Reading roundup, memes, and Yuletide tagset browsing
25. Zen Cho, The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo (freebie novella) -- a story set in 1920s London and told in diary entries. This was very cute and funny, if a bit too fluffy in the resolution for me, and I didn't miss the speculative elements at all -- in fact, I feel like in the Zen Cho stories I've ready, the foibles of daily life and people being
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I really hate the spelling "Vitka" and dropping the soft sign from a couple of other names (e.g. "Valka"). I get that there is not elegant way to show it in English
Yeah, it's annoying how English spelling feels so rigid and off with Slavic transliterations... :/ Shoving in an apostrophe here and there would in this context just look like another case of cliche fantasy names while not really working right either.
a world on the back of elephants and a tortoise, which of course is not an original idea to Discworld, but still sets up a crossover remarkably well :)
And then Discword goes right back to the Monday, with The Science of Discworld! :D
I have no paper copy (or even a full-fledged e-book) at hand right now, but there's a Polish translation floating online here and there (one of said theres being an obscure nook of the oldest university's official site XD) and it has an afterword too, an in-universe one, the narrator speaking in the authors' name, with a lexicon.
Not as fast as the people who manage to finish 200 books a year, but I don't think I'm slow, either. Increasingly distractible, I guess.
Same... I found I'm getting slower and slower. Teenage me used to get through 300p a day, but now I stop too much and think... Not to mention lingering over bits I like.
I used to be the type of person who would read the book all the way through, but, frankly, life is too short to read bad books. Now if a book isn't grabbing me, I'm OK letting it go.
Yup, same. Admittedly, there's that feel of obligation of sort at the back of the head that you're only allowed to judge books you actually have read (with assumed "in full"), which I technically agree with on the principle, but on the other hand, after a something-thousandth book you're able to tell a book's value from short excerpts only and be right in 9 times of 10, and anyway deciding if it's worthy of continuing or not is judging as well. I don't have to eat the whole plateful to know it's cold, greasy and lacking in salt.
I don't do this to keep my place -- for that, i just leaf through until I find where I left off
Oh, at last someone doing that, too! :) I like nice bookmarks, but I don't have any, I just have no use for them, which my inner magpie regrets a little. I never ever dog-ear, though. All my books look like straight from bookstore, discoloration of paper and drying glue aside (*cough* and that one silk endband I ate when I was ten or so). In cases I need that, I prefer making notes aside (paper or digital) rather than marking them in the book itself.
I think Monday Starts on Saturday counts as a children's book?
Eh, dunno, only if we count Discworld and such so as well. I don't. It's an adult book kids can enjoy, much like Pixar is kids movies adults can enjoy, I think.
So I take it you gave up on the Music Meme 2.0 after all?
For the meme: Mansfield Park, Willis' Doomsday Book, Neverwhere.
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Not at all! It's just that my notes for it are on the other computer which I need to migrate over to this one, plus it kind of took a backseat to Yuletide stuff. IIRC, I do have most of the songs picked out, and the ones I meant to add to Music Meme 1.0, so it's going to happen at some point.
it gives that haughty-ominous vibe that nevidimka doesn't have at all
Yep! I hadn't gone on to think about the different effect it had vs the original, just that it was an unnecessary change, but you're 100% correct that that is the difference in effect.
Is a x-wood stake for vamps a thing in English, or is it always just a wooden stake and that's it? In Polish "osinowy kołek" is basically a fixed phrase (like "cisowy łuk" - yew bow) so much that this itself is enough to convey "for vampires", while unspecified kołek might be for anything.
Same as Polish with osina in Russian, and in fact the original just has "[~some] aspen" and doesn't mention a stake at all -- just the wood itself implies it. (but it would be "osinovyj kol" in full)
And no, I don't think there's a particular wood presumed with the English stake -- just the word "stake" implies vampires, but I can't think of a wood type that would (unlike, say, garlic).
Shoving in an apostrophe here and there would in this context just look like another case of cliche fantasy names while not really working right either.
