What are you reading?

[Steakpirate]

I asked my wife why she didn't continue with the Ender's series, since she liked the first one. Basically, after she read his essays (such as this one, The Hypocrites of Homosexuality) and read from other articles that his hatred of gay marriage goes so far that he condones violent, military revolution against the US Government if gay marriage is legalized, she just couldn't give the guy another dime. . .

 

Myself being both a Jew and an overall tolerant person, I still immensely enjoyed his books. I don't remember anything particularly offensive in there, except perhaps the crazy shit that goes on in the later Bean books (Involving the Qu'ran and such, but I think everyone still gets their brains blown out equally).

 

However, I will note that I refuse to read Ender's "Christmas Adventure", and have deemed it non-canon.

[Steve E]

However, I will note that I refuse to read Ender's "Christmas Adventure", and have deemed it non-canon.

Are you referring to Zanna's Gift: A Life in Christmases? It's practically an Orson Scott Christmas Card. (heh.)

 

Happy Fast of Tish'a B'Av (beginning at sunset July 19).

(Well...as happy as you can be while mourning the destruction of the Holy Temple.)

- Thoth

 

BTW: Anyone else notice that the What Are You Reading thread has officially become a hot topic?

[orrenm]

BTW: Anyone else notice that the What Are You Reading thread has officially become a hot topic?

 

A very appropriate topic to be hot among a group of writers!

 

Orren

[codemer]

BTW: Anyone else notice that the What Are You Reading thread has officially become a hot topic?

 

Seems like a hot off topic. Maybe we need a separate thread just for Card?

 

IF

[Steve E]

Seems like a hot off topic. Maybe we need a separate thread just for Card?

Maybe. But he's a writer. Some of us read him. There's room on this thread for him to hang.

- Thoth

[codemer]

Maybe. But he's a writer. Some of us read him. There's room on this thread for him to hang.

 

In that case, I'm 20 pages from finishing Xenocide. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.

 

IF

[Steve E]

In that case, I'm 20 pages from finishing Xenocide. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.

I just now finished Children Of The Mind (the conclusion of the Ender quartet) and I think it's the most "out there" (in a good way) of the four books. I won't trouble you with spoilers (unless you ask for them) but I liked the ending. As for criticisms, Card's habit of rehashing every little thing a dozen times gets really wearying. It's worth noting that, in an Afterword, Card reveals his inspirations for the series and mentions that Xenocide and Children Of The Mind were initially intended to be one book. So if Xenocide feels a little incomplete, that's why.

 

Enjoy.

-Thoth

[orrenm]

On a non-Card related note, I just started reading A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.

 

Orren

[astillac]

I'm reading a bunch of editing books - Spunk and Bite, Show Don't Tell, The First Five Pages, Words Fail Me, and... um something else.

[Steve E]

I'm now reading Last Call: The Rise And Fall Of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent.

It's full of surprises.

-Thoth

[marguerite]

This link may interest iPad/iPhone owners: it is a free app that offers complete access to the archives and current issues of the literary magazine Narrative. Narrative publishes short stories and poems by top authors, including Pulitzer Prize winners and famous names (Joyce Carol Oates, among others). The print edition is also free.

 

Just what you needed: more reading material! But it never hurts to see what other writers produce, especially writers who have managed to make a name for themselves.

Enjoy,

M

[Steakpirate]

This link may interest you iPad/iPhone owners: it is a free app that offers complete access to the archives and current issues of the literary magazine Narrative. Narrative publishes short stories and poems by top authors, including Pulitzer Prize winners and famous names (Joyce Carol Oates, among others). The print edition is also free.

 

Just what you needed: more reading material! But it never hurts to see what other writers produce, especially writers who have managed to make a name for themselves.

Enjoy,

M

 

 

Has anyone read American Gods? The book was a little over-the top at times, but I really enjoyed it. It was an interesting and well-managed blending of profanity and magical realism.

[Steakpirate]

This link may interest you iPad/iPhone owners: it is a free app that offers complete access to the archives and current issues of the literary magazine Narrative. Narrative publishes short stories and poems by top authors, including Pulitzer Prize winners and famous names (Joyce Carol Oates, among others). The print edition is also free.

 

Just what you needed: more reading material! But it never hurts to see what other writers produce, especially writers who have managed to make a name for themselves.

Enjoy,

M

 

 

Has anyone read American Gods (Neil Gaiman)? The book was a little over-the top at times, but I really enjoyed it. It was an interesting and well-managed blending of profanity and magical realism.

[Steve E]

Has anyone read American Gods (Neil Gaiman)? The book was a little over-the top at times, but I really enjoyed it. It was an interesting and well-managed blending of profanity and magical realism.

