So now I’m in the 2nd Season of Babylon 5 and remembering what passed for subtlety in the 90’s. Oh, we were so young!
And I’m figuring that I might actually make it to a real, live movie theater this week. What is vacation for?
So… what are you reading and/or watching?
Jaybird
Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com
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I just read Brandon Sanderson’s latest book Steelheart, which I greatly enjoyed.
I also just watched what will almost certainly be the final episode of The Almighty Johnsons. I understand SyFy has picked up the show, once it starts screening in the US, i recommend you watch it.Report
Glad to hear that about Steelheart. It’s on my audible queue.Report
Aaron David recommended Gene Wolfe The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories around here recently. I’ve only read the title story (heh) but LOVED it. About midway into the second story.Report
Excellent collection, I am glad you are enjoying it.Report
I picked up &Sons by David Gilbert from the library yesterday.
Also The Violinist’s Thumb by Sam KeenReport
I’m about 20 pages into the first Sanderson-written Wheel of Time book. I’m excited to finally be getting into a part of the story that I haven’t read 2-3 times. Sanderson’s first 20-ish pages seem to have a darker tone than Jordan established in the previous novels.Report
watched a bunch of Fraggle Rock. about to start Luther. reading a book about zine cataloging at the salt lake city public library. before that i read a book called the winter garden for book club, and liked it more than i expected to. new zealand stuff: finished guardian of the dead by karen healey, the short story anthology some other country, and an art book by robyn kahukiwa called wahine toa. about to read whale rider (witi ihimaera) and another karen healey book, shattered.
@james-k , if you have suggestions for other NZ authors I might like (particularly fantasists), I would be much obliged.Report
As it happens I don’t actually read any NZ authors.Report
Heh. I will check back for your recommendations on other things once I’m off my tear then :D.Report
Still in an enjoyable struggle with Too Far Afield, which at its length and difficulty, makes for excellent bus reading.
I’m thinking that, based on all the suggestions from the post the other day, along with some from the last several months, I’m going to take a month or 6 weeks to do some serious science fiction reading. Reading and discussing Blindsight made me realize just how, um… alien it is to me, and that left me moderately uncomfortable for some reason. So, now I just have to decide what to read first.Report
Oh, and Netflix just notified me that Season 2 of Continuum is streaming.Report
I am still watching Firefly. I am splitting time between that and getting caught up on Homeland (I’m mid-way through the first season.
I’m running out of time to use my Audible credits, so I am listening to Brad Thor’s first novel to find out if I want to use any more credits on him.Report
Well, this will sound a bit strange, but I’m reading a book – Carpe Jugulum – ostensibly written by Terry Pratchett which I can’t quite convince myself to believe he actually wrote. It has no wit, no caprice, no invigorish, no originality, no subtlety or grace, no invitation to the reader. On the other hand, it doesemploy hackneyed literary tricks and cues, the use of authorial asides to direct plot lines, overt psychological pointers to alert the reader about important plot points!, and overall blandness.
I really hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I just can’t convince myself that this book was written by Terry himself. Any one else feel the same way?Report
I just got to that one myself. It was pretty disappointing, as was The Last Continent, so I’m not eager to press on. In addition to the complaints you make, the vampires seemed like a rehash of the elves from Lords and Ladies, which is my other least favorite Witches book.Report
Yeah, it’s terrible! Not only terrible, but terrible in a way that none of the previous books have been, what with the authorial laziness and lack of wit. The weird thing is that Thief of Time is one of my favorite books and Night Watch is pretty good as well, and those were published only a couplefew years later..
The difference in writing style between CJ and the previous books is so radical it makes me wonder if that book wasn’t ghost written. How else to explain it?Report
I dunno, it feels like Pratchett to me, just bad Pratchett. It has the usual complement of in-jokes and obscure references.
Another complaint: I also don’t understand why it introduces the Nac Mac Feegle and then does nothing with them when he was able to make them so funny in the Tiffany Aching books. (“We gaugh a cheap lawyerrr and we’re naugh afrrraid t’ use ‘im!”) Maybe he was pressed for time and/or money and turned in a first, unpolished draft.Report
I suspect the issue with Carpe Jugulum is the same as The Last Continent, his other not-very-good book: He was trying to stretch his settings too far. You’ll note in both case the books was the last published from that sub-setting (barring YA novels, which change up the characters).
I think he pushed the characters too far, either through miscalculation or by bowing to pressure.Report
Last week I finished War and Peace. Yay! I passed it along to a friend who is an avid reader.
After such a dense and mentally engaging book, I went for something lighter, and read Pratchett’s “The Light Fantastic,” and now I am starting book 4 of “The Wheel of Time.”
I started watching The Legend of Korra. I heard it was not very good, but I like it. I am not sure if people had a problem with the change on tone, or what. I also started watching Attack on Titan, an anime where people live in a giant walled city to protect themselves from mindless giants who eat people for fun. I also have a couple episodes left of Freaks and Geeks, and holy crap, Lieutenant Commander Ivanova is Bill’s mom!
Breaking Bad is done. The last episode was great. I am not sure they could have come up with a better ending. At the same time, it was something of a let down. There was high tension in the preceding episodes, but not so much in this one, since there were certain things that were expected about the end. There is no “how is Walt going to get out of this?”Report
Goddammit, did you not see what I wrote directly below this comment a mere five hours after you posted this? Pull it together, son.Report
Reading The Pale King, finally, as a present to myself for adequacy above and beyond the call of doody.
Watching, in an attempt to catch up to the rest of the civilized universe, Mad Men season 5 and Game of Thrones, both of which finally came out here with subtitles so the whole family (both of us) can enjoy.
Verdict:
GOT, after two episodes, appears to be mainly about a particular sexual position, with occasional beheadings and crude racial stereotypes thrown (heh) in for variety – everyone hates it, we’re done.
Mad Men, we love love love this show, which we have been waiting in agony for—six months? a year?—to continue watching. New York City! Our parents’ generation! History! Big business! Suits that fit! This show is a wonder, and if you’ve got something you don’t like about it, write it in your diary, because I don’t want to hear it. And you’re fired.
By the way, I’ll thank everyone in advance to not say anything at all about Breaking Bad, which we’ve only got as far as the end of Season 2 in Japan.Report