Member: reading_fox

Is this:
"The continuing romance set against the background of a science lab and the galaxy gone mad."
a deliberate echo of Dibler's idea of a great film in Moving Pictures?

posted by jimroberts at 8:48 am (EST) on Oct 28, 2009

Writing a quick note to a friend does NOT slow down the writing of the book. I am working up the start of a chapter, today, and pacing the floor helps spin the ideas.

See below for the rest of my response to your query.

posted by JannyWurts at 1:29 pm (EST) on Oct 27, 2009

Hey - thank you so much for letting me know!!!

HC UK is getting the titles out, one by one....the Kindle version is also available for about four of them - but not the beginning ones, last I heard. Did you see any post about the early volumes?

Your interest DEFINITELY helped get the schedule moved up - I am IMMENSELY grateful, thank you so much. I hope you enjoy Traitor's Knot - brace hard. The pace picks up very fast, and for Stormed Fortress, becomes relentless.

I see you got Crown Conspiracy, it's a fun, fast romp.

How's the caving?

posted by JannyWurts at 12:08 pm (EST) on Oct 27, 2009

Hi Reading_Fox,

Thanks for your comment.

As a matter of fact, our DNL ebooks ARE industry-standard EPUB ebooks. However, our ebooks also have a multimedia capacity which allows for interactivity - e.g.: sound files, videos, moving images, music, quizzes, printable pages, answer sheets, etc.

Also, it may put your mind at ease to know we are not spamming friend requests - we have been hand-picking members who may be interested in ebook publishing and ebook technology. Appreciate the feedback though and hope we can provide some interesting commentary, news and topics for discussion that may be of interest to you.

Kind regards,
Laura
DNAML

posted by DNAML_EBook_Tech at 5:43 pm (EST) on Oct 26, 2009

Thanks for the tip, I'll check out the sites and the author.

posted by Karlstar at 3:16 pm (EST) on Oct 26, 2009

Have you read "The Hot Zone" yet? If not, you are in for a treat! I couldn't put it down!

posted by MtnSk8tr at 11:31 pm (EST) on Oct 1, 2009

Thank you for the information. I'll definitely check those books out.

posted by Narilka at 8:34 pm (EST) on Sep 30, 2009

There are a couple of mistakes in your nice new review here. Fix them for a thumb, or post to Reviews Reviewed and I'll tell you more.

Basically, I like Fortey. The trouble is, his books are not quite in my main areas of interest, so they get to be quite heavy going after a while &mdash my fault entirely.

posted by jimroberts at 5:44 pm (EST) on Sep 28, 2009

Thanks for your note! I appreciate the link and the steer, I'll have my web guy on it straight off.

Delightful to hear you enjoyed Peril's Gate - be prepared, the story explodes next volume. The pace picks up tremendously.

Belated happy birthday, too!

posted by JannyWurts at 5:28 pm (EST) on Aug 22, 2009

Delivering a somewhat late happy birthday :)

posted by Busifer at 9:32 am (EST) on Aug 21, 2009

Did you hear Ben Goldacre on last Friday's The Now Show on Radio 4? Nothing I didn't know from the net, but nice to hear him say it.

posted by jimroberts at 3:20 pm (EST) on Aug 10, 2009

Wow, nice fox! Is that your photo, or has illegal hunting now gone indoors? We're looking after an injured Ruddy Ground-Dove as of yesterday. Reading_fox, what has happened to the Cornish group? I've been away for a while and just looked in. Last night I finished reading three books on the Scillies - would that count? I'm guessing it's legally Cornwall... By the way, I hope to back back in Cornwall camping with the family in September, so I may get to read some more Cornish books. Happy reading!

posted by chrisharpe at 12:07 pm (EST) on Aug 9, 2009

This is just a short stop-by to to tell I did enjoy Halting State but clearly that one is not going to be everyone's cup of tea.
I thought the 2nd person viewpoint quirky at first, but in the end it worked very well.

BTW I envy you going to the meet. I've already decided to go next year, wherever (almost - some places just aren't affordable) the meet will be held.

posted by Busifer at 11:06 am (EST) on Aug 4, 2009

I like your review of Eon, but it could do with some proofreading.

posted by jimroberts at 5:03 pm (EST) on Jul 31, 2009

It had me fooled then - you should keep the pic! I did enjoy Bad Science. Have I still got that marked 'to read'? Must go and have a look, thanks for the heads-up. And liking foxes is still a good thing!

posted by Booksloth at 12:15 pm (EST) on Jul 30, 2009

That's very kind of you - especially after I was so unforgivably rude to you about your spelling of 'sentence' a while ago. I still blush every time I think of that. I do hope it was clear I was just having a thoroughly bad-tempered moment and had no right to be such a smart-ass.

I'm glad you're enjoying the posts and especially glad that most of them make sense to you. I do have a tendency to ramble on and am more surprised than anyone if the results come out making even the slightest bit of sense. I do also get myself into fights I never intended so it means a lot that some people can see what I was trying to get at, even if I didn't always put it in the most tactful way.

And I bet you're sick to death of being asked this, but do tell me about the fox - I always assumed your LT name was just because you like them. I didn't see until now that you have obviously reared one (with the help of your rather beautiful dog). Thank you from all animal lovers for that. I get snappy with hunters too!

posted by Booksloth at 9:53 am (EST) on Jul 30, 2009

I haven't actually memorised all your reviews, but I noticed that one because you are otherwise so coy about your sex, and in spite of our long acquaintance on LT I didn't know. Not that I ever cared, apart from the "do I use he or she" thing: the chance of us ever having any relationship in which it matters is about the same as Zeus smiting us both with thunderbolts in the next five minutes.

posted by jimroberts at 3:11 pm (EST) on Jul 28, 2009

Normally I have no problems with idea-driven plots - I do like Neal Stephenson, after all!!! - and I did enjoy Century Rain, only I felt rather strongly that some editing would help patching the holes in the plot - it might be part of his style but his style could benefit from some nudging, perhaps, to develop into something even grander ;-)

In this particular case I felt almost cheated by the ending, and that impacted strongly on my overall impression of the book.

