So I’ve started Cold Days despite still only being a third of the way through American Gods. OH MY GOSH THEY’RE BOTH REALLY GOOD. Set your watch, I’m hoping to discuss Dresden a week from tomorrow. Is that a good plan for all of us here?
So… what are you reading and/or watching?
Jaybird
Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com
I’ve reread Grave Peril and Turn Cloak, read Cold Days, and prior to that read Books 7 (Brief Lives) and 8 (Worlds’ End) of The Sandman.
I paused at about the 1/3 mark of American Gods as well. It really picks up from there, imo.
I’ve been reading The Watch series in the Discworld series by Pratchett. Good stuff.
I’ve been reading Discworld in publication order, both re-reading and ones I’d missed. Just finished Hogfather. I loved Men at Arms and Jingo, but struggled through Feet of Clay. Looking forward to Night Watch.
There is apparently going to be a “fantasy police procedural” TV series about The Watch. I think Rupert Graves (Detective Inspector Lestrade on Sherlock) would make a fine Sam Vimes.
I am doing the same thing at an utterly glacial pace. I was surprised to find that I loved Moving Pictures on a re-read, since I barely remembered its existence. (I hit pause at Soul Music, a year or two ago; I think I am afraid won’t be as wonderful as I remember it.)
I’m reading Changes right now.
I read Cold Days. I’m almost done reading Revenant Eve (by Sherwood Smith). I am also almost done reading Reality Is Broken, for class. I’ve been slow-reading a lovely, personal book by Kate Maloy called A Stone Bridge North for months now. I have a copy of Tanya Huff’s The Silvered lying about on my library floor – I think I am saving it for after all my schoolwork is done, so I can sink into it properly.
gack, self, LEARN HOW TO USE THE COMMENT FEATURE. *sighs* if any admin would like to delete this redundancy, my inner proofreader would appreciate it.
(I already fixed it. Refresh and use the shift key.)
I just finished Empire of Ivory, book 4 in the Temeraire series, and I am about to start on Eleven Twenty-Three. I do not know much about this book, but it was written by a friend from high school.
Last week I finished Burke’s REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE. Now, I can say that I’m a Burkean conservative (or not) without having to add “(disclosure: I’ve never read Burke).”
Yesterday (Sunday!), I started reading William James’s collection of lectures on pragmatism.
The lectures on Pragmatism are *AWESOME*.
I heard that someone once said that Henry James wrote novels like a philosopher while William James wrote philosophy like a novelist. I’m about 1/4 of the way through and I see what that someone meant. I’m a sucker for good style. The actual content isn’t bad, either.
There was a school of philosophy that started with the Ancient Greeks (or, maybe, the pre-hellenics… maybe before them too but if it was written down it didn’t survive) then died out for a while that was then picked up again by Hume.
“Be funny. People will remember it better.”
Slowly slowly slowly re-reading The Once and Future King for the first time in many many many years; reading a book of Matheson short stories (Duel).
Homeland and TWD were pretty good last night. I also tried to re-start watching Farscape and watched “DNA Mad Scientist”, which had this guy in it:
Couple things: GREAT character design and makeup, both on that character, and on most of the aliens in general. Also, I liked that the ep had the main characters doing things that human morality objects to, but which (most of) the alien cultures had no real issues with – that each character is pretty unapologetic about their self-interest is kind of different.
But the writing still does seem to rush so that some of the more interesting ideas seem to just sort of flash by, never to return. I would prefer them to slow down and tease these things out a bit more subtly or dole them out over longer stretches. So the jury is still out, plus the actor who plays Crichton is, well, pretty terrible.
I can buy Crichton as a hotshot pilot.
They may have failed when they went for hotshot physicist… but, you know what, that’s okay. It’s more important that he’s a likeable American (no politics) than a canny scientist.
Yeah Browder doesn’t have the chops to lay a scientist. But he plays a fish out of water well, and as Crichton gets more adjusted to his surroundings (if somewhat unhinged) I think Browder does a decent job of that.
Of course Claudia Black is simply incredible as Aeryn – that’ll become more obvious as the character develops. But then I like Claudia Black in everything she does. I think Tom Hardy does a great job with Rygel too.
And there are some very good characters you haven’t even met yet.
V jnf ernyyl qvfnccbvagrq gung gurl “xvyyrq” gur AnzGne punenpgre – nf V fnl, gur punenpgre qrfvta jnf fhcre-pbby (gubhtu vg jnf n yvggyr uneq sbe uvz gb zbir tenprshyyl), naq gur npgbe znqr uvz perrcl, naq V yvxrq uvf arneyl-rssbegyrff fhcrevbe vagryyrpg naq cbjref (vg jnf n ovg haoryvrinoyr gung gurl jrer noyr gb trg gur qebc ba uvz).
