The Lyorn's Den

The cats are happily forming a heap of cat on the sofa. My motorbike has passed the technical inspection. The ficus benjamina which was in the way all the time has a new home. I have a new fandom (that I might write about soon), which is probably responsible for me dreaming about demonic chain saw murderers going after the unwary inheritors of a hundred-year-old curse (which was not as bad as it sounds). I have fanfic, tea, and chocolate cookies, and it's still Sunday.

So I think I'll catch up on reviewing books. Today: Three doorstoppers.

( Kit Whitfield: Bareback (2006) )
( Scott Lynch: The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006) )
( Jaqueline Carey: Kushiel's Scion (2006) )

Books:

Oct 21st:
Jo Walton: "The King's Peace / The King's Name"
Rosemary Sutcliff: "The Eagle of the Ninth"

Aug 6th:
Katherine Kerr: "Polar City Blues"
Patricia Briggs: "When Demons Walk"

Jul 28th:
J.K. Rowling: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"

Mar 25th:
Jane Huber: "60 Hikes within 60 miles - San Francisco"

Feb 11th:
Carrie Vaughn: "Kitty Goes to Washington"
Josephine Tey: "Daughter of Time"
Neil Gaiman: "Fragile Things"

Jan 23rd:
Emma Bull: "Falcon"
Simon Green: "Deathstalker: Legacy"
C.J. Cherryh: "40.000 in Gehenna"
Len Deighton: "Spy Story"
Alex Kava: "The Soul Catcher"
Michael Connelly: "The Last Coyote"
Laurie Graham: "Future Homemakers of America"

Comics:

Oct 21st:
Terry Moore: "Strangers in Paradise XIX"
Stan Sakai: "Usagi Yojimbo XXI -- The Mother of Mountains"

Fanfic:

Feb 20th:
daegaer: "California Dreaming" (Good Omens/BtVS)
hackthis "If You're the Answer, What's the Question?" (BSG)

Movies:

Nov 11th:
"Stardust"

Jun 11th:
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"
"Ocean's 13"

Gakked from legionseagle

These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users (as of today whenever this meme started). As usual, bold what you have read, italicise what you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand. ( To the list... )
It's amazing how many books I didn't finish not because I hated them, but just because I couldn't be bothered to pick them up again.

kazaera tagged me.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4-7 sentences on your LJ along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest (unless it's too troublesome to reach and is really heavy. Then go back to step 1).
6. Tag five people.

***

I yielded to these arguments against my better judgement.

I must tell you a most extraordinary story that I heard about Camilla Galloway. It may perhaps have been mentioned in the English newspapers; but I don't imagine they would have thought it worth repeating in detail.

The first I heard at it was a Preveza.

(From "The Shortest Way to Hades", by Sarah Caudwell.)

***

Now comes the hard part: Tag five people. Honestly, I do not know of five people who are likely to read this who have LJ accounts. From the people on my friends list, I seem to remember that bellatrys dislikes game-of-tag memes.

So: cyrna, mad_freddy (come on, write something! even if it's only for a meme!), kindigo, and anyone (any two?) who might feel like it.

Bad dreams, again, but this time, at least, they clearly came from too-enthusiastic reading (if there is such a thing). I awoke frantic, with a long list of things I needed to do at once to prevent a bad situation from devolving into all-out catastrophe, started mentally working through the list and discovered that all of the problems were someone else's, who, author willing, would be well on top of it soon.

Which is not the worst way to wake up, all things considered.

And because I did nothing but reading this weekend (it's raining), and I haven't heard from any of you folks at home, I'll just talk about books again. I read these in November and never got around to talking about them.

( Kitty Goes to Washington, by Carrie Vaughn, 2006 )
( Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey, 1951 )
( Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman, 2006 )

I have asked myself why I am writing those reviews. It's not as if there is a lack of book reviews in the world. My first idea was that I needed something to fill the pages of my LJ. Which might be true. Or that I'm obsessive. Which is true. But mostly it's, I think, that over the years I read a lot of books and forgot them. Forgot that I read them, or forgot what was in them. And every time someone (like mad_freddy in his comment here) talks about them I can only say, I read it when I was in school, but I can't remember. Which I feel is embarrassing, and I do not want that to happen anymore if I can avoid it.

In short, yes, I'm obsessive.

Just so that I find it again...

Books:

21.11.
"The Guns of August", by Barbara Tuchman
"Elsewhere", by Will Shetterly
"Darwinia", by Robert Charles Wilson
"Hangman's Holiday" by Dorothy Sayers (Short Stories)

5.11.
"Ill Wind", by Rachel Caine
"Making Book", by Teresa Nielsen Hayden (Essays)
"1491", by Charles C. Mann (Non-fiction)

27.10.
"Summer Knight", by Jim Butcher
"Kitty and the Midnight Hour", by Carrie Vaughn
"Snake Agent", by Liz Williams

18.10.
"Grave Peril", by Jim Butcher
"The Privilege of the Sword", by Ellen Kushner

11.10.
"Fool Moon", by Jim Butcher
"The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club", by Dorothy Sayers

13.9.
"Shadows over Baker Street" (Anthology)
"Teckla", by Steven Brust
"The Poison Master", by Liz Williams

21.8.
"Storm Front", by Jim Butcher.

