haul

[piranha]

so i've run into a problem with this heat -- since i read a lot more when it's hot because then i don't notice how hot it is, i've run out of lightweight material to inhale. i've run out so badly that i started rereading harry potter, much to the dismay of the *poing* (though part of why i started rereading it is that the recent wank has reminded me that there are two more books out that i haven't read yet). it actually holds up well to rereading -- yeah, the same stuff that bugged me the first time around is still there, but the stuff i liked hasn't suffered from being "discovered" twice.

anyway, today i went to replenish the stack.

lisa appignanesi	paris requiem (m)
catherine asaro	the moon's shadow (sff)
catherine asaro	skyfall (sff)
michael barley	jackal bird (sff)
neil gaiman	the sandman: endless nights (gn)
steven gould	jumper (sff)
katherine kerr	snare (sff)
charles de lint	the blue girl (sff)
kazuya minekura	saiyuki (manga)
sarah monette	mélusine (sff)
richard morgan	woken furies (sff)
naomi novik	his majesty's dragon (sff)
claudia o'keefe	black snow days (sff)
paul park	a princess of roumania (sff)
j.k. rowling	harry potter and the order of the phoenix (sff)
richard paul russo	carlucci's edge (sff)
karl schroeder	lady of mazes (sff)
sharon shinn	angel-seeker (sff)
michelle spring	nights in white satin (m)
brian stableford	architects of immortality (sff)
charles stross	accelerando (sff)
somtow sucharitkul	the dawning shadow: the light on the sound (sff)
karen traviss	the world before (sff)
VITIS	hiking trails III northern vancouver island (nf)
minette walters	disordered minds (m)
robert charles wilson	darwinia (sff)
robert charles wilson	spin (sff)
chris yorath	the geology of southern vancouver island (nf)

Comments

[daev.livejournal.com]

chris yorath - the geology of southern vancouver island (nf)

I love your definition of "lightweight material," since it matches mine! This week I finished "Crossing The Craton," the last of John McPhee's five-book series on American geology. I would have finished it earlier but I couldn't read and bike home from the library simultaneously.

[eagle]

Some really good stuff there. Lady of Mazes, of course, I think was the best SF novel of last year. Accelerando was weak in the beginning, but I ended up liking the middle sections well enough. I've not yet read Carlucci's Edge, but I've heard good things about it.

Spin is an odd book, but I think you would like it. It has a lot of great thinky bits, although Lady of Mazes is even better. (Lady of Mazes isn't really light reading, though.)

The first Novik is excellent light reading. I wasn't as impressed with the second; the third book was again better.

Both of the Asaro's I found quite disappointing, although I liked Skyfall the better of those two. A Princess of Roumania is getting rave reviews, but apparently requires some attention.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i didn't just pick light reading, i just wanted to make sure i had some selection in that category. i bought the novik based on your rec; everything else is basically authors-i-like selection -- after picking some lightweight stuff i pretty much went along the shelves and grabbed whatever looked interesting at first glance (i was in and out of chapters pretty fast considering, and i had found the 5th HP already at bygone's -- woohoo, 1st canadian edition. *snrk*. the guy who owns bygone's asked me whether i am a collector. i figure i can resell it easily once i've read it.).

asaro should stop writing skolian empire stuff, i think. it's been getting worse and worse, and i probably won't buy another one after these two, i've already felt *meh* about the last couple.

i'm gonna try at least journalling what books i've finished, even if i don't manage reviews.

[ckd]

I liked Jumper quite a bit, and the sequel (Reflex) isn't bad either. His Wildside invites perhaps too many comparisons to Jumper for its own good, but is still pretty good SF of the young-protagonist school.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't know thre was a sequel to Jumper; thanks!

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Cool. You must have a good bookstore. I have recently bought & read & enjoyed The Blue Girl and Angel-Seeker.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

more than one decent bookstore. the local chapters is huge, with a good SFF collection and a new manga collection that's astounding (considering that 2 years ago, they had no manga, and their graphic novel collection didn't even fill an entire shelf). and there is one really good used bookstore on commercial st, as well as several other not quite as good ones -- i swear, i am amazed they can all make a living. the well-stocked remainder store is gone, but i suspect only temporarily (they're building a large retail/hotel/condo complex right downtown).

[masonk.livejournal.com]

Just a note: I personally found Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to be the weakest of the books, suffering from an extreme lack of editorial guidance. YMMV.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

alas that seems to frequently happen to really popular writers; they can develop anne rice disease ("i don't need no steenkin' editor").

i noticed that the books have gotten bigger and bigger; OotP is thick enough to kill a small child if one were to drop it accidentally.

[snippy]

I liked Melusine, and the sequel is out (saw it at Powell's yesterday on my lunch hour). The sequel is called The Virtu.