Anyway, I'm only two chapters in in Halting State, and so far so good!

posted by Busifer at 1:33 pm (EST) on Jul 28, 2009

> I don't know to which one you are referring!

The one which says, "As a liberal,anti-corporate, (...) athiest I had no problems with the thoughts Grayling was attempting to engender".

posted by jimroberts at 7:06 am (EST) on Jul 28, 2009

Even blurry it proved to me that the Sony Reader would be useful in displaying the kind of PDF's I would generate.

THANKS, that was a big help!!!

posted by mrgrooism at 5:01 pm (EST) on Jul 23, 2009

Hi Reading Fox! So now that you've had your Sony Reader for a while, what do you think of it? I'm leaning towards buying the Sony Reader 505 now that I've returned the Kindle 2.

posted by mrgrooism at 11:25 am (EST) on Jul 23, 2009

Thanks r_f :-) Viva went well, only minor corrections to do! I haven't bought any celebratory books though - I'm mostly looking forward to having the time to read the ones I do have now. Yay! Books! Reading! (Something that isn't my thesis or related to it at least...)

I'm probably going to make it to the meetup though, so I dare say there might be some purchasing then :-)

posted by LizT at 11:18 am (EST) on Jul 23, 2009

Hee hee, thanks. This one has been particularly pesky. I wanted to post a "Will no one rid me of this turbulent troll?" comment, but he's got a very thin skin, for a troll anyway. :oD Google is my friend.

posted by clamairy at 7:46 am (EST) on Jul 23, 2009

hello reading fox, nice to hear of other cavers, I live in the perfect part of the world, about 2 miles away from the mendips and grew up near Swildon's. Have caved for years, dieting down at the moment, really want to get through pipe bend to go down a bit more, it's a pain having a fat arse, feel like a bit of a hinderance sometimes. They won't refuse me going, the soup I bring is too valuable to them. Oh well, next time you are on the Mendips...

posted by viciouslittlething at 10:30 am (EST) on Jul 22, 2009

reading_fox,

I watched the first lecture. And am in awe. Had not heard mass described as the coefficient of inertia. The connection with inertia of course, but not in that language. The connection from one law to another, as with the speed of light from a difference in observation of the moons of Jupiter. The mathematic skill and insight dating so far back is thrilling.

It has always amazed me that Cavendish acted with such confidence in the principles established about gravity that he could expect those lead balls to produce a measurable effect.

I hope that I and my questions in these science related groups are not too tedious for the other members. But I so appreciate the link to these lectures, and am flattered that you thought enough to send me the reference.

Richard

posted by richardbsmith at 6:08 pm (EST) on Jul 21, 2009

Wow. Thank you.

I have his easy and hard pieces. When I read them, they were all hard.:) I have progressed a little since I last looked them over. Maybe I'll do better on the second time around. I had of course heard of the lectures, but did not know they were available.

What has helped me is reading details about actual experiments, and then finding the experiments demonstrated say on YouTube.

I installed the TUVA software, and cannot wait to listen. Ain't the internet wonderful!

posted by richardbsmith at 9:49 am (EST) on Jul 21, 2009

Thank You! for telling me this - I had been repeatedly querying my editor to find out what was wanting, here, and had no response yet (they have cut staff so SMALL, in an effort to rein in costs...it's awful, the people left are SO badly overworked...and when answers have to arise out of other departments ALSO overworked...it can be (tactfully) very difficult.

I am glad to hear they are responding to customers, and bless you for running this down! At least I can rest easy, knowing it's a technical difficulty being remedied, and not an oversight where things slipped through the cracks.

Was lurking and saw your caving adventure - wow - and I saw also your review of Ourobouros...bang on! There are many "classics" worth noting - and some fine writing - sometimes it is worth the wade to gain a fresh insight, and sometimes there IS a gold thread of story under the rich prose and the rambling dreaminess - but Ourobouros is one that lacked the sweep and connection...and it is the easiest to digest in that series. Nice to see your fair take, noting the strengths and weaknesses seen through today's reader.

I've noticed you've added some R.A. MacAvoy titles - her later work got very esoteric and obtuse. She gets deeper and deeper with her concepts. Her earliest work is easiest to grasp, her middle career work is very fine, the latter books are far more introspective than based on action. she's an author I still read, but the entry level titles are definitely her early ones. She has an amazing body of work, and sharply drawn characters.

posted by JannyWurts at 12:16 pm (EST) on Jul 14, 2009

Thank you for participating in my new thread.

posted by callmejacx at 11:52 am (EST) on Jun 25, 2009

I've yet to hear back from my editor regarding the odd title left out of the electronic books for the series...just to let you know I hadn't forgotten.

Happy Caving! (Looks like you have been, anyway)
best - J

posted by JannyWurts at 9:38 am (EST) on Jun 23, 2009

I too was looking forward to it but hopefully we'll have another gathering next year!

posted by Busifer at 7:59 am (EST) on Jun 16, 2009

o nice

posted by bluetwilight at 5:53 pm (EST) on Jun 11, 2009

do u play the clarinet?

posted by bluetwilight at 8:05 pm (EST) on Jun 9, 2009

After thought to the response below -
I haven't seen what Carolyn is doing - I haven't visited her site.
Your note suggests I should!

