Tag: books Page 1 of 2

2017: A Year Of Reading In Review

On January 2, 2018

Reading is something I used to do constantly. And then somewhere, I stopped making the time for it, and have been determined in recent years to make an effort to make it my default habit again. To that end, last year I decided to try and track the books I read, and periodically discuss them.

Unfortunately, after just one post, in January, I fell behind on writing about the books, and then in May I got very busy and ended up both not reading as much as I’d planned and also stopped tracking the books. After which, I never picked up logging again.

So I’ve reconstructed what I can from my memory, but my memory being what it is, I can’t be sure what I’ve missed. So that puts my total at 48. That includes quite a few comic book collections. ¹

The following highlights are taken from a series of prompts from my friend Jessica F. Hebert.²

First book of 2017: “Winter’s Tale” by Mark Helpin
This is my favourite novel, and an annual re-read. This would mark the 30th or so time I’ve read it, and it was magical as always. I was once asked, after listing it as my favourite novel, what it was about, and I summed it thusly:

“It’s a story about love. It’s a story about the love of passion, the love of seasons, the love of family, and the love of place. It’s a story about justice, and transcendence, and redemption. It’s a story about seeking, and wanting, and needing. It’s a story about what changes, and what never changes, and the bridge between the two. It’s a story about magic, and reality, and about the wall of clouds that separate one from the other and then weave them together as tightly as the threads in a tapestry.

But more than anything, it’s the story of a city, and the story of a girl, and the story of a man, and the story of a horse.”

Last book of 2017: “The Design Of Everyday Things” by Donald A Norman
This is a classic text that dissects the elements of design that factor into every single thing we touch and interact with, and the psychology behind how that design works, or in many cases, entirely fails to work. I’ve heard of this book for years, but never got around to reading it, and when i came across a reference to it I ordered it on a whim. Terrific read.³

Book I couldn’t shut up about: “A Colony In A Nation” by Chris Hayes
This is the book I’ve most recommended over the course of the year. It’s an examination of race relations in the US, and I think it’s very much worth the time to sit and digest it. Chris Hayes is one of the smarter people working in journalism right now, and I’ve been a big fan of his work since back when he was still writing for The Nation.

Most devastating book: “Crash Override” by Zoe Quinn
In many ways, GamerGate was the canary in the coal mine of our national discourse that warned us all that something very ugly was not just brewing but bubbling over. Quinn’s account of her experience as the original target of the harassment campaign is chilling to read, and it made me angry all over again at the entire fiasco. It does include some constructive thoughts towards the end, where Quinn details the activism she’s been working on to help others who have been targeted, and some suggestions towards making the Internet a better, safer place for everyone.

Book my friends all liked that I finally read and…didn’t: No entry.
The only book I read that I’d had hanging around my to-do list for ages was “Ready Player One”, by Earnest Cline, but I quite liked it. While it does have some problematic elements, it’s a popcorn book, and I consumed it as such.

Book my friends didn’t like that I finally read and…did: “Aftermath” by Chuck Wendig
The Aftermath trilogy was one of the first major Star Wars novels to come out after Disney announced they were rebranding the old Expanded Universe as “Legends” and that all future Star Wars novels and comics would be considered part of the “canon” of the Star Wars universe.⁴ And the response to them was largely negative, so I didn’t really drop everything I was doing to read them. But while on a cruise to Alaska this summer, I found a copy of the first book in the trilogy in the ships library, and lacking for something breezy and fun to read, I took it back to my room and started on it. And quite honestly, I enjoyed them thoroughly. The first book is a bit slow to start, and Wendig’s present-tense prose style takes some getting used to. ⁵ But the characters are wonderful, and there’s some terrific stories there filling out what was going on immediately after the destruction of the Second Death Star.

From here, I went on to read several more recent Star Wars novels, all of which I’ve enjoyed, and a couple of which⁶ were superb.

Most read author: Ryan North and Erica Henderson
North and Henderson are the writer and artist responsible for the Marvel comic “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl”, of which I read five volumes all in a row while spending a lovely weekend of isolation and natural splendor at Lake Crescent. I am an unabashed fan of Squirrel Girl, who never fails to delight me.

Best surprise: “Tove Jansson: Work and Love” by Tuula Karjalainen
I’ve been a fan of Tove Jansson’s Moomin books since I was a child, and I first read “The Adventures of Moominpapa”.⁷ They are books I continually return to and reread, and the whimsy and magic of those stories are something I always want to make room for in my life. But despite this, I really didn’t know a lot about Jansson herself, and when I saw a notice of this biography, I ordered it. It was a tremendous read, and I learned a lot about an author I already greatly admired.

