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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Heaven: Books make great gifts because they have whole worlds inside of them
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I have bought "Boneland" but not read it yet, meaning to run up to it with re-reading the earlier two. I never took to "Red Shift". Loved "The Stone Book". I think, also, I may have been put off, not only by various comments, but also by a memory of Penelope Farmer's "Castle of Bone" which I never got into. Not only the word doing that, though, but also some ideas in the comments about the Garner that seemed to resemble ideas in the Farmer.
(I have just read some reviews of that, and, to my joy, discover others who felt the same. I have been thinking there was something wrong with me for years.)
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Read. It and tell us what you think!
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
In a fit of nostalgia yesterday I both bought and read an e-edition of City by Clifford D Simak - I read it first as a teen about half a century ago and must have lost my by then dog-eared copy sometime in the 1970s so it is a while since I had the chance. I no longer read much "science fiction" as a genre so I was unsure how I would enjoy it again after all these years.
How else can I describe it but SUPERB!?
It really is a stunningly good read and will stay in my Kindle collection - so I have also bought George R Stewart's Earth Abides - very slightly older but similar era and my paper copy of that is a bit past dog-eared.
City may be relatively short and, like Earth Abides may be pretty pessimistic about humanity but it is an excellent read and the conceptualisation is stunning - I found the early references to atomic [rather than nuclear] power jarred a bit a bit but then it is from the days when it seemed that this new power source was the answer to all ills, but that is a minor little rankle in the great scheme of things of what is otherwise a tour-de-force.
What was interesting was to read the epilogue that Simak wrote much later, and which I'd never seen before - I suppose the Apotheosis of Jenkins, the robot who had served so faithfully for millennia. I think Simak saw him as the true hero of the story - faithful to the end.
If the world truly is going to the dogs then it may not be such a bad way to go!
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
I picked up The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross on Monday, and foolishly started reading it while waiting for the bus home.
I have now put aside all my other reading to concentrate on the further adventures of Bob and Mo, and a plot that reaches back to the Russian Civil War around 1921.
One delight was in recognising the author of a letter Bob finds in an old file from the clues "Evgenia and I" and "Manchester Guardian". Charlie Stross has involved Arthur Ransome in the story!
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
I second Brenda's encouragement Penny. I intend to read it when life settles down - at the moment only comfort reading is possible.
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Huia, do not, under any circumstances, read Conan Doyle's 'When the World Screamed'. I started it, but found the geology, for Sussex, unconvincing, and did not persist. Just don't. His non-Sherlock books are not as good as the detective ones.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Eigon:
I picked up The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross on Monday, and foolishly started reading it while waiting for the bus home.
I have now put aside all my other reading to concentrate on the further adventures of Bob and Mo, and a plot that reaches back to the Russian Civil War around 1921.
One delight was in recognising the author of a letter Bob finds in an old file from the clues "Evgenia and I" and "Manchester Guardian". Charlie Stross has involved Arthur Ransome in the story!
Ransome was married to Trotsky's secretary so it all fits - it sounds like a book I might enjoy, if I ever get aroound to reading a book I've never read before.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
Now we're in the final stretch, how is everybody doing with their 2016 reading challenges?
I was doing pretty well in the first half of the year trying to complete both challenges mentioned upthread, but then ground to a halt. I'm still reading, but not going out and searching for books that fit the categories. Am still short a library recommendation and a new author among other things.
I'll soon be finished with my 'friend recommendation': The Brendan Voyage written by Tim Severin who built a leather and wood curragh to replicate one reportedly sailed by St Brendan, and sailed across the Atlantic.
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'If a pleasant, straight-forward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle manoeuvres' - Kafka
Posts: 1887 | From: the rhubarb triangle | Registered: Sep 2012
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
WW - yes, Charlie Stross made it fit very well! The Fuller Memorandum was a bit too much full on horror for my tastes - I prefer the snarky humour to the gore and zombies - but very well done.
It also involves a combat violin, for use against demonic entities!
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
After a few slightly heavier reads, I'm now back with a couple of fiction books. Firstly "Redwall" by Brian Jacques, which I was given as a present by a school friend and never managed to finish so I'm giving it another go, and secondly Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" - again another I read at school and never since, and other than cultural references to 'the wife in the attic' I remember next to nothing about it.
