Stuff What I Read
Jan. 15th, 2019 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silversandbeaUgh, came down with something, and yesterday was supposed to be the day I got back to the gym (I typically take the first two weeks of January off as a treat to myself - plus most of the resolutions crowd thins out by MLK day)
I've imposed some not-resolution rules on myself to try to make myself pay attention to my 'to read' pile. There are now multiple corollaries to the original set of rules (on library books, flash sales, getting books for free, novellas, and graphic novels), but the basics are: I can only purchase a new book if a) I've read at least two of the books in my TBR pile or b) a month has passed since my last book purchase.
Half a month in and it's already a struggle - for one thing, I keep on finding myself in or near bookstores. Friday was Moon Palace Books, where I decided that graphic novels had their own track, and then on Sunday I had to keep myself out of Uncle Hugo's. Both are great for browsing, but not so good for hunting for a specific book. Moon Palace's graphic novel section isn't huge, but they seem to separate the big two from the other publishers and then is sorted by writer, except when it's sorted by title or the artist is more famous, and sometimes the second tier comics publishers (Image, Dark Horse, Boom, ect) are with the big two, and manga? There's manga in there wherever it feels like being, I think. Plus there's one shelf for books about comics, maybe? Oh, also the recommended books are all in the front of the store. Uncle Hugos is all SFF - well, that and books about SFF, so there's a new section, a used hardcover section, a used paperback section, and sometimes the books are on shelves two or three deep, plus there's cardboard boxes on the floor for specific authors, and more books on top of the bookshelves and. . .
Either way, the best way to find something is to let yourself unfocus, breathe, and then have your eyes roam around until something jumps out on you. It usually works.
So here's what I've been reading:
The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch. Great character moments! I love everyone in this bar!. . . and I have no idea how the plot strung together at all. This is the first of the Peter Grant books I've read that tries to explain terms for American readers, and I'm a little charmed and confused by what they think needs to be explained. I can multiply meters by three on my own, but did google Nandos (and a Ford Asbo to find out it was slang for a Ford Focus)
I've imposed some not-resolution rules on myself to try to make myself pay attention to my 'to read' pile. There are now multiple corollaries to the original set of rules (on library books, flash sales, getting books for free, novellas, and graphic novels), but the basics are: I can only purchase a new book if a) I've read at least two of the books in my TBR pile or b) a month has passed since my last book purchase.
Half a month in and it's already a struggle - for one thing, I keep on finding myself in or near bookstores. Friday was Moon Palace Books, where I decided that graphic novels had their own track, and then on Sunday I had to keep myself out of Uncle Hugo's. Both are great for browsing, but not so good for hunting for a specific book. Moon Palace's graphic novel section isn't huge, but they seem to separate the big two from the other publishers and then is sorted by writer, except when it's sorted by title or the artist is more famous, and sometimes the second tier comics publishers (Image, Dark Horse, Boom, ect) are with the big two, and manga? There's manga in there wherever it feels like being, I think. Plus there's one shelf for books about comics, maybe? Oh, also the recommended books are all in the front of the store. Uncle Hugos is all SFF - well, that and books about SFF, so there's a new section, a used hardcover section, a used paperback section, and sometimes the books are on shelves two or three deep, plus there's cardboard boxes on the floor for specific authors, and more books on top of the bookshelves and. . .
Either way, the best way to find something is to let yourself unfocus, breathe, and then have your eyes roam around until something jumps out on you. It usually works.
So here's what I've been reading:
Bingo Love - Jackpot edition - Mostly, just super cute. I could have done with fewer exposition bubbles, since they weren't necessary, the art did the work.
The Stone Heart by Faith Erin Hicks: I have a tendency to get all of my mid-grade age comics in paperback so I can easily pass them to a friend with three mid-grade age kids (I'm apparently getting them hooked on comics by all of the artists whose webcomics I read as a teen? With the exception of Erika Moen). But also, I'm less likely to sit down and read a dead tree version of a comic, so even though I liked the Nameless City, this has been sitting on my self for six months now. It's good. It's very much the second book in a trilogy, but considering it's telling the story of a colonized city from the perspective of one of the colonizers, it's doing pretty well. The series has a tendency to be billed as 'like Avatar!' - which, considering it's white folks from North America setting something in a well-researched Asian setting, I can kind of see, but honestly the thing it's reminding me of the most is Fullmetal Alchemist. Moral greyness, so many of the adults are probably war criminals, story told from the perspective of the colonizer that still makes it clear that the whole colonization thing is pretty goddamn awful, there's probably more.
The Armored Saint by Myke Cole - I think I got this as a free Tor download. For a novella, it sure took its damn time to get started. And while in theory this seems like something I would enjoy - I generally like the idea of seeing things from the peasant's perspective in a fantasy universe, I think this was a little too dark and downtrodden for me. I also couldn't get a handle on how old the main character was supposed to be - sometimes she sounded like a preteen, then there was a reference to her being sixteen at the end. Also, lesbian['s love interest] death trope.
The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch. Great character moments! I love everyone in this bar!. . . and I have no idea how the plot strung together at all. This is the first of the Peter Grant books I've read that tries to explain terms for American readers, and I'm a little charmed and confused by what they think needs to be explained. I can multiply meters by three on my own, but did google Nandos (and a Ford Asbo to find out it was slang for a Ford Focus)
