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Mar. 12th, 2003 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckThe cold has backed off a bit. Sadly, I don't think it'll be totally gone by the time we fly to Las Vegas on Friday. I was hoping...
Also, unfortunately, our tickets have not yet reached the travel agent, so it's looking very much like we're going to have to pick up the tickets and such at the airport. Given that the flight leaves at 7am, that means we'll be getting up even earlier than we'd originally planned. I suspect that we're also going to need some extra time for security to poke at Scott's CPAP. It's such a nice mysterious plastic and metal box.
Last night, we went to the public library to look for some paperbacks that I could take on the trip. We're going to have at least 7 hours on the plane, and I'm not sure how much tramping around I'm going to be up to once we arrive. I don't plan to haul the laptop along this time out (Surely I can get along without it for three days?), so I want to pick up some paper. Maybe I'll write a letter or two...
None of the books I found really appeal to me strongly. This doesn't surprise me much because our library's paperback selection isn't very large and doesn't tend to get updated often except in very specific areas (there're an awful lot of Star Trek/Star Wars books). As I wandered through, I kept thinking that it was a pity that I don't much care for the more prolific authors, but I had to admit that, even if I did, all that would likely mean was that I'd be bypassing those books because I'd already read them as opposed to because I had no interest. I thought about trying some classics but couldn't get motivated in that direction. Part of that was lack of selection, sadly, but part of it was also the realization that I'd probably just get frustrated. I saw stuff by various Brontes, some Melville, London, that sort of thing. If there'd been some Twain or Kipling that I hadn't already read, I'd have grabbed it.
I did get two hardcovers, both from the new book section. I read a bit of one of them, Robert Newcomb's (I think that's his name. The book's in the bedroom, and I'm too lazy to go check) The Fifth Sorceress, last night. I don't think I'll be going on with it because it's simply not hitting me right. It's not badly written, and the characters have some appeal, but... I very much wanted it to go in a different direction than the one I knew it was going to take (I even looked at the end to see if I was right. I was). I also felt that the gender split in the history of the magic system wasn't justified, plot necessary but not believably structured.
Also, unfortunately, our tickets have not yet reached the travel agent, so it's looking very much like we're going to have to pick up the tickets and such at the airport. Given that the flight leaves at 7am, that means we'll be getting up even earlier than we'd originally planned. I suspect that we're also going to need some extra time for security to poke at Scott's CPAP. It's such a nice mysterious plastic and metal box.
Last night, we went to the public library to look for some paperbacks that I could take on the trip. We're going to have at least 7 hours on the plane, and I'm not sure how much tramping around I'm going to be up to once we arrive. I don't plan to haul the laptop along this time out (Surely I can get along without it for three days?), so I want to pick up some paper. Maybe I'll write a letter or two...
None of the books I found really appeal to me strongly. This doesn't surprise me much because our library's paperback selection isn't very large and doesn't tend to get updated often except in very specific areas (there're an awful lot of Star Trek/Star Wars books). As I wandered through, I kept thinking that it was a pity that I don't much care for the more prolific authors, but I had to admit that, even if I did, all that would likely mean was that I'd be bypassing those books because I'd already read them as opposed to because I had no interest. I thought about trying some classics but couldn't get motivated in that direction. Part of that was lack of selection, sadly, but part of it was also the realization that I'd probably just get frustrated. I saw stuff by various Brontes, some Melville, London, that sort of thing. If there'd been some Twain or Kipling that I hadn't already read, I'd have grabbed it.
I did get two hardcovers, both from the new book section. I read a bit of one of them, Robert Newcomb's (I think that's his name. The book's in the bedroom, and I'm too lazy to go check) The Fifth Sorceress, last night. I don't think I'll be going on with it because it's simply not hitting me right. It's not badly written, and the characters have some appeal, but... I very much wanted it to go in a different direction than the one I knew it was going to take (I even looked at the end to see if I was right. I was). I also felt that the gender split in the history of the magic system wasn't justified, plot necessary but not believably structured.
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no subject
Date: 2003-03-12 06:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-12 09:57 am (UTC)Though the Harry Dresden books would be good trip fodder... I'd have grabbed them if I'd seen them at the library. (I find it really sad sometimes when I realize that the UGL has a better selection of light reading paperbacks, at least from my point of view, than the public library does, even though the UGL has a much smaller collection of such things.)
That's a strange coincidence.
Date: 2003-03-12 09:24 am (UTC)Never read anything by him myself, but you might not be alone in feeling that there's something wrong about his writing.
Re: That's a strange coincidence.
Date: 2003-03-12 09:53 am (UTC)Technically speaking, at least in terms of grammar, descriptive detail and the like, Newcomb writes pretty well. What he seems, in my opinion, to have no skill at is directing the reader's sympathies and interests where he wants them to go. He also seems to make plot and character decisions based on what he needs for the story to flow easily rather than on what actually makes sense; to compound that problem, he then doesn't try to come up with a way to integrate those decisions with each other and with the existing material. I saw bits and pieces that offered the potential for a good story if he weren't writing to formula.
At least I didn't spend money on it.
no subject
Date: 2003-03-13 03:17 pm (UTC)And it doesn't help that we have so few authors in common (except, of course, for Pinkwater).