Currently reading: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer 📚
I began reading this yesterday. My wife is out of town and it’s super hot outside, so yesterday was an inside day. It has been a long time since I sat down and read half or a whole book in one day. In this case I read half of it.
I’m reading it in actual paper book format, which requires my reading glasses and some light. It sounds stupid, but after all these years of reading on a Kindle I wasn’t sure I could do it. But I did.
This is the first SF I’ve read in a while that isn’t space opera. It is very Lovecraftian, which is a common and not really that astute observation about it, but true none the less. I’m enjoying it.
Currently reading: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer 📚
I think I’m done with the series for a while. This book went on a little bit long. Great character. It was a fun read. I just want to get back to some science fiction with a little bit more meat on the bones.
Here’s the thing - if you want really good science fiction you need to read. There are some great SF movies and TV shows, but there are a lot more great SF novels. If you are a reader, you will never run out of great science fiction.
A couple of years ago a new Barnes & Noble bookstore opened in our neighborhood. Been trying to show them some love, because I love having a bookstore in the neighborhood, and I’m happy that space is filled with books and not a vape shop or some other bullshit.
I’ve been reading exclusively on my Kindle for years now. Let’s see if my eyes (with readers) will still work on a physical book.
I’ve been using Goodreads.com for many years. I think 15 years or more. Not sure. I’ve enjoyed it. It has a lot of fun features like setting your yearly reading challenge, etc. Lots of people are on it. Lots of my friends are on it. BUT it is owned by Amazon.com, and that always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I feel like I’m contributing to their database. Now, they are providing the service, but it’s another one of those thing where I am really the product, not the customer.
I’ve been aware of LibraryThing.com for a long time as well. I’ve investigated it in the past and found it a bit clunkier than Goodreads. As part of my never-ending quest to cut my ties with giant corporate data-mining silos I revisted LibraryThing this week and was pleased with what I saw. I was particularly delighted to fine the Who We Are page, on which we learn exactly who built it and who runs it. As it turns out, LibraryThing is run by normal people, not megacorp techbro fiends, which makes me like it even more. They used to charge a fee for full membership, but some time ago they became totally free as some of their associated software products and services began to support the whole endeavor. After reading the information on their privacy page I feel they are the side of Good, rather than Evil.
So I used the Export function in Goodreads to download my data then I imported it into LibraryThing. The first two tries I messed it up and ended up with everything in my library showing up as “currently reading”, but it offers a one-button option to delete the entire import, which I did twice before getting it right. The import worked well.
As one would expect from a company that employs librarians, LibraryThing offers a lot more options for viewing and sorting your collection.
It also offers a rich system of book discussion groups.
LibraryThing has a very different look and feel from GoodReads, but I like it.
One author you couldn’t ignore on the shelf was Andre Norton. Well, I guess you could ignore her, because until the last year or two I had not read any of her work. Not sure why. Frankly, back in those days if the book cover wasn’t amazing I probably didn’t buy the novel.
Anyway, one of the great pleasures of my science fiction reading practices and this blog is digging into the history of the authors just a little bit. With the internet it’s pretty easy to find some background info. The links above to Wikipedia are good starts.
Andre Norton, as it turn out, worked in the Cleveland Library System. I like that.
So I am about 25% though this novel, written in 1956. It is not complex, but it holds up. This is the second book in Norton’s Solar Queen series, and I dig it.
I picked up six of these books at a gamin con last month, but not this one, which is the first. A collection of short stories about Retief, an interstellar diplomat. So I grabbed this one on my Kindle last night and read the first story (chapter). It was really entertaining. Looking forward to reading more today.
Bought this book - The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, written by @ayjay, and started reading it last night. A few pages into it and I am enjoying the insights. Will probably write a long blog post when I finish it. I am interested in reading as a health/mental health practice – I think it is good for you. I’m also interested in reading practices as a way to fight back the debilitating effects of screens, social media, and other forms of distraction.
I have no evidence to support this next opinion. I think if everyone in this country read 5 books per year we’d have a better country. Everyone needs to slow their ass down, breath, focus, relax, put the fucking phone and computer away for some increment of time exceeding (hopefully) 5 minutes, and get their brains into a better state. Reading can do that. I am positive of this.