Ur frrzrq yvxr n ivyynva gung fubhyq cbc hc ntnva, ohg ur frrzf gb unir orra n bar-bss (ur’f abg rira n zrzore bs n pbby “enpr/fcrpvrf” bs juvpu bgure rknzcyrf pbhyq fubj hc ntnva).
Frevbhfyl, ur jnf nyzbfg Qry Gbeb-yriry-avtugzner-shry pbby.
True that.
HOLY CRAP RYGEL IS BANE????
As marvelous as that would be, no, Tom Hardy wasn’t in Farscape. Rygel was played by Jonathan Hardy. Apparently the Henson folks followed their occasional tradition of making muppets mildly resemble their puppeteers, too.
No way those are his real eyebrows.
Damn, that’s what I get for not looking up the name.
Huge fan of Once and Future King. I wasn’t expecting it to draw the politics of the day (WWII-era) so heavily into the themes, but it kind of works that it does, and at least it makes things interesting.
Yay, people are (re)reading my best-beloved book!
It’s one of mine too.
The original (standalone) version of The Sword in the Stone is even better than what’s in TOaFK. I haven’t read the original versions of any of the other sections.
At the rate I am going, I will be finished around 2015, so I will let you know then how it holds up.
I look forward to it.
I read it because it appeared in the second X-Men film. I kid you not.* (And was fascinated to find it fit the films much better than I think even the director or screenwriters were aware of it, based on the contrast between what they noted in the DVD commentary and what I picked up reading it.)
*Though I’ve always been fond of the Arthurian mythos and have considered reading Mallory. If anyone has other renditions to recommend I’d be interested.
I remember Mary Stewart’s Merlin books as being excellent. And, at a slightly different angle, Tim Powers’s Drawing of the Dark is awesome.
Mike – I misread and for a second thought you were talking about *Richard* Powers, whom I like, don’t know if you have read any of his stuff.
I looked at a plot summary for Drawing of the Dark, and it made me think a little bit of Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle – did you read those (not Arthurian, obvs.)? Pretty good.
Sounds like a great plan!
I’ve reread Grave Peril and Turn Cloak, read Cold Days, and prior to that read Books 7 (Brief Lives) and 8 (Worlds’ End) of The Sandman.
I paused at about the 1/3 mark of American Gods as well. It really picks up from there, imo.
I’ve been reading The Watch series in the Discworld series by Pratchett. Good stuff.
I’ve been reading Discworld in publication order, both re-reading and ones I’d missed. Just finished Hogfather. I loved Men at Arms and Jingo, but struggled through Feet of Clay. Looking forward to Night Watch.
There is apparently going to be a “fantasy police procedural” TV series about The Watch. I think Rupert Graves (Detective Inspector Lestrade on Sherlock) would make a fine Sam Vimes.
I am doing the same thing at an utterly glacial pace. I was surprised to find that I loved Moving Pictures on a re-read, since I barely remembered its existence. (I hit pause at Soul Music, a year or two ago; I think I am afraid won’t be as wonderful as I remember it.)
I’m reading Changes right now.
I read Cold Days. I’m almost done reading Revenant Eve (by Sherwood Smith). I am also almost done reading Reality Is Broken, for class. I’ve been slow-reading a lovely, personal book by Kate Maloy called A Stone Bridge North for months now. I have a copy of Tanya Huff’s The Silvered lying about on my library floor – I think I am saving it for after all my schoolwork is done, so I can sink into it properly.
gack, self, LEARN HOW TO USE THE COMMENT FEATURE. *sighs* if any admin would like to delete this redundancy, my inner proofreader would appreciate it.
(I already fixed it. Refresh and use the shift key.)
I just finished Empire of Ivory, book 4 in the Temeraire series, and I am about to start on Eleven Twenty-Three. I do not know much about this book, but it was written by a friend from high school.
http://www.amazon.com/Eleven-Twenty-Three-Jason-S-Hornsby/dp/1934861340
Last week I finished Burke’s REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE. Now, I can say that I’m a Burkean conservative (or not) without having to add “(disclosure: I’ve never read Burke).”
Yesterday (Sunday!), I started reading William James’s collection of lectures on pragmatism.
The lectures on Pragmatism are *AWESOME*.