Works I’m Looking Forward to in 2018:
I haven’t really looked ahead to see what’s on the horizon. On the comics front, I’m greatly looking forward to the first collection Gail Simone and Cat Stagg’s “Crosswind”, which is coming out in March. And I have the short story collection “Star Wars: From A Certain Point of View” sitting on the top of my to-read pile, waiting for me to finish what I’m currently reading, which is “Mad Men: Carousel”, which is a series of critical essays by Matt Zoller Seitz about the TV series “Mad Men” that I’ve been meaning to get around to since it came out.

In any event, I’m looking to keep better track this year, and to make more periodic updates like I planned to do last year. Onward and upward.

I’m only including collected paperbacks of comics, because honestly that’s the only way I buy them anymore. ↩
Upon whose Facebook post this entry was originally a comment upon. ↩
I was reading “The Holy Or The Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of ‘Hallelujah'”, but I didn’t finish it until today, so it goes on the 2018 list. ↩
I have some extended thoughts on this subject that are the subject of a future essay I’m writing. Watch this space. ↩
I admit I normally hate this particular technique, but honestly, by midway through the first book I’d stopped noticing it entirely. ↩
“Phasma” by Delilah S. Dawson and “Thrawn” by Timothy Zahn ↩
A few years ago, I recorded a substantial portion of an audiobook of this novel, as a gift to one of my girlfriends at the time, who was also a huge Jansson fan. I never finished it, but I keep meaning to ↩

Describe your favourite book

By autographedcat

On November 11, 2017

In Blog

In my Facebook memories this morning, I came across my post a few years ago reacting¹ to the news that they were making a movie of Mark Helprin’s “Winter’s Tale”, which I have long held is my favourite novel ever. ² One of my friends asked me what the book was about, and re-reading my reply, I’m rather pleased with it.

But more than anything, it’s the story of a city, and the story of a girl, and the story of a man, and the story of his horse.”

What’s your favourite book, and how would you pitch it to someone if you wanted to entice them to read it?

with no small amount of trepidation, which turned out to be entirely justified ↩
I read it once a year at least, and have done every year since I first discovered it in 1988. ↩

Tiny Beautiful Things

By autographedcat

On April 6, 2014

In Blog

Every so often, a book comes to my attention that perhaps wouldn’t have normally. I’ll read a review, or hear it recommended, and think “Hey, that sounds interesting”, and I’ll make a note to myself to pick it up if I see it, or sometimes i’ll just grab it off the Amazon Kindle store where it will sit, waiting for me to find a moment to crack it open.

I don’t, at this point, remember who recommended the book “Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar” by Cheryl Strayed. It’s been sitting in my Kindle Library for some time. But a couple of days ago I randomly opened it and began to read. Today I finished it.

I don’t recall the last book that so often made me laugh out loud, so often moved me to tears, so often stopped me dead in my tracks with a perfectly phrased insight or so often made me just stop, walk away from the book because I needed time to think and digest.and reflect on what I had just read.

I’ve read collections of advice columns before, from Dan Savage and Miss Manners and others. This is very likely the first collection of advice columns I will read again and again, because as much as I took from it, there’s more to take and find and connect with.

If you’re a human being who is currently in the process of living a life, I recommend this book.

Going to Market

By autographedcat

On November 17, 2013

In Blog

One of the things that excited Larissa and me about our new apartment was that it was walking distance to a great many things, and we can certainly do with more exercise and fresh air in our lives. So today we decided to go out for a nice stroll down to Pike Place Market for lunch and a bit of random shopping.

We left a bit after noon and headed down Thomas Street to the pedestrian bridge that goes down into Myrtle Edwards Park. We’ve already come to love this park, and there’s a great many photos taken of the waterfront and the Olympics across the water on my Instagram page. We had not, to this point, really taken the time to explore the walk/bike trail that runs all along it, though, so we set off south towards downtown to see what we could see.

We wandered along the edge of the Olympic Sculpture park, stopping to take a photo of myself under a giant ampersand.¹ There’s a bit of a sandy beach just past it, with a large sign warning people to not pester the harbour seals when they are resting on the rocks. We didn’t see any seals, but there were a number of ducks on the water looking reasonably pleased with their lot in life. Past this beach the trail empties out onto Alaska Way which continues on down past the piers on the waterfront.