10.7.
"We who are about to...", by Joanna Russ

25.1.
"The Iron Council", by China Miéville
"Dragon", by Steven Brust
"Kushiel's Chosen" by Jaqueline Carey


Fanfic:

24.7.
Midnight Blue: "The Mirror of Maybe" (HP)
Rorschach's Blot: "Make a Wish" (HP)
Ishtar: "Fidelius" (HP)
Le Rouret: "Pottymouth" (LotR, NC-17)

25.1.
After the Rain: "Running Close to the Ground", "The Vanishing Cabinet and what Montague Found There", "Happy Birthday, Mr. Dark Lord", "Remedial History" (all HP)

ETA: 21. Jan 07 - Found some more book entries.

What is it with Saturdays? I had bad (if interesting) dreams, and when my alarm rang at 10, I had no idea where I was or how I got there and which planet I was on, or how to open my eyes, so I fell back into bed and slept for another three and a half hours. Which neatly rendered impossible any plans I might have had for the day, because three-something hours of daylight is not enough to do anything interesting. And I still felt confused.

I decided to make use of the amazing restorative properties of bookshops and coffee. And it was good. It also was 5 in the evening when I walked out again, so I got a take-away pizza and headed back to the hotel. I'm not complaining, but I feel I should have more energy, see more, get around more... Oh, and get more work done. Work out more. Write a bestselling novel. Try to take over the world.

I wrote some postcards instead.

Friday I went home from work early, because I absolutely wanted to see Doctor Who. This might seem strange to you, as I've never seen the show before, not once in 28 seasons and then some. I'd come about some fanfic, some fandom debate, some references, the usual things. But my luck -- which usually lets any show I become interested in appear on German TV within a few months (though sometimes in the form of after-midnight wrong-order re-runs), or lets a bunch of DVDs tumble unto my desk -- failed me in this. So, that was the first reason. The second one is David Tennant. Those who know me know that I'm not in the habit of actor fangirling (at least not since Harrison Ford became too old to play Indiana Jones). But when in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", Barty Crouch jr. appeared for a very short time un-polyjuiced, I was all, "Oh wow, this guy is too cute to be true!!11!eleventy-one!" I checked the IMDb, found that he was currently playing in a series I'd like to see but probably never would, sent a mental telegram to whoever is in charge of my luck to Do Something About It, and, being oh-so-old and reasonable, forgot the whole thing. Until I looked at the TV guide eight days ago and went "OMG squee!", and went home early yesterday so that I could sit in front of the TV at 7pm.

And if you expect a review of the episode, you are out of luck. I only watched one episode so far, how the heck should I review it? But I have to say, both Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, which came next, suffered badly from SciFi's commercial breaks, which came every five (or so) minutes. Life's a bitch. And I'm not enthusiastic about buying the DVDs, since I'm not convinced that DVDs will keep playable for a significant time span, and I lack the ability to make backup copies and adjust format. Sometimes life sucks. If I could assure that I could still watch my DVDs in 20 or 30 or 50 years, I'd sent a 500-Euro-order to amazon or play.com tomorrow. If a DVD box cost only 10 Euros, I'd be content with a shelf life of maybe 10 years. But they are too expensive to be disposable, and too short-lived to spend much money on them. Darned things. At least back in the Jurassic, before home video, there were no commercial breaks on TV.

None of these problems, fortunately, plague books (so far). Books (like IVAR bookshelves and tea mugs) are both cheap and durable, and require no specialized interface. What's not to like?

So: books.

( Ill Wind, by Rachel Caine, 2003 )

( Making Book, by Teresa Nielsen Hayden, 1994 )

( 1491, by Charles C. Mann, 2005 )

My normal biorhythm is gaining on me, which is a bad thing. A normal and stable rhythm for me is waking at 1 pm and getting tired at 4 or 5 am. At least, jet lag provided me with about a week of waking up early and well-rested. I now missed two breakfasts in a row and had lunch in the cafeteria instead. The food is not bad, but every dollar spent there is a dollar that won't buy books.

OK, so I read until 2 am last night. But then, I wasn't tired.

( Observations )

Next, books:

( Grave Peril, by Jim Butcher, 2001 )
( The Privilege of the Sword, by Ellen Kushner, 2006 )

... and I'll try to avoid spoilers.

( Shadows over Baker Street, 2003 )

Thanks to cyrna for lending me the book!


( Teckla, by Steven Brust, 1987 )
( The Poison Master, by Liz Williams, 2003 )