits the future

Janet Kagan's books if you can find them, for people who like SFnal ideas that go whirrrrr

Robin McKinley's Sunshine, even if you think you don't want to read another vampire novel

The entire Patrick O'Brian series, even if you think you don't care about boats, because there are a million other things going on there, and they are well-written and funny (and get better and funnier after the first few)

Juha Pentikainen's Kalevala Mythology iff you are a Finnogeek

The entire Anthony Price series, even though I started it last year, because they are what spy novels ought to be

Malcolm Pryce's Aberystwyth series if you can find them and are not attached to books only doing one thing at a time

Mary Doria Russell's A Thread of Grace if you're up for dealing with Holocaust-related fiction

Geoff Ryman's The Child Garden, also for SFNal ideas that go whirrrrr

Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's Enigma if you are feeling patient -- it's a brick, but a worthwhile brick

Gordon Welchman's The Hut 6 Story if you're feeling less patient but still want to hear about Enigma stuff

matociquala's and karentraviss's trilogies, though I still have the last volume of each left to go, and truepenny's Mélusine if you're willing to wait between volumes, and scalzi's Old Man's War

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

No, you don't have to finish lousy books. I figured that out twenty-thirty years ago. There will _not_ be a test.

After reading Bernd Heinrich, you'll never look at a raven quite the same way....

[callunav.livejournal.com]

Memoried. Under, surprise, "Recommended reading."

I generally loathe vampire novels. Sunshine is one of my favorite reads ever. I like Robin McKinley's stuff anyhow, but I was so happy she let herself go and just write about adults - it came out so well!

And I don't think anyone's ever identified me as having a sick sense of humor before. Cool! :)

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I adore Sunshine - it hooked me on the first read. Plus, I've reread it several times now, and it holds up marvelously.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I read most of the Anne books first, when I was fairly young, and then discovered her adult stuff and the Emily books in about seventh grade and it was like a revelation. I liked Anne very much, but the Emily books were something a lot deeper, and fuller, in some way that I couldn't really identify.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

I've abandoned maybe 8 books in the past two months. Never used to be able to do that before, either. Still feels strange.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I think your 29 abandoned books this year exceeds my lifetime total (which is unknown, but is still probably less than a dozen). Good going! With a little work I could probably identify another 17 or so I *should* have abandoned.

[cadithial.livejournal.com]

I've liked everything that I've read by Robin McKinley, and I think I've read all of her books :)

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Also, Diana is boring and Ilse is interesting; plus, there is real conflict at times between Emily and Ilse, and not just over men, and none between Anne and Diana.

[pameladean]

I loved Sunshine. After all the complaints, I expected it to be wall-to-wall duelling recipes for cinnamon rolls. Not that that would have been a bad thing.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah, I might have welcomed that myself!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

What, never?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Walking out on a movie seems different to me, because it's a social experience. Your walking out may disturb other people, even if you've gone to the movie by yourself. So the threshold is in some ways higher for me.

I just don't go to very many movies, so it's easy not to walk out.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Right. Diana is a yes-being. And she's one of those horrible people who is smug about marriage and motherhood. Being pleased about them is one thing, but smug is another. Ilse might be wildly joyful about marriage and motherhood, but not smug.

Also she is deliberately set up to age less well than Anne, and that annoyed me.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You reread a lot more than I do, too.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I've only ever walked out of a movie once*, and I think that's part of why. The other thing is that only some bad movies spit me out and leave me very aware of my seat and the theater and the fact that I'm not enjoying myself. A lot of movies in theaterssuck me in and I don't notice that they, well, suck, until maybe five minutes after the lights come on and I start thinking about what I saw. And even things that I'm conscious of hating, I'm more likely to stay and snark, silently or in whispers if I have a companion who is similarly unmoved. Walking out is not somethng I do because I'm not enjoying myself, it's a form of protest, meant to be seen - which is why it doesn't happen very often.




* Braveheart. I tell people this and get cries of disbelief and dismay, but yes, I thought it was godawful, and I walked out after about two and a half hours of it. If it had been shorter, I probably would have made it through. The combination of overt homophobia, all-pervading sexism, wild historical inaccuracy, and pandering to Mel Gibson and the way all these factors reinforced each other was finally too much for me.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I honestly think never. This is an epoch in my life.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I'm just required to go all "HMS Pinafore" on people from time to time.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

No, no, it is I who should apologise for not responding in kind. I was too ignorant, and so had to resort to Anne-with-an-E instead. I /think/ the proper response would have been, "No, never!" and then, after further inquiry, "Well, almost never." But I'm only distantly remembering it from seeing it quoted elsewhere.

There is a sad, sad Gilbert & Sullivan-shaped hole in my life.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am sad for you but not sad because of you; you're never required to complete quotes. But "HMS Pinafore" and "Pirates of Penzance" and probably some of the others are worth your time if you get the chance to see them. Sideshow Bob's version on The Simpsons is only a synopsis (though still amusing).