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books i failed to complete don't count, rereads are noted

is a mess. i finished it last night, and the details are evaporating from my memory, leaving nothing but a sense of dissatisfaction.
the only thing to recommend it is that it is set in the same world as the delightful Shadow of the Wind. (and i have just stolen from you the moment of joy that comes from recognition. if i thought it outweighed the mediocrity of the rest of the experience i would be more careful.)

Friends of the Library book sale is this weekend.

if you are not familiar with this thing, it is huge and cheap and a candidate for happiest place on earth. (seriously. better than breastland.)

i would present this without comment, but i want to make sure that everyone knows that i had to choke back gales of laughter when Pride and Prejudice was listed as "rife with action".

i am inevitably disappointed when i read a work that has been classed as literary fiction, yet has science fiction themes. still i continue reading them, hoping for another Iron Bridge.*

so, um, Children of Men (the book). all men in the world are suddenly infertile, and we are carefully told that the world supply of stored sperm has also gone bad somehow, yet we can't have one lousy sentence that mentions an effort at cloning. don't worry, the inevitable miracle baby is a McGuffin, and you will finish the book no wiser as to how it was born after 25 years of barrenness. this is totally another novel about a middle-aged guy who is well-off but miserable anyway and doesn't know how to love (down to the dead child causing a broken marriage in his past, yawn) tarted up with setting and politics.

i just grabbed The Time Traveler's Wife off the shelf to read next...






*oh wow, David Morse has stopped writing and dedicated his life to Darfur. whoa.

Amazon Rank should be clearly defined. the more people link to it, the easier it will be for people who would like to learn about Amazon Rank to find it on Google.

growing timeline here, plus twitter hashtag #amazonfail.

i just finished Grand Obsession. the nytimes review covers it well. i had my doubts about the book, since the author is apparently batshit crazy and if i knew her in real life i would have trouble dealing with her. yet she hooked me early on and kept me engaged with her curious combination of dancing about architecture and Modern Marvels.

Knize and i share a sort of musical functional illiteracy - i don't read and count very well because i rely on hearing and feeling instead. and she discovers, as i did, that one can only get so far in the piano repertoire by repeating a section until it is memorized. (i burst into tears reading the passage where her teacher explains that she's been bullshitting up to this point - because no one ever caught me and told me what was wrong.) sometimes i miss playing the piano, and the book evokes everything i loved (and much of what i hated) about it. plus i can't resist knowing how something is made, and the why of it. it was deeply satisfying.

Book.

still thinking about this.

scarlettina passed on the interestingly timed news from Patrick Rothfuss that the sequel to Name of the Wind will be delayed. Rothfuss diffuses things well:

Now I'm not saying you can't be pissed. Feel free. And I'm not saying you shouldn't express those honest emotions. Don't keep it bottled up. It's not healthy.

What I *am* asking is that you don't bring your frothy rage round here to my house. Screed away on your own blog, curse my name on a discussion board, punch your pillow. By all means, vent your spleen. Just don't vent it at me. It makes me hurty inside.

that's much better than a local author calling someone a "bad reader"* for complaining about another author online. *headdesk*

much better than the litany from author commenters of (as one Whatever commenter paraphrases) “Your anger is stupid. You are being stupid and unreasonable. Stop being such a stupid stupid-face, stupid.”

thumbs up to Mr. Rothfuss for acknowledging that readers' feelings are valid, and stating clearly that his feelings are hurt when he's on the receiving end.

still thinking about the author/reader relationship and books as commodities vs art. but part of what had been needling at me was the extremity beyond "don't harass the nice author" of "you are not allowed to be upset".


*in an unscientific poll of the people who live in my house, the phrase "bad reader" means that someone has poor reading comprehension. yet the person in question had demonstrated reading comprehension and composition skills...

i keep returning to the comment thread on Scalzi's post about "pissy fans".

