Books

[Kathy Li]

I was completely flummoxed by the term "magical realism" when I first ran into it. The more I learn about it, the more I like Gene Wolfe's definition: as "fantasy written in Spanish." There's definitely an overlap with fantasy, just as the fantasy subgenres (urban, high, dark, etc.) can sometimes be mixmastered by authors in really fun ways: like DD's mix of science fiction and fantasy.

I do crack up though, over the idea that genre fiction can't be serious writing. One of the worst examples of this I ever heard about was the New York Times Book Review of Maus, which began with the words, "This is not a comic book." Because, of course, comic books couldn't have any real literary value. (sigh). And you can see this thinking by just walking into a Barnes & Noble--there's the "Fiction and Literature" section, then there's the "Science Fiction & Fantasy," "Young Readers," "Romance," "Horror," and "Mystery" ghettos outside of it.

Wicked gets to be a Real Book. But Stealing the Elf King's Roses doesn't. Completely nuts.

There's a short story I know that will never be shelved under fantasy even though the story is mainly shaped by ghosts, spirits, and even time-travel and alternate realities. You know this story, too. I doubt you'd ever have classified it as fantasy: Dickens's "A Christmas Carol." Genre's in the eye of the beholder.

[Dragon Writer]

let's see...books...I'm reading wheel of time, by robert jordan, sword of truth, inheretence series, and hp. Those are my favorites. Unfortunately, no one seems to be interested in wheel of time. Those who have read it get discouraged at the first book. It really is a great series, it just has a slow start, and it picks up before to long. I don't think anyone here has even HEARD of sword of truth...

[seabiscuit1009]

Let's see...what am I reading? Digital Fortress every day after the standardized tests are over. Ummm...we're doing some of Thoreau's stuff in English...lots of it. I like Walden, good stuff. Have to start The Secret Life of Bees for English tonight, since I got it about a week later than we were supposed to...is that a good book? I don't really know what it's about even...

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Originally posted by kli6:
I guess my reading used to center around sf/f, but in my early twenties I discovered the 19th century British novel, and a love of British novels from around the World Wars and their descenents. So, in that category, I'd add authors like Rafael Sabatini, Dorothy L. Sayers, C.S. Forester, or Dorothy Dunnett, as well as the usual suspects.

So, Kathy, have you investigated the parallels between Peter/Harriet and Miles/Ekaterin? :-)

[Kathy Li]

Originally posted by Garrett Fitzgerald:
So, Kathy, have you investigated the parallels between Peter/Harriet and Miles/Ekaterin? :-)

No, no. I've been wasting all my intervening time on exploring the parallels between Peter/Harriet and Lymond/Philippa. Dunnett seriously ate my brain for a few years. Something about authors with the initials DD... (Miles/Ekaterin?) And, hey, watch the one-liners!

Oh, hey, total aside, but are you gonna be at Worldcon this year? I gather that Carl Rigney may be there as well.

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Originally posted by kli6:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Garrett Fitzgerald:
So, Kathy, have you investigated the parallels between Peter/Harriet and Miles/Ekaterin? :-)

(Miles/Ekaterin?) </div>[quote]

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series. :-) Short form: her A Civil Campaign is dedicated to "Jane, Charlotte, Georgette, and Dorothy: long may they rule." To fully appreciate all the references in ACC, you need to start back with Miles' parents in "Shards of Honor". Otherwise, you won't understand (for example) when Aral says, "There is no more hollow feeling than to stand with your honor shattered at your feet while soaring public reputation wraps you in rewards. That's soul-destroying."

I'm probably never going to make a Worldcon; I couldn't even make the NASFIC, and I could take public transportation to get there! I am going to see Lois (I hope) at Norwescon next month, though.

[Kathy Li]

Originally posted by Garrett Fitzgerald:
Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series. :-) Short form: her A Civil Campaign is dedicated to "Jane, Charlotte, Georgette, and Dorothy: long may they rule." To fully appreciate all the references in ACC, you need to start back with Miles' parents in "Shards of Honor". ...

Oh, no. Not one of those series. I don't have time for one of THOSE series... Yeah, I know. I need to get to McMaster Bujold someday. Everybody keeps recommending her to me. At any rate, the influences are right down my alley. Sigh. If only I hadn't just embarked upon Stephenson's Baroque Cycle...