Hope all is well with you - as I'll probably soon see from your posts in the groups.

posted by JannyWurts at 1:45 pm (EST) on Jun 9, 2009

Hi Reading Fox -

I have no idea (and didn't know) the UK had gotten around to putting the books up as "e books" - that they were available yet at all.

I will at once inquire as to what is going on - probably (possibly?) they are putting up books in "reverse order" - to recent releases - but that would mean Traitor's Knot should be there. I'll try to find out for you.

Delightful that you HAVE the books - don't read them out of order, it will wreck a lot of development and denoue some explosive unveilings.

There WAS an "e book" edition in the USA, briefly, derived from Meisha Merlin - I forget the company...(Embid comes to mind as the company) They may be under at this point - but a search may pull that title up. Perhaps you could find Traitor's Knot that way - it would be the ONLY title in the series available that way.

I'll be excited to see what you think as Arc III gains momentum - Fugitive Prince is definitely the stage setter for that - have a fun and wild ride!

Nice to hear from you, too!

posted by JannyWurts at 1:44 pm (EST) on Jun 9, 2009

Right, thanks. I kinda get that now, but what I don't get is how that relates to radio. Radio stations have frequencies, and I'm still not sure how that works.

Thanks for the compliment!

Your library is so diverse! It's fascinating.

posted by lilyfyrestorm at 10:48 pm (EST) on Jun 5, 2009

Re: ereader, I'm not really looking to buy one because I couldn't afford it right now, but it would be great to see one and to meet you sometime.

posted by Musereader at 9:13 am (EST) on Jun 5, 2009

Thanks for pointing that out. Will go and fix it asap. Regards...

posted by iftyzaidi at 4:17 am (EST) on Jun 4, 2009

We did have a great time, although pretty exhausting! I love showing people around - it reminds me of all the great things we take for granted.

Glad you liked them :-)

posted by LadyN at 6:55 am (EST) on Jun 2, 2009

Hi,
I see that your suggested viewing style includes a column for Private Comments, which is just wasted space for your visitors.

We both have profile comments sort of encouraging friend requests from people we have contact with on LT, so I'm sending you one OK?

Jim

posted by jimroberts at 8:29 am (EST) on May 27, 2009

Thanks for the note; it's always good to know someone agrees with me (about anything). And thanks for the invite; I still ride, but far less than I used to. Trying to find time this summer for more miles, but not really succeeding.

posted by jowo at 12:18 am (EST) on May 27, 2009

hi reading_fox,

Sorry for the kind of late reply...I'm still learning my way around in here and yours is the first message I've received! The inspiration probably was originally from the Thomas Covenant books, although it has been so many years since I read them that I'd kind of forgotten that it was! Revelstone was a place-name I liked and kind of adopted for a fantasy world created by a friend and I when we were kids...now I wonder if I should try those books again, to remember the reference more clearly! :)

posted by NoriandeRevelstone at 9:57 pm (EST) on May 22, 2009

Hello Foxie,

I am up to page 190 of The Eyre Affair and I don't find it funny at all. In fact, I don't like it, it is not my cup of tea. It is clever and imaginative and I am sure fans of this type of writing will think it is wondeful but it just doesn't do it for me.

I need to read something else over the weekend to restore my faith in reading!

~ TT

posted by TheTortoise at 5:41 am (EST) on May 22, 2009

I'll let you know. We still have a house in CH which we rent out so I do get back occasionally. I have fond memories of Stockports pubs. I was never a regular but there were plenty of normal pubs, a dying breed in much of the UK. I'd like to get to the London meet up but logistics are working against it at the moment. My work at the moment means I am often away from home so I'll only be there if I can persuade wife to come with me which I think will be tricky.

posted by Barry at 9:04 am (EST) on May 19, 2009

I only read Badscience. It makes me feel a bit inferior and in any case I need to squeeze in a little work around posting on the GD. I "live" in Cheadle Hulme, just been away a few years so anything about Stockport, particularly when combined with beer, catches my eye. Sadly as you say it is a bit of a long trek. Have a few for me though!!

posted by Barry at 7:12 am (EST) on May 19, 2009

Just reading the BadScience forums and saw a "Science Fox" writing about the Stockport Beer Festival in a fortnight - any relation?

posted by Barry at 5:47 am (EST) on May 19, 2009

Thanks Foxie,

I'll dig out the Eyre Affair and let you know what I think of it.

- TT

posted by TheTortoise at 5:58 am (EST) on May 16, 2009

Thanks so much for pointing out the GD meet up thread! I do mean to post more often in there, but most of the time I'm enjoying reading all the goings on I forget to get involved...
I'd love to join in this year if I am able. :-)

posted by LadyN at 12:38 pm (EST) on May 14, 2009

Hello Foxie,

Thanks for dropping by. Like you, I have no TV. I gave it up about 15 months ago. I don't miss it but I do download some programmes from i-player.

I have no science fiction or fantasy category because it is my least favourite genre. No doubt, it is my loss! OK recommned the best book in that genre that you know, and I will check it out.

