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This new year will be for you and me
The last of 2013's books from the list. Books 18-end will hopefully follow along next year.
Book 14 (as recommended by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sammason):
Ursula le Guin - Always Coming Home
First off, it took me a really, really long time to read this book. The chief problem was that it was physically huge, hardbacked and weighty, which made carrying it around difficult. Most of my reading was done then on the train to Reading every day, but Always Coming Home had to get fitted in while I was in the house. Then I was made redundant, and in an effort to make sure I didn't waste all my days reading novels and/or the internet, I actually (rather accidentally) stopped doing any reading at all. So it took me the thick end of two months (and three library renewals) to get through it.
Anyway. It's an odd book. Being a history of a civilization which has not yet come into being - a future history, I think the foreword describes it. And it's a serious book, almost a scholarly treatment of this civilization with sensible notes about the translation of their language, and the manner in which information was gathered, and complicated tables explaining the way they categorized different species. At times it was quite hard to remember that it was not a conventional history, it was about a people that in many ways don't exist.
And that was all very well, but I did keep finding myself thinking "there'd better be a point to this". If it just tidies itself neatly away at the end in a flurry of footnotes without a punchline, I said, I shall be most aggrieved.
And in the end it did do exactly that, and it turned out I wasn't aggrieved at all. Almost like reading philosophy, I reckoned I'd found some useful things to take away from it, and whether or not the civilization existed in the conventional sense wasn't actually important. So actually, this was a book which I thought I wasn't enjoying so much while reading it, but on finishing it felt like I had.
Book 15 (as recommended byal_fruitbat):
Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind
Having felt like the previous book was a little hard work in places, I fair old galloped through this one. In many ways, I don't feel like I've got a lot to say about it - it's fantasy the way fantasy should be. That is, proper characters in a proper story with proper rationales and emotions who just happen to be in a fantasy world. It's also pleasingly devoid of prophecies, fates and assorted other dooms that tend to make a lot of stories feel like the central character is just being pushed from set piece to set piece. The whole story is told in flashback (with occasional interruptions from the present day), which is a little contrived but since Our Hero has a story worth telling, I'm willing to let him off :)
It's a good length, too, meaning you feel like you've had a decent epic sweep of story. I'll definitely be looking out for the sequel.
Book 16 (as recommended byringbark):
Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol
Because some clichés should be obvserved, I took a break in Book 17 and read A Christmas Carol on Christmas day. Besides, I'd been given an e-reader for Christmas, and Dickens is a free download :)
It's a quick read, especially by Dickensian standards. And everyone pretty much knows the story, anyway. Scrooge - a man so devoid of Christmas spirit and generosity that his name has become a byword - is visited by three ghosts, becomes reformed character.
Now, I've managed to get over my Nicholas-Nickleby-inspired teenage hatred of Dickens, and can concede that the man knows how to turn an amusing phrase. And A Christmas Carol wasn't written in magazine installments, so you don't have to wade through masses of catch-up at the beginning of each chapter. So it's entertaining. But... but... I couldn't help feeling that it was a bit lacking in depth. Terrifying though I'm sure midnight spectral visitations are, the personality transplant just seems a bit... pat.
I know, I know. People whose stories keep getting rejected don't get to criticise the greats of English literature ;)
Book 17 (as recommended byceb):
Jo Walton - Farthing
So, CEB recommended this and promised "a cozy country house murder mystery with Nazis". Now, I do love a nice, comfy murder - and although the butler didn't find the corpse in Farthing, it had pretty much everything else one could desire in that direction. And then, towards the end, it unfolded into a rather wider tale with more impact than your average country-house murder.
(The Nazis come about because the book is set in the late 40s of an alternative history, where Britain negotiated "Peace With Honour" with the Third Reich. I'm no expert on WWII history, but it certainly reads horribly plausibly to me.)
The book is written chapter and chapter about, first person from the rather Mitfordy daughter of the house and third person following Inspector Carmichael of the Yard. Which actually plays very nicely, because these two aren't working together, meaning the reader can just about get one step ahead.
Sadly, Farthing seems only to be published in the US and is a sod to get hold of here. In the end I had to ask CEB to borrow her copy, and she kindly sent it via our extensive social network of contacts (ordamerell, as he's also known). I ceremonially downloaded the sequel (which, yes, is called Ha'penny) as my first paid-for eBook.