I heard that someone once said that Henry James wrote novels like a philosopher while William James wrote philosophy like a novelist. I’m about 1/4 of the way through and I see what that someone meant. I’m a sucker for good style. The actual content isn’t bad, either.
There was a school of philosophy that started with the Ancient Greeks (or, maybe, the pre-hellenics… maybe before them too but if it was written down it didn’t survive) then died out for a while that was then picked up again by Hume.
“Be funny. People will remember it better.”
Slowly slowly slowly re-reading The Once and Future King for the first time in many many many years; reading a book of Matheson short stories (Duel).
Homeland and TWD were pretty good last night. I also tried to re-start watching Farscape and watched “DNA Mad Scientist”, which had this guy in it:
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQobi2eHfJgZMRno_8rk7F6prMhXDSSsbrHuF9iCxQxL31faLa8OA
Couple things: GREAT character design and makeup, both on that character, and on most of the aliens in general. Also, I liked that the ep had the main characters doing things that human morality objects to, but which (most of) the alien cultures had no real issues with – that each character is pretty unapologetic about their self-interest is kind of different.
But the writing still does seem to rush so that some of the more interesting ideas seem to just sort of flash by, never to return. I would prefer them to slow down and tease these things out a bit more subtly or dole them out over longer stretches. So the jury is still out, plus the actor who plays Crichton is, well, pretty terrible.
I can buy Crichton as a hotshot pilot.
They may have failed when they went for hotshot physicist… but, you know what, that’s okay. It’s more important that he’s a likeable American (no politics) than a canny scientist.
Yeah Browder doesn’t have the chops to lay a scientist. But he plays a fish out of water well, and as Crichton gets more adjusted to his surroundings (if somewhat unhinged) I think Browder does a decent job of that.
Of course Claudia Black is simply incredible as Aeryn – that’ll become more obvious as the character develops. But then I like Claudia Black in everything she does. I think Tom Hardy does a great job with Rygel too.
And there are some very good characters you haven’t even met yet.
V jnf ernyyl qvfnccbvagrq gung gurl “xvyyrq” gur AnzGne punenpgre – nf V fnl, gur punenpgre qrfvta jnf fhcre-pbby (gubhtu vg jnf n yvggyr uneq sbe uvz gb zbir tenprshyyl), naq gur npgbe znqr uvz perrcl, naq V yvxrq uvf arneyl-rssbegyrff fhcrevbe vagryyrpg naq cbjref (vg jnf n ovg haoryvrinoyr gung gurl jrer noyr gb trg gur qebc ba uvz).
Ur frrzrq yvxr n ivyynva gung fubhyq cbc hc ntnva, ohg ur frrzf gb unir orra n bar-bss (ur’f abg rira n zrzore bs n pbby “enpr/fcrpvrf” bs juvpu bgure rknzcyrf pbhyq fubj hc ntnva).
Frevbhfyl, ur jnf nyzbfg Qry Gbeb-yriry-avtugzner-shry pbby.
True that.
HOLY CRAP RYGEL IS BANE????
As marvelous as that would be, no, Tom Hardy wasn’t in Farscape. Rygel was played by Jonathan Hardy. Apparently the Henson folks followed their occasional tradition of making muppets mildly resemble their puppeteers, too.
No way those are his real eyebrows.
Damn, that’s what I get for not looking up the name.
Huge fan of Once and Future King. I wasn’t expecting it to draw the politics of the day (WWII-era) so heavily into the themes, but it kind of works that it does, and at least it makes things interesting.
Yay, people are (re)reading my best-beloved book!
It’s one of mine too.
The original (standalone) version of The Sword in the Stone is even better than what’s in TOaFK. I haven’t read the original versions of any of the other sections.
At the rate I am going, I will be finished around 2015, so I will let you know then how it holds up.
I look forward to it.
I read it because it appeared in the second X-Men film. I kid you not.* (And was fascinated to find it fit the films much better than I think even the director or screenwriters were aware of it, based on the contrast between what they noted in the DVD commentary and what I picked up reading it.)
*Though I’ve always been fond of the Arthurian mythos and have considered reading Mallory. If anyone has other renditions to recommend I’d be interested.
I remember Mary Stewart’s Merlin books as being excellent. And, at a slightly different angle, Tim Powers’s Drawing of the Dark is awesome.
Mike – I misread and for a second thought you were talking about *Richard* Powers, whom I like, don’t know if you have read any of his stuff.
I looked at a plot summary for Drawing of the Dark, and it made me think a little bit of Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle – did you read those (not Arthurian, obvs.)? Pretty good.
They’re on the list.