- TT

posted by TheTortoise at 5:54 am (EST) on May 14, 2009

Thanks for reading my reviews. I am always glad when someone gets something useful out of my efforts. I'll be getting around to Cherryh in the reasonably near future. I've read some of her works before, and I always enjoyed them. I have bot read any Wurts before, but I am looking forward to getting to her books eventually.

posted by StormRaven at 9:42 am (EST) on May 6, 2009

Hi, I have added a lot of books about bicycling. Greetings, Erik

posted by erikscheffers at 9:09 pm (EST) on May 2, 2009

Thanks for the recommendation. I will check them out when i have time. I've just started reading the entire Raymond E. Feist series' of books - probably going to keep me going for the rest of the year.
By the way, love your library!
Regards
Willie

posted by WillieD at 1:54 pm (EST) on May 2, 2009

Hey thanks for adding me to your interesting libraries. We do share an interesting mix of books.

posted by urania1 at 10:35 am (EST) on Apr 21, 2009

Hi Fox, if I do get to London and that is chosen for August can we plz meet up again so that I know where I'm going?

Cheers,

Rune

posted by RuneFirestar at 5:40 pm (EST) on Apr 12, 2009

Thanks -- have a happy Easter weekend, and enjoy that well earned time on the Sofa!

Know what you mean, on houses - my parents said (wise advice) keep a picture notebook of where you started, what you've finished - and when you feel overwhelmed, go back and see where you came from!

posted by JannyWurts at 3:10 pm (EST) on Apr 10, 2009

Many thanks indeed. Smith is a bit of a sacred cow here in South Africa - wildly popular - and the the limerick was a little sacriligious I fear. I'm always glad to come across a book which lends itself to an different style of review!

posted by adpaton at 5:59 am (EST) on Mar 31, 2009

Ooops. The thread is "I shall leek you." (Yep. They named the site correctly.)

posted by LizzieD at 9:46 am (EST) on Mar 30, 2009

Thank you for the information again, R_F.
Have you ever visited cuteoverload? In the "we will leek you" thread is a short video of a cat licking a little fox until he can't take any more. It might make you smile.
Now I'm going to look at your review of Cyteen. I have never read C.J. Cherryth. I thought for some reason that she wrote fantasy, and I'm finding that is not so. THEN I'm going to do some rl work.
Peggy

posted by LizzieD at 9:44 am (EST) on Mar 30, 2009

Thanks for speaking..... I certainly have more mystery than science fiction since I've been reading them a lot longer..... I'm not sure why I was so determined to get all those Maj Sjowalls catalogued, and they certainly run up our "in common" totals. I read some of your reviews and agreed with you for the most part. You have also reminded me about my attic where lots of stuff like Stephen Donaldson lies waiting to see the light of day again. Oh well.
As to code, you're right. I guess I haven't used the little I know because I haven't had to for ten years or so. (I tried to set up a code for random authors too, but it didn't work. Oh well again.)
And so - Well met!
Peggy

posted by LizzieD at 8:07 pm (EST) on Mar 28, 2009

Hi reading_fox,

There's been a recent mini-outbreak of LT haiku on the topic of "waiting for collections." Since you've contributed some haiku in the past, I thought that maybe you might want to join in... Check out this thread and, of course, the LibraryThing Haikus page.

Silent

posted by SilentInAWay at 7:05 pm (EST) on Mar 28, 2009

Dear R_F,
I'm new and adding science fiction and fantasy as I can, so we do have some common reading interests. I'd like to make you a friend mostly because I am trying to lift your code so that I too can display random authors, books, etc. on my profile. I could sit here and click for at least 2 hours straight without being bored. Unfortunately, my html skills are so old and unused that I'm having trouble, but I'll get it or not. Meanwhile, thank you - and if you'd rather that I not do this, please tell me, and I'll undo.
Peggy

posted by LizzieD at 2:24 pm (EST) on Mar 28, 2009

A story from Analog 880, June 2003 - if you look at the review there is a link at the top to the story.

There are many stories about this character, including a collection, as far as I remember.

posted by bluetyson at 8:23 pm (EST) on Mar 5, 2009

I stumbled across the "How long does it take water to freeze" thread too late to help - but it's not just the specific heat of water that's in play, there's the heat of fusion, too. The phase change takes ~80?cal/g. (The heat capacity is 1 cal/g)

- Bob

posted by AsYouKnow_Bob at 9:52 pm (EST) on Mar 4, 2009

I had Lord Foul's Bane recommended to me by two of my friends. They both love the Thomas Covenant books. One of them loaned the book to me. I started to read it but found I didn't like it much and gave it back to him. Well, after talking to both of them, I decided to give the book another try. I liked it much better the second time around. It took me much longer to read than most books do. I find I'm having the same problem with Thomas Covenant as I've had with The Lord of the Rings books. I like the stories but I just can't get into the books. I am planning on reading at least the first trilogy of books. My friends have said that the next book is better. I have also read the 1st book in the Gap series. I may go back to that after I finish reading some of the piles of books I have around the house. ;-)

posted by JadedJenn at 6:09 pm (EST) on Mar 4, 2009

Dear Fox,
I am so sorry - you must think me very very rude! After I joined Library thing alot of horrible stuff happened in my personal life - not the least being breast cancer so I totally forgot about it and so never read your message. It's proably too late to reply now but in answer to your question - I don't really know any similar authors to Patrick White but other authors I have enjoyed who are equally challenging are Thomas Bernhard, Flannery O'Connor, Cormac McCarthy and John Banville
LDMurray

posted by LDMurray at 5:24 pm (EST) on Feb 28, 2009

Hi Reading Fox

Just got your comment on Emson; I haven't read Maneater yet but it's in my ever increasing TBR pile. I thought Skarlet was a nifty idea but I'll confess I don't know all that much about the author- it was one of my impulse buys that paid off. I did find an article on him at his publishers site though : http://www.snowbooks.com/author_Emson.ht... . I think his next book is going to be a continuation of Skarlet called Krimson and it's meant to be a trilogy (my money is on Karmine for the final title:)

Nice to talk to you anywhoo.
Ruadh
PS Love the picture of your dogs.

posted by scriberscouse at 5:24 pm (EST) on Feb 24, 2009

Hi Reading Fox

I just got your post on the Group Discussion blog. Thanks for your feedback. You asked for a suggestion for anything new and the reason for my posting the Group section was to get a sense of whehter therer was audience for my own book, Convergence. You're welcome to stop by web site (www.convergence-cpt.com). I have few free copies left if you'd like to try it out?

