Reading. On Wednesday, even
Nov. 3rd, 2021 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiRecently finished:
I finally succumbled to my completist tendencies and read Bujold's latest (last?) Barrayar book, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. I am sorry to say that I did not like it. I am actually 100% behind the idea of Cordelia using Aral's DNA to have a bunch more children, but I would have liked a lot more exploration of the bitterly ironic situation that meant that she could only do so after he was dead and Miles had inherited. This book had basically no struggle and no anger, and I was just... bored. I mean, I knew I probably would not enjoy everything about it, but I was hoping to find something good to cling to. I did not.
Currently reading:
On paper, Piranesi, by Susannah Clarke -- finally! I am really really enjoying this! I love the imagery of the House! I love the way the details of what is going on are slowly being filled in, and the narrative voice is really excellent! I can't wait to find out yet a little bit more about what is going on here! (Don't tell me how it ends.)
On tablet, the GRRM prequel book about the Targaryens. I would actually have to look up the title. Fire and Blood, I think? This may be a sign of the level of my engagement in it, but on the other hand it's soothing to read right before bed, and there's quite a lot of it so it will keep me going for a while. As a book, I don't really care about anything or anyone in it, but that doesn't really interfere with my purpose in reading it, for which see directly above.
Temporarily put aside:
I saw somewhere that someone (wow, isn't this vague?) had requested C. J. Cherryh's Faded Sun trilogy in a fiction exchange, and that reminded me that I owned a copy and have occasionally thought about re-reading it. Also for some reason I don't own a copy of Dune. Why is that? Anyway, I only just started this but I think I'll go back to it when I'm done with Piranesi. I do remember really liking it, back in the day, which to be fair was a long time ago.
I might, though, turn first to the diaries of Tommy Lascelles, because while my mother was here we watched A LOT of The Crown, and it turns out that A has a collected volume of them, mostly from the 1940s or earlier (so before the series begins) and about his time with Edward VIII and George VI. He was such a great character, and so I'm looking forward to these, but either A or Spartacus might nab them first, now that my mother has gone home.
I finally succumbled to my completist tendencies and read Bujold's latest (last?) Barrayar book, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. I am sorry to say that I did not like it. I am actually 100% behind the idea of Cordelia using Aral's DNA to have a bunch more children, but I would have liked a lot more exploration of the bitterly ironic situation that meant that she could only do so after he was dead and Miles had inherited. This book had basically no struggle and no anger, and I was just... bored. I mean, I knew I probably would not enjoy everything about it, but I was hoping to find something good to cling to. I did not.
Currently reading:
On paper, Piranesi, by Susannah Clarke -- finally! I am really really enjoying this! I love the imagery of the House! I love the way the details of what is going on are slowly being filled in, and the narrative voice is really excellent! I can't wait to find out yet a little bit more about what is going on here! (Don't tell me how it ends.)
On tablet, the GRRM prequel book about the Targaryens. I would actually have to look up the title. Fire and Blood, I think? This may be a sign of the level of my engagement in it, but on the other hand it's soothing to read right before bed, and there's quite a lot of it so it will keep me going for a while. As a book, I don't really care about anything or anyone in it, but that doesn't really interfere with my purpose in reading it, for which see directly above.
Temporarily put aside:
I saw somewhere that someone (wow, isn't this vague?) had requested C. J. Cherryh's Faded Sun trilogy in a fiction exchange, and that reminded me that I owned a copy and have occasionally thought about re-reading it. Also for some reason I don't own a copy of Dune. Why is that? Anyway, I only just started this but I think I'll go back to it when I'm done with Piranesi. I do remember really liking it, back in the day, which to be fair was a long time ago.
I might, though, turn first to the diaries of Tommy Lascelles, because while my mother was here we watched A LOT of The Crown, and it turns out that A has a collected volume of them, mostly from the 1940s or earlier (so before the series begins) and about his time with Edward VIII and George VI. He was such a great character, and so I'm looking forward to these, but either A or Spartacus might nab them first, now that my mother has gone home.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-03 07:51 pm (UTC)I tried to read Fire and Blood and it was just so boring. Though I read it as a library book in some huge illustrated edition, so it was fun to look at the pictures - do you get those on the tablet version?
And, Piranesi! I loved it, and I went into it so entirely unspoiled that I had no idea what it was even about, which for me was part of the charm, discovering the world as it unfolded for me. So enjoy that feeling!
no subject
Date: 2021-11-03 09:21 pm (UTC)Fire and Blood is really boring -- it isn't a novel at all, just the outline of one. Even with the pictures, which made it into the Kindle version. But I basically don't care about the Targaryens, or the history of Westeros, and this book doesn't convince me that I should. I kind of wish, if he didn't want to finish the main series, that he'd write stories set 100 or 300 years in the future. I'd probably find that more interesting! But it might not be so conducive to sleep.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-04 01:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-04 01:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-04 07:55 am (UTC)I always knew that one day I'd give in and read Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, but if you can possibly help it, don't bother.