rushthatspeaks | recent reading + rec-request/project announcement

Recent reading: there hasn't been much. Firstly, all my books are in boxes in the limonaio; secondly, there has been so much to do with the bank-administrative and the various unpacking and the general trying to get my nerves resettled that I have had very little brain, and I've gone through the comfort books that aren't in boxes. (I should and will check more comfort books out of the library.)

So the principal thing that has happened is that I have failed to read Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, not through any lack of inclination but because the beginning epigram mentions the possibility that one may sprain one's wrists on it and the man is telling the literal truth. I am physically incapable of supporting it for any length of time, and we don't currently have a chair-and-table setup at which I could read without destroying my back. If I put it on my lap and look down I will wind up propping it with my hands without thinking about it; I've already done that twice and it was painful. It will have to wait until I get a desk set up in my study, or the eventual day I get some kind of e-reading device. (I have to say, the existence of a book I can't actually wrangle without hurting myself brings that eventual day a heck of a lot closer.)

I did manage to read volume one of Q Hayashida's Dorohedoro, which if you have a high gore tolerance is a very interesting dark urban fantasy with ugly-pretty art, an unusual gothic-industrial aesthetic, and worldbuilding that is both completely insane and remarkably coherent. It also has the unusual feature that its (extremely competent) principal female character is attractive not because she is drawn the usual ways that mangaka draw attractive women, but because she is the only human character who does not wear a very ugly mask at all times. The mangaka is female, which is rare for a seinen ultra-violent running in an artsy magazine, and the whole thing is just far more likable than I had expected. I read it because it was recced to me-- I'd never have picked it up otherwise, as it has an ugly picture of a guy wearing industrial goth on the cover and comes shrink-wrapped-- and I am glad of it. You can read at least some chunks of it online at Viz's Sig-Ikki site. But I do mean it about the gore (though, again oddly for this genre, so far no sexual or sexualized violence at all).

The third reason I haven't been reading much is that I expect to be doing a lot of reading very shortly. I read very fast, and the idea occurred to me some time ago that it would be interesting to do a year in which I read and reviewed a new book every day, no rereads. (I mean no reviewing the rereads. I read fast enough that I don't expect this to curb my rereading.) Then it occurred to me that if I begin on my upcoming birthday, the year would start on my twenty-ninth birthday and end on my thirtieth, which is exactly the kind of pointless symbolism with which I am the most delighted.

So that starts August 29th. One book a day, every day. Reviews will be posted publicly here. This post is where people can recommend me books; three hundred and sixty-five is at least a mini-syllabus in whatever subject area you'd like to give me a primer in, and there are several genres I haven't read in very widely (the Russian novel, the mystery novel post Christie, contemporary literary). The genres I have read in very widely are SF/F, YA, historical biography, intellectual history, memoir, history of theology, music/film/comic criticism, food, lit theory, feminist theory and urban studies. I've read a bit of romance but not as much. Unsurprisingly, the areas I read most widely are also the genres I like best. Recs of things you'd like me to review cheerfully accepted, assuming I haven't read them already.

I have access to a pretty good library system from which I can check books out, and an also pretty good university library, ditto. The university library has a very good sf collection which one has to read in-house, so I can't do that often. Apart from that, there is one bookstore in this town (i.e. within a couple of hours drive) and it is a Barnes & Noble which is not terrible but not terrific. So I can probably but not certainly get hold of most things in this town that I want to read, although there is a distressing local lack of Naomi Mitchison.

I am in hopes that getting up every morning, reading something, and writing about it will help me establish a routine and recollect after the move. That said, I realize this is a lot of books, but I think it will have interesting enough effects on the inside of my head to be worth a shot, and hopefully we will all get some entertaining reviews out of it. (This would also be where you tell me if you think this is a terrible idea.)

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From:

adrian_turtle

If you're looking for mystery novel recommendations, I think you might like Sara Paretsky. I started reading her books because of how well they line up with my values--not just feminism, but also a general sympathy for the poor or oppressed that seems rare in mysteries. The writing was a little rough for the first few, but either she's gotten much better, or I've developed a taste for her style.