May's Magical Meditations on Masterfully Manafactured Manuscripts

[Hypnos164]

Flood by Stephen Baxter - I read some of his early books as they came out and wasn't really that impressed. Having read and enjoyed The H-bomb Girl when it was on an award shortlist I thought I would give his more recent work a go.

 

[Extollager]

Yes. It's volume 3 of the Collected Essays, Science.
I am curious, though... why do you ask?

Well, getting my own telescope -- coming this week via UPS, I trust -- brought HPL as amateur astronomer to mind. Of authors who are or have been favorites of mine, Lovecraft was the most seriously interested in astronomy, I believe (I leave out some sf authors whom I haven't thought of as favorites for a long time). Lewis seems to have known enough about the night sky to identify Venus and Jupiter, to judge from a scattered reference or two. I infer that Tolkien had at least some awareness since he developed names for several celestial objects.

 

[Extollager]

And, with the way this week has gone, I've barely made it through the first hundred pages of The Silmarillion....

That's not bad, surely, since this book cannot be read rapidly any more than, say, Edith Hamilton's Mythology can be.

I was interested to see a remark a few days ago that suggested you are not only acquainted with but have read in their entirety the twelve volumes of The History of Middle-earth -- am I understanding you aright? I have yet to read most of this material, although some of it (e.g. The Notion Club Papers) I have read more than once. Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth was an unexpected little masterpiece.

If your time and interest permit comment at the "Horror vs. Terror" thread ... ?

 

[j d worthington]

When it comes to The Silmarillion, I've read that more times than I can remember; so normally I can read it at approximately the same rate I could any contemporary novel... perhaps slightly less, given the poetic style, but the difference is negligible. Let's put it this way: the first day I was reading it things were fairly "normal" as far as other things eating up my time, and I made it past the 50-page mark. so the following 50 or so pages took six days in comparison... not good.....

As a comparison, I have, on at least two occasions (both when I was on vacation) made it through both The Hobbit and LotR (including appendices) in three days in total......

(This is not bragging; simply an indication of how frustrating the current situation concerrning my reading is.)

However, after reading your comments about the I, Robot screenplay, and not recalling it that way, I ended up picking it up when I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep. As I have today off, I hope to finish it whilst running errands (I use public transportation, which means I'll have some reading time); I'd like to also comment on that in another thread. One thing I'll throw out here, though, is that I don't recall anyone mentioning the striking similarity in structure to Citizen Kane, something which I would think was consciously deliberate, given Ellison's film savvy and the place of Isaac's book in sf history.... In other words, Stephen Byerley is, so to speak, the sf equivalent of "Rosebud"....

I do, however, hope to get back to the other thread, some of which i've been itching to respond to for days.....

 

[vanye]

Finished A Rising Thunder (David Weber) yesterday. No surprises there. A good read. No more but surely no less, either.

 

[Extollager]

As a comparison, I have, on at least two occasions (both when I was on vacation) made it through both The Hobbit and LotR (including appendices) in three days in total......(This is not bragging; simply an indication of how frustrating the current situation concerrning my reading is.).

No, I didn't take it as bragging. An ill-disposed person could take a great deal that is written at Chrons Forums as bragging. I think we just have a lot of people here who like to read and like to talk about their reading, and who like reading others talking about their reading. I'm interested in people's remarks about their reading speed. I have read a lot, but I am a pretty slow reader -- I was basically told this, as a senior in college. Much that I read, I read at around a rate of 20 pages an hour at best. Because my courses on classic literary works are typically offered on Mondays, and because Sundays are mostly for church, family, etc., I do a lot of my reading of classics on Saturdays; and if I read a hundred pages like this on a Saturday I probably don't do much else.

 

[Extollager]

However, after reading your comments about the I, Robot screenplay.... One thing I'll throw out here, though, is that I don't recall anyone mentioning the striking similarity in structure to Citizen Kane, something which I would think was consciously deliberate, given Ellison's film savvy and the place of Isaac's book in sf history.... In other words, Stephen Byerley is, so to speak, the sf equivalent of "Rosebud"....

I think I have seen this movie straight through, but I couldn't say with certainty.