Yep, that's exactly what I was thinking, too. So I can't think of a good way to do it, but I'm annoyed that it can't be done both faithfully and elegantly.
And then Discword goes right back to the Monday, with The Science of Discworld! :D
Heh, yes!
there's a Polish translation floating online here and there (one of said theres being an obscure nook of the oldest university's official site XD) and it has an afterword too, an in-universe one, the narrator speaking in the authors' name, with a lexicon.
Yep, that one was part of both my Russian edition and the English translation, and I love it! I think it does a pretty good job of, like, absolving the book of things that would have bothered me as I got older otherwise -- the way female characters are either absent or unnamed "girls" or damsels (Stella the witch), or the flatness of a lot of the characters, or the way the science and magic jargon is mixed up in a sort of mumbo-jumbo, which charmed me when I first read the book as a kid, but would probably have niggled at me more once I learned what the Stokes equation was actually for, or Lavoisier. It might've also been my first encounter with explicitly unreliable narrators, and I love it for introducing me to that concept as well.
Admittedly, there's that feel of obligation of sort at the back of the head that you're only allowed to judge books you actually have read (with assumed "in full"), which I technically agree with on the principle, but on the other hand, after a something-thousandth book you're able to tell a book's value from short excerpts only
Yeah, I wouldn't diss/complain about a book I stopped reading, because I've definitely seen books and series build up to something more impressive than I would have guessed from the first 50 or 100 pages (or, for series, from the first book), but I don't feel an obligation to follow the path to the bitter end. I can just say, "the beginning didn't work for me, because X,Y,Z," and have whoever is reading/listening draw their own conclusions.
but now I stop too much and think...
I think that's probably true for me as well... Or at least it sounds like a very nice excuse that I would be happy to claim :P
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Great! I already thought it's my usual meme killing gene saying "Hi!" again. XD
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I like nice bookmarks, but I don't have any, I just have no use for them, which my inner magpie regrets a little.
I actually do have quite a few nice bookmarks, mostly gifts, but I just display them as objets d'art without ever actually using them in books. That way my inner magpie is pacified :))
(*cough* and that one silk endband I ate when I was ten or so)
Hee! which book bears this badge of honor? :P
It's an adult book kids can enjoy, much like Pixar is kids movies adults can enjoy, I think.
I'm actually not sure if it is an adult book kids can enjoy or a kids book adults can enjoy... It was definitely marketed as a kids book in the Old Country -- it had cartoony illustrations (which I love), and my edition says "povest'-skazka dlya nauchnyh rabotnikov mladshego vozrasta" -- something like "fairytale-novel for junior scientists". The English edition is for sure aimed at adults, but I think in part that's an artefact of it being a translated work and so requiring more effort to get into (unfamiliar setting, etc.)
Meme!
Mansfield Park, Willis' Doomsday Book, Neverwhere
This is very sneaky and clever! Doomsday Book is something I consider an essentially perfect book, which I NEVER want to reread again (which I bet you figured/remembered :P) Neverwhere I could go any way with, actually -- I like it, and it would be fun to reread, but there are things in it that are definitely less fit to my taste than other aspects, and I do consider it a 'minor' Gaiman, so that if it disappeared from the world, I wouldn't feel as bad about it as if that were to happen to American Gods or Sandman or even the Graveyard Book. And Mansfield Park I'd be fine with disappearing as well, but it could probably also be rewritten to be more fun, like the other Austens.