(short form: author writes giant multivolume novel, does not meet deadlines for next volume. he does, however, talk about all of his other projects and traveling. author gets upset about cranky fans who want him to stop doing other stuff and finish the book. other author/blogger defends first author.)

i'd say the comments are about 50/50 right now on whether or not fans have the "right" to be upset.

as others have said, George RR Martin has a serious PR problem. i have this hardcover book on my shelf that includes a bit from the author explaining that the book contains a polished half of a completed manuscript. so everyone who has read that book is thinking that GRRM has been editing part two of a completed manuscript since before 2005. if he hadn't set expectations, people would still be hopeful/frustrated rather than frustrated/angry. take a lesson from smarter software purveyors: make your new releases a happy surprise.

yes, people yelling at GRRM for watching football and going on vacation and saying "don't pull a Robert Jordan" are terribly rude and foolish. (i think the ones on about why he's spending time on other projects are still rude, but perhaps not so foolish.) i'm the first to lament crap product that gets pumped out in a rush to satisfy a clamoring public. a late product is late once (or over and over again as poor GRRM kept tossing new dates out there), a crap product is crap forever.

i think the core of the debate is who is doing who a favor here, and is a story a product? Scalzi and the names i recognize as authors in the comment thread seem to think they are doing a favor to readers by writing books. many of the readers seem to think that their book purchase is a favor to the author. is the author an artist, or a producer of a product? the reader is always a consumer. does the consumer have rights in regard to art? does the consumer have rights in regard to product?

the relationship between the reader and the author is certainly symbiotic; but is it mutualistic? still thinking.

and i want to know what happens next, GRRM.

ETA: Charlie Stross on same...comment thread developing.

"The Chinese concept of qi presents a problem in English because it is neither matter nor energy but rather both. Several distinctions that are rooted in Western philosophy and Western languages, such as the distinction between matter and energy or between body and mind, are far less concrete in traditional Chinese thought and language. In a sense it is the same problem that faces modern scientists who must describe light as both particles and waves."

- Brian Kennedy, from Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals A Historical Survey

the preliminary Nebula ballot is up. it reminded me how disconnected i am from current short stories. and how many novels are out there. (but it also reminded me what a slow cycle they're on. it's 2009 now and the voting is mostly on things that were released in 2007? who has that kind of memory anymore?)

italics for the thing i've read, strikes for the things i'm unlikely to read, soliciting recommendations from the ones that are left. (i usually enjoy about half the stuff that hits the list.)

the novels:
Abraham, Daniel: A Betrayal in Winter (Tor, Jul07)

Barzak, Chris: One for Sorrow (Bantam, Sep07)

Bull, Emma: Territory (Tor, Jul07)

Doctorow, Cory: Little Brother (Tor, Apr08) the man is proof that ideas alone do not make a book. i've tried two (or was it three) novels and he doesn't float my boat.

Goonan, Kathleen Ann: In War Times (Tor, May07)

Le Guin, Ursula K.: Powers (Harcourt, Sep07)

McDevitt, Jack: Cauldron (Ace, Nov07)

McDonald, Ian: Brasyl (Pyr, May07)

Pratchett, Terry: Making Money (Harper, Sep07) i got kind of bored with Sir Terry a while ago, even though i adore him. i'll get to it eventually. i think i may be subconsciously saving up for when he can't write anymore.

Rothfuss, Patrick: The Name of the Wind (DAW, Apr07) this was an excellent book, and i'm looking forward to reading the inevitable volume two and three. (but it's a fat fantasy novel and i like to see the Nebula go to SF, dammit.)

i am wary of novels told in first person. especially speculative fiction - there's no reason for the POV character to feed the reader background. if it's first person, past tense, i want to know who the POV character is talking to. (if he/she/it is addressing the reader as "you" i certainly want to know why.) i know some people are disconcerted by first person present, but i rather like it since it has more logic.

anyway, i read two first person novels back-to-back.

Storm Front, by Jim Butcher: if this book were a car, it would have square wheels and a 2 cylinder engine. Butcher (who is a lovely man and i'm glad he's making a living) gets mired in a pile of exposition every time it looks like the story is going to pick up steam. meh.