I'm probably never going to make a Worldcon; I couldn't even make the NASFIC, and I could take public transportation to get there!

Yes, but if DD's baggage-claim injury hadn't stopped her attending, you would've made it, yes? Please don't destroy all my illusions! (Then again, who am I to speak. This is my first Worldcon ever.)

I am going to see Lois (I hope) at Norwescon next month, though.

Keeeen.

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Originally posted by kli6:
Oh, no. Not one of those series. I don't have time for one of THOSE series...

*evil grin* Look on the bright side, it's not The Wheel of Time...

Originally posted by kli6:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I'm probably never going to make a Worldcon; I couldn't even make the NASFIC, and I could take public transportation to get there!

Yes, but if DD's baggage-claim injury hadn't stopped her attending, you would've made it, yes? </div>[quote]

If only to introduce my older daughter to her, yes. :-) (You do know why, right? :-) )

[Mel]

Hungry:
Have to start The Secret Life of Bees for English tonight, since I got it about a week later than we were supposed to...is that a good book?

Well, I started it a little while ago, Then, of course, my dad stole it from me and began reading it. However, I never got it back...grr.
But yea, it was pretty good from what I've read. Not exactly my type for inexplicable reasons (sp?), but it was ok, really.

Now, since I've got to write something else in this topic, I might as well point out that I'm re-reading The Secret Garden. There really is a reason it's a classic. It is really, really good, and describes natures effects very well. That's kind of how I feel, walking outside can do a world of a difference.

Also, I might re-read Little Women, but I think I'll wait a little while. That book was so sad, I actually cired, which I don't do often in books. Only when the author is convincing enough (like the end of the series, The Lost Years of Merlin. That was kind of depressing. Or His Dark Materials (which I read the 3rd book 1st, whoops).

Rant Over.

[Birdhead]

The more I learn about it, the more I like Gene Wolfe's definition: as "fantasy written in Spanish."

*snickers*

It gets its very best when it goes all creepy and gothic and English-woods-in-the-winter-snow about two-thirds of the way through. She definitely succeeds in making it feel 19th-century (did you notice it's a three-volume novel? grin), but I had the personal feeling that the style is actually a little later than the setting, (i.e., more Dickens/Thackeray/Trollope than Austen/Byron/Scott).

I agree about the style (although since I still haven't managed any Dickens, Thackeray or Trollope and have only read Austen... god, I just got all depressed at how lazy a reader I am and lost my point.

Oh yeah. I'll take your word for it!)

And speaking of English woodsy... (spoilers follow, highlight to read) <span class="ev_code_WHITE">I *knew* Arabella wasn't dead and I was still creeped out of my mind. And *sad.* But just progressively more and more creeped out, in a GOOD way, to be honest. Tincture of mouse, anyone?</span>

The other book to race off and find if you loved JS&MN and are wanting more, would be Hope Mirrlee's Lud-in-the-Mist.

Hmm, thanks for the rec!

*evil grin* Look on the bright side, it's not The Wheel of Time...

Ahaha, on that topic, according to wikipedia the 12th book will be absatively, posilutely the last main sequence book. "Even if I have to make it 2000 pages long," says RJ. Personally, I didn't even get through the 11th, but it's good to know I'll only have to read one more wikipedia plot synopsis to find out what happens to Nynaeve. :P

And speaking of The Secret Garden, I was nearly going to study that this year, for a proper university literature course and everything! But they changed the texts they're studying (it's this Children's Lit course) but, as a bonus, now I have all the excuse I needed to buy The Annotated Alice.

[Kathy Li]

Originally posted by Birdhead:<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">The more I learn about it, the more I like Gene Wolfe's definition: as "fantasy written in Spanish."

*snickers* </div>[quote]How can you not love Gene Wolfe? Reminds me, I forgot I put down Soldier of the Mist and have to get back to it. I wish my Greek was better, and I could do reverse translation of the names.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">re: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
... I had the personal feeling that the style is actually a little later than the setting, (i.e., more Dickens/Thackeray/Trollope than Austen/Byron/Scott).