Ultimately, I guess, let's burn/hide deep in the library Mansfield Park -- I would personally miss it less than Neverwhere. Rewrite Neverwhere, with less focus on Croup and Vandemar, and maybe something to make all the climax stuff with Angel Islington work better for me, plus more Hunter. And, fine, I'll take one for the team and reread Doomsday Book so that it can stay in its present brilliant form :P
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That's some solution, but over years I turned from "here's my private exhibition of stuff" to "the less dust-traps on the shelves, the better"... :)
Hee! which book bears this badge of honor? :P
Hey, it was a delicious endband! :D The silk was breaking apart so nicely it was irresistible... A fine edition of The 1001 Nights. It's still there, less than two meters away while I'm typing it. I really need to set off that book meme I thought so many times over years, some day, but the fear of my meme killer gene holds me from trying. Meme is only a meme if it sparks reaction and gets carried on... :(
It was definitely marketed as a kids book in the Old Country -- it had cartoony illustrations (which I love), and my edition says "povest'-skazka dlya nauchnyh rabotnikov mladshego vozrasta" -- something like "fairytale-novel for junior scientists". The English edition is for sure aimed at adults
Ah, then I stand corrected. In such case it was originally kid lit, yes. Polish edition(s) landed in the humorous adult realm same as the English.
This is very sneaky and clever!
That's too flattering but I took a second look and thought it's going to be hard, indeed. XD
Doomsday Book is something I consider an essentially perfect book, which I NEVER want to reread again
Oooh yeah, that's a good way of putting it! :D My choices would be the same - Mansfield Park isn't bad enough to qualify for hateful burning, but if something has to be sacrificed, well... Though it could use a rewrite, too (less crying, PLEASE). Neverwhere, to me, suffers from the same syndrome as majority of Gaiman's - they had a chance to be great, they just need to be done differently. :] And that leaves us with the Doomsday Book.
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That is probably a healthier philosophy, all things considered!
I really need to set off that book meme I thought so many times over years, some day, but the fear of my meme killer gene holds me from trying. Meme is only a meme if it sparks reaction and gets carried on... :(
Yeah, for sure. (There's a photo-book meme I've been meaning to do for probably over two years -- I even took most of the pictures, but now don't remember what questions they went with, it has been so long XD)
Polish edition(s) landed in the humorous adult realm same as the English.
Huh, interesting! I mean, it works as humorous adult lit/satire -- and the ~sequel, Tale of the Three, is definitely satire and not kidlit.
Mansfield Park isn't bad enough to qualify for hateful burning, but if something has to be sacrificed, well...
Yeah, exactly. There are not very many books I'd PREFER to burn, but if choices have to be made...
Neverwhere, to me, suffers from the same syndrome as majority of Gaiman's - they had a chance to be great, they just need to be done differently. :]
Which Gaimans, would you say, actually land on greatness? Or do you think any of them do?
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All the more a reason to make new ones. :> Questions, not photos. Or more photos.
Which Gaimans, would you say, actually land on greatness? Or do you think any of them do?
GO feels mostly Pratchett-y to me, so... -.- I quite liked "The Graveyard Book" and I think "Koralina" was not bad either, but I don't really think greatness applies to them. Gaiman is to me that great writer who is obviously great, only I can't find a work of his that would actually justify that in my eyes. More like a general impression. He's great as a figure of a writer, so to speak.
(To quote Kate Griffin, "I am a fantasy writer, and I know this because I own a black leather jacket." You WILL NOT convince me she had no one in particular on mind. XD)
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Agreed on Good Omens feeling more like Pratchett than like Gaiman (and I would say it's my favorite thing Gaiman had a hand in writing).
I do think American Gods lands at true greatness -- or at least it blew my mind when I read it (haven't revisited it since and not sure if it holds up). And Sandman is not my thing in a number of key ways, starting with being a comic, but I do think it's suitably epic that it has a greatness I can recognize as well.
Oh, and the short story "Chivalry" -- one of my favorite short stories.
He's great as a figure of a writer, so to speak.
Oh yeah, I know what you mean! And I do love his writing/talking on writing as a craft and a calling, and him being sort of one of the public faces of the fantasy genre for quite a while. Which, there are worse people for that role.
(To quote Kate Griffin, "I am a fantasy writer, and I know this because I own a black leather jacket." You WILL NOT convince me she had no one in particular on mind. XD)
Heh. Well, he does look fetching in it, too, dunno about Griffin.
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