Why is it so easy to binge? I don't mean due to access, although we are lucky enough to have at our fingertips, access to entire TV shows, movies, book series, and even need to make little effort for chocolate ice cream or family-sized bags of potato chips. I mean, is there a human disposition to bingeing (how odd that the e stays on that spelling) or is it a peculiarly American thing? If we gave every Bangladeshi access to the complete Breaking Bad series, would half the nation binge on Walter White? Do twenty-somethings in England watch all 9 Harry Potter movies in one sitting? I have to force myself to borrow only ONE book in a series on each library visit or I would gorge on them all and find myself waiting and wanting.
I have most recently become obsessed with the Phryne Fisher television series from Australia. 34 episodes based on the wonderful books of Kerry Greenwood who I have blogged about before. The series is not quite faithful to the books in that it creates a more complex relationship with the two main characters than what exists in the novels, but that is understandable for the medium. The costumes and music more than make up for any flaws in the adaption.
I am currently searching for a new fixation. And taking suggestions.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
January 6, 2016
October 26, 2015
Keeping track
Note to self: when beginning the year with a reading challenge, make sure you keep track of all your books.
I challenged myself on Goodreads to read 100 books this year. My updates on that site indicate that I read 2 books in all of June and July. Two. Five in May, Seven in August, but somehow only two in the months in between. Hm. I see what I didn't do there.
I challenged myself on Goodreads to read 100 books this year. My updates on that site indicate that I read 2 books in all of June and July. Two. Five in May, Seven in August, but somehow only two in the months in between. Hm. I see what I didn't do there.
September 17, 2015
Fight against reality
I''m currently reading a (very well-written) book about the assassination of President Garfield in 1881. I know he is eventually going to die. After all, this is non-fiction, based on known events from documented historical sources. We all learned (certainly Northeast Ohioans learned) of President Garfield in countless history lessons throughout a decade of schooling.
But I find myself reluctant to finish this book. Subconsciously believing that this time, at the last minute one of his doctors thinks to use an antiseptic, or to leave him heal on his own. Or maybe even before the assassination, someone recognizes madness in the shooter and has him committed, or doesn't sell him a gun. Something.
After learning more about what kind of man Garfield was (genial, brilliant, egalitarian, humble, patient, strong), it seems an even greater crime that he died. And in such a way.
Perhaps if I just read to page 228... .
But I find myself reluctant to finish this book. Subconsciously believing that this time, at the last minute one of his doctors thinks to use an antiseptic, or to leave him heal on his own. Or maybe even before the assassination, someone recognizes madness in the shooter and has him committed, or doesn't sell him a gun. Something.
After learning more about what kind of man Garfield was (genial, brilliant, egalitarian, humble, patient, strong), it seems an even greater crime that he died. And in such a way.
Perhaps if I just read to page 228... .
July 17, 2015
Friday Book Blogging
Whoo. I guess I took some time off there. Unintentionally and inexcusably absent. I just haven't been musing much.
But I'm back with a bang and the first Friday Book Blog in forever (slight exaggeration).
This week I finally finished reading Dead Wake by Erik Larson. It is dauntingly large, but do not let that dissuade you. All of Larson's non-fiction is as spellbinding as the best fantasy novel, and his latest, a telling of the sinking of the Lusitania, is equally full of suspense despite knowing the outcome. And remember, the last 75 pages are notes, sources and index, so it's not as long as it looks.
But I'm back with a bang and the first Friday Book Blog in forever (slight exaggeration).
This week I finally finished reading Dead Wake by Erik Larson. It is dauntingly large, but do not let that dissuade you. All of Larson's non-fiction is as spellbinding as the best fantasy novel, and his latest, a telling of the sinking of the Lusitania, is equally full of suspense despite knowing the outcome. And remember, the last 75 pages are notes, sources and index, so it's not as long as it looks.
June 24, 2015
Un reality
I'm feeling distinctly disillusioned with the real world of late, so here is a list of fictional characters I wish were real so I could hang out:
- Richard Jury
- Mary Russell
- Julian Kestrel
- Amelia Peabody
- William and Hester Monk
- Tobias Walton (all of the above from previous post on fictional characters)
- Sherlock Holmes
- Armand Gamache
- Lord Peter Wimsey
- Flavia de Luce
- Phryne Fisher
- Bess Crawford
- Vicky Bliss
- Theophilos (aka Feste)
June 1, 2015
Hermitage
I've always been a fan of Martha Grimes' Richard Jury, not least because of his ridiculous friends. Most of her novels feature Jury's friend Melrose Plant who has renounced his title, though not his fortune, and lives on the family estate in idle wealth the way we Americans imagine all earls living. In all his eccentricities, the most outlandish was his adopting of a hermit to live in his purpose-built hermitage.
