So, I get back from staff meeting and senior staff meeting, log on, and think "70 new messages in Literary? WTF?"
I do love our literary kerfuffles, especially reading them after the fact...
Hmm, let's see, some hopefully noncontroversial literary opinions:
1. Annabel is a big fan of the Don't Let the Pigeon series by whatshisname who did Knuffle Bunny, and I approve her budding literary taste.
2. I liked the new Sharing Knife book and wish Bujold wrote faster.
3. The Charterhouse of Parma and Bill Bryson's Shakespeare book are awaiting me on the holds shelf at my local library, and I can hardly wait to pick them up. (ETA checked my account again--Fields of Fire, by Jim Webb, is also there!)
I am amused by the fact that this discussion includes
Ulysses, Moby Dick
and Bradbury, since all three are related. Bradbury lived in Dublin while writing the screenplay for John Huston's
Moby Dick.
I enjoyed
Ulysses
in grad school, but I haven't felt any impulse to read it again on my own. On the other hand, I've read
Moby Dick
three times, and I'm thinking it's time to read it again. I remember being irritated by all the pages devoted to "how to cook a whale" the first time I read it, but I later came to think that's an important part of the book. I'm still not sure he needed to describe whales quite as much as he did, though.
I liked the new Sharing Knife book and wish Bujold wrote faster
I am torn, because I wish my favorite authors nothing but the best, and want them to make gobs of money, but I do not wish to spend lots of my money on hardbacks, nor do I wish to wait for paperbacks to come out. Darn the marketplace, darn it to heck!
I am torn, because I wish my favorite authors nothing but the best, and want them to make gobs of money, but I do not wish to spend lots of my money on hardbacks, nor do I wish to wait for paperbacks to come out. Darn the marketplace, darn it to heck!
I get the hardcovers from the library, and then buy the paperbacks a year later so I'll have a complete set for re-reading, should the urge strike.
I just finished Glasshouse by Charles Stross, and it was FANTASTIC. I've *liked* all his other stuff (enough to seek out more by him, obviously), but this is the first one I've really *loved*.
Now I'm reading Thirteen (Richard K Morgan) and am having a hard time getting into it. Judging by the blurb, I should be eating it up, but it hasn't quite gotten to the meat of the story yet.
Bujold is on the short list of people I buy in hardcover. I don't even particularly like hardcovers; I just can't wait. That being said, I think the Sharing Knife books are the weakest thing she's done in years.
Most of my book-buying budget goes either to supporting new authors I know from writers' organizations or to my research collection (AKA "myyy precioussss," and the one part of my book collection that's neatly organized, for ease of use and so I can, um, gloat over how pretty it is). Everyday reading usually comes from the library, though that may change if/when I become less broke.
Annabel is a big fan of the Don't Let the Pigeon series by whatshisname who did Knuffle Bunny, and I approve her budding literary taste.
Mo Willems. One of my favorite children's authors. He is teh awesome.
Leonardo the Terrible Monster
is a favorite.
Mo Willems
He lives in my neighborhood!
I can't wait until D is old enough for Knuffle Bunny and I can take him to see where all the background pictures were taken.
Knuffle Bunny
I just read this as "Kerfuffle Bunny" and had all kinds of amusing mental images. I think the KB would look like the rabbit in Holy Grail.