Anyways thans so much for your comment.

Chris.

posted by ChristopherTurner at 5:40 pm (EST) on Feb 23, 2009

Thank you!!!!
:-))

posted by aluvalibri at 11:04 am (EST) on Feb 23, 2009

Thank you for the welcome. I just recently discovered LT and find it very interesting.

I enjoy both Janny Wurts's and Cherryh's work alot, especially their intricate use of words.

I envy you your large library. I live in South Africa and read predominantly Fantasy/Sci-Fi. Unforunately, there's normally HUGE delays in getting access to the books. Hardcovers very seldom appear on the shelves and are almost unaffordable when they appear due to our dismal exchange rate. Accordingly, I normally have to wait for the Mass Market Paperback to appear or must rely on what the local library stocks.

I see that your library does not have Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind. If you like Wurts and Cherryh, I would strongly recommend that you read it as well.

posted by Emily1 at 3:54 pm (EST) on Feb 18, 2009

I'd say it's pretty close to reality. Archive footage confirms my otherwise vague memories of policing methods of days past, and as to living conditions etc. there's nothing in the books that I've ever found odd, considering the time they were written.

posted by Busifer at 7:10 am (EST) on Feb 13, 2009

Gosh, you know - I had a brain blip!! Caught me - I meant BENFORD, not Benson...no wonder you were confused. Sorry! Hope you didn't do a conniption search, quite quite in vain.

posted by JannyWurts at 5:35 pm (EST) on Feb 12, 2009

O wow. Were to begin?!

In Sweden every day of the year has one or more given names attached to it. Initially names of martyrs and saints the official list has now changed beyond recognition. When I was a kid name days were still important, and lots of people celebrated them as much as or more than their birthdays.

The celebration of one's birthday was viewed by the church as heathen, so they pushed for naming kids after saints and martyrs, to turn the celebration into something more comfortably christian.
Not that anyone remember. This was back in the 17th century or so ;-)

When the Martin Beck books were written people, at least in certain parts of Sweden (eastern, and more bourgeois), still knew the name list, and paid attention to it. I doubt that is true any more.

At lot of water has run under the bridges since those books were written and I think part of my liking for them is based on actually remembering the atmosphere, attitudes and places (I've been or lived at most of the places that figure in the books) now lost to time. Nostalgia, if you like. Not altogether rational ;-)

posted by Busifer at 9:41 am (EST) on Feb 12, 2009

Hey - so very nice to hear from you - and glad your weather hasn't been atrocious. We aren't on fire, or soaking, either - just a bit dry, and the coldest I can recall a Florida winter in all our time here. Many frosts. But that keeps stuff healthy, to die back once in awhile.

Bryn, Benford and Bear have been called the "three B's" of Science Fiction in certain circles. Gregory Benford is actively involved as a scientist, (day job) also, IF I recall correctly, into the astrophysics or such related field. I'd hesitate to recommend his titles as an overview since I have not read a thing that is anything near recent. You would possibly get a better sense of his work to date by asking in the Science Fiction group. He's quite well regarded by his peer writers. Many SF writers have chats on SFF.net - fun bit, see if you can find a website or e mail and ask directly. Most writers don't mind responding to readers. There are several chat forums that specialize in SF, too. I'm sure a real specialist who is up to date would be willing to give you a steer. Guaranteed, about any book he did would be geared for a reader with beyond average vision and intelligence.

I hope you've been well and busy, meantime!

posted by JannyWurts at 9:58 am (EST) on Feb 10, 2009

Hi RF --

Just stopping in to say hi!

posted by MtnSk8tr at 10:04 pm (EST) on Feb 8, 2009

Just letting you know The Lies of Locke Lamora was an excellent choice. I really enjoyed reading it. Now I have the rest of the series on my 'to buy list.

posted by readafew at 8:32 am (EST) on Feb 7, 2009

In some aspects it almost looked like text was translated by a machine... That's how bad it is.

Glad to hear you think the later books are better!

posted by Busifer at 6:49 am (EST) on Feb 3, 2009

Cross-checking the original with the translation my verdict is - bad translation. VERY bad. In the original the prose is very taut but always very stringent.

This is how I, without any professional skills in translation, should had rendered the first few sentences -

"The body was found some time just past three o'clock am, on the eight of July. It was fairly well preserved, so couldn't had been in the water for very long.

It was pure chance that the body was found. This should had been an advantage [to the investigation]."

I think they tried to transpose the "hard-boiled" style of Chandler et al to swedish conditions, at least in this first book, while marrying it to a journalistic approach á la Mailer.

Just a guess - not really my genre to speculate on ;-)

posted by Busifer at 1:48 pm (EST) on Feb 2, 2009

The blog - just since just before New Year's. I've been thinking about it for a while but never really had the time/energy to do it. So far I've managed to post with some frequency, but it takes some work...

It's pretty easy to find foreign language translations of swedish books at the library, so I guess I could find the Roseanna you've read. If you want to post some paragraphs for comparison that would be great, but don't overdo it (personally I find it a lot of work typing in print texts).

posted by Busifer at 6:58 am (EST) on Jan 30, 2009

I saw your review of Roseanna, and weird as it may seem it almost made me want to read the translation you've read, to check against the original.