I am now reading a completely different book by a different author (Dorothy Cannell's Murder at Mullings) and the main character's mother tells of a hermit living on the family estate where she was a housemaid.
This being too much of a coincidence, I did a brief internet search and discovered that, as absurd as it seems, English lords did employ "hermits" in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Per Wikipedia:
What would the want-ad look like for this job?
I am now reading a completely different book by a different author (Dorothy Cannell's Murder at Mullings) and the main character's mother tells of a hermit living on the family estate where she was a housemaid.
This being too much of a coincidence, I did a brief internet search and discovered that, as absurd as it seems, English lords did employ "hermits" in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Per Wikipedia:
In some early instances, hermits were simply represented or hinted-at, rather than personified; outside a folly or grotto, a small table and chair, reading glasses and a classical text might be placed suggesting that it was where a hermit lived. Later, suggestions of hermits were replaced with actual hermits – men hired for the sole purpose of inhabiting a small structure and functioning as any other garden ornament. Hermits would sometimes be asked to make themselves available to guests, answering questions and providing counsel. In some cases, the hermits would not communicate with visitors, functioning instead like a perpetual stage-play or live diorama.
In return for their services-in-residence, hermits would generally receive a stipend in addition to room and board.
 |
| Our "hermitage" previously referred to as the Mother-in-law suite. |
May 29, 2015
Friday Book Blogging
Holy god! It's been over TWO MONTHS since I've written a Friday Book Blog! And with this week being short (well, the week is still 7 days, but I had a few days off just like the rest of 'Murica) I didn't post as much as I should have, but what I am posting is --that's right-- a Friday Book Blog! Woohoo!
*disclaimer* Just because I'm posting about this book, does not mean that it is especially amazing. I just feel like I need to throw a FBB up here and I have been seriously slacking.
I've (obviously) read a load of books since the previous post on March 22, and nearly all of them were enjoyable. I think, though, I'll give the spot to an old favorite who hasn't had a nod from me before.
David Handler's The Girl Who Ran Off with Daddy features Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag, author, ghostwriter, screenwriter from Hollywood's Big Hair 80s slightly settled in with a new baby daughter and lovely wife on the East coast when what appears to me to be a thinly-veiled replica of the 80s Marlon Brando rides into town. The mystery that follows is interesting enough, but I really like the Hoagy mysteries for the nostalgic look at the decade of Fantasy Island, shoulder pads, and mullets.
Handler also writes a series in Connecticut featuring "mismatched romantic crime-fighting duo of New York City film critic Mitch Berger and Connecticut State Resident Trooper Desiree Mitry" which are also very good.
*disclaimer* Just because I'm posting about this book, does not mean that it is especially amazing. I just feel like I need to throw a FBB up here and I have been seriously slacking.
I've (obviously) read a load of books since the previous post on March 22, and nearly all of them were enjoyable. I think, though, I'll give the spot to an old favorite who hasn't had a nod from me before.
David Handler's The Girl Who Ran Off with Daddy features Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag, author, ghostwriter, screenwriter from Hollywood's Big Hair 80s slightly settled in with a new baby daughter and lovely wife on the East coast when what appears to me to be a thinly-veiled replica of the 80s Marlon Brando rides into town. The mystery that follows is interesting enough, but I really like the Hoagy mysteries for the nostalgic look at the decade of Fantasy Island, shoulder pads, and mullets.
Handler also writes a series in Connecticut featuring "mismatched romantic crime-fighting duo of New York City film critic Mitch Berger and Connecticut State Resident Trooper Desiree Mitry" which are also very good.
April 30, 2015
What if
If I read a book of poetry published this year by an indie label written by a 24-year-old gay black South African man, I can bang out seven items on the Book Riot 2015 list. With just one hypothetical book.
March 24, 2015
Author! Author!
As you know, I write this blog. So I could, technically, be called a writer.
But I'm not a Serious Writer.
And I have no desire to ever write a novel. Ever. I love to read them. And I can be quite voracious in my reading appetite. But to create one from the gauze of my imagination? Nope. Can't do it. I am too practical and utilitarian for that. So I will leave novel-writing (and navel-gazing) to the Wonkas of the world who can invent fantasy with a couple of pieces of string and a ball of tinfoil, while I will gladly devour your literary output.
After all, someone has to read all the writing.
But I'm not a Serious Writer.
