Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

I’m barreling along with the 1990s portion of the Newbery Honor project, and this week I read one I really liked! Russell Freedman’s The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane does what it says on the tin in an engaging, informative style. The descriptions of the Wright brothers’ autumns on Kittyhawk as they tested their airplane designs particularly appealed to me - not the driving winds and the infinite sand, but the long happy days utterly focused on their absorbing airplane invention hobby.

Walter Dean Myers’ Somewhere in the Darkness I didn’t find as appealing (Myers’ characters always seem strangely affectless to me), but at least it was short.

After my vaccination I was feeling kind of out of it and therefore in need of something light, so I read the next Mrs. Pollifax book, Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief. This is in fact so light that it’s already slipping out of my head, but it was exactly the level of engagement that I needed at the time.

What I’m Reading Now

Still in the thick of Murderbot! I finished Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy before post-vaccination lethargy made me set Network Effect aside briefly... and then I realized that Kikuko Tsumura’s There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job is due in three days, so I'd better read it now if I want to read it. But I WILL return to Murderbot, and am saving my thoughts for a Murderbot post.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job even more than I expected. It’s about a woman who keeps taking different jobs looking for something that is easy, only to accidentally grow deeply invested in each one. The second section (the book has five sections, one per job) has a slight whiff of the supernatural about it, which I was not expecting and found an immensely enjoyable surprise.

What I Plan to Read Next

Amor Towles’ Rules of Civility!

Comments

[oracne]

Mrs. Pollifax! Murderbot! ...now I want a crossover.

[osprey_archer]

Carstairs sends Mrs. Pollifax to the Corporate Rim for a simple courier assignment, but when everything goes pear-shaped, a certain SecUnit appears at the psychological moment and saves Mrs. Pollifax from almost certain death!

Murderbot is of course willing to die for (or at least undergo grievous bodily harm) for just about anyone at the drop of a hat, but swiftly finds itself especially willing to die for Mrs. Pollifax.

[oracne]

Mrs. Pollifax of COURSE makes friend with a ragtag group of humans in need of protection as well, are very helpful in solving the mystery.

[osprey_archer]

Obviously! And she somehow facilitates at least one romance, because of course she does.

[oracne]

But not with Murderbot, lol. Murderbot is bemused and realizes romance is much less annoying on its shows.

[osprey_archer]

Alternatively, Murderbot is like "In my shows it always takes about ten seasons of will-they-won't-they before the humans finally stop taking up screen time with their boring romance, but in real life it took them like two weeks to get together? Still boring but over much more quickly!"

[oracne]

LOLYES. I think Murderbot would be exasperated by how Mrs. Pollifax always takes such terrible risks, and thinks her karate and ability to make friends is sufficient protection, so Murderbot keeps making sure it is always keeping a drone camera on her, ready to rush to her aid.

[osprey_archer]

If SecUnits could have heart attacks, Murderbot would probably have at least one a day at the things Mrs. Pollifax gets up to. Mrs. Pollifax, no! Now is not the time to try to befriend... IDK, another SecUnit, that sounds like the kind of shenanigan Mrs. Pollifax would get up to.

[oracne]

Or a CombatBot.

[osprey_archer]

That seems like a tall order for even Mrs. Pollifax... but if anyone could do it, it would be Mrs. Pollifax.

Murderbot of course is APPALLED.

[oracne]

CombatBot wants to make friends with Murderbot. It will end up as GardenBot at Mrs. Pollifax's place.

[osprey_archer]

Murderbot is appalled that CombatBot wants to be Mrs. Pollifax's pet bot and maintains that this means they can never be friends, on top of the whole "being a CombatBot" thing. But of course Murderbot and CombatBot have to keep in touch for their shared goal of making sure no one harms a hair on Mrs. Pollifax's head ever again, and Murderbot would die for either of them at the drop of a hat, although it would rather die than admit it.

Somehow despite her two overprotective bot friends, Mrs. Pollifax still manages to get into trouble on the regular.

[oracne]

Further annoying Murderbot, ART learns of GardenBot and invites it and Mrs. Pollifax on a research journey to a planet overflowing with dangerous flora.

[osprey_archer]

ART strenuously denies that this is a cunning plan to force Murderbot to join the research party, but Murderbot knows better. Obviously GardenBot and Mrs. Pollifax wouldn't stand a chance without Murderbot along to protect them!

[oracne]

On the trip, MurderBot discovers the allure of Competitive Landscaping shows.

[osprey_archer]

GardenBot lures it in by pretending to be unwilling to share its Competitive Landscaping media.

[oracne]

LOLYES. ART wants to apply to compete with GardenBot.

[kore]

This entire comment thread is GOLD.

[asakiyume]

It’s about a woman who keeps taking different jobs looking for something that is easy, only to accidentally grow deeply invested in each one.

Yeah; I feel like those jobs can't exist. "Easy" can me uncomplicated and undemanding--but those jobs would be hideously boring ... and frankly, "uncomplicated" can be hard in other ways (requiring physical strength, or repetitive movements, or a lot of time on your feet or, conversely, sitting at a screen). Or "easy" can mean, "without a lot of decisionmaking stress involved," but those can be excruciating because then you're at the mercy of other people's bad decisions. And if a job has any degree of interest to it, you're going to engage with it, and then you're going to care about seeing it done well, and you're maybe going to think of better ways to do things, etc. etc. And if a job doesn't engage you, then even if it takes absolutely no effort at all, those are hours of your life you're letting slip away for something that doesn't engage you...

[osprey_archer]

I just read this article in the Atlantic, There's No Such Thing as a Low Skill Worker, which is coming at this from a slightly different angle but still germane. The author's point is that there's no real distinction between high-skilled and low-skilled workers, just between skills our society considers worthy of reward (coding, investment banking) and skills it does not (eldercare, childcare, food prep, etc. etc...)

[asakiyume]

Yes, I was thinking about that article too. I completely agree with the thesis. Working a job like Dunkin Donuts clearly requires *lots* of skills and is quite stressful, and doing it well takes a lot of work.