Reading "Tunnel in the Sky".... (Maybe I'll come back to a book I listed previously in this thread, depending on my mood).
Wow, a sentence with 39 words in a rant about "proper" grammar, irony is a wonderful thing. As for what I'm reading, I'm finishing off Lost Souls and hopefully will do so before Storming Heaven drops through my letter box.
There's nothing ironic about it. Her sentence is long but perfectly correct and not run-on in any way. It's a common but false misconception that "run-on" simply means "long".
True and false. Regardless of whether it is correct or not, it is long. Try reading it out loud. I personally ran out of breath by two thirds of the way through it. Now I'm not perfect, I garble the Queens English all the time. That rant though did smack of irony and was rather amusing for it.
I don't find it a particularly long sentence. It has a simple and straightforward structure: Maybe A, but given B, then C. Just three parts, and it takes up under three lines in total. The only flaw I see in it is the reuse of "these" in the final phrase, which is a bit awkward-sounding, but not actually ungrammatical. For comparison, here's the closing sentence of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which is often held up as a great example of concise and efficient public speaking: That's 82 words and a complicated structure with five segments. Yet aside from a few uses of punctuation that wouldn't get by a modern copyeditor, there's nothing wrong with it as a piece of writing. It's not an abuse of language to demand an attention span from your audience.
With the movie only 39 days out, Im diving into an Avengers re-read. Ive decided to go with the late 90's Heroes Return relaunch. Avengers- Busiek/Perez #1-56 (Perez leaves with #34) Captain America- Waid/Kubert/Jurgens #1-50 Iron Man- Busiek/Chen #1-25 Thor- Jurgens/Romita Jr #1-79 (though various artists throughout) Hulk- Byrne/Garney/various (Byrne leaves after #7) #1-11 This includes Annuals, and crossover issues. Ive cruised through about the first year and a half so far of each run. Currently Im on: Captain America #20 Iron Man #19 Thor #14 Hulk #5 Avengers #19
Again, "run-on sentence" does not mean "long sentence." As Wikipedia puts it, "A run-on sentence is a sentence in which two or more independent clauses (i.e., complete sentences) are joined without appropriate punctuation or conjunction." For instance, this is a run-on sentence: It's cold in here, I should put on shoes. This is not: It is cold inside my apartment this morning due to the unseasonal lows we had overnight and the outdated temperature controls in my apartment building; therefore, my feet are chilly right now, and I would probably be more comfortable if I put on a pair of shoes. The former is a run-on because the two clauses are improperly connected. It could be fixed in any of the following ways: It's cold in here. I should put on shoes. It's cold in here; I should put on shoes. It's cold in here, so I should put on shoes. The latter is a rambling and needlessly long sentence, but it isn't a run-on, because the independent clauses have conjunctions or correct punctuation connecting them. Now pardon me while I put on my shoes. It really is pretty dang chilly in here.
Thanks for putting in all of that effort, but I knew all of that already. OTOH, it's also useful to explain my joke: In German it tends to be vastly more common to form long, multi-clause sentences, and unlike in English, it is not considered a stylistic sin to do so. One of the telltale signs of an inexperienced English speaker hailing from a German background is sentences of that nature, replete with comma-placement following German grammatic rules. And "break up your sentences!" is an often-heard admonishment in German English classes. In fact, even having majored in English in school and using English very frequently, I'm still prone to forming far longer sentences than is considered good, clear English a lot of the time.
Last night I decided to switch from Level 26: Dark Origin to ST:MU: Rise Like Lions. I just wasn't in the mood for something like L26, and I couldn't take RLL sitting on my Nook unread any longer.
Just finished Romulan War: To Brave the Storm. I really enjoyed it, but I can see why people say it feels rushed. I'll probably see if I can find the review thread to go into more detail on my opinions on that. About to start Star Wars: Republic Commando - Triple Zero. The next book on deck is Catching Fire, the second Hunger Games book.
I've had a pretty crazy month, so I'm a little behind on my blogging. I have been doing a lot of reading though! I've finally posted my review for Gateways #5: Star Trek: Voyager: No Man's Land by Christie Golden. In the past month, I've read: Gateways #6: Star Trek: New Frontier: Cold Wars by Peter David Gateways #7: What Lay Beyond by various Star Trek #57: The Rift by Peter David Star Trek: Errand of Vengeance #1: The Edge of the Sword by Kevin Ryan The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and right now, I'm reading Star Trek: Vanguard: Storming Heaven by David Mack!
Currently Star Trek: Vangaurd: Storming Heaven by David Mack. I was reading The Agency: The Body at the Tower by Y.S. Lee. Which I will finish after Vangaurd. I also still need to finish A Game of Thrones, and an Assassin's Creed novel, which have been abandoned for a while.
Well, the temptation proved too great and That Which Divides got put to one side once again to make way for Storming Heaven. But, c'mon, its the Vanguard finale.
Just finished reading Enterprise: Last Full Measure and my review is up Here if anyone is interested. Currently been reading Enterprise: Rosetta which seems to be a rather long book!
"Tunnel in the Sky" impressed me with various characters and portrayals, especially given it was written in 1955. On the other hand, I felt that "Farnham's Freehold," given situations and certain characters, left more questions than answers...especially in regards to plot thingys. I am still looking to read Heinlein's "Variable Star" (which I attained in a surprising manner) as well as some other books and short story collections. And, I may read "The Door Through Summer Again"...someday...since I'm in a conundrum of what to actually read next. He--Heinlein--seems to have a certain curious theme, which I've noticed other readers of Heinlein have caught.