And I have no desire to ever write a novel. Ever. I love to read them. And I can be quite voracious in my reading appetite. But to create one from the gauze of my imagination? Nope. Can't do it. I am too practical and utilitarian for that. So I will leave novel-writing (and navel-gazing) to the Wonkas of the world who can invent fantasy with a couple of pieces of string and a ball of tinfoil, while I will gladly devour your literary output.
After all, someone has to read all the writing.
March 22, 2015
Sunday apology for lack of Friday Book Blog
Yes. I know. No Friday Book Blog. But I only read one book last week. It took me all week to get through My Notorious Life by Kate Manning. The first 80 pages went well, and the last 100 pages flew, but 250 pages in the middle? Ugh.
Not badly written, but it reads more like a documentary (as told in somewhat ungrammatical English) which I suspect is deliberate. I guess I just wanted a bit more action. Or perhaps I just didn't have enough invested. Either way, it was an interesting look at abortion in the mid-nineteenth century and the place women held in society.
Not badly written, but it reads more like a documentary (as told in somewhat ungrammatical English) which I suspect is deliberate. I guess I just wanted a bit more action. Or perhaps I just didn't have enough invested. Either way, it was an interesting look at abortion in the mid-nineteenth century and the place women held in society.
March 13, 2015
Friday Book Blogging
I am writing a Friday Book Blog this week no matter what. On a Friday, no less!
I have about 6 books to choose from in the past two weeks of reading, but my favorite is the second Armand Gamache novel by Louise Penny called A Fatal Grace. When I want to visit a fictional town and have dinner in a fictional bistro with fictional characters, the author has nailed it.
I have about 6 books to choose from in the past two weeks of reading, but my favorite is the second Armand Gamache novel by Louise Penny called A Fatal Grace. When I want to visit a fictional town and have dinner in a fictional bistro with fictional characters, the author has nailed it.
February 23, 2015
Totally safe for work
Since I failed to do a proper Friday Book Blog, let me take a moment to share with you a book I discovered by accident. Because 1. who would go looking for this? and 2. who would even think it existed? (As usual, I'm late for this train with a dozen news articles covering this last year.)
Allow me to introduce you to the book of Cocks. Realistically I should wait until 2017 which is the Year of the Cock, but I couldn't hold onto this that long. Don't be afraid to click on the link. It's not at all like the book I posted in February of 2006. How can you not fall in love with this guy?
Allow me to introduce you to the book of Cocks. Realistically I should wait until 2017 which is the Year of the Cock, but I couldn't hold onto this that long. Don't be afraid to click on the link. It's not at all like the book I posted in February of 2006. How can you not fall in love with this guy?
 |
| photo by Earnest Goh |
February 22, 2015
Not Friday Book Blogging
Yeah. I know. I didn't Book Blog on Friday. I only read three. The best was Dorothy L. Sayers' Whose Body where we meet Lord Peter Wimsey for the first time. But as you all know, I've long been a fan.
February 13, 2015
Friday Book Blogging
This week I read a few books and am choosing, not my favorite, but the most apropos to the holiday. Eloisa James's The Ugly Duchess is a riff on the Ugly Duckling fairy tale. It holds a special place for me because I'm certain that one day I will blossom into a beautiful swan too. It's a frivolously fun romance for a frivolously fun holiday. Enjoy.
February 8, 2015
Friday Sunday Book Blogging
I had a Friday Book Blog, but I've been fighting something nasty and didn't post it in time.
Here it is Sunday:
My favorite book this week was Murder at the Brightwell by Ashley Weaver. She isn't going to win any awards for detective fiction, but it was a fun read. Once a person has consumed all the Inter-War British period detective stories that were written contemporanously, one has to accept newer "historical" fictions. And since I'm all caught up on Charles Todd, Jacqueline Winspear, Laurie R. King, Anne Perry, Will Thomas, etc, etc, etc. I have to make due with new authors. I will allow that I liked the story and the characters have a lot of potential should she choose to make a series.
Here it is Sunday:
My favorite book this week was Murder at the Brightwell by Ashley Weaver. She isn't going to win any awards for detective fiction, but it was a fun read. Once a person has consumed all the Inter-War British period detective stories that were written contemporanously, one has to accept newer "historical" fictions. And since I'm all caught up on Charles Todd, Jacqueline Winspear, Laurie R. King, Anne Perry, Will Thomas, etc, etc, etc. I have to make due with new authors. I will allow that I liked the story and the characters have a lot of potential should she choose to make a series.
January 30, 2015
Friday Book Blogging
I know I'm a little late to the party on this one, but I finally read Louise Penny's Still Life this week. This is the first in a series featuring inspector Armand Gamache from Quebec.
But (and this is important!) this is so much more than a murder mystery. Penny allows us a marvelously complex glimpse into the minds of Gamache, his colleagues, the villagers in Three Pines, even the victim. I was completely enchanted from the first paragraph. I can't wait to devour the rest of the series.