I agree about the style (although since I still haven't managed any Dickens, Thackeray or Trollope and have only read Austen... god, I just got all depressed at how lazy a reader I am and lost my point. </div>[quote]Happens to the best of us, dear. With Dickens, the best thing you can do is read "A Christmas Carol"--because it will surprise you. No film version has ever done the whole thing. I, personally, have read only one Trollope and that was more than enough for me, thank you very much. I like Thackeray, but he's not nearly as moral as Dickens, and his humor is much slyer. Also, being a comics-geek, I love him because he illustrated his own stuff.

(spoilers follow, highlight to read) <span class="ev_code_WHITE">I *knew* Arabella wasn't dead and I was still creeped out of my mind. And *sad.* But just progressively more and more creeped out, in a GOOD way, to be honest. Tincture of mouse, anyone?</span>

That particular segment struck me as being more like Neil Gaiman in Dark Fantasy Mode than anything else. You can tell they know each other. [grin]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Garrett:
*evil grin* Look on the bright side, it's not The Wheel of Time...

Ahaha, on that topic, according to wikipedia the 12th book will be absatively, posilutely the last main sequence book. "Even if I have to make it 2000 pages long," says RJ. Personally, I didn't even get through the 11th, but it's good to know I'll only have to read one more wikipedia plot synopsis to find out what happens to Nynaeve. :P </div>[quote]Errr.. has Wikipedia picked up the latest news about RJ? Even though I don't read WoT, either, I'm kind of hoping now that it never ends...

And speaking of The Secret Garden, I was nearly going to study that this year, for a proper university literature course and everything! But they changed the texts they're studying (it's this Children's Lit course) but, as a bonus, now I have all the excuse I needed to buy The Annotated Alice.

Coooooool. And now you have an excuse to go hunt up old Dreamery issues, because Lela Dowling adapted stuff from Alice. It could be schoolwork! (And not just an excuse to find DD's Prince Ivan, or Donna Barr's Stinz stories).

[Space Cadet]

Originally posted by young reader:
Unfortunately, no one seems to be interested in wheel of time. Those who have read it get discouraged at the first book. It really is a great series, it just has a slow start, and it picks up before to long.

Umm, it gets slower as you go along; that's why people have trouble. I'm stuck half way through the eleventh book. It is the Mat chapters that pull me through the books, assisted by the Elayne chapters. I no longer care what happens to Rand or Perrin.

I had heard the news about Robert Jordan's health. That letter was actually posted a while ago. I wonder how his bone-marrow replacement treatment is going . . .

[Kathy Li]

I tried Robert Jordan, I really did, but it irritated so hugely by the third page of the first book (just personal taste, but capitalizing is not the same as naming, imho) that I never got into it. And I don't have a problem with long books. I love George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books, and they're humungous. And then there's O'Brian and Dunnett... [grin].

I finally got around to finishing up Sick Puppy, and The Eyes of Max Carrados, when I suddenly realized that every partially-read book on the nightstand was boring me, and so I dove into my much-read shelves, and did a quick re-read of Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle, Georgette Heyer's Venetia, and am now three-quarters of the way through Dorothy L. Sayers's Murder Must Advertise, and all is right with the world.

What are the books you read a gazillion times?

[bluesalamanders]

I've just finished the first two Song of Ice and Fire books and...well, they're ok. I don't get why so many people are raving about how incredible and amazing they are, though. While I'll read as many books as there are (I don't even know how many there are - my sister sends them to me as she finishes them), they're not books I plan on ever reading again.

I've been talking a lot (on lj communities) about young adult fiction that I read over and over again...I've been recommending yw wherever I can, of course But the adult books that I read over and over are things like The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner, which is a very dated sci-fi book that I don't really recommend to anyone (mostly because of how dated - and idealistic - it is), the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, Timothy Zahn's Star Wars trilogy, and The Venetian's Wife and the Griffin and Sabine trilogy by Nick Bantock (there's more than three books, actually, but I like the first three best).

[meteorite]

Recently I've begun making my way through Laurie King's Russell/Holmes series again; I'm up to O Jerusalem, and those of you who live in the Northwest have my emnity for being able to attend book signings by her!

I have a book on my bedside shelf, Doubt: a history. It is a history of skepticism and great skeptics, good but very chewy. I've had it for 4 weeks and am barely a quarter through it. I fear it will have to go back to the library before I am done with it.

I can also recommend another author for those of you who like their reading a bit offbeat: Blue Balliett. Books so far: Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3. Enjoyable odd mysteries, claiming to be suitable for 'tweens', but I liked them too.