The original is stylistically consistent, and was consciously utilitarian (read 'simple') - it was part of the authors' political agenda (or can be interpreted as such, anyway - back when these books were written EVERYTHING in Swedish society was utterly politicized). The tone of the original could be described as laconic, and as the series evolve it starts to sound nostalgic as well.

Personally I do like the books, even if Roseanna (and some of the others) has aged badly.

posted by Busifer at 3:35 pm (EST) on Jan 29, 2009

I'm hardly going to be fussy about how much the lemurs feature in it. I'd want it for the title alone. ^-~ I'll keep my eyes out for some older books of his then. They sound interesting. *goes add the mentioned one to her wishlist* Thank you!

Mmm. Near impossible, I'm guessing. I know I wouldn't manage it. (I'd also have to write in my books to remember which passages I wanted to highlight. I can't write in books! It's not done...)

posted by Shanra at 12:13 pm (EST) on Jan 29, 2009

Also, I didn't spot this until just now, but that poem you've shared is absolutely adorable! And would you say I could start with The Aye-aye and I or do you think it'd be better if I tracked down some of Durrell's other works first? (I have a soft-spot for any and all lemurs, so the title drew my attention immediately and I'd like to try and track a copy down.)

It'll probably be ages before I find them, but... Can never hurt to ask. ^-^

posted by Shanra at 11:32 am (EST) on Jan 29, 2009

I like your reviews at least. ^-^ They're well thought-out and well-constructed. I'm glad I've been able to call attention to a point you'd not thought so much about. What'd you different requirements be then? *curious* For me, an afterwards-review should ideally be more geared towards offering room for discussion. But then I'm not sure I'd call that a review. So many different ways and styles to look at it...

Ooh. That's not very long to write a review at all. I enjoy you your speedy writin/sorting skills and hope to one day have an amount of reviews similar to yours. I like writing them and certainly hope they're useful to someone else too. ^-^

posted by Shanra at 11:28 am (EST) on Jan 29, 2009

I'm bemused by your note on Hogfather that it's not suited to people who think the world intrinsically nice. I loved it and fit that label. ^-~ (Note that's not a criticism, just something that amused me a lot to read.)

I did come here from the Not Enough Info in Reviews thread too. I admit I haven't read all of them, just some of the ones I've read too and some of the ones that were short. I think those were mostly non-fiction. (You have a lot of reviews. Wow. O_O I'm afraid to ask, but how many years do they span?)

Uhm, anyway, I've a two-sided comment for you. The reviews I read would be perfect for if I was looking for a review of a book I'm considering reading (I often find that the description doesn't tell me all I want to know). You include the outline of the plot and some key notes on what you liked and didn't and why. That'd be exactly what I was looking for in a review of a book I was considering to pick up.

It's not quite what I'd be looking for if I were reading a review of a book I'd already read, though. In that case, I'd like to have a little more detail on why you feel a specific way. But I fail spectacularly at this myself and am more inclined to read book reviews to tell me if it sounds interesting enough to pick up.

None of the reviews I read were what I'd call spoilerific either. The closest I could think of was stating how little the trail is featured in To Kill a Mockingbird and that's not something that would ruin the book. I find it very hard to judge what others find spoilers, though, and then add that I like reading children's tales or fairytale retellings. There's either very little to spoil because it's a cliché plot twist or the story is so short I at least don't know how not to spoil the story.

I agree with Sodapop that you can't please everyone. Makes at least three people who haven't any problems with your reviews, though. ^-^ Hope my rambling helps out in some way too!

posted by Shanra at 3:51 pm (EST) on Jan 28, 2009

You asked on the Not Enough Info in Reviews thread if we would take a look at your reviews and offer opinions on spoilers.

First off, let me commend you on the sheer number of your reviews! Great job!

Fortunately, I have read the first book that came up on your reviews - Jingo. I think this would fit my definition of a perfect review if you left out paragraph 2. The rest of the reivew tells me what I consider to be important - you like the author and enjoyed the book even if it is not your favorite book by him, that it is humorous, and that it covers current issues like international politics, racism, immigration, etc.

But this is just my opinion, from reading the thread I am sure there are others that will be clamoring for more of the plot. :)

posted by CarolO at 3:30 pm (EST) on Jan 26, 2009

Hey, We don't have a lot of books in common but I read your reviews for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone and To Kill a Mockingbird and I didn't find either of them to be spoilerific. I liked them. I don't think you should change your reviews, as you can see from some of the comments in the thread some people consider even the most vague statements to be spoliers. You can't please everyone.

posted by Sodapop at 3:07 pm (EST) on Jan 26, 2009

Heh heh, I'm actually sort of mixed on the Harry Potter thing. I really really enjoyed about the first three. I was a little iffy with four, and then the fifth one made me really mad and I said I was never going to read another one, but then of course finished off the series, complaining about it the rest of the way through. As for my rating system though, four stars means that I had a lot of fun with it and would definitely consider reading it again, which I have. I've read the Philosopher's Stone at least three times, I think. *shrug* The early ones at least, if not stunning literature, are far from being poorly written. So I'm generally okay with them. I also started reading them at age 11, so that could also have A LOT to do with it, haha. We hold the things dearest that we had fun with in childhood. :)

posted by DamnMyBrainDied at 10:10 pm (EST) on Jan 19, 2009

Hey, Fox

I was reading your review of Brin's "The Postman" and wanted to clear something up for you. The reason why it is so confoundingly short is that it is a "mashup" which means it was originally published in serial form as two novellas (in the magazine "Orbit") in 1982 and 1984 before being collected and expanded in 1985. Hope this clears that up.