Book 14 (as recommended by
sammason): Ursula le Guin - Always Coming Home
First off, it took me a really, really long time to read this book. The chief problem was that it was physically huge, hardbacked and weighty, which made carrying it around difficult. Most of my reading was done then on the train to Reading every day, but Always Coming Home had to get fitted in while I was in the house. Then I was made redundant, and in an effort to make sure I didn't waste all my days reading novels and/or the internet, I actually (rather accidentally) stopped doing any reading at all. So it took me the thick end of two months (and three library renewals) to get through it.
Anyway. It's an odd book. Being a history of a civilization which has not yet come into being - a future history, I think the foreword describes it. And it's a serious book, almost a scholarly treatment of this civilization with sensible notes about the translation of their language, and the manner in which information was gathered, and complicated tables explaining the way they categorized different species. At times it was quite hard to remember that it was not a conventional history, it was about a people that in many ways don't exist.
And that was all very well, but I did keep finding myself thinking "there'd better be a point to this". If it just tidies itself neatly away at the end in a flurry of footnotes without a punchline, I said, I shall be most aggrieved.
And in the end it did do exactly that, and it turned out I wasn't aggrieved at all. Almost like reading philosophy, I reckoned I'd found some useful things to take away from it, and whether or not the civilization existed in the conventional sense wasn't actually important. So actually, this was a book which I thought I wasn't enjoying so much while reading it, but on finishing it felt like I had.
Book 15 (as recommended by
al_fruitbat): Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind
Having felt like the previous book was a little hard work in places, I fair old galloped through this one. In many ways, I don't feel like I've got a lot to say about it - it's fantasy the way fantasy should be. That is, proper characters in a proper story with proper rationales and emotions who just happen to be in a fantasy world. It's also pleasingly devoid of prophecies, fates and assorted other dooms that tend to make a lot of stories feel like the central character is just being pushed from set piece to set piece. The whole story is told in flashback (with occasional interruptions from the present day), which is a little contrived but since Our Hero has a story worth telling, I'm willing to let him off :)
It's a good length, too, meaning you feel like you've had a decent epic sweep of story. I'll definitely be looking out for the sequel.
Book 16 (as recommended by
ringbark): Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol
Because some clichés should be obvserved, I took a break in Book 17 and read A Christmas Carol on Christmas day. Besides, I'd been given an e-reader for Christmas, and Dickens is a free download :)
It's a quick read, especially by Dickensian standards. And everyone pretty much knows the story, anyway. Scrooge - a man so devoid of Christmas spirit and generosity that his name has become a byword - is visited by three ghosts, becomes reformed character.
Now, I've managed to get over my Nicholas-Nickleby-inspired teenage hatred of Dickens, and can concede that the man knows how to turn an amusing phrase. And A Christmas Carol wasn't written in magazine installments, so you don't have to wade through masses of catch-up at the beginning of each chapter. So it's entertaining. But... but... I couldn't help feeling that it was a bit lacking in depth. Terrifying though I'm sure midnight spectral visitations are, the personality transplant just seems a bit... pat.
I know, I know. People whose stories keep getting rejected don't get to criticise the greats of English literature ;)
Book 17 (as recommended by
ceb): Jo Walton - Farthing
So, CEB recommended this and promised "a cozy country house murder mystery with Nazis". Now, I do love a nice, comfy murder - and although the butler didn't find the corpse in Farthing, it had pretty much everything else one could desire in that direction. And then, towards the end, it unfolded into a rather wider tale with more impact than your average country-house murder.
(The Nazis come about because the book is set in the late 40s of an alternative history, where Britain negotiated "Peace With Honour" with the Third Reich. I'm no expert on WWII history, but it certainly reads horribly plausibly to me.)
The book is written chapter and chapter about, first person from the rather Mitfordy daughter of the house and third person following Inspector Carmichael of the Yard. Which actually plays very nicely, because these two aren't working together, meaning the reader can just about get one step ahead.
Sadly, Farthing seems only to be published in the US and is a sod to get hold of here. In the end I had to ask CEB to borrow her copy, and she kindly sent it via our extensive social network of contacts (or
damerell, as he's also known). I ceremonially downloaded the sequel (which, yes, is called Ha'penny) as my first paid-for eBook.
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I guess it's possible to buy it on Kindle and use something like Calibre to slice the DRM out, but I haven't begun looking at anything other than basic purchases yet :)