Book Logging
Dec. 10th, 2014 10:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckBinky the Space Cat - This is another GoodReads recommendation. I think I'm not sufficiently interested in cats to really get into this one. It was a really easy read. I think it took me about five minutes. I was mildly amused by the way Binky saw the world. It seemed very cat-like.
Black Sun 1 - GoodReads recommended this. I was dubious because there are a lot more ways for porn to go wrong for me than there are for it to go right. The blurb made me want to write the story as I would, but, given yaoi conventions, I was pretty sure that the book wouldn't go in the directions I would take it. I'm not a romantic, particularly about stories like this one. At any rate, I was right to be dubious. The story made little sense. There were characters who seemed to come out of nowhere who needed backstory and coherent motivation. The two main characters were pretty much ciphers. The whole thing either needed more story or more sex. Oh, and the whole thing was racially problematic, too, at least for something published in the US (I have no idea how it reads in Japanese). Given the premise, I don't see how it could be otherwise.
Cairo - I set this one aside for a while and only got back to it after considerable time had passed. I don't know how I would have felt about it if I'd read it straight through. As it was, I felt like certain character developments and events weren't really earned. I didn't dislike the story, and the characters felt distinct. I'm still kind of tepid on the whole thing.
Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom - I don't think I'll go on with this series. It was a GoodReads recommendation. It's too young and simplistic for me. I enjoyed the sequences in Frankie's imagination, but there weren't enough of them to carry the book for me.
Hildafolk - I don't remember where I saw this recommended. It might have been GoodReads, but i have a vague memory of reading a review of some sort. I don't know. At any rate, this is a very short graphic novel about a girl who lives in the mountains and a couple of adventures she has. It was cute.
The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media - This is a graphic novel talking about the history of information technology (back to the invention of writing at some points) and the role of journalists throughout history. It talks, too, about how our current technology is making it easier both to selectively reinforce strongly held opinions and to get information about other views on the subject. I found the book interesting.
Korgi 3 - This volume fills in some history for the setting, an origin story of sorts for the community at the center of the story. It also reveals (and gives history for) a big villain. I hope to see more of this.
Lackey, Mercedes. Closer to Home - This one didn't read as easily for me as most Valdemar books do because I had little sympathy for one of the point of view characters. She wasn't difficult to believe in; I just wanted to smack some sense into her and wasn't interested in spending time with her. I finished anyway because I was determined, but I really wasn't interested in how the main plot would come out.
Munroe, Randall. What If? - The subtitle to this is 'serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions,' and that sums it up pretty well. What's not clear from the title is that the book is very, very funny. It's an easy read, and I recommend it highly. (If you want to sample some of what's in the book, you can try the blog of the same name. Not all of what's in the book has appeared in the blog, and the book is far from covering everything in the blog.) I recommend this highly and will probably buy the book if nobody gives it to Scott for Christmas.
Owly: Tiny Tales - I don't have much to say about this. It was cute and fast to get through. Owly still charms me.
Started but not finished:
Black Sun 2 - I'm not even sure why I bought this given that v.1 didn't exactly work for me. I guess I was curious as to whether the plot would go anywhere. I don't buy the happy ending, but I knew from the moment I start v.1 that there would be a happy ending (and that it likely wouldn't work for me). Basically, I didn't buy the seme really being a good guy.
Crimson Spell 1 - I may actually finish this eventually because it's manga and thus a very fast read. I just don't really feel like finishing it now (or any time soon). This is the first in a yaoi series about a prince who is cursed to turn into a demon at night and the mage who is traveling with him, trying to find a way to break the curse. The sex is between the demon and the mage. The prince doesn't know it's going on.
Nix, Garth. Clariel - Somehow I didn't feel much sympathy for the title character. I'm not sure why. There was nothing about her that ought to have made me hesitate. Her desires and ambitions were quite reasonable, and I'd have expected that to make me like her.
Ruse: The Victorian Guide to Murder - This just wasn't my sort of thing. I didn't have any sympathy for any of the characters, and I wasn't interested in what they were doing.