~Cleverusername2

posted by cleverusername2 at 9:22 am (EST) on Jan 13, 2009

Wow, you're a fast reader!

I discovered it's a bit nerve-wracking choosing books for someone else so I'm very glad you enjoyed them. Thanks for letting me know.

posted by Myckyee at 4:58 pm (EST) on Jan 5, 2009

I just read the comments on the forum you mentioned.

Good questions, and maybe this will help some. I have a master's degree, and am ordained and recieve oversight from my denomination. I had clinical supervision as a counselor, and I am currently enrolled in a counseling program at a secular university.

I am part of the medical team that works here. I attend interdisciplinary rounds, and chart with the social workers. Every patient in our hospital is asked if they want the chaplain to visit. They can say yes, ok if he is around or definitely not. I only go to rooms where I am invited, except on the mental health ward where I do groups. But I dont talk about religion in the groups.

One comment I hear a lot from my co-workers, is that they will suggest my services to a patient, who will say, I don't need a chaplain, I am not religious. To which my co-workers reply, Neither is he. You will like this guy. I don't wear a collar or any other sign of any particular faith. Sometimes I do just emotional counseling. In fact, I am the only real counselor on the Mental Health unit. And I employ the counseling skills any trained therapist would use. If faith is applicable, I talk about. If not, I don't bring it up.

posted by Arctic-Stranger at 12:36 pm (EST) on Dec 17, 2008

No problem. The hospital pays me.

Our hospital is a non-profit. The building is owned by a community foundation, and the health care is administered by Banner Health. We were a Catholic hospital until the flood of 1967, when the damage was so great the nuns could no longer run it. That was when the community raised the money for the building, and Lutheran Health Services were contracted to administer it. Lutheran merged with Banner Health a few years ago. Banner Health is a non-profit.

My services are actually required by current medical practices. For example, I just joined the Cancer Committee at the hospital, and I was asked because the prevailing medical standard, set by the accreditation boards strongly suggests offering patients access to spiritual care. The Joint Commission, which is the major acceditation agency for hospitals all over the world, sets standards for spiritual care, that hospitals are strongly encouraged to attain.

Chaplaincy is strange work. We are spiritual advisors, so to speak, but we cannot represent any one denomination or faith. For example, I am doing a funeral for a former patient, and the family has requested NO Bible reading, No mention of the Judeo-Christian God...and I am obligated to provide that service for them. (Which is fine with me; that is part of why I like being a chaplain.

I hope this answers your question.

A few years back, before I worked here, someone wrote a letter to the newspaper, asking why the hospital paid to have a chaplain on staff. With the rising cost of health care, etc... The reaction from the community was quick and of one voice. The chaplain was an ESSENTIAL part of their recovery.

When asked, I tell people my job description is that when anyone is dying or crying, they call the chaplain.

Much of my work is "secular" in the sense that anyone could do it. The groups I lead in mental health for example, or chairing the Ethics committee. I am starting a clinical study on meditation and chronic pain, which will have no religious component, and could be done by anyone who is interested in meditation.

posted by Arctic-Stranger at 12:26 pm (EST) on Dec 17, 2008

For Summer of the Red Wolf - it's not the typical Alasdair McLean back-breaker of a thriller - more introspective, I suspect, more personal. Amazing in depth and concept, about a triangle relationship, but it plunges in directions that are startling and provocative - and will generate thought, after. It moves pretty quickly once the opening gets under way. I will be quite interested to hear what you thing, if you read it. Very taut writing, throughout.

Ah - minor characters - beware, there. Mine don't fade. The majors stay major. The minors grow and resound, with major results: why the middle arc of the series took 5 books. It's not a tea party, either - this batch comes back, evolves, and impacts the course of the series in major ways. You'll discover.

I cannot tell you how happy and relieved I am, to finally have the series and To Ride Hell's Chasm settled for US distribution. It's been a ghastly wait! And the feel of a celebration, about to begin.

How fun - you appear to be a Dick Francis reader, too. I've read his stuff since - nearly the very beginning of his career, and was quite shocked to learn books I'd gotten long ago are now collector-hot! Won't part with them - he's such a solid writer, it's amazing to re-read now and again. His characters have such great panache. But then, racing attracts such colorful extremes, and he must have had years of observing to draw from.

posted by JannyWurts at 12:01 pm (EST) on Dec 17, 2008

Oh yes, I know.
It just timed with a general feeling of being underpaid (or overworked, depending on view ;-) )...

posted by Busifer at 11:54 am (EST) on Dec 8, 2008

Thanks a lot! I may become an author neverer myself; who doesn't oppose the "infernal idiots"?

posted by stellarexplorer at 10:40 am (EST) on Dec 8, 2008

Would you be okay with providing me your mailing address for the purposes of holiday card greetings? :D

posted by Morphidae at 3:56 pm (EST) on Dec 2, 2008

I realize that it does but by putting stitching first I think I established a context. You are the first to comment - but perhaps not the first to notice! Thanks.
Penny

posted by pmarshall at 3:13 pm (EST) on Nov 26, 2008

So pleased to hear the collarbone's knitted at last - happy cycling!

posted by JannyWurts at 11:09 am (EST) on Nov 21, 2008

What's with all these people adulterating their scones with raspberries and chocolate chips and bits of toffee (which isn't toffee as we know it)? Though I have to admit I'm intrigued by the Aussie "lemonade scones". I'm going to have to try that just to see how they turn out.