I must admit I'm making slightly heavy weather of Redwall. It's well written, but it's just not grabbing me yet. I'm determined to finish it this time though, although I doubt I'll read any more of the (very extensive) Redwall series.
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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog
Posts: 5767 | From: the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar | Registered: Oct 2002
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I haven't read Redwall either. But let us know how you like Jane. An entire genre was built upon that book.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
I'm back Delderfield-ing again - I've just purchased Kindle editions of the A Horseman Riding By trilogy so that is me living in a bubble until about Christmas! Last night I also bought a field guide to Indian Birds, which I shall now have to learn to navigate on my Tablet.
All good fun.
One of the neat things about re-reading old favourites is sitting there thinking:
NO!! Don't marry her, she'll never make you happy - marry the other one instead! You will in the end anyway.
Delderfield is a bit transparent at times but it is all very well written.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
I just finished a reread of Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London books... did we discuss them on this thread or was it the comfort reading thread? Anyway, they are wonderful, and I can't wait until The Hanging Tree is released in America.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
I raved about The Rivers of London after following someone's recommendation some time ago. I've just re-read them and I think Whispers Underground is my favourite. I am waiting with impatience for the Hanging Tree and am hoping that my early reserve at the Library when the new date was set* will mean I am one of the first to borrow it.
* Thanks to Ariel for mentioning it ![[Overused]](graemlins/notworthy.gif)
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
I read a surprisingly good (for a freebie!) book recently, a memoir of life in contemporary rural North Carolina, "Memory Cards" by Michael Brantley. He's a pretty ordinary guy - same age as me, now working as a teacher of creative writing, married, previously a professional photographer, brought up on a tobacco farm. Rather than being a linear memoir, each chapter takes either a topic or a person in his life and provides little vignettes about them, leaping backwards and forwards in time much like memories tend to. Having read some reviews I know that some people really didn't get on with that style of writing, but it really worked for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it and liked him very much. The one thing he said next to nothing about was politics, but from his descriptions and views of church, guns, farm life, and family life, amongst other things, I'd hazard a guess that he'd most likely be a Republican voter. I found myself wondering what on earth he'd made of 2016 politics (the book was published in 2015, so before all the madness really took off), as despite describing himself as conservative, he didn't come across at all like the stereotypical Trump supporter has this year. I'll keep an eye out for other things he writes.
[ 22. December 2016, 13:11: Message edited by: Jack the Lass ]
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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog
Posts: 5767 | From: the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar | Registered: Oct 2002
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
With just a few days left in the year, I'm on course to finish 53 books, totaling 14,000 pages of reading. Got 3 on the go at the moment:
- The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
- Further Mathematical Diversions by Martin Gardner
- Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas de Quincy
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I try to be self-deprecating; I'm just not very good at it.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheAlethiophile
Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
YaY! The Hanging Tree arrived at the library for me, but I am keeping it to start on Christmas night. I always check the reserves shelf first when I visit the library in case something has arrived since the bulk email notifications were sent out. Good thing the area around the reserves shelf is not a quiet part of the library as I let out a loud noise ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
Huia - letting my joy be unconfined. ![[Yipee]](graemlins/spin.gif)
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
For Xmas a relative who knows I am reading old books sent me a curiosity: Sex Training in the House, by a Dr. Winfield Scott Hall. It came out in 1927, and is positively stiff with the most appalling advice and knowledge. Did you know that getting your feet wet while you are menstruating can damage your childbearing ability? That having sex more than twice a month leads to sterility, debility, and weakness in children?
It's not quite in period, but I am inflicting this advice in this work on my characters anyway. I can think of nothing that would make you unhappier than being married to a man who follows this book.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
Would that I could find you the book (probably 1900 or thereabouts) which my parents had and have probably discarded. It was written by a woman and gave excellent advice on those subjects in a very starched up and "delicate" style. You could tell she felt frighteningly progressive, but determined to do right by her readers (particularly on the subject of "the rhythmic clock," i.e. menstruation.)
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
This one is mostly taken up with urging boys not to masturbate. There's also a good deal about eugenics.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
I have an .pdf of Knowledge for the Growing Boy [1954, revised edition 1964] by Sid G. Hedges which a former colleague [sexual health worker] sent to me that is utterly abysmal and factually highly dubious.
A definitive guide to how NOT to do it all!
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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