Reading roundup and the end of the Ulysses Pact

[hamsterwoman]

38. Arika Okrent, In the Land of Invented Languages -- OMG, this was delightful! lunasariel recommended the book to me last year, when I was searching for a nonfiction book for the 2014 Reading Bingo, and one of the local libraries had a copy, but I was on my Kindle kick, so I read something else instead. Then I was dealing with lost books on various library

Comments

[pax_athena]

Wait, what? There is a number 6 of the dozor books? NEEEEEED IT :D :D :D
(But yeah, his politics. But this world ...!)

[hamsterwoman]

There is! :DD I think it's really new, but yep, it exists! I hope you are able to track it down :)

Does that mean you've read Novy dozor? I don't think I've found anybody else who has, because most of the fans of the series I know are, ironically, non-Russian and reading it in translation. And the Russian fans I know who started out reading his books have sort of... otseyalis', to a large degree because of the politics, and I definitely cannot blame them.

Now I want to know who your favorites are! (Mine are Arina and Semyon, and Zavulon and Geser are always a lot of fun.)

[pax_athena]

Jeeep :D I'm very much thinking about ordering it to a friend's place in Germany and then asking him to bring it to the USA in August for me.

I can totally get it while people would drop the books because of the author's views. I do have the advantage of having a certain distance to it, so it's easier for me, but when I recommend the books I usually do so with a caveat.

Funnily, this is one of the few books/series I actually read for the world-building not the characters. I am usually a character-driven reader, but while they are fun, nobody has really the right spark for me (thinking about this, it may actually be politics in a way, because my usual fierce women and vulnerable men do not really feature ;) ).

[hamsterwoman]

I do have the advantage of having a certain distance to it, so it's easier for me,

That's how I think of it for myself, too.

because my usual fierce women and vulnerable men do not really feature ;)

That's pretty true. I think Arina is probably the closest, and the things I dislike most about her character are the moments when she's farthest from that. Nadya is growing up nicely, too, I find.

[twicet]

You express my thoughts exactly on reading Ulysses. There were times when I really asked myself why I was so determined to finish it when there were many times I had no idea what was going on, and yes, A dictionary is very necessary when reading this book!

[hamsterwoman]

Heh, yes, I was very happy I was reading it on the Kindle and could pretty easily look up the meaning of words -- I don't think I'd ever used that feature of the Kindle before this book :P

Also, I feel like I should get a badge now :D

[travels_in_time]

OK, you have convinced me to read the language book! :)

[hamsterwoman]

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! :D

[lyssa027]

Personally, I loved Greek Love, but it is an EXTREMELY disturbing book.

If you want an amazing carnival book, check out Night Circus, I promise it's not grotesque or disturbing :)

[hamsterwoman]

Yep, quite disturbing. And in a way that pushes a lot of my personal buttons too (birth defects, child abuse, body horror), so it was definitely an... interesting experience to read it. Not in a bad way, but definitely in a way that wouldn't have happened if not for the mandatory rec list, which is actually the point of the whole bingo thing, so, that's a good thing.

I have heard really good things about the Night Circus -- mauvais_pli has been rec'ing it to me for ages -- and I do plan to read it at some point. It definitely sounds quite different and a lot more lyrical than Geek Love from what I've seen :)

[lyssa027]

It's a very lyrical book and sort of phantasmagorical, as well, it is seriously one of the most beautiful books I've ever read

[hamsterwoman]

Thank you for the reminder about it! I should definitely keep an eye out for it. I think Geek Love has fulfilled my circus/carnival needs for a while, but I do want to read Night Circus before too long, maybe once I'm done with the bingo reads currently in progress for me. (I could've totally used Night Circus for red from friend square, also, because both mauvais_pli and ikel89 were rec'ing it heartily, and maybe a few other people even...)

[a_phoenixdragon]

*HUGS*

[hamsterwoman]

:)