Hmm. Profanity and magical realism (and Neil Gaiman!). Definitely worth a look.

- Thoth

[astillac]

Stp: Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors. I've read most of his stuff, even the weird short stories.

[Steve E]

Stp: Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors. I've read most of his stuff, even the weird short stories.

So, what did you think of American Gods?

[codemer]

Finished reading the Ender quartet. I probably should have skipped the last two books.

 

Now I am about six chapters into Seeker by Jack McDevitt. It feels like a detective story, but set about 10,000 years in the future. I like it so far.

 

IF

[marguerite]

I'm in the middle of re-reading the last three books of Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles, preparatory to handing them off to a friend.

 

Just finished Pawn in Frankincense (Lymond vol. 4), have started The Ringed Castle (vol. 5, the first one I ever read), and plan to tackle Checkmate (vol. 6) ASAP.

 

This will be my third go-round on the last three; the first three I don't like nearly as much and have read only once.

 

I love these books for their historical detail—even when it's wrong, as it often is in The Ringed Castle (may be elsewhere, too, but I don't know as much about the 16th-century Ottomans or Maltese as I do about Moscow). I also find them fascinating to read as a writer: Dunnett experiments, not always successfully, especially with point of view; and she uses language almost as a weapon (quick: what's an ichneumon, and no cheating with Google!).

Best,

M

[Steve E]

Quick: what's an ichneumon, and no cheating with Google!.

 

In medieval literature, the ichneumon or echinemon was the enemy of the dragon. When it sees a dragon, the ichneumon covers itself with mud, and closing its nostrils with its tail, attacks and kills the dragon. The ichneumon was also considered by some to be the enemy of the crocodile and the asp, and attack them in the same way. The Greek word translated as "ichneumon" was the name used for the "pharaoh's rat" or mongoose or Egyptian mongoose, which attacks snakes; it can also mean "otter".

I cheated with Wikipedia. Not Google

 

Finishing up American Gods. Will soon be moving on to Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett.

 

Also, finished this week's NewsWeek in the bathroom. It featured a Best Country In The World article that placed Finland at #1. The US was #11. (America didn't even make the Top Ten. )

- Thoth

[marguerite]

Shame on you!

 

But you did come up with a more complete and interesting definition, for which I thank you. "North African mongoose" was all the dictionary said. But I would not put it past Dunnett to have intended the whole dragon-fighting connotation.

 

Back to The Ringed Castle.

M

[Steve E]

Shame on you!

But you did come up with a more complete and interesting definition, for which I thank you.

I am feeling appropriately shamed yet gratified. You're welcome.

(But, really, who did you expect to know that word besides yourself, and perhaps our snake raising friend Julia? Maybe Callista. Isaac?)

- Thoth

[marguerite]

No one. That was the point. I like to think I have a good vocabulary--certainly good enough to handle the average novel--but DD had me looking up words right and left (including that one). I am even reading the last two volumes on my iPad, so that the dictionary is right there, even though the Kindle (as opposed to the iBooks) experience is not as satisfying as the paperback.

 

A modern agent would force DD to take it all out, I suspect. Too bad.

Onward is not always upward....

M

[Steve E]

A modern agent would force DD to take it all out, I suspect. Too bad.

So modern agents like you to dumb down the conversation?

I am overwhelmed with dubiety. I always thought agents preferred hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian vocabularies. No wonder they keep asking to borrow my dictionary (and burn it).

 

Onward is not always upward....

Too true ***sigh***

- Thoth

[marguerite]

So modern agents like you to dumb down the conversation?

I am overwhelmed with dubiety. I always thought agents preferred hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian vocabularies. No wonder they keep asking to borrow my dictionary (and burn it).

 

 

Too true ***sigh***

- Thoth

My guess, only, based on myself being told that, in my Scarlet Pimpernel novel, I could not expect readers to know--or, apparently, find out--what a folly (in the sense of a small garden structure) was, let alone what leaders and wheelers might be (carriage horses, for those who don't want to look it up). Since I learned those words from reading novels, I found that rather bizarre, but I have seen in numerous writing manuals that an author should aim for a general secondary-school vocabulary.

 

Of course, I learned those words at 14, but it seems that not everyone does....

M

[orrenm]

I have seen in numerous writing manuals that an author should aim for a general secondary-school vocabulary.

 

Ironic: when Stan Lee was president of Marvel Comics, he encouraged his writers to expand the vocabulary used in their pages, saying "if it sends kids to the dictionary, that's not the worst thing."

 

So whereas in decades past, "teen" material was steered to sound adult without worrying about alienating their audience, today adult books are being steered to sound "teen," out of fear of alienating the audience.

 

No wonder Finland is #1.

 

Orren