 

[Extollager]

When it comes to The Silmarillion, I've read that more times than I can remember

I'm curious about whether Chronsfolk keep lists of their reading. I began to record author, book title, and dates of reading in Jan. 1974, as a freshman in college. Originally I wrote this information in notebooks, and I've typed this information up in a Word document (which now needs updating) that comes to around 90 pages now when printed. It's been useful in more ways than one from time to time. One thing it does is suggest to me how fallible my memory is. Yesterday I was saying to one of my daughters that I hadn't read Dickens's Great Expectations in many years. But she remembered me hosting the campus-community reading group discussion of it quite recently. I checked my log and, sure enough, she was right. If my memory is like this now, I should be a real laugh riot if I make my eighties.

 

[Grimward]

Just finished Patricia McKillip's In the Forests of Serre. Was somewhat disappointed by her rather simple style and spare prose at first until I realized that the feel she was going for (at least, this is my interpretation of it; haven't done any homework to see what her real intention might have been) was something like a Russian folk tale (think Baba Yaga). About the time I came to this conclusion (maybe a quarter of the way thru the book), she started twisting the characters, weaving sub-plots and suddenly I found myself in that wonderful state where you can't put the book down because you HAVE to know what's going to happen next. Very different from her Riddlemaster series, and short but enjoyable.

 

[Fried Egg]

I'm curious about whether Chronsfolk keep lists of their reading. I began to record author, book title, and dates of reading in Jan. 1974, as a freshman in college. Originally I wrote this information in notebooks, and I've typed this information up in a Word document (which now needs updating) that comes to around 90 pages now when printed. It's been useful in more ways than one from time to time. One thing it does is suggest to me how fallible my memory is.

Indeed, that's precisely why I use GoodReads[/b], an excellent way of keeping track of what I read, when and what I thought of it. Consequently, my reading record only goes back about five years. I was never organised enough to keep a journal of what I had read before then...

 

[Connavar]

No, I didn't take it as bragging. An ill-disposed person could take a great deal that is written at Chrons Forums as bragging. I think we just have a lot of people here who like to read and like to talk about their reading, and who like reading others talking about their reading. I'm interested in people's remarks about their reading speed. I have read a lot, but I am a pretty slow reader -- I was basically told this, as a senior in college. Much that I read, I read at around a rate of 20 pages an hour at best. Because my courses on classic literary works are typically offered on Mondays, and because Sundays are mostly for church, family, etc., I do a lot of my reading of classics on Saturdays; and if I read a hundred pages like this on a Saturday I probably don't do much else.

My normal reading speed is about 50 pages in an hour. 40 pages if its slow ancient classic like Homer or poetic prose like Lord Dunsany type author.

If its fast paced crime book i can read 100 pages in an hour.

My speeding record is i read 200 pages noir book in less than 2 hours once. The book was crazy pace, not full pages. I dont like to fast read i like to enjoy books and let the book decide the pace.

I like long session of reading that can make me get going. I cant read books in less than one hour sessions. Its too much like fast post. I want to enjoy them fully.

I have no reading respect for my brother who can read a fat book in 3-5 hours. Thats because he reads mostly shallow fast paced epic fantasy.....

 

[vanye]

(...) fast paced epic fantasy.....

Isn't this an oxymoron?

 

[j d worthington]

I was interested to see a remark a few days ago that suggested you are not only acquainted with but have read in their entirety the twelve volumes of The History of Middle-earth -- am I understanding you aright? I have yet to read most of this material, although some of it (e.g. The Notion Club Papers) I have read more than once. Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth was an unexpected little masterpiece.

I had intended to include this earlier, but.... Yes, I did read the entire 12-volume set (at least, the American edition) between nine and ten years ago. It took a bit of getting used to at first, but then I found it all quite fascinating... I even got to where I could make a fair amount out of the sections written in the old Anglo-Saxon before going to the modern English translations.... (Yep. I'm a nerd.) Sadly, it has been such a long time since I did so, that I doubt I could recapture any of that part of it without a fair amount of reading the older form of the language... which I really should do, someday, just so I could read Beowulf and such in their oldest forms....

