[TOPIC] in the Time of Wednesdays
Apr. 8th, 2020 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
evelyn_bBuying Books From A Distance
I don't need to break my "no current events" rule for you to guess that there's been some disruption in my usual work schedule. Right now I have almost all the time in the world, but shockingly little focus. Or maybe not so shockingly! Anyway, Wednesday posting may or may not improve eventually.
My already-read books were piling up at home, so I asked one of my favorite used bookstores if I could donate a small box by mail - and I could! This doesn't completely solve the problem, but it's much reduced. I also sent some money and, since serendipity is most of the fun of going to a used bookstore, I asked if they could pick out a couple of books to send back to me - and they said yes! So we'll see what I get in a week or two.
What I've Finished Reading
The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, and The Battle of the Labyrinth, all by Rick Riordan and all delightful dad-joke extravaganzas starring Percy Jackson, neglected son of the sea god and basically good kid. DON'T ASK because you certainly won't get a satisfying explanation for why the Labyrinth, Mount Olympus, Calypso's island, and the gates of Tartarus all picked up and moved to the USA; it's enough to know that Rick Riordan is an American and loves road trips. I got highly invested in the young satyr Grover Underwood's quest to find the great god Pan and restore the spirit of the Wild to the modern world. Other than that, my favorite character is Clarisse, a tough, buff, cartoonishly bullying teenage daughter of Ares, who expends far too much energy trying to impress her asshole dad.
I've also been re-reading some Terry Pratchetts! Guards! Guards! isn't quite as good as I remembered it, but good enough. And some other things; allegedly I'll catch up on posting about them sometime.
What I'm Reading Now
Sometimes I love Don Quixote and sometimes I am so bored by Don Quixote that my eyes glaze over. For example, I'm always happy when Quixote interrupts people to defend the obvious merits and historical truthfulness of chivalric romances, but not so thrilled whenever a bunch of non-Don Quixote guys get together and tell their romantic stories to a captive audience. I'm sure that there are lots of excellent critical essays to be written about why this is interesting, but they will not be written by me.
Now it's just occured to me that LM Montgomery loves doing this, too - having different minor characters butt in to unburden themselves of half a short story she wrote for a quick $10 fifteen years ago - and I was annoyed by it as a child but reconciled to it later, so maybe I'll turn a corner on Cervantes' swain brigade in another thirty years.
Independent People by Halldor Laxness is a so-far unexpectedly funny book about bleak agricultural life in early 20th century Iceland. Bjartur is a fiercely independent sheep farmer who lives in a sod house on land that is rumored to be haunted by devils or ghosts, but is probably just haunted by isolation and dung smoke. I'm only about a sixth of the way in, and his wife has already died in childbirth while he was out hunting for a lost sheep (that she'd actually just butchered and eaten in secret because she was craving meat and he wouldn't get her any, but she didn't feel she could tell him that because he's kind of a dick). He trips over her corpse on his way back in because the sod house is that small and dark. It's just that kind of book! I always think I have an aversion to bleakness and only want to read cheerful books full of comfortable beauty and friendly satire and nice people who support each other, but then as soon as anyone puts some brutally indifferent nature and slightly inchoate macho assholes in front of me, I drink it all the way up like it's the coldest beer of the summer and I've been crossing a parking lot for two hours.
It's all in the writing, I guess. Laxness (and/or his translator, J.A. Thompson) is so good at showing us a character in a few paragraphs, then summing them up neatly in a single detail. Shortly after we meet Bjartur, we feel like we've known him for years, because of this knowing line:
Later, a querulous, bigoted old minister gets stitched into this perfect change purse of petulance: "It was equally painful to him to hear anyone spoken ill of as to hear them praised."
Ok, these obviously aren't going to have the full effect unless you read them in context, but I promise you they are good. Yet another book I'm sorry I put off reading for so long!
What I Plan to Read Next
I'm just about to start Hogfather (another Pratchett reread) and a new detective book called IQ by Joe Ide. Also The Last Olympian, coincidentally also the last book in the Percy Jackson series.
