I tried reading "To Say Nothing...", and didn't get it. And then I read Domesday Book (LOVED), and then REread To Say Nothing, and liked it much better. I think I need to go back and re-read Belwether, though.
Anya ,'Bring On The Night'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
"To Say Nothing of the Dog" is much improved by having read Dorothy Sayers, not to mention "Three Men in a Boat."
Hmm. I loved "To Say Nothing", can't stand Sayers, and have never read "Three Men." Which is not to say you're wrong.
I read Domesday so long ago I barely remember it. Must dig that one out again.
Domesday and "Fire Watch" were the beginning of my Willis love. Lincoln's Dreams was interesting but unsatisfying. I don't think I've been disappointed in anything of herssince.
To Say Nothing of the Dog made me want to read Three Men in a Boat, but I haven't, yet. I think I've read all the Sayers there is, but ages ago, so I don't really know how much stuck. I don't think I could dredge up a single detail from any particular work. But that might have been enough familiarity to inform To Say Nothing, I don't know.
can't stand Sayers
t gasp
t shuns Brenda
can't stand Sayers
Maybe we can get you therapy.
Hmm, yeah, The Doomsday Book does provide some explanation that comes in at least handy for To Say Nothing of the Dog.
It's okay, brenda...I can't stand Willis.
I guess we all have our deep dark secrets.
I love Connie Willis, starting with Lincoln's Dreams, which held up for me on a recent re-read. Here's the weird thing though: Doomsday Book, which should have been tailor-made for me, fell kind of flat. I was doing a lot of reading about the 14th century at the time, and that might have been part of the problem, everything just blended in for me.
My dissatisfaction with the book may be pettier than that, however. The title just irks me. When I heard about the book, I thought it would have some connection to the 11th century survey ordered by William the Bastard. NSM.
Lincoln's Dreams has one of the more shiver-inducing endings of any book. I really liked Doomsday Book and the connection didn't really bother me, but that may be because I think of the survey as the Domesday Book, which, while pronounced the same way, is different in my head.