Wednesday Reading Meme
Mar. 30th, 2016 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, which I - enjoyed doesn’t seem like quite the right word; but it’s different than anything else I’ve ever read, with a very distinct style (Chandler looooves his metaphors), and I want to read more of it.
I’m not sure I exactly like the way he writes women, but his women characters are more vibrant than most of the men. I kept getting his men characters confused. Which one is this? The police officer or the dirty crook? Although possibly that confusion is part of Chandler’s point.
What I’m Reading Now
I’m almost done with Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy and the Great World, the tale of Betsy’s months traveling around Europe in early 1914. Except for a few dramatically ironic comments about how there will never be another war in Europe - oh Betsy! - there’s almost no attention paid to the fact that World War I is going to start happening any moment now: it’s all about Betsy’s wonderful adventures making friends with her fellow pensioners in Munich, and having a brief beautiful almost love affair in Venice, and visiting the town of Sonneberg to see the place where so many dolls are made.
And actually, that makes the impending war more poignant, because I can absolutely see why Betsy thinks there will never be another European war. The societies she’s visiting seem so stable and cosmopolitan - oh, not without their problems of course (Betsy notes the prevalence of child labor), but not teetering on the brink of disaster. Of course she and her Bavarian friend Tilda feel perfectly comfortable making plans to meet up again in 1917. Why should they believe that this peaceful, stable world is about to come crashing down?
I’m also reading Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire, on the recommendation of a friend. I need to stop taking recommendations from this particular friend, because we clearly have very different tastes in books; none of the others she’s recommended to me have clicked either. And she only gave Code Name Verity three out of five stars. Three out of five! How is that even possible?
But because it is a recommendation, I probably will finish this one even though it hasn’t clicked for me so far.
What I Plan to Read Next
It’s almost April! Which means it’s time for the next challenge in the 2016 Reading Challenge: “a book you previously abandoned.”
I’m spoiled for choice on this one, but I think I’ll probably go with Career of Evil. Although I’m not sure I should count it, given that I’m planning to skip most of the serial killer POV? Maybe I should just make this the month of reading Books I Have Previously Abandoned. I could read Elizabeth Wein’s Black Dove, White Raven too.
And of course I’ll be moving on to the final Betsy-Tacy book: Betsy’s Wedding. It will be the end of an era! (Only not really, because Maud Hart Lovelace wrote three other books set in Deep Valley, so of course I must read those too…)
Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, which I - enjoyed doesn’t seem like quite the right word; but it’s different than anything else I’ve ever read, with a very distinct style (Chandler looooves his metaphors), and I want to read more of it.
I’m not sure I exactly like the way he writes women, but his women characters are more vibrant than most of the men. I kept getting his men characters confused. Which one is this? The police officer or the dirty crook? Although possibly that confusion is part of Chandler’s point.
What I’m Reading Now
I’m almost done with Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy and the Great World, the tale of Betsy’s months traveling around Europe in early 1914. Except for a few dramatically ironic comments about how there will never be another war in Europe - oh Betsy! - there’s almost no attention paid to the fact that World War I is going to start happening any moment now: it’s all about Betsy’s wonderful adventures making friends with her fellow pensioners in Munich, and having a brief beautiful almost love affair in Venice, and visiting the town of Sonneberg to see the place where so many dolls are made.
And actually, that makes the impending war more poignant, because I can absolutely see why Betsy thinks there will never be another European war. The societies she’s visiting seem so stable and cosmopolitan - oh, not without their problems of course (Betsy notes the prevalence of child labor), but not teetering on the brink of disaster. Of course she and her Bavarian friend Tilda feel perfectly comfortable making plans to meet up again in 1917. Why should they believe that this peaceful, stable world is about to come crashing down?
I’m also reading Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire, on the recommendation of a friend. I need to stop taking recommendations from this particular friend, because we clearly have very different tastes in books; none of the others she’s recommended to me have clicked either. And she only gave Code Name Verity three out of five stars. Three out of five! How is that even possible?
But because it is a recommendation, I probably will finish this one even though it hasn’t clicked for me so far.
What I Plan to Read Next
It’s almost April! Which means it’s time for the next challenge in the 2016 Reading Challenge: “a book you previously abandoned.”
I’m spoiled for choice on this one, but I think I’ll probably go with Career of Evil. Although I’m not sure I should count it, given that I’m planning to skip most of the serial killer POV? Maybe I should just make this the month of reading Books I Have Previously Abandoned. I could read Elizabeth Wein’s Black Dove, White Raven too.
And of course I’ll be moving on to the final Betsy-Tacy book: Betsy’s Wedding. It will be the end of an era! (Only not really, because Maud Hart Lovelace wrote three other books set in Deep Valley, so of course I must read those too…)
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no subject
Date: 2016-03-31 06:12 pm (UTC)Oh, Betsy! I'm sorry about 1917, Betsy. :(
What month does she leave Europe? I should really re-read those books.
ETA: I was just thinking about Career of Evil last night. I felt bad for JKR because apparently she put so much effort into those serial-killer POVs that she gave herself nightmares, but . . . I'm still in favor of skipping them.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-31 11:56 pm (UTC)Aw, JKR. That might almost make me feel bad about skipping the serial killer POV chapters as I do it. Or maybe not.