posted by Sodapop at 7:50 pm (EST) on Nov 19, 2008

Ah well, your Somerset connections certainly explain the clotted cream references! This conversation is making me feel dangerously hungry already.

posted by Booksloth at 12:06 pm (EST) on Nov 17, 2008

Just wanted to say hi to another Brit! It was the mention of clotted cream on the 'Scones' thread that did it! Nowhere else in the world seems to have clotted cream. In fact, I'm even quite surprised to hear you can get it in Manchester these days - all our friends from all over the country insist we bring some from Devon when we visit. And as for the Americans - most of them think cream is something that comes out of a can! (No offence to any Americans intended but clotted cream may well be the only thing that keeps me in this country!)

posted by Booksloth at 8:38 am (EST) on Nov 17, 2008

Hi Fox, I am new here and still learning the ropes, thanks for the tip and my apologies. I thought that was what the invitation for was for (Perhaps they should put a limit on invites?) Additionally, you are in the only two "Nature" groups on the site. Therefore, I assumed Nature was something you were passionate about. Finally, you are listed as a "Joiner" on the main group page. Perhaps you can see how I came to an incorrect assumption.
I do appreciate the tip, I am sorry you gauged it as SPAM. I assure you all of the invites I send out are well thought out and there is a connection.

Cheers.
CSK

posted by cubaking at 7:52 pm (EST) on Nov 16, 2008

Oh, forgot to say, VERY cute picture! Is that a baby fox? Is there a story behind that and your name?

posted by MrsLee at 11:44 pm (EST) on Nov 5, 2008

Thanks for the note, I'll go look at my Chamber of Secrets entry. I just entered the ISBN and put my review on the edit page. I thought I could trust the ISBN to give me the right one! :)

posted by MrsLee at 11:43 pm (EST) on Nov 5, 2008

On the off chance that you haven't seen this before...

Foxes jumping on a trampoline

posted by LolaWalser at 4:58 pm (EST) on Nov 4, 2008

It would appear that our dispute was a matter of misunderstanding then!

posted by bigal123 at 5:55 pm (EST) on Oct 18, 2008

Thanks for using the ultb tag. Your are a TAG master. Impressive tagging.

posted by misericordia at 5:19 pm (EST) on Oct 7, 2008

It's on my list, definitely.

It's listed as in stock at the SF Bookshop, so I have been thinking about picking it up next time I go there (which I thought would be when Mistborn III is released, but it seems to be a while).

posted by Busifer at 5:01 am (EST) on Oct 3, 2008

Thank you for joining Pro and Con (Religion). I hope this is a place where the comfortable are afflicted and the afflicted are comforted. Let’s go it with all seriousness, but I hope we can have great fun at the same time. If I were God, I would part the waters of distance, and instantly transport us all to this great pub I used to frequent in Germany with a group of other Auslanders, but alas, I am but a lowly mortal, and so we have to do this via the internet.

All I ask is that every one remain respectful, even if there are times when you are spewing your coffee over the screen.

posted by Arctic-Stranger at 2:41 pm (EST) on Oct 2, 2008

Thanks for the CJ Cherryh recommendation. I haven't been sure where to begin/sample with her, although the Faded Sun trilogy has caught my eye.

posted by Cecrow at 11:54 am (EST) on Oct 2, 2008

Hi - great to hear from you. Are the instruments fixed yet? The caving post was a hoot and a half.

The CJ I found difficult was her Russian based fantasy trilogy - Cernavog was one vol - not because it was badly written, but because it was such a lugubrious downer - so Very Heavily Russian! So, she probably succeeded very well, it just wasn't my cup of tea. I do wish that the "trend" to add profit margin by cutting the length of novels didn't make the later works in the Fortress series so SHORT....if those books were produced UNDER ONE COVER and not in tiny installments, they would, I feel, equal the early one...but that is the trend...

Not to find a specific title at second hand shops - usually means those books are keepers!

posted by JannyWurts at 10:02 am (EST) on Oct 2, 2008

FP in manchester is on Oldham street, which is just off Picadilly, there is a Nationwide right on the corner in picadilly, you go past Affleck's palace and it's over a street and ~5 shops down to the left of you. Paramount (which is a secondhand bookshop randomly open and on Fridays Sat and Sun) If you find Zaavi in the Arndale (below Waterstones in the new bit) and go out the back door it's almost right in front of you, slightly to your right on sudehill, there's another one further down to the right which mostly sells porn and another one to the left facing the bus exchange which also sells porn but i've found book gems in both of them. There is a memorabilia shop on Lever Street just off Picadilly called (something) exchange which has a small selection of old pulp era books as well. Not to mention the market stall over the road from the side door of BHS. I went to Uni in manchester 2002 - 2005 and spent a lot of time wandering around the place, I know it like the back of my hand and there are 3 secondhand bookshops that have shut since I first found them all. I morn the loss of Mark's books, but he got busted for selling pirate DVDs, Alpha bootis not so much because the owner kept asking me to sleep with him, but he was a gambler - ran out of money, and the one under the Quaker house was cute but is now on the internet only since the owner died.

The US imports in Waterstones is great, got Lavinia from there as soon as it was out in america.

posted by Musereader at 8:13 pm (EST) on Sep 25, 2008

I know what you mean about 'Left Hand of Darkness'; I read it because of its classic status, but it was pretty low on entertainment factor. Hard to see it through the eyes of the era it was written in and whether that would have caused it to make a different impression on me.

posted by Cecrow at 8:29 am (EST) on Sep 25, 2008

"but part of it is that we don't go out into the dark much any more."
Yeah that could be part of it. In MD and NY they seemed most active at