We ambled on down the street, stopping to take pictures of interesting signs or structures, and eventually arrived in the vicinity of Pike Place Market, where we promptly became incredibly indecisive about where to eat. It didn’t help that, being Saturday, the market was completely packed with people, so we wandered up the block a ways and found a nice sushi joint called Japonessa which promised “a Japanese core concept with hints of Latino flair.”² We were seated pretty quickly despite having no reservation and our very friendly waiter got us set up with some ginger beer and a superb edamame appetiser, which was very fresh and salted perfectly. We then sampled the brie tempura, which was served with an extraordinary raspberry sauce, and finished with a variety of sushi rolls and sashimi.³ I have a feeling this is going to be a restaurant we return to, because everything was excellent.

Well stuffed with food, we went back over to the market⁴ We poked through the hat shop, but they only had sizes up to XL, which isn’t quite large enough for my head, so no new hats were acquired.⁵ We wandered down into the lower levels, where they keep the bookstores. There are two bookstores that I’m aware of in the Market, both with friendly and conversational clerks. I was tempted by many things, but in the end we only walked out with a single paperback.

We wandered over to Beecher’s Cheese Shop to get some cheese, but it was packed and the line was very long, so we decided to come back another day. Larissa’s foot was starting to bother her and it was beginning to get dark. So we headed up Pine St to 3rd Ave and caught the #13 bus back home.

It was a lovely afternoon with no agenda. And that’s really what Saturdays are all about, Charlie Brown.

amplectere potestem “et” ↩
This wasn’t a fusion I’d encountered before, so it seemed worth a try. ↩
Larissa declared the sashimi “the best she’d ever had”, and she’s had quite a lot of sashimi over the years. ↩
Pausing briefly to politely suggest to the guy standing on the corner with an IMPEACH OBAMA sign that he might consider the many benefits of getting a job, or at least finding something better to do with his time. ↩
I’ve been told there’s a serious hat shop somewhere in Seattle, and I need to take some time to find it. ↩

When I find myself in times of trouble…

By autographedcat

On March 20, 2012

In Blog

So, having made a solemn pledge to start updating again, I promptly stopped updating. Which isn’t to say things have been boring around here. runnerwolf came to visit, which was shiny and awesome, and then I went to California for Consonance, which was also shiny and awesome, and then I came home and had the plague, which was dingy and boring, and then Marian Call was in town for a concert, which was back to shiny and awesome.

So, rather than talk about those things, each of which deserves at least a post unto itself, I want to talk about Pop Culture Comfort Food.

This past weekend was mentally fragile for me. I do pretty well most of the time these days, but depression still sucks, and every so often it gets the better of me. There are some things that reliably help, but it’s mostly a matter of just getting through them until my brain chemistry balances out.

Since I had managed to lure kitanzi into playing The Old Republic with me, I got the notion over the weekend to rewatch Star Wars. I followed it up with The Empire Strikes Back because, well, it comes next, doesn’t it. And a couple of things struck me while I was watching it:

1) The Special Editions are fine. Seriously. There’s really nothing wrong with them. (Before you start, I want to note something: Han still shoots first. Really. Go watch. He shoots Greedo, whose gun discharges at strikes the wall. At the very worst, they shoot simultaneously. It’s Not Even A Thing, stop griping about it.)

2) These films are, for me, the cinematic equivalent of a big bowl of macaroni and cheese. I’ve seen them enough times now that they really are like comfort food. I go back to them and I’m 10 again and the world is okay.

kitanzi and I were discussing this last night, and she said that she couldn’t really think of a movie that fit that category for her, but she certainly had books which did, most notably Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series, which she claims to have read more times than she can actually count anymore.

So what are *your* pop culture comfort foods? When you just need something warm and familiar, what entertainment do you turn to?

Neil Gaiman speaks about Doctor Who and Coraline

By autographedcat

On October 7, 2010

In Blog

Right here, you will find the quintessential essence of a good thriller:

“I was terrified, but I wanted to know what happened next.”

Neil Gaiman divulges ‘Doctor Who’ clues | EW.com:

The girls proved Gaiman right, listening with faces more eager than petrified, and the book went on to claim the loyalty of children around the world, winning two awards (a Hugo and Nebula) and a movie contract, before becoming a musical. At the off-Broadway premiere of the show, Gaiman learned what Morgan DeFoire, seated beside him, had really thought of Coraline.

“I told her, ‘You know, we kind of have you to thank for all this, because you weren’t scared by it. And she said, ‘Actually, I was terrified. But I wanted to know what happened next. I knew if I let anybody know I was scared, I wouldn’t find out.’”

