Winding the Year Down: November and December Reading
As I mull over the usual new year stuff (does money from aunts get reported on tax forms? Why is January evil? Why is it sixty-five degrees out? Okay, that's not usual), it occurs to me that there's some business from last year I never finished up: the book list!
I never got around to doing the November list because I didn't finish a single new novel. I checked "Flights" (edited by Al Sarrantonio), a '90's-ish SF anthology whose title I've forgotten, and Dozois' Year's Best 27th or so out of the library, and read pieces of from those volumes. Highlights were "Pat Moore" by, um someone whose name I've forgotten. "The Problem of Susan" by Neil Gaiman was just weird, and the two Nancy Kress stories I read confirmed that Kress comes up with cool ideas that I will never appreciate because I hate her characters so much. Which is a shame, because they're generally really nifty ideas, arg.
I did reread Diplomatic Immunity (Lois McMaster Bujold) over Thanksgiving break, as well as Ethan of Athos after break and through early December.
That was November. Like I said, not much going on except busting butt on classes. Which is exactly how it should be.
In December, I read The Hot Zone (Richard Preston), the nonfiction account of the outbreak of Ebola Reston in a monkey house. Think about it: a few small mutations, and one of the most deadly pathogens in the world would've been running loose in northern Virginia. By accident.
Irrationally, this makes me want to look into virology. Just not the biohazard 4 stuff.
I also reread the entire Earthsea series (A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu, Tales From Earthsea, The Other Wind) during and after exam week. Sweeping through the old and new trilogies in such quick succession helps make clear why Le Guin might have considered the original trilogy flawed from an artistic perspective, but she didn't need to break her universe in The Other Wind trying to fix it. It didn't work; it just made ToW a fairly annoying story. Another case of knowing what the author's ambitions and being unimpressed by the execution.
I read the Ozark Trilogy (Twleve Fair Kingdoms, The Grand Jubilee, And Then There'll Be Fireworks) by Suzette Elgin Hayden on the Metro and at home after Christmas. The premise is straightforward: Ozark families disgusted by Earth emigrate to their new home, where magic is possible. Five hundred years later the twelve "kingdoms" established by these Ozarkers form a loose confederation. The events of the trilogy turn on the celebration of the five hundredth anniversary of that Confederation, as seen by Responsible of Brightwater.
This is pure fantasy; magic is all over the place, and not in a "lost-and-regressed colony that doesn't understand its science" way. The not-really-romance ignores romantic conventions in weird ways. Plotwise... I have a hard time getting past the flying mules. It's that sort of novel: amusing images trump over sense. Also, there's a casual dismissal of men - sort of an inversion of the usual gender slamming - that sits poorly with me. Not, perhaps, a bad novel, but way outside my usual range.
I also tried to read Eats, Shoots and Leaves (Lynne Truss). That attempt ended with me asleep at one end of dad's couch and my sister dozing off over one of Oliver Sack's books at the other end. Whoops. Later I tackled it again, and found the right mindset for proper admiration of the book.
2004 reading statistics:
12 nonfiction
32 fiction, new
36 fiction, reread
80 books total. Plus occasional short stories and one abandoned reread.
It seems high, but... I think it could be said that that the family tendency toward addiction has manifested in in my reading. Granted, some of these were very short books ( The Silent Gondoliers comes to mind), but some of them were also very long as well, so it likely balances.
I did manage last year's resolution, at least: I read about 11 more nonfiction books in 2004 than in 2003. Yay me!
If I'd gotten around to New Year's resolutions this year, any literary resolutions would've likely been:
1.) More nonfiction
a.) course textbooks and lecture notes are nonfiction, too!
2.) Less fiction. If you had a point to make, it's been amply made.
Which means that today's plan needs to include less Watson and more McMurry.
I never got around to doing the November list because I didn't finish a single new novel. I checked "Flights" (edited by Al Sarrantonio), a '90's-ish SF anthology whose title I've forgotten, and Dozois' Year's Best 27th or so out of the library, and read pieces of from those volumes. Highlights were "Pat Moore" by, um someone whose name I've forgotten. "The Problem of Susan" by Neil Gaiman was just weird, and the two Nancy Kress stories I read confirmed that Kress comes up with cool ideas that I will never appreciate because I hate her characters so much. Which is a shame, because they're generally really nifty ideas, arg.
I did reread Diplomatic Immunity (Lois McMaster Bujold) over Thanksgiving break, as well as Ethan of Athos after break and through early December.
That was November. Like I said, not much going on except busting butt on classes. Which is exactly how it should be.
In December, I read The Hot Zone (Richard Preston), the nonfiction account of the outbreak of Ebola Reston in a monkey house. Think about it: a few small mutations, and one of the most deadly pathogens in the world would've been running loose in northern Virginia. By accident.
Irrationally, this makes me want to look into virology. Just not the biohazard 4 stuff.
I also reread the entire Earthsea series (A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu, Tales From Earthsea, The Other Wind) during and after exam week. Sweeping through the old and new trilogies in such quick succession helps make clear why Le Guin might have considered the original trilogy flawed from an artistic perspective, but she didn't need to break her universe in The Other Wind trying to fix it. It didn't work; it just made ToW a fairly annoying story. Another case of knowing what the author's ambitions and being unimpressed by the execution.
I read the Ozark Trilogy (Twleve Fair Kingdoms, The Grand Jubilee, And Then There'll Be Fireworks) by Suzette Elgin Hayden on the Metro and at home after Christmas. The premise is straightforward: Ozark families disgusted by Earth emigrate to their new home, where magic is possible. Five hundred years later the twelve "kingdoms" established by these Ozarkers form a loose confederation. The events of the trilogy turn on the celebration of the five hundredth anniversary of that Confederation, as seen by Responsible of Brightwater.
This is pure fantasy; magic is all over the place, and not in a "lost-and-regressed colony that doesn't understand its science" way. The not-really-romance ignores romantic conventions in weird ways. Plotwise... I have a hard time getting past the flying mules. It's that sort of novel: amusing images trump over sense. Also, there's a casual dismissal of men - sort of an inversion of the usual gender slamming - that sits poorly with me. Not, perhaps, a bad novel, but way outside my usual range.
I also tried to read Eats, Shoots and Leaves (Lynne Truss). That attempt ended with me asleep at one end of dad's couch and my sister dozing off over one of Oliver Sack's books at the other end. Whoops. Later I tackled it again, and found the right mindset for proper admiration of the book.
2004 reading statistics:
12 nonfiction
32 fiction, new
36 fiction, reread
80 books total. Plus occasional short stories and one abandoned reread.
It seems high, but... I think it could be said that that the family tendency toward addiction has manifested in in my reading. Granted, some of these were very short books ( The Silent Gondoliers comes to mind), but some of them were also very long as well, so it likely balances.
I did manage last year's resolution, at least: I read about 11 more nonfiction books in 2004 than in 2003. Yay me!
If I'd gotten around to New Year's resolutions this year, any literary resolutions would've likely been:
1.) More nonfiction
a.) course textbooks and lecture notes are nonfiction, too!
2.) Less fiction. If you had a point to make, it's been amply made.
Which means that today's plan needs to include less Watson and more McMurry.