But (and this is important!) this is so much more than a murder mystery. Penny allows us a marvelously complex glimpse into the minds of Gamache, his colleagues, the villagers in Three Pines, even the victim. I was completely enchanted from the first paragraph. I can't wait to devour the rest of the series.
January 23, 2015
Friday Book Blogging
Last week I had a book, but failed to blog it. This week I have more books, but I will blog last week's because it was better. Charles Finch's latest quest for his gentleman detective, Charles Lenox is into The Laws of Murder.
Lenox has left Parliament to begin a detective agency that is a kinder, gentler 221B. (Certainly Lenox is much less misanthropic than the most famous Victorian British detective ever.)
The remarkably fast-paced story engages. I would have appreciated some more fleshed-out secondary characters, but in a series, sometimes the author doesn't feel the need to do so within a single novel. Nonetheless, it was the best thing I read in the past two weeks, so it gets the nod.
Lenox has left Parliament to begin a detective agency that is a kinder, gentler 221B. (Certainly Lenox is much less misanthropic than the most famous Victorian British detective ever.)
The remarkably fast-paced story engages. I would have appreciated some more fleshed-out secondary characters, but in a series, sometimes the author doesn't feel the need to do so within a single novel. Nonetheless, it was the best thing I read in the past two weeks, so it gets the nod.
December 26, 2014
Friday Book Blogging
I read a couple of books, but the one that has stuck with me recently (likely because of the holiday) is Stephanie Barron's Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas. Barron is expert at capturing the tenor of Jane Austen's Regency time-period. She invokes language and customs that are historically accurate and imbues Jane and her siblings with personalities that we want to believe.
Aside from that, we follow Jane to the neighbor's at Christmastime in this story and learn how drastically traditions have changed. Christmas Eve is a solemn holy day. Christmas Day is a feast day celebrating the First Day of Christmas. A church service in the morning celebrating the successful arrival of baby Jesus was common. There are no orgies of presents.
In the case of the story, only the youngest child receives a single gift. Each subsequent "day of Christmas" following, another single gift is bestowed. Until the Twelfth Day which is Epiphany. Twelfth Night is the evening before Epiphany. That is celebrated with a Feast of Fools or Topsy Turvy when everything is turned on its head and the children rule.
The story Barron tells is good enough, but what I really enjoyed was reading about how different Christmas used to be.
Aside from that, we follow Jane to the neighbor's at Christmastime in this story and learn how drastically traditions have changed. Christmas Eve is a solemn holy day. Christmas Day is a feast day celebrating the First Day of Christmas. A church service in the morning celebrating the successful arrival of baby Jesus was common. There are no orgies of presents.
In the case of the story, only the youngest child receives a single gift. Each subsequent "day of Christmas" following, another single gift is bestowed. Until the Twelfth Day which is Epiphany. Twelfth Night is the evening before Epiphany. That is celebrated with a Feast of Fools or Topsy Turvy when everything is turned on its head and the children rule.
The story Barron tells is good enough, but what I really enjoyed was reading about how different Christmas used to be.
October 31, 2014
Friday Book Blogging
The Halloween book blog pick of the week will be a tongue-in-cheek tale of gothic suspense written by the astoundingly prolific Barbara Mertz under the pseudonym Elizabeth Peters.
Mertz had the ability to populate her books with believably absurd characters and at the same time, plot a decently intricate story. Any of her books are great fun, but this week I just happened to have read Naked Once More featuring librarian-turned-romance-writer Jacqueline Kirby.
Mertz had the ability to populate her books with believably absurd characters and at the same time, plot a decently intricate story. Any of her books are great fun, but this week I just happened to have read Naked Once More featuring librarian-turned-romance-writer Jacqueline Kirby.
September 26, 2014
Friday Book Blogging
On a Friday!
My favorite of the week was Christopher Fowler's The Invisible Code featuring Bryant and May. This is the fifth time I've tipped Fowler for his Bryant and May series. At this point in time, my concern isn't that I won't love one of the stories, but that the characters will die of old age ending the series.
The stories are excellent, the plots are sufficiently convoluted. But the best thing about them involves the tidbits of London history and folklore peppered throughout.
My favorite of the week was Christopher Fowler's The Invisible Code featuring Bryant and May. This is the fifth time I've tipped Fowler for his Bryant and May series. At this point in time, my concern isn't that I won't love one of the stories, but that the characters will die of old age ending the series.
The stories are excellent, the plots are sufficiently convoluted. But the best thing about them involves the tidbits of London history and folklore peppered throughout.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)