Books, an update
Dec. 29th, 2012 10:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
highlyeccentricMy Christmas plan appears to be 'read ALL the books'. All of them, I tell you! The editing job I was to have been doing fell through, and the internet in Perth is apparently susceptible to heat-related failure, so between mid-morning and late at night I have no internets. I have a pile of assorted books from the Girawheen library (they have a great poetry selection there, for some reason), and the contents of my Kobo - and beyond that, there's Dad's bookshelf waiting for me.
Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Wholistic Detective Agency, Hmm. This was quite well-written, but I couldn't quite get into it for some reason. I did love the Cambridge-academia mockery; and was charmed by the 80s tech-talk which could, with a few tweaks, have passed for 21st-century geek-talk. Richard was a bit bland as a character, though. And for some reason the Electric Monk just didn't click with me. Cool idea, didn't gel with me.
J.R.R Tolkien, The Hobbit - re-read among many re-reads.
T.S. Elliot, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, This was absolutely charming! I knew 'On the naming of cats' prior to this, but the rest of Elliot's cat-poems were new to me. Elliot's grandchildren were lucky recipients of these poems!
My favourite: On the Ad-dressing of cats.
Jasper Fforde, The Last Dragonslayer, This was fun! Jennifer Strange is a compelling and interesting teenage-adult heroine. I like the worldbuilding in this - the unUnited Kingdom tickles my fancy, as an erstwhile anglo-saxonist, and it's a nice deviation from the fictionverse. Fforde's trademark fascination with weird corporatisation is still there, but less ubiquitous. Kazam, and the sorcerers thereof, is fascinating and weird and adorable - I particularly liked Lady Mawgon's choices toward the end. The details of foundling law are also interesting, and provide an extra layer of interest to Jennifer's character.
And Tiger Prawns is a. the best name and b. a great sidekick.
Not sure if I'll expend the energy to read the rest of the series, but if I come across them I'm sure I'd enjoy them.
More updates another day, I have L.M. Montgomery books on my Kobo to get through now.
Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Wholistic Detective Agency, Hmm. This was quite well-written, but I couldn't quite get into it for some reason. I did love the Cambridge-academia mockery; and was charmed by the 80s tech-talk which could, with a few tweaks, have passed for 21st-century geek-talk. Richard was a bit bland as a character, though. And for some reason the Electric Monk just didn't click with me. Cool idea, didn't gel with me.
J.R.R Tolkien, The Hobbit - re-read among many re-reads.
T.S. Elliot, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, This was absolutely charming! I knew 'On the naming of cats' prior to this, but the rest of Elliot's cat-poems were new to me. Elliot's grandchildren were lucky recipients of these poems!
My favourite: On the Ad-dressing of cats.
Jasper Fforde, The Last Dragonslayer, This was fun! Jennifer Strange is a compelling and interesting teenage-adult heroine. I like the worldbuilding in this - the unUnited Kingdom tickles my fancy, as an erstwhile anglo-saxonist, and it's a nice deviation from the fictionverse. Fforde's trademark fascination with weird corporatisation is still there, but less ubiquitous. Kazam, and the sorcerers thereof, is fascinating and weird and adorable - I particularly liked Lady Mawgon's choices toward the end. The details of foundling law are also interesting, and provide an extra layer of interest to Jennifer's character.
And Tiger Prawns is a. the best name and b. a great sidekick.
Not sure if I'll expend the energy to read the rest of the series, but if I come across them I'm sure I'd enjoy them.
More updates another day, I have L.M. Montgomery books on my Kobo to get through now.