Those of you who are close enough (physically) to see me during the summer, or indeed have seen me wedging a fluff book into intensive reading time at college know that I like to read, but I don’t know if you understand a fundamental truth about me: I do nothing during the summer but read.
Now this summer ( I keep wanting to write semester) has to be different. I have an internship. I will probably also be working a little, and I need to crank out an Honors Project so that the enterprise won’t kill me next semester.
But that doesn’t change the fundamental truth that during the summer I tend to curl up on a couch, or lay out in the sun, or perhaps wedge myself under a lamp and go into a kind of mental hibernation. For me, this serves as a brain enema form the school year, a refresh of ideas to write about (I steal ideas form other authors, but hopefully you would have to be VERY close to see the slight of hand), and a study of writing. I personally think that you can see the differences in WRITING quality and style (as oppossed to IDEA quality) the best when reading things like fluff fantasy, where 50-80% of the plots are the same.
Anyway, all of that said, here is an abridged list of what I’ve read so far this break (abridged because The Reluctant Swordsman (author temporarily forgotten) I read earlier, but I’m using to artificially pad my count, because I KINDA finished it before after finals, and that’s the break, isn’t it?) and an Ouran High School Host Club manga, which I guess I’ve mentioned now. Hmmm, well it was fun. And I don’t remember the author, but I do love Host Club, both manga and anime. Light and fluffy. Oseike and I once decided, in comparing literature to food, that Ouran is gummy bunnies in chocolate sauce. UNdeniably sweet but . . . weird. Okay, now for the real list.
Beauty Robin McKinley. Sweet, solid, good light reading, but I’m starting to see her style in spite of the plot (which isn’t great) and caring (which is not good at all). Her heroins are all the same. Which usually is fin with me, but this time I cared.
Nightwatch Sergei Lukyanenko. Russian, dark, creepy, funny. About the battle between Good and Evil, with new questions about the grey in the middle. If you want to be brainlessly happy, not the book for you. I didn’t quite get the end, but it is a translations, so I that’s what happened with my comprehension. One fascinating passage explaining “real Russian drunkeness” that I feel also explains all the Russian novels and short stories I have ever read.
Reserved for the Cat and Sanctuary Mercedes Lackey. The first stands alone (and actually stands, come to think of it) but uses a ton of props (aka borderline ridiculous plot devices). Things the main characters do are thoroughly explained and rarely go wrong, and the the Ultimate Evil is very evil and also thoroughly explained. All of it could have been covered faster, and I wouldn’t have missed it at all. I had minimal connection to the characters, just a mild happiness that the love interest (there is always a love interest) actually got decently established. Sanctuary, on the other hand, I read only because it was the third in “The Dragon Jouster” series, I was mildly interested in the plot, and it was right there at the library. If you read any book, read Joust, which starts the series, is set in a pseudo-Egyptian world and is pretty cool. After that the Big Bad Guys appear, MC saves the day, and I get bored (an if I spoiled any of the plot of the trilogy for you, you haven’t read enough Mercedes Lackey books).
His Majesty’s Dragon and Throne of Jade Naomi Novik. These were SWEET, the first two books in the Temeraire Series. I LOVED the first one so much, it was an amazing answer to the question “What if dragons had existed during the Napoleonic Wars?’ AMAZING. And a very nice, realitively new and not crappy dragonrider story. I think eeryone should read the first book. The second was a bit slower so I’m not going on to the third IMMEDIATELY, but it was still solid. I feel like I’m researching what other people have done in the dragonriding genre os that I can so something very different for Kev and Peony. Now I just need to go and read Eragon. *peers warily at the book* But I’m getting that from the library for sure. I almost bought it for 50 cents, and then remembered what some good friends have said about it, and decided it wasn’t worth it.
Jhegaala Steven Brust. Somethingth book in the Vlad Taltos series, you should definitely read the first one, it’s amazing. This installment, however, was not my favorite. It made me kind of tiredly sad, I won’t tell you why because that would be spoilers. Just…not what I’m looking for, and now I don’t know if I want to read another book, write about Kev and Peony or just go to sleep. There were some witty comments, but also a bit slow.
So there you are, summer reading so far. I may, or may not continue to update. The internet drought that affects Oseike afflicts me also, so . . . you never know. I’m hoping that I DO productive things this summer, but I also have this niggling feeling that I want to beat last summer’s record* (the two desire are not really compatible. If I start reading more impressive, thought provoking books, there is no way I can plow through them as fast).
Well, until next time. And I do like reading suggestions, just bear in mind that I don’t act on them sometimes for years at a time. *grin* No, seriously my roommate has been recommending the Temeraire books since several semesters ago, and I only now finally read them. And they were good. And I knew they probably would be. But, alas.
Anyway, I’m off. I think that tonight I should write, or watch a movie. Something other than books. *grin*
*Last summer’s record was 59. And I almost hit 60, too. Darned Night Sins stalled me out for a while and then Lady Chatterly’s Lover I simply could not finish in time and pact for school too.
