After taking a break from Under the Banner of Heaven (very heavy material), I'm going after something a little more fun. Yesterday, I went to the library for a book that I ordered. During an ESPN Chat, Tom Haberstroh recommended The Art of a Beautiful Game: The Thinking Fan's Tour of the NBA by Chris Ballard. While I was there, I wanted some humor so I picked up The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell and When you are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris. The last book was Night by Elie Wiesel. So I will be busy the next 2 months or so with all these books. I have already started Chris Ballard's book (40 pages yesterday), it's a very easy read and the subject matter and story approach are right up my alley. So I expect to have it done this week, unless something happens. As for Vowell and Sedaris, it was tough getting through the first couple of pages because I have been in reporter's mode because Heaven.
I've been reading a lot of SF/F short stories lately, which are posted on Tor.com. I'm on at least two of their mailing lists, and one of them links to 1-3 short stories per week. I'm about 2 months behind right now. The last one I read, "Wakullah Springs", takes place over three generations in Wakullah Springs, Florida, and coincidentally I have seen articles about both the Wakullah area and the Weeki-Wachee mermaid show in the past week, plus a post on Facebook about the legendary Skunk Ape.
Finished Revelation Space 2 last night. Started Revelation space 3. Can't say I like the prose very much, and the stories are a bit too much fantasy with filler for my taste... but it only takes a chapter in bed before I'm ready to sleep
^Thanks, Ghost! Sometimes I'm a bit... well not exactly afraid... but definitively quite apprehensive about writing what I think about a book here. Mostly because I merely am expressing my opinion - and not all understand that. Especially not if I learned about that very book in the same thread But luckily we're not all the same, and even if I don't have a particular fondness for one universe -there's always another just a few posts up- or downstream
I started Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks on the weekend. A couple of months ago, I'd picked up a box set containing the first three novels in his Culture series, but it's taken me a while to get to it. (Actually, I've skipped over a number of books I've had longer to read these first.) So far, I'm finding it interesting, though I did find it hard at first to keep track of who was who - probably because nobody seems to have a name that's anything like an existing human name, so the character names are all just messes of syllables at the moment. I'm sure that'll resolve itself as I get further into the book. The story itself starts very slowly, I'm hoping I don't get bored with it, because I've always heard that this series is well worth reading.
^^I LOVE that series...no matter how many times I read it (I've read it about a dozen times, at least) my mind always reacts as if it's the first time I've read it.
It is a relatively heavy one you've started with... Use of Weapons would have been my suggestion for a first time Ian M. Banks reader. Or perhaps the collection of short stories found in The State of the Art. Especially the title-story, where an explorer-ship from The Culture visits Earth back when Star Wars was a big hit on the big screen... (They even watch it on the ship ) I so miss looking forward to the next Culture-novel ETA: There is no 'official' order you need to read them in, you know, not even if some few characters might have smaller roles in more than one story...
I did approach it with some trepidation because I’m always wary of reading a book after seeing the film, and whilst I didn’t hate the film I didn’t exactly love it. Have to say I’m only a handful of pages in and it already seems more harrowing than the film so that’s a plus!
Just started an excellent little series of books on Judaism called A Brief Introduction for Christians. Since Hannukah starts tomorrow, I started with that chapter in Jewish Holidays. In the car, I've moved on to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Oh! In this case, the books are 200% better than the first movie could ever hope to be......of course, I haven't seen the second movie yet, but from what I've heard, the same will be able to be said for the second book, too.
Oops. I figured I should probably read them in publication order. That sounds ilke fun. Good to know. I'd actually been wanting to read the series for a while, but hadn't known where to start - then I saw the box set, and figured I'd start there (after checking the Wikipedia page on the series to confirm that the books in the set were the first three). Coincidentally, I learned today that Chrinfinity is also reading one of the Culture novels - I don't recall which one, though. I'd mentioned that the one I'm reading is the first in publication order - I'll have to let her know that the order doesn't matter.
By coincidence I discovered a decade old link to more than 40 Highlander fanfiction collections. Sadly, most of them slash (got nothing against slash per se, but most of it is either porn or slushy). Atm I am at site # 12 and haven't found something I'd like to keep. However, I'm not yet ready to give up hope that there might be a good one among them, after all.
I absolutely love them!!!! Didn't you get my PM at Terran? I wish there was more. You really have a talent to give your characters credibility and life. They aren't as 2-dimensional as the characters of many other writers but are like real people, with little quirks and flaws, vices, talents and virtues.
I'm pretty sure I once read a thread on the subject of reading order of Culture-novels, but right now the only similar thread i could find is this one. And I happened to run across this blogpost.