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FMK #24: Talking Animals
So I am back from the trip! I did not post FMK yesterday because instead I hid in my room and re-read "All Systems Red," because sometimes after spending a week in very close company with your nearest and dearest (and in hundred-degree temperatures) you need to just hide in your room for a night and re-read "All Systems Red". Perhaps I will post more about the trip later (spoilers: I got to touch Chicago's Stadtkrone! SUCH a good place for an epic magical battle to happen omg. Especially with Trump Tower glowing evilly green next door, and the Tribune Building right past that.)
I didn't finish The Lies of Locke Lamora, which was the LONG BOOK F winner. I got about 1/3 of the way in. So far it's not gripping me, but I've found this year that the long tomes usually don't until I'm over halfway, even if I end up liking them a lot, so I guess we'll see. So far I'm mainly sticking with it so that I can continue imagining a pre-Angelic Visitation Moist von Lipwig coming to Camorr and effortlessly robbing them blind. (He's probably less technically skilled as a grifter than they are, but he's way, way better at actually doing it as a job.)
K was a tie between Quicksilver and Maia, also the two longest on the list! and the thought of never having to read EITHER of them just felt like a massive relief, so I think they will both go. Plus it's like a 3x bonus on freed-up shelf space for each one!
I did read Truckers right before I left, which it turned out I had read before, just twenty-five years ago. So review of that coming up.
Also, the book-on-cd that Mom and I agreed on to listen to while driving was The Tale of Castle Cottage, which was the last of a series of cozy/historical mysteries about TOTALLY NOT RPF FIC OR A FANTASY NOVEL Beatrix Potter and a bunch of helpful woodland creatures. It was okay, and certainly fine to doze off to in the car. But then Beatrix kept having to pause the detecting so that she could go draw yet more bunny illustrations for her editor, and I realized that in the general outline of their lives, she and Ursula Vernon had a lot in common (started in self/small press publishing, got a contract for endless illustrated kids' books about small animals, had a romantic disappointment in their 20s that they subordinated into hardcore gardening, followed by a ridic happy marriage w/ no kids in her 30s, investing all the book money in land conservation.)
So then I started imagining a hundred years from now when some nice lady authoress writes a series of cozy novels about Ursula solving gentle mysteries with the help of friendly woodland creatures (all named Bob, obviously), using KUEC as her main biographical source, the first one to be titled The Tale of Dogskull Patch. And then I felt good about the future for once. :P
So on that note, this week's theme is TALKING ANIMALS!
How FMK works, short version: I am trying to clear out my unreads. So there is a poll, in which you get to pick F, M, or K. F means I should spend a night of wild passion with the book ASAP, and then decide whether to keep it or not. M means I should continue to commit to a long-term relationship of sharing my bedroom with it. K means it should go away immediately. Anyone can vote, you don't have to actually know anything about the books.
I pick a winner on Friday night (although won't actually close the poll, people can still vote,) and report results/ post the new poll on the following Tuesday, and write a response to the F winner sometime in the next week.
Link to long version of explanation (on first poll)
I didn't finish The Lies of Locke Lamora, which was the LONG BOOK F winner. I got about 1/3 of the way in. So far it's not gripping me, but I've found this year that the long tomes usually don't until I'm over halfway, even if I end up liking them a lot, so I guess we'll see. So far I'm mainly sticking with it so that I can continue imagining a pre-Angelic Visitation Moist von Lipwig coming to Camorr and effortlessly robbing them blind. (He's probably less technically skilled as a grifter than they are, but he's way, way better at actually doing it as a job.)
K was a tie between Quicksilver and Maia, also the two longest on the list! and the thought of never having to read EITHER of them just felt like a massive relief, so I think they will both go. Plus it's like a 3x bonus on freed-up shelf space for each one!
I did read Truckers right before I left, which it turned out I had read before, just twenty-five years ago. So review of that coming up.
Also, the book-on-cd that Mom and I agreed on to listen to while driving was The Tale of Castle Cottage, which was the last of a series of cozy/historical mysteries about TOTALLY NOT RPF FIC OR A FANTASY NOVEL Beatrix Potter and a bunch of helpful woodland creatures. It was okay, and certainly fine to doze off to in the car. But then Beatrix kept having to pause the detecting so that she could go draw yet more bunny illustrations for her editor, and I realized that in the general outline of their lives, she and Ursula Vernon had a lot in common (started in self/small press publishing, got a contract for endless illustrated kids' books about small animals, had a romantic disappointment in their 20s that they subordinated into hardcore gardening, followed by a ridic happy marriage w/ no kids in her 30s, investing all the book money in land conservation.)
So then I started imagining a hundred years from now when some nice lady authoress writes a series of cozy novels about Ursula solving gentle mysteries with the help of friendly woodland creatures (all named Bob, obviously), using KUEC as her main biographical source, the first one to be titled The Tale of Dogskull Patch. And then I felt good about the future for once. :P
So on that note, this week's theme is TALKING ANIMALS!
How FMK works, short version: I am trying to clear out my unreads. So there is a poll, in which you get to pick F, M, or K. F means I should spend a night of wild passion with the book ASAP, and then decide whether to keep it or not. M means I should continue to commit to a long-term relationship of sharing my bedroom with it. K means it should go away immediately. Anyone can vote, you don't have to actually know anything about the books.
I pick a winner on Friday night (although won't actually close the poll, people can still vote,) and report results/ post the new poll on the following Tuesday, and write a response to the F winner sometime in the next week.
Link to long version of explanation (on first poll)
Poll #18872 FMK #24: Talking Animals
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 34
Shardik by Richard Adams, 564 pages (1974)
Rancher Ferrets on the Range by Richard Bach (2003)
Freddy And The Baseball Team From Mars by Walter Brooks, (1955)
Mother West Wind's Children by Thornton Burgess (1911)
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1912)
Summer's Perfume by Joseph Cahill (1993)
The Badgers of Summercombe by Ewan Clarkson (1977)
Jennifer Murdley's Toad by Bruce Coville (1993)
The Right to Arm Bears by Gordon R. Dickson (2000)
Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara by James Gurney (2007)
The Postman Always Brings Mice by Holm & Hamel (2004)
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (1894)
Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary Wolf (1984)
no subject
But, I mean, it's Burroughs, so yeah, RACIST?
I do still have a fondness for Barsoom, though, and I feel like if I want to talk about Burroughs I should have read Tarzan at least once. Plus, my great-grandma, grandma, and mom were all Tarzan fans, so there's that.
no subject
And I do remember having fun with it in parts; it's a quick read and it's full of ACTION and ADVENTURE and NONSENSE. And you already know what to expect with Burroughs. I might have had milder reaction except that it was my first encounter with him, and I went in expecting something different than what I got based on various Tarzan adaptations I'd encountered.
no subject