Step one: buy a cat and some wax. Step three: profit!
Step two: ???
So, not an especially productive evening so far, but all my Firefox tabs have been assiduously refreshed and my books-read spreadsheet is up to date.
This month's reading so far:
A Woman of the Iron People by Eleanor Arnason, which won the Tiptree in 1991, and therefore completed my goal of reading five new-to-me books this year that had won genre awards in years ending in 1. (I polished off the Hugo and Retro-Hugo winners I hadn't read before first, and this was the wildcard.) I really loved it, although it made a weird mental juxtaposition with...
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, which I (re)read for my local SF book group's October meeting--I'd read it about twelve years ago, in college, and I ... think I missed a lot of nuance at the time. It wasn't my best year. Anyway, this time around I thought it was quite fascinating (if a jarringly diametrically opposite First Contact scenario than Arnason's), and now I'm impatiently awaiting my library copy of Children of the Sky.
The Last Imaginary Place: A Human History of the Arctic World by Robert McGhee, which I read mainly for a basic outline of Franklin's doomed expedition, but which left me much more curious about the non-disastrous Arctic expeditions (Vikings in Greenland, Perry's search for the Northwest Passage, the Chelyuskin). Also, may have to go track down the author's book on the Tuniit, who were displaced in the Eastern Canadian Arctic by the Inuit.
The Boy at the End of the World by Greg van Eekhout, which I grabbed off our Children's New Books shelf because--a boy! at the end of the world! Alone with his malfunctioning robot companion! What could be more awesome? And it turned out to be just as awesome as I hoped it would be. ♥
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall, which started out on just about the tin-foil-biting note of exotic-savages anthropology that you might predict from the title, but recovered pretty well, I think. If nothing else, first-world white folks who inexplicably choose to run ultramarathon distances got approximately the same exotic-savage treatment. *g* Also, thanks to this book I have decided not to buy new shoes for running in (old shoes = fewer injuries, although apparently no shoes = fewest injuries). (Incidentally, do I get to call myself A Runner if I got up the morning after getting home from five days out of town to run before work? The running was very slow and in very short intervals, but the fact remains that the sun was not up when I went outside to do it. On a Monday. After a vacation.)
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente, because I already had a start on a perfectly good 'gender-identified child in curious setting' theme. Also because I heard a chapter of it read at WisCon, lo these seven months ago, and bought it that weekend, and have been Meaning to Read It ever since. It did not disappoint, though it made me wish rather fiercely for a child to read it to. ♥ ♥ ♥
And now, having neither cat nor wax nor an LJ post to write, I suppose I should go put down some words....
So, not an especially productive evening so far, but all my Firefox tabs have been assiduously refreshed and my books-read spreadsheet is up to date.
This month's reading so far:
A Woman of the Iron People by Eleanor Arnason, which won the Tiptree in 1991, and therefore completed my goal of reading five new-to-me books this year that had won genre awards in years ending in 1. (I polished off the Hugo and Retro-Hugo winners I hadn't read before first, and this was the wildcard.) I really loved it, although it made a weird mental juxtaposition with...
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, which I (re)read for my local SF book group's October meeting--I'd read it about twelve years ago, in college, and I ... think I missed a lot of nuance at the time. It wasn't my best year. Anyway, this time around I thought it was quite fascinating (if a jarringly diametrically opposite First Contact scenario than Arnason's), and now I'm impatiently awaiting my library copy of Children of the Sky.
The Last Imaginary Place: A Human History of the Arctic World by Robert McGhee, which I read mainly for a basic outline of Franklin's doomed expedition, but which left me much more curious about the non-disastrous Arctic expeditions (Vikings in Greenland, Perry's search for the Northwest Passage, the Chelyuskin). Also, may have to go track down the author's book on the Tuniit, who were displaced in the Eastern Canadian Arctic by the Inuit.
The Boy at the End of the World by Greg van Eekhout, which I grabbed off our Children's New Books shelf because--a boy! at the end of the world! Alone with his malfunctioning robot companion! What could be more awesome? And it turned out to be just as awesome as I hoped it would be. ♥
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall, which started out on just about the tin-foil-biting note of exotic-savages anthropology that you might predict from the title, but recovered pretty well, I think. If nothing else, first-world white folks who inexplicably choose to run ultramarathon distances got approximately the same exotic-savage treatment. *g* Also, thanks to this book I have decided not to buy new shoes for running in (old shoes = fewer injuries, although apparently no shoes = fewest injuries). (Incidentally, do I get to call myself A Runner if I got up the morning after getting home from five days out of town to run before work? The running was very slow and in very short intervals, but the fact remains that the sun was not up when I went outside to do it. On a Monday. After a vacation.)
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente, because I already had a start on a perfectly good 'gender-identified child in curious setting' theme. Also because I heard a chapter of it read at WisCon, lo these seven months ago, and bought it that weekend, and have been Meaning to Read It ever since. It did not disappoint, though it made me wish rather fiercely for a child to read it to. ♥ ♥ ♥
And now, having neither cat nor wax nor an LJ post to write, I suppose I should go put down some words....