January 2018: Reading thread

[Extollager]

Very surprised you've not read that before! I've reread the Duncton books more than any other book. Mayweed is one of my fave characters ever - I even named my first rat Mayweed. (He's not in DW though, comes in later)

Haven't read the book you're discussing, but I'm fond of mayweed, at least the plant that I understand to be called by that name here in North Dakota, an aster-type thing that flowers as miniature daisies. I "introduced" it on a small slope of our yard above an alley, and it did well. The one that really took off, though, was golden glow (rudbeckia), which I noticed growing in woods near here. I "introduced" it in our yard and it has been "aggressive." I like it. It grows tall stalks, then flowers in long-lasting droopy golden petals and is attractive to bees, and birds come for the seeds. Also harebells settled in nicely. I often recall affectionately the remark of artist Samuel Palmer, whose plants were liable to be uprooted by the maid: "I will have my weeds!"

 

[Parson]

Oh it's daft AF, but it's brilliant. It's also horrific.

My interpretation: It's a stupid book, but it's a classic. However it's gut wrenching.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

About to start The Hercules Text by Jack McDevitt (1986), a "first message from aliens" novel.

 

[svalbard]

My interpretation: It's a stupid book, but it's a classic. However it's gut wrenching.

I first read it when I was 14/15and it worked wonderfully on a teen's fertile mind. I adored the second book.

 

[Mouse]

My interpretation: It's a stupid book, but it's a classic. However it's gut wrenching.

That's pretty much it yeah, except daft doesn't mean stupid, exactly... more silly.

 

[Hugh]

I just finished Jack Vance’s Demon Princes series. I read them in an odd order: five, three, four, two, one. My favourite was the fourth, “The Face”, for the wry humour of the planet Dar Sai and the Darsh. The only problem I have with this series is that I read the books frenetically at breakneck speed to find out what happens, when I’d prefer to savour them slowly. Still, I go back and re-read sections afterwards.
Interesting how tastes change: I started the first, “Star King”, in 1974, gave up on it as tedious, being particularly irritated by the quotes from textbooks at the start of each chapter, and resolved to read no more Vance. Now I really enjoy all that stuff.

 

[Randy M.]

Just started My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix.


Randy M.

 

[The Judge]

My reading fell off a cliff last year, and I seemed to pick up book after book that I just couldn't get into. Thanks to a late flurry of Terry Pratchett re-reads I scrambled to a total of 52 novels/short story collections started for the year (plus a dozen non-fiction books) but two books were dumped before they were finished and several more are waiting around for me to have another attempt at them, and will probably go the same way.

I was hoping 2018 would be better, but...

My main read is Adrian Tchaikovsky's Guns of the Dawn. I really liked his Shadows of the Apt series, and though I couldn't get on with his SF offering Children of Time (it's one of those I started in 2017 and is awaiting a final decision whether to be dumped) that was because my arachnophobia kicked in big time. So I thought another of his fantasy offerings would be just the ticket to start the year off well (provided there were no spiders in it...) but 4 weeks later I'm not even half-way through, though admittedly it is a big thick paperback. It starts with a rather downbeat and not terribly exciting military action in a swamp, but then spends 200+ pages on backstory leading up to events in that first chapter, and as well written as those pages are, they're not exactly bursting with energy or action or, actually, anything much at all. Both characterisation and imagination are thin fare compared to his earlier works which were brimful of memorable three dimensional characters and incredible ideas, there's virtually no fantasy to speak of, the plot is basic to say the least, and the main character is dull and far too prone to lengthy agonising over her predicament, and as for her relationship with the ostensible baddie...

In tandem I'm re-reading Carol Berg's Dust and Light, which for me is everything the Tchaikovsky isn't, and Rumpole by John Mortimer, a collection of short stories of the poetry-spouting, Chateau-Thames-Embankment-quaffing junior barrister -- irreverent and laugh out loudable.

 

[Extollager]

Just read Martyn Skinner's Sir Elfadore and Mabyna (1935). It's a sort of revival of the tiny-fairies mock epic genre, and, as such, is something I usually wouldn't read; but I thought it was good in its way. The story doesn't get going till about halfway through, with the first half largely being description of the tiny elfin realm. C. S. Lewis and Tolkien had hard words for this genre, but that didn't stop Tolkien from reprinting his "Errantry," published in the 1930s, in his 1962 Adventures of Tom Bombadil collection. Here's a little-known drawing by Pauline Baynes for the Tolkien poem:

Then I'm also rereading Dostoevsky's Demons, one of my favorite novels; and have started reading ghost story author L. T. C. Rolt's nonfiction Narrow Boat.

 

[Extollager]

And started Stephen Graham's 1912 book Undiscovered Russia.

 

[Hugh]

And started Stephen Graham's 1912 book Undiscovered Russia.

Amazing photo!

 

[williamjm]

I finished N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season, which I thought was very good. Writing some of it in second person is an odd choice, but I think Jemisin does make it work. I thought the narrative was cleverly constructed with the three different plot strands allowing a variety of perspectives on the world and all three of the plot threads were interesting in their own right. It may not be the first Dying Earth setting in fantasy but I thought it had plenty of unique elements. I did find some small flaws, there seemed to be a couple too many unlikely coincidences towards the end of Essun's portion of the story, and I felt that sometimes people didn't seem to fear the orogenes as much as they should - I can understand why they would be hated but they should also be treated with the same sort of care you would show to a walking nuclear weapon (a bit like the Poets in Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet).

 

[Glen]

Haven't read much this month.
Finished Emergency Sex, non-fiction about UN missions. Horrific.
Tried Locust Girl: A Lovesong by Merlinda Bobis. I bought my daughter for xmas. She liked it and recommended it. It's a strange post-apocalyptic tale, where a strange society and social norms exist. Populated with weird mystical beings. I liked the start, but found it a bit of struggle toward the end.
Struggled also with a bio - Martin Luther King by Godfrey Hodgson. Full of facts, but I don't feel like I'm getting to know MLK and what drove him any better. I've had to put this one on hold for a while.
I started to suffer a crisis about my own writing, so when on Australia day I found a local op (charity) shop open, I bought an armful of books, some of which were bestsellers for "research". So, I started reading James Herbert's Lair. Utter rubbish. I remembered why I don't read that kind of bestseller. Cringeworthy. Putdownable.
I needed one book that I enjoyed in Jan so I turned to Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. He is one of the few authors that survive my regular book culls. Superb. Does everything a book (or film) should. Makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you think.

Just started Duncton Wood by William Horwood. Brilliant so far.

This trilogy is another that has survived my book culls for around 36 years. Maybe I'll read it again one day. Magical.

 

[tobl]

the hammer comission books - so far quite entertaining by john van stry

 

[vanye]

I dove into the first Bolitho novels by Alexander Kent and decided that it is definitely time for me to revisit the series more extensively. So, I ordered the next two books and - while I waited for them to arrive - read the second book in Luke Scull's "Grim Company", The Sword of the North. This was a good continuation of the first book, however, I think I am getting more than a bit tired of grim, dark and gritty in grotesque amounts within one story.

So I have been taking another break from The Grim Company (the third book already sitting in my to-read shelf) and continued with the Bolitho books. The way I go about it is to order two, then read one. And if I like it, order another two before starting the second. In that manner I have read quite a few of them and am now in the middle of number eight (Command a King's Ship).

Let's see how long it lasts. I remember dimly that there comes a point when too much romance and intrigue creep in, which tends to put me off in swashbuckling adventure (well, in most any kind of story, to be honest). What I love the series for, though, is how much it brings to life the hardships of the common mariner and the European society of that era.