Busy, busy, busy
23 Apr 2015 09:37 pmThe weather has been glorious this week - seriously I had my lunch sitting on the grass outside my work yesterday - but is supposed to break in as dramatic a fashion as possible at the weekend with a return to snow. *sigh* Just when I was getting into the swing of walking to skating of an evening...
What I’ve Just Finished Reading
This week I mostly read Face Like Glass by Francis Hardinge and it was excellent. It continued to consume me for hours at a time and was suitably long to be satisfying and yet it didn't drag or feel like it had gone on too long. I could have read another couple of hundred pages about that world but I'm kind of glad that it ended where it did. (I would however, happily read a whole book about the 'Outside' world of this book.) For me it had everything that I always love about Diane Wynne Jones books, without the disappointingly rushed ending. I love the fact that she hints at the tropey obvious option with Madame Appeline and does something interesting and different (and heartbreaking and horrible and much more likely) with it. It's plotty and interesting and there's so much about identity and memory cultural oppression going on under the surface. I do in fact, want to read everything else she's ever written.
What I’m Reading
That one chapter of Time and Relative Dissertations in Space is still outstading... More actively I'm reading The language of this land, Mi'kma'ki which is a book about the Indigenous language of Cape Breton which is a confluence of issues close to my heart. It's both quite academic and very readable, essentially explaining the complexities and joys of the language to a knowledgable but non academic audience I guess? I suppose its aimed at people with an interest in and knowledge of minority languages, though not neccessarily this one? It's really interesting either way.
At the other end of the scale my current audio book is To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway and I can't decide if I'm even meant to like the main character or not. (I don't for the record, but I can't figure out if that's the book's intent or if Hemingway intends him to be a loveable rogue that we should root for?)
What I’m Reading Next
Something from the shelf I hope, I'm thinking something by Iain Banks maybe? Though I see from previous reading posts that I've been promising myself some Special Sound for a while...
What I’ve Just Finished Reading
This week I mostly read Face Like Glass by Francis Hardinge and it was excellent. It continued to consume me for hours at a time and was suitably long to be satisfying and yet it didn't drag or feel like it had gone on too long. I could have read another couple of hundred pages about that world but I'm kind of glad that it ended where it did. (I would however, happily read a whole book about the 'Outside' world of this book.) For me it had everything that I always love about Diane Wynne Jones books, without the disappointingly rushed ending. I love the fact that she hints at the tropey obvious option with Madame Appeline and does something interesting and different (and heartbreaking and horrible and much more likely) with it. It's plotty and interesting and there's so much about identity and memory cultural oppression going on under the surface. I do in fact, want to read everything else she's ever written.
What I’m Reading
That one chapter of Time and Relative Dissertations in Space is still outstading... More actively I'm reading The language of this land, Mi'kma'ki which is a book about the Indigenous language of Cape Breton which is a confluence of issues close to my heart. It's both quite academic and very readable, essentially explaining the complexities and joys of the language to a knowledgable but non academic audience I guess? I suppose its aimed at people with an interest in and knowledge of minority languages, though not neccessarily this one? It's really interesting either way.
At the other end of the scale my current audio book is To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway and I can't decide if I'm even meant to like the main character or not. (I don't for the record, but I can't figure out if that's the book's intent or if Hemingway intends him to be a loveable rogue that we should root for?)
What I’m Reading Next
Something from the shelf I hope, I'm thinking something by Iain Banks maybe? Though I see from previous reading posts that I've been promising myself some Special Sound for a while...

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