Magazines read:
Archaeology January/February 2015
Discover December 2014
Scientific American July 2014
Scientific American Mind May/June 2014
Scientific American Mind July/August 2014
Scientific American Mind September/October 2014
Black Sun 1 - GoodReads recommended this. I was dubious because there are a lot more ways for porn to go wrong for me than there are for it to go right. The blurb made me want to write the story as I would, but, given yaoi conventions, I was pretty sure that the book wouldn't go in the directions I would take it. I'm not a romantic, particularly about stories like this one. At any rate, I was right to be dubious. The story made little sense. There were characters who seemed to come out of nowhere who needed backstory and coherent motivation. The two main characters were pretty much ciphers. The whole thing either needed more story or more sex. Oh, and the whole thing was racially problematic, too, at least for something published in the US (I have no idea how it reads in Japanese). Given the premise, I don't see how it could be otherwise.
Cairo - I set this one aside for a while and only got back to it after considerable time had passed. I don't know how I would have felt about it if I'd read it straight through. As it was, I felt like certain character developments and events weren't really earned. I didn't dislike the story, and the characters felt distinct. I'm still kind of tepid on the whole thing.
Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom - I don't think I'll go on with this series. It was a GoodReads recommendation. It's too young and simplistic for me. I enjoyed the sequences in Frankie's imagination, but there weren't enough of them to carry the book for me.
Hildafolk - I don't remember where I saw this recommended. It might have been GoodReads, but i have a vague memory of reading a review of some sort. I don't know. At any rate, this is a very short graphic novel about a girl who lives in the mountains and a couple of adventures she has. It was cute.
The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media - This is a graphic novel talking about the history of information technology (back to the invention of writing at some points) and the role of journalists throughout history. It talks, too, about how our current technology is making it easier both to selectively reinforce strongly held opinions and to get information about other views on the subject. I found the book interesting.
Korgi 3 - This volume fills in some history for the setting, an origin story of sorts for the community at the center of the story. It also reveals (and gives history for) a big villain. I hope to see more of this.
Lackey, Mercedes. Closer to Home - This one didn't read as easily for me as most Valdemar books do because I had little sympathy for one of the point of view characters. She wasn't difficult to believe in; I just wanted to smack some sense into her and wasn't interested in spending time with her. I finished anyway because I was determined, but I really wasn't interested in how the main plot would come out.
Munroe, Randall. What If? - The subtitle to this is 'serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions,' and that sums it up pretty well. What's not clear from the title is that the book is very, very funny. It's an easy read, and I recommend it highly. (If you want to sample some of what's in the book, you can try the blog of the same name. Not all of what's in the book has appeared in the blog, and the book is far from covering everything in the blog.) I recommend this highly and will probably buy the book if nobody gives it to Scott for Christmas.
Owly: Tiny Tales - I don't have much to say about this. It was cute and fast to get through. Owly still charms me.
Started but not finished:
Black Sun 2 - I'm not even sure why I bought this given that v.1 didn't exactly work for me. I guess I was curious as to whether the plot would go anywhere. I don't buy the happy ending, but I knew from the moment I start v.1 that there would be a happy ending (and that it likely wouldn't work for me). Basically, I didn't buy the seme really being a good guy.
Crimson Spell 1 - I may actually finish this eventually because it's manga and thus a very fast read. I just don't really feel like finishing it now (or any time soon). This is the first in a yaoi series about a prince who is cursed to turn into a demon at night and the mage who is traveling with him, trying to find a way to break the curse. The sex is between the demon and the mage. The prince doesn't know it's going on.
Nix, Garth. Clariel - Somehow I didn't feel much sympathy for the title character. I'm not sure why. There was nothing about her that ought to have made me hesitate. Her desires and ambitions were quite reasonable, and I'd have expected that to make me like her.
Ruse: The Victorian Guide to Murder - This just wasn't my sort of thing. I didn't have any sympathy for any of the characters, and I wasn't interested in what they were doing.
Magazines read:
Archaeology January/February 2015
Discover December 2014
Scientific American July 2014
Scientific American Mind May/June 2014
Scientific American Mind July/August 2014
Scientific American Mind September/October 2014