Finished Ellison's screenplay... then went back and read the introductory matter. (I had gone straight to the screenplay itself last night.) Seems that he himself mentions the link to Citizen Kane and yes, it was quite deliberate. Obviously my memory isn't what it used to be, or I'd have remembered that being included in there. Ah, well... I haven't read the book since a year or so after it was published, so I shouldn't feel too badly, I suppose....

 

[Extollager]

I did read the entire 12-volume set [of Tolkien's History of Middle-earth] (at least, the American edition) between nine and ten years ago. It took a bit of getting used to at first, but then I found it all quite fascinating... I even got to where I could make a fair amount out of the sections written in the old Anglo-Saxon before going to the modern English translations.emory isn't what it used to be, or I'd have remembered that being included in there.

I'm more ready to delve into the volumes now that I have read work by Shippey, Flieger, and others that draws on the set. I don't think I will ever attempt to start on page 1 of the first volume and work my way through to the last page of the twelfth, but I mean to spend many hours here and there with them. For years the only volume I owned was the Lays of Beleriand one...

How do you find The Notion Club Papers?

 

[j d worthington]

It has been quite a while, as I said, so my memory on that is vague, but I do recall finding it quite interesting....

 

[Jen526]

Finished "Last Argument of Kings" - Joe Abercrombie. Unfortunately, the ending left me feeling like reading the entire trilogy was a waste of time. I never thought I'd be one to complain about pessimistic endings, but this crossed a line for me.

Currently reading "Dragon in Chains" - Daniel Fox - and loving it. I've always loved his prose style.

 

[J-Sun]

Since the last time I posted on this thread, I read Allen Steele's Hex and Hannu Rajaniemi's The Quantum Thief, both discussed in the Discovered Authors thread.

Now that I think of them together, my reactions to them are kind of ironic. Both were deeply flawed in characterization, though each took very different ways to manage to make me not really care about them. And, but for one thing, the Rajaniemi was equally or better-written from almost any metric. But I not only didn't care about his characters, I didn't care about his universe. At least Steele was portraying stuff I could get excited about. I'd better just leave it at that.

 

[Warren_Paul]

Just finished Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings and cannot emphasize enough how much people should read that book, it has to be one of the best Epic Fantasy novels I've ever read. It was amazing. 20/10

Can't wait for the second instalment. He will be starting on it now that he's got A Memory of Light out of the way.



In the meantime, I've started reading Cold Magic by Kate Elliot. Interesting enough so far. Based in an alternative reality of Italy - I think - where the steampunk themed world appears to be on the verge of an ice age, or just coming out of it. It's written in first person, which is different to her previous work, but it appears to come over well. I'm enjoying it so far. I loved her Crossroads trilogy.

 

[Allegra]

Currently reading Carl Hiaasen's Basket Case (and laughing).

 

[Vertigo]

Finished The Mongoliad: Book One by Neal Stephenson et al. Although it was a reasonably enjoyable whilst reading, I was actually quite disappointed.

Firstly the 'et al' in this case is four other authors (so five including NS) and, to be honest, it felt a bit like it was written by five authors. The writing varied from good gritty stuff, through moderately good but rather purple prose, to naive clumsy writing.

The book/series was originally serialised online and then re-jigged to publish in book form and to be frank that showed as well. Rather annoyingly buying the book gains you no access to the subscription website which includes maps and other background information not included in the book (the ebook edition at least).

On the plus side the series grew out of the authors' desire to understand Western Martial arts better (medieval sword, staff, mace etc.) by joining a Western Martial Arts study group. This came across well with very interesting fight scenes that were clearly well thought out without being overburdening.

However the final blow to my enjoyment was that it had no ending at all; nil, nada, nothing; it just stopped. There were I think 5 major POVs and everyone of the them was in the middle of doing something when the book simply stopped, in fact one of them had only been introduced relatively recently and had only just started to do something of interest. Nothing and I mean absolutely nothing was resolved, finished, tied off. It felt more like the end of a chapter. I now feel like I've almost been blackmailed into buying the second book otherwise my time reading the first is completely wasted. Not sure if I will though.

As stated this is from 5 authors and I have heard good things about NS so, although this is my first Neal Stephenson, I won't give up on him, but I'm certainly not encouraged.