March 2022 Reading Thread

[Hugh]

I did start Helliconia Spring by Brian W Aldiss. Seems good. It was kind of funny, I was waiting anxiously for that book order and instead Thriftbooks gave me a replacement item (because they were out of stock, apparently.) They gave me Fatherhood by Bill Cosby. I was a bit annoyed.

I wonder what was going through the head of the Thriftbooks packer. Was this sheer mischief or just random thoughtlessness...

 

[AE35Unit]

I think I'd be annoyed too!

 

[Danny McG]

They gave me Fatherhood by Bill Cosby. I was a bit annoyed

 

[worldofmutes]

I wonder what was going through the head of the Thriftbooks packer. Was this sheer mischief or just random thoughtlessness...

Now see, I didn’t tell the full story.
I have never had a single order go awry with that company, so I reported it for a refund. Of course, first they tried to send me the book again. But I ended up getting an Agatha Christie Christmas special after that.

Fool that I was, I tried buying a different edition from a different location. (This is one in my own state of Arizona. The first was from Illinois.) so I waited another week, and then I got ANOTHER Fatherhood by Bill Cosby. So now I have NOT ONE, but TWO Bill Cosby memoirs. I received full refunds for everything.

I think what they do is run promotions on junkie titles when they can’t fulfill an order. Ergo- black history month, a memoir by a black man.

That’s some “Planned Obsolescence” right there, and there’s so much of it in the world. Das Kapital!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

A more likely explanation, I would think, is some kind of error in a data base shared by the two locations -- for instance an ISBN that was entered incorrectly.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Haven’t done much reading this March.
I did start Helliconia Spring by Brian W Aldiss. Seems good. It was kind of funny, I was waiting anxiously for that book order and instead Thriftbooks gave me a replacement item (because they were out of stock, apparently.) They gave me Fatherhood by Bill Cosby. I was a bit annoyed.

I decided to take my book orders elsewhere, so I use betterworldbooks now, and they gave me the right item… lol…

A pretty unique book though. Interesting they are primitive and superstitious in the winter, but more civilized and cultured when spring passes through for 1,000 years…

One of the greatest of the great. A truly superb trilogy.

 

[Bick]

One of the greatest of the great. A truly superb trilogy.

Meh. It has very great strengths, but it also is significantly flawed.

 

[worldofmutes]

Meh. It has very great strengths, but it also is significantly flawed.

As @AE35Unit once said, “horses for courses I suppose.”

It’s alright so far, but still not exactly what I’m looking for! But I am looking forward to reading the whole trilogy.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I've just DNF The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham.
I have read several times before, however this time after 150 pages I just couldn't proceed any further. And it won't be reread.

 

[Hugh]

Poul Anderson "The Trouble Twisters" (1966)
Three space opera stories involving space traders - David Falkayne, the Polesotechnic League - and their encounters with different cultures.
I liked the first story enough to order two Baen collections of this series of stories, before I'd read the other two stories.
Then in the second story on the penultimate page I found:
He chucked her under the chin. "I understand", he said. "It's tough when a dream dies. But why should you, your whole life, carry your father's grudges?"
She surrendered to tears. He consoled her, and a private hope began to grow in him.
And in the third story:
She stopped and regarded him with wonder. "David," she breathed. "No other man in the world could've - And I never knew."
"You do now." Since her dagger was sheathed, he risked chucking her under the chin. "They teach us more where I've been than how to handle machines.
I may have been a little reckless in ordering two more collections before I'd read all the stories in this one.

 

[Bick]

I've just DNF The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham.
I have read several times before, however this time after 150 pages I just couldn't proceed any further. And it won't be reread.

Had the dog eaten the remaining pages? You obviously like it, as you've read it several times, and its a short, enjoyable, well-written book, so what went wrong (if it wasn't the dog)?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I can't speak for Ian, but sometimes when I've read a book many times with great pleasure I suddenly reach a threshold and I've had enough.

 

[Danny McG]

Tonight I'm reading Outpost, the first of the Donovan series by W Michael Gear.

 

[tobl]

Idea for a story:
Aliens- people of earth we have killed all your liders and are taking over the economy.
Earth people - Oh My GOd! Thank you, thank you, thank you
Aliens - what?!

 

[Bick]

Idea for a story:
Aliens- people of earth we have killed all your liders and are taking over the economy.
Earth people - Oh My GOd! Thank you, thank you, thank you
Aliens - what?!

Liders?

 

[tachyon]

Idea for a story:
Aliens- people of earth we have killed all your liders and are taking over the economy.
Earth people - Oh My GOd! Thank you, thank you, thank you
Aliens - what?!

If you mean "idlers", I read a story kind of like this:

"The Common Goal of Nature" by Michael F. Flynn

Rich man makes a deal with aliens to remove the useless people from society.

 

[Elentarri]

Idea for a story:
Aliens- people of earth we have killed all your liders and are taking over the economy.
Earth people - Oh My GOd! Thank you, thank you, thank you
Aliens - what?!

I think it was supposed to be "leaders"? And yes please!!!!

 

[Rodders]

I finished reading First and Only (book 1 of the Gaunt's Ghosts). Nice to be reconnected with older (and therefor less alive) members of the Tanith First and Only.

Now on to Ghostmaker, which made up of four short stories.

 

[soulsinging]

Finished Tehanu by Le Guin a while ago and very much enjoyed it. I know it's somewhat controversial and written well after the main trilogy and that all shows. I'm not sure how I would have felt about this if I'd read it as a 20yo college dude instead of a 40yo parent. Our heroes are actually old and powerless but for their accrued wisdom and courage, not just playing at it. I very much liked the way that developed, raising the question of what good their heroic deeds were if there is nobody ready to pick up the mantle for the next generation? It says a lot about the characters she created that Goha and the goatherd are every bit as compelling as the Priestess and Archmage. At the risk of blasphemy, Earthsea > Middle Earth to me.

Now I'm taking a bit of a break from fantasy (still have about half of the Paksenarrion trilogy to go) to read Verity by Colleen Hoover. I decided to read a romance novel or two this year because it feels unfair to dismiss an entire genre having read none of it. This one is sort of a half-step in that direction, as Hoover is a romance writer but this is at least partly thriller/horror as well. It sort of fell in my lap as my wife read about it and wants me to screen it to see if she can handle it. You see, it has great goodreads reviews, many of which talk at length about how messed up the book is and how they can no longer sleep and need therapy after reading it. So I just have to know how bad it could possibly be? Two chapters in and I'm already worried that these people are more right than wrong...

 

[Bick]

I finished the Wodehouse (Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves). It was great fun of course, though interestingly, one can tell it was a late book (1963), as it creaks a little with the repetition of some of Wodehouse’s archetypal turns of phrase. His earlier work, notably the stuff between about 1925 and 1940, seems fresher somehow, and the language is more inventive.

I’m now re-reading The Mayor of Casterbridge, last read about 35 years ago. I think it’s the pastoral setting in Wessex, as much as the tragic qualities of the books, that I most like about Hardy. He was rather a cynical beggar I think, but he paints such rounded portraits of his flawed characters. Of course, I’m a flawed, cynical beggar myself, so that may help explain the appeal too.