Free Banned Books from the Internet Archive

By autographedcat

On October 4, 2010

In Blog

74 Free Banned Books (for Banned Books Week) | Open Culture:

To commemorate Banned Books Week, the always great Internet Archive has opened up access to 74 banned books. The collection features some serious pieces of literature (James Joyce’s Ulysses, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night, Huxley’s Brave New World, etc.); some traditional children’s classics (Winnie the Pooh); and some sinister books of unquestionable historical importance (Mein Kampf). These books can be downloaded in multiple digital formats, including sometimes ePub and Kindle formats. This gives you the ability to read the the works on the Kindle, iPad, Nook and other mainstream ebook readers. (See note below.) But the old fashioned computer will also do the job.

Rosemary and Rue in stores now!

By autographedcat

On September 1, 2009

In Blog

My darling cadhla wrote a book, as she is wont to do, and then she had that book bought and published by DAW Books, which had up to this point not been her custom, but its one to which she’s adapting with great enthusiasm.

Today, September 1st, was the “street date” for the first of her October Daye novels to hit the shelves, and I made a special trip at lunchtime to see if they had it.

I found, neatly filed on the shelf, a solitary copy.

I thought this was odd, since I knew they had several copies on order when i spoke to them a month ago, so I grabbed it and found a clerk. “I know this may seem an odd question,” I asked, but do you have any more copies of this book?” he checked, and the computer said they should (and that one copy of their original order had been sold!), so we went looking for it. And it wasn’t on the shelves, and it wasn’t over here and…..oh, *there* they are.

On the featured paperback display!

Happy bookday, sweetie. It’s been a long time coming

Just some pine and some oak and a handful of Norsemen…

By autographedcat

On March 1, 2008

In Blog

Having gotten our paperbacks out of their long period of bondage and onto shelves, our attention turned to….the remaining boxes of books, most of which were either hardbacks or oversize paperbacks. Now, I could have built another set of shelving to house these, but you can buy shelving units designed for large books pretty easily. On the other hand, I didn’t want to spend a massive amount of money. And you know what that means….Ikea!

Now, I’ve heard people from more metropolitan and urbane cities sing the praises of Ikea for years. And I’ve heard Jonathan Coulton sing about it too….but that’s another show.[1] But my one trip to the land of flatpacks and meatballs was a frustrating and generally unhappy experience, because they’d only opened the giant store in Atlanta a few weeks prior and the novelty hadn’t warn off. It took us 45 minutes just to park, and by the time I got inside I was already tired and cranky. As a result, I’d never bothered to go back.

However, having the entire day off by virtue of Larissa’s oral surgery, I figured it was a good time to make a quick run over to get the shelves I had found on their website that looked just right. It *was* a much more pleasant experience. I had printed out the page with the item I wanted, asked the first employee I saw where to find it, and got directed straight to it. Once there, another employee (who was absolutely gorgeous, apropos of nothing) explained to me how to locate the one I could take home downstairs, and off I went. pulled the heavy boxes onto a cart, took them to the register, and out again.

One of the corollaries to Murphy’s Law is “If everything appears to be going well, you are obviously overlooking something.”[2] Sure enough, when I got to my car, I found that the boxes did NOT fit neatly. I had accounted for the length of the box, but not the angle at which it would need to slide through. Argh. Luckily, a nice gentleman helped me navigate two of the boxes into the car, leaving the third sticking a foot out the back. I then carefully drove over to the loading area, where free twine was available to tie the trunk down and secure the box so it wouldn’t slide backwards under any circumstance. Those crafty Swedes, they think of everything.

Having gotten the shelves home, i took them out of the car and set them aside, as I had other things to do. So today, I pulled them out of the box and began assembly. Pretty much everything I’d ever heard about Ikea is true — the stuff assembles easily and has very detailed instructions that are simple to follow. We only ran into trouble getting the final piece fitted in, as it required lining up a great many pegs to holes, and it wanted to be difficult. But after much sweating and swearing, two meltdowns and one brief marital spat, everything was connected and screwed down and we set it against the wall and affixed it there.

Of course, rather than sit and bask in the accomplishment, I started putting books on the shelves. Guess which I ran out of first?

kitanzi has an LJ icon that reads “If you have enough shelf space for your books, you don’t have enough books.” We have enough books, but a few boxes still. I think I’m going to pull all the non-fiction off these shelves and make room for the fiction, and then we’ll figure out where to but the *next* set of shelves which might finally complete the unpacking.

Filling the gap

By autographedcat

On July 24, 2007

In Blog

Some people have complained about some of the unresolved questions in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Fortunately, davehogg fills in the blanks for us. (Warning — spoilers may occur.)