I don't need to break my "no current events" rule for you to guess that there's been some disruption in my usual work schedule. Right now I have almost all the time in the world, but shockingly little focus. Or maybe not so shockingly! Anyway, Wednesday posting may or may not improve eventually.
My already-read books were piling up at home, so I asked one of my favorite used bookstores if I could donate a small box by mail - and I could! This doesn't completely solve the problem, but it's much reduced. I also sent some money and, since serendipity is most of the fun of going to a used bookstore, I asked if they could pick out a couple of books to send back to me - and they said yes! So we'll see what I get in a week or two.
What I've Finished Reading
The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, and The Battle of the Labyrinth, all by Rick Riordan and all delightful dad-joke extravaganzas starring Percy Jackson, neglected son of the sea god and basically good kid. DON'T ASK because you certainly won't get a satisfying explanation for why the Labyrinth, Mount Olympus, Calypso's island, and the gates of Tartarus all picked up and moved to the USA; it's enough to know that Rick Riordan is an American and loves road trips. I got highly invested in the young satyr Grover Underwood's quest to find the great god Pan and restore the spirit of the Wild to the modern world. Other than that, my favorite character is Clarisse, a tough, buff, cartoonishly bullying teenage daughter of Ares, who expends far too much energy trying to impress her asshole dad.
I've also been re-reading some Terry Pratchetts! Guards! Guards! isn't quite as good as I remembered it, but good enough. And some other things; allegedly I'll catch up on posting about them sometime.
What I'm Reading Now
Sometimes I love Don Quixote and sometimes I am so bored by Don Quixote that my eyes glaze over. For example, I'm always happy when Quixote interrupts people to defend the obvious merits and historical truthfulness of chivalric romances, but not so thrilled whenever a bunch of non-Don Quixote guys get together and tell their romantic stories to a captive audience. I'm sure that there are lots of excellent critical essays to be written about why this is interesting, but they will not be written by me.
Now it's just occured to me that LM Montgomery loves doing this, too - having different minor characters butt in to unburden themselves of half a short story she wrote for a quick $10 fifteen years ago - and I was annoyed by it as a child but reconciled to it later, so maybe I'll turn a corner on Cervantes' swain brigade in another thirty years.
Independent People by Halldor Laxness is a so-far unexpectedly funny book about bleak agricultural life in early 20th century Iceland. Bjartur is a fiercely independent sheep farmer who lives in a sod house on land that is rumored to be haunted by devils or ghosts, but is probably just haunted by isolation and dung smoke. I'm only about a sixth of the way in, and his wife has already died in childbirth while he was out hunting for a lost sheep (that she'd actually just butchered and eaten in secret because she was craving meat and he wouldn't get her any, but she didn't feel she could tell him that because he's kind of a dick). He trips over her corpse on his way back in because the sod house is that small and dark. It's just that kind of book! I always think I have an aversion to bleakness and only want to read cheerful books full of comfortable beauty and friendly satire and nice people who support each other, but then as soon as anyone puts some brutally indifferent nature and slightly inchoate macho assholes in front of me, I drink it all the way up like it's the coldest beer of the summer and I've been crossing a parking lot for two hours.
It's all in the writing, I guess. Laxness (and/or his translator, J.A. Thompson) is so good at showing us a character in a few paragraphs, then summing them up neatly in a single detail. Shortly after we meet Bjartur, we feel like we've known him for years, because of this knowing line:
"There's no need to be stingy with that muck," he said of the sugar, for he always spoke slightingly of sweet things.
Later, a querulous, bigoted old minister gets stitched into this perfect change purse of petulance: "It was equally painful to him to hear anyone spoken ill of as to hear them praised."
Ok, these obviously aren't going to have the full effect unless you read them in context, but I promise you they are good. Yet another book I'm sorry I put off reading for so long!
What I Plan to Read Next
I'm just about to start Hogfather (another Pratchett reread) and a new detective book called IQ by Joe Ide. Also The Last Olympian, coincidentally also the last book in the Percy Jackson series.
