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When I leave work tomorrow, I have two weeks of vacation. I'm looking forward to that.
Apart from that, I'm mostly keeping up with the news about the strikes and lockouts. (Three guesses who is getting lockouted. Striking would have been cooler.) Some people are saying it'll be resolved before april, but then - some people said it would have been resolved now. Right now, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the strike will get pushed at least that first fortnight for the purely selfish reason that if the strike starts, the trains stop, and then there's no way I'll be seeing Troldspejlet. I know, I know, terrible reason.
What I've recently finished reading
C.A. Higgins: Lightless
I must confess I was disappointed by this book. There's far too much telling and not nearly enough showing in the plot, and I never grew to like any of the characters. Admittedly, some of them - like Ida -we are clearly not meant to like, but the rest? I think I'm supposed to sympathize with Althea and Ivan, but she never shows any real personality traits outside of concern with her computer to a somewhat extreme degree even before the Ananke twist, and as for Ivan? The entire evil System vs. rebels/terrorists plot never moves beyond something abstract, happening far beyond this spaceship, and I just never see anything particularly likeable about him.
Honestly? I think it might have worked better as a movie.
Megan Whalen Turner: The Thief
I rather liked this story, probably because I always appreciate a clever rogue and a good unrealiable narrator, so I was predisposed to liking Eugenides.
The setting of a medieval pseudo-Greece feels like pretty generic fantasy, sadly, and the story itself is very straightforward and simplistic. But then, it's a pretty short book. I am hopeful the sequels might amend that.
Marjorie Liu: Monstress: The Blood
I liked this volume for more than the first. Maybe it's just that we've now become familiar with the characters, maybe it's because we're far away from the first volume's slavery themes, which I was not a fan of. Gorgeous art and pirates all over the place.
Luc Sante: The Other Paris
This is a very interesting book. It tells of the Paris that isn't shiny, pretty, touristy - it's the history of the lower classes, of criminals, prostitutes, revolutionaries, vagrants, of the slums and so on and so forth.
I do feel that the book deserved - ironically - a shinier layout. All the illustrations are tiny and in black-and-white, and a book like this deserves more. The text itself is very dense, the chapters rambling on without pause, and it made for a fairly dry and slow read for me. An interesting read, but slow and a bit dry.
Sylvain Runberg: Darwin's Diaries: Dual Nature
Hey, look! More werewolves.
What I've recently watched
No movies and no finished shows. I'm currently halfway through American Horror Story: Freakshow. Also, I'm keeping up with a documentary series about the court in Roskilde, and I really should sit down and watch the first episode of Liberty.
What I'm reading now
Maggie Stiefvater's The Dream Thieves, China Miéville's October (it suits my current mood) and Fred Van Lente's Ivar, the Time-Walker: Breaking History.
What I'm reading next
Probably Richard Morgan's Broken Angels.
Total number of books and comics read this year: 38
Apart from that, I'm mostly keeping up with the news about the strikes and lockouts. (Three guesses who is getting lockouted. Striking would have been cooler.) Some people are saying it'll be resolved before april, but then - some people said it would have been resolved now. Right now, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the strike will get pushed at least that first fortnight for the purely selfish reason that if the strike starts, the trains stop, and then there's no way I'll be seeing Troldspejlet. I know, I know, terrible reason.
What I've recently finished reading
C.A. Higgins: Lightless
I must confess I was disappointed by this book. There's far too much telling and not nearly enough showing in the plot, and I never grew to like any of the characters. Admittedly, some of them - like Ida -we are clearly not meant to like, but the rest? I think I'm supposed to sympathize with Althea and Ivan, but she never shows any real personality traits outside of concern with her computer to a somewhat extreme degree even before the Ananke twist, and as for Ivan? The entire evil System vs. rebels/terrorists plot never moves beyond something abstract, happening far beyond this spaceship, and I just never see anything particularly likeable about him.
Honestly? I think it might have worked better as a movie.
Megan Whalen Turner: The Thief
I rather liked this story, probably because I always appreciate a clever rogue and a good unrealiable narrator, so I was predisposed to liking Eugenides.
The setting of a medieval pseudo-Greece feels like pretty generic fantasy, sadly, and the story itself is very straightforward and simplistic. But then, it's a pretty short book. I am hopeful the sequels might amend that.
Marjorie Liu: Monstress: The Blood
I liked this volume for more than the first. Maybe it's just that we've now become familiar with the characters, maybe it's because we're far away from the first volume's slavery themes, which I was not a fan of. Gorgeous art and pirates all over the place.
Luc Sante: The Other Paris
This is a very interesting book. It tells of the Paris that isn't shiny, pretty, touristy - it's the history of the lower classes, of criminals, prostitutes, revolutionaries, vagrants, of the slums and so on and so forth.
I do feel that the book deserved - ironically - a shinier layout. All the illustrations are tiny and in black-and-white, and a book like this deserves more. The text itself is very dense, the chapters rambling on without pause, and it made for a fairly dry and slow read for me. An interesting read, but slow and a bit dry.
Sylvain Runberg: Darwin's Diaries: Dual Nature
Hey, look! More werewolves.
What I've recently watched
No movies and no finished shows. I'm currently halfway through American Horror Story: Freakshow. Also, I'm keeping up with a documentary series about the court in Roskilde, and I really should sit down and watch the first episode of Liberty.
What I'm reading now
Maggie Stiefvater's The Dream Thieves, China Miéville's October (it suits my current mood) and Fred Van Lente's Ivar, the Time-Walker: Breaking History.
What I'm reading next
Probably Richard Morgan's Broken Angels.
Total number of books and comics read this year: 38