So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[bdub76]

Still reading Dangerous Visions, Skeleton Crew, and Long Walk. Almost done with the Long Walk. I'm still not sure what I think of it.

Today, I learned that the first translation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas was badly edited and translated. Going to track down a good translation.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Now a precise quarter of the way through Lessons in Chemistry. Including a flashback chapter involving a boarding school/orphanage run by a RC bishop apparently stuck in the twenties. The sixteen twenties (think Galileo). And science textbooks -- from a mysterious donor -- being crudely redacted (by having entire chapters physically removed). If Garmus intended the whole chapter to be infuriating, she has once again succeeded.

Which was followed by Zott's lover's absurdist demise, being pulled over by a spooked dog, fracturing his skull, and being run over by a police car, which had already been spoiled by the Wikipedia article on the TV minseries adaptation. And I stumbled upon another spoiler that suggests that all was not as it seemed in the aforementioned flashback chapter.

 

[bdub76]

Stumbled upon the book: The Burnout Society. I typically avoid non-fiction, but I'm making an exception for this author. Book is coming in the mail, so I'll read it this weekend.

 

[Stevil2001]

Today, I learned that the first translation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas was badly edited and translated. Going to track down a good translation.

I recommend the 2003 Naval Institute edition, edited by Miller and Walter.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Hmm. The 2016 Barnes & Noble edition I have doesn't cite a translator.

Be that as it may, I got up to page 124 of Lessons in Chemistry last night.

Spoiler

Zott is pregnant, has been fired for being pregnant, and has personally (while pregnant) torn out the kitchen (with a sledgehammer; I've seen a rather petite woman wielding a sledgehammer, and had reason to be thankful she was "on our side") and replaced it with a lab, and Six-Thirty (the dog, who is occasionally the POV character) has first defended himself against the cemetary groundskeeper, then saved the groundskeeper's life.

 

[Greg Cox]

Almost done with the Stranger Things hardover. Would've finished it by now, but real life kept getting in the way: deadlines, snowstorms, a plumbing emergency, a broken furnace . . .

Fear not. We have heat again. (Knock on wood.)

 

[Smiley]

Star Trek Movie Memories by William Shatner and Chris Kreski

This is reading as a cross between your typical behind-the-scenes book and Shatner's convention talks. I'm learning some things, such as what Shatner did between TOS and TAS and the casting experience of David Gautreaux for Xon in Phase II. Some bits are more commonly known, but Shatner has a very entertaining and engaging approach to telling the stories.

To those who have read other Shatner non-fiction books like I'm Working On That, which would you recommend? I'm very pleased with the two Memories books about Star Trek.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Star Trek Movie Memories by William Shatner and Chris Kreski

I don't remember whether or not I read that.