Grimspace, by Ann Aguirre: it went down like a fresh oyster*. quick, smooth, delicious, no aftertaste. i have a vague desire for more. it was pretty much the sort of experience i hoped for from Storm Front. plus it had sex scenes. it doesn't rise beyond space opera, but i breezed through it overnight and i would happily read the sequel.



*not from the hands of a hot young girl, but we can't have everything.

i finished reading Kung Fu Masters this morning.

Jose Fraguas interviews 21 masters of Chinese martial arts. the methodology was to ask mostly the same set of questions to each, and then edit to the interesting answers. i would have gladly heard more from many of them, and it's wonderful that he spoke with them while he could. (like Ark Y. Wong, who has since passed away. he started teaching classes in 1921. book was published in 2002.) my only real disappointment is that there's no interview with Lily Lau.

it's not an instruction manual, although it does have pages of serial photos attached to some of the interviews. i find that sort of thing to be useless at this point. maybe they will offer more information to me when i have more experience; right now stills of sparring are like dancing about architecture.

the personal stories are entertaining. the education opportunities are in nuggets of philosophy, and the comparisons one can do at the end of the book. (tidbit: i got a clearer understanding of why and how there's a karate dojo in every town in the US, and so much less kung fu even though it has been taught in the States for a good hundred years.) i found myself marking multiple pages and scribbling down quotes. i was surprised but pleased to discover blank pages marked "notes" at the end of the volume.

i don't know how much it has to offer to followers of other martial arts, but it was a useful read to me and i think it would be entertaining to a fan of martial arts films for the insights into real vs staged and the multiple discussions of the impact of Bruce Lee on the field. (tidbit: Jeet Kune Do was not quite meant to be passed on to students. supposedly Lee quickly figured out that designing a system to his strengths meant that only he could do it properly...)

after more discussion on the book thing, i found something that will bring me great pleasure and help with the load balancing: Bookstore Guide.

there's at least one English-language specialty store in all but one of my destination towns. they all buy/sell/trade. so i need to cover the plane trip out and a few nights, and then i get to trade books at places full of random expats and people who really want to practice their English.

and check out the "Top 5: Impressive Appearance". this is book porn: pan to see the ceiling and the tracks on the parquet floor for the book carts. i now have a reason to go to Portugal.

dear internets:
i am going on a two-week overseas trip with one carryon. so far, no worries about paring down clothes and gadgets and leaving room to spare for buying things.

but what about the books? i MUST read on the airplane. (there will be no laptop/pda/smartphone and my eyes tire out on ebooks anyway.) suck it up and carry a stack of paperbacks there and back again? take used ones and abandon as i finish reading? take enough for the trip over and trust that i will find english-language stuff to read on the way home? load the sansa with audiobooks and podcasts?

i'm seriously considering the abandon-as-i-finish method. i can't really use C as a load balancer because i read 2-3 times faster than he does. any suggestions on nice ways to leave books behind that might make someone happy?

experience, suggestions, insight appreciated.

i read all the damn Twilight books. even though they are awful. i literally threw the latest book across the room while shouting out a reference to the author's religion and a gender-based slur. and then i picked it up several hours later. and finished it. but not without "that's retarded" slipping out a few times. (and OMG "Union Lake" look at a map you stupid bint. shame on you and your editor.)

if you feel any desire to read them, please borrow mine and do not give that vapid woman any more money.

that said:
"...it was the best series starting with a teenage girl in love with a mysterious boy in her class that ended up with a teenage girl defending her growth-accelerated mutant hybrid baby from an ancient clan of evil vampires with her magical psychic shield that I ever read, THE END."-cleolinda

a cartoon where those who disrespect books get what they deserve.

tagged by twilight2000:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and post a comment to the person who tagged you once you've posted your three sentences. Tag yourself if you like. I'd enjoy a comment on this post with a link if you do.

1610: A Sundial in a Grave by Mary Gentle (i have the Gollancz edition, so that is the proper title for my copy.)

In clear London English, he prompted: 'And you are--?'
'Arcadie de la Ronciere.' The line of her shoulders altered. Discouraged?