January 2022 Reading Thread.

Status
Not open for further replies.
pogopossum said:
Didn't think you were. And just to clarify, I went from the dogsbody who filed cards in the catalog to becoming the regional manager over six libraries in the most highly rated library system in the USA.
Along with health care professions, libraries were (are?) the largest employers of highly educated women in the US. They were also historically an employer of highly educated non-Caucasions at a time when the rest of society didn't give a ---- about hiring people based on qualifications and smarts.
Most of my colleagues actually enjoyed helping people. And where I worked that was the commonality.
And many used their educations to go elsewhere using their skills to become researchers or managers in other fields.
Which seems to be your assumption , that capable people would move on. Not always.
By the way. Didn't enjoy management. Went back to being a reference librarian.
Click to expand...
Not at all, what I meant was that someone who is good at doing a job that they like maybe should stay doing that job... unfortunately, in the UK at least, this is discouraged by the powers that be, so it's rare to find someone who has a deep knowledge of their work.
 
Ray Zdybrow said:
Not at all, what I meant was that someone who is good at doing a job that they like maybe should stay doing that job... unfortunately, in the UK at least, this is discouraged by the powers that be, so it's rare to find someone who has a deep knowledge of their work.
Click to expand...
I have to say that is not my experience.
 
Finished Monster Hunter International book 1 by Larry Carreia and started H.M.S Suprise by Patrick O'Brian.

I like an eclectic mix (more sf but others as well) so I can see other writing styles, and possible answers to any writing/story issue I may have also!

Plus, reading and writing are both good self exercises in helping me handle my dyslexia (or lyxdexia we some of us call it...)
 
Parson said:
I'm a little embarrassed about this. I like the things you say about the books you read. But I do agree that at least the last one or two books you've reviewed positively and I've then taken it upon myself to read, because what you say sounds very good to me, I haven't clicked with. But please do not stop reviewing what you've been reading. I do rather wonder if it works the opposite way as well. Have you read something that I loved, but you didn't? Two books I think very highly of (rare 5 stars from me) would be Ender's Game and All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries), maybe you feel something else about them.
Click to expand...
Oh crikey, it's not an embarrassment not seeing eye to eye with me on something, it's probably a cause for merriment and a glass of wine.
As it happens, I did very much like Ender's Game and All System's Red, and I enjoyed the first few Honor Harrington books just fine, which I know you enjoy, so in a Venn diagram of our SF proclivities, our circles do overlap somewhat, just not nearly as much as with some other members here - whose reputations I won't undermine by naming!

My aim in reviewing fiction is to be (i) consistent, (ii) honest and (iii) clear. If folk know what I like and don't like they can then probably judge from the review whether they'd like it or not, regardless of whether I did. But then, I think most on here do that, and do a nice job. I often read reviews here and either pick up a book or don't based on what members have to say - sometimes it's because I know I share tastes with the reviewer, but sometimes I go 180 because I know I like what the reviewer doesn't like about it.

Parson said:
I have begun The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowall. It is the first of an alternate timeline stories in "A Lady Astronaut Novel" series. I always struggle with books propose an alternate timeline in the past, and this one starts right after World War II with "President Dewey" but so far the story is making up for my immediate frowns on what has "supposed" to have happened.
Click to expand...
But yeah, I don't think I care for this, so if you like it, it will probably belong in that majority category in the Venn diagram called 'books we don't agree on'. So... you may love it. I'll be interested to hear anyway.
 
stevejk said:
Finished Monster Hunter International book 1 by Larry Carreia
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forums, @stevejk!

What did you think of MHI? I know J-Sun read this a while back and thought it was fun, albeit daft popcorn (my precis). I've idly wondered whether to give it a go sometime. In the same way I should try Ringo's Black Tide Rising series. They sort of package together in my mind as both being modern, ongoing, rather pulpy fun.
 
Dan Jones said:
re-reading Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Watchmen.
Click to expand...
Finished Watchmen. Wrote up some thoughts on it here. May do a Chronscast episode on it in the future.

Still getting through The Promise and it, I'm afraid to say, is continuing the modern trend of Booker Prize winners being more style than substance. There are wonderful literary flourishes but the plot is wishy-washy, and it's another example of an author who believes that all you have to do to elevate your manuscript to literary fiction is to omit the use of quotation marks. I mean, yeah, we get it, it's supposed to be a sort of group collective stream of consciousness as a family attempts to deal with its grief, but it ends up messy and unclear. A shame, as the geezer can clearly write.

Here's one reader hoping that the Booker will return to the glory days of the 90s, where the winners were simply wonderful stories, told incredibly well, and didn't attempt to alienate the readership. Having said that, the beautiful Klara And The Sun was longlisted, but how it was beaten by The Promise is beyond me.
 
Vertigo said:
Hah! :ROFLMAO: I'm a third of the way through on my own reread of that one right now! And I have to say I'm loving it...again! It's the last of my complete Culture reread. I'll probably move on to his non Culture SF next.
Click to expand...
The prose is sublime. ;) I just read the first two chapters and they are so evocative of gorgeous imagery. The Culture novels will stand the test of time.
 
Last edited:
Danny McG said:
Now it's time for Purgatory Mount by Adam Roberts.

I've had this downloaded for a while but I forgot I had it!
Click to expand...
i hope it's good. as for rabbits i prefer mine to yours.bob blanton was fun and michael anderle was a good ending to the series
 
Purgatory Mount sounds great, but I was really displeased with the only Roberts book I've read, The Thing Itself. I should give him another chance with something more traditional.

Edit: Looking at some reviews, it looks like the same problems I have with The Thing Itself. It starts off great and then pivots to something else that's not nearly as interesting before limping to the finish line.
 
Last edited:
The first of several issues of an old magazine called Short Story International. As the name implies, it collected fiction from around the world. It was published, apparently somewhat irregularly, from 1963 to at least 1990 and maybe beyond. Copies of this would show up in used book stores from time to time, and we finally ordered as long of a continuous run from the early 1960's as we could.
 
Spade said:
Purgatory Mount sounds great, but I was really displeased with the only Roberts book I've read, The Thing Itself. I should give him another chance with something more traditional.

Edit: Looking at some reviews, it looks like the same problems I have with The Thing Itself. It starts off great and then pivots to something else that's not nearly as interesting before limping to the finish line.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it opens with a spaceship approaching the planet with the purgatory mount on, a bit of backstory about the crew and then it jumps back to a near future social breakdown in America.
Then a somewhat dull YA story about a bunch of hackers and their secret AI friend, this takes up a lot of the book.
Then finally back to the starship and lots of uninteresting chat about spirituality and should the pygs (pygmy passengers used as livestock) be counted as people.
Warning: A really sh*t ending!

One point of interest, the computers on the ship are all known as hals (lower case)
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
Ursa major POLL -- 300 Word Writing Challenge -- No 44 (January 2022) -- READ FIRST POST! Writing Challenges 0
Ursa major POLL -- January 2022 75-word Writing Challenge -- PETER V WINS! Writing Challenges 0
Extollager Toast "The Professor!" on 3 January 2022, His 130th Birthday JRR Tolkien 8
Ursa major DISCUSSION THREAD -- January 2022 -- 300 Word Writing Challenge #44 Writing Challenges 230
Cat's Cradle DISCUSSION THREAD -- JANUARY 2022 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge Writing Challenges 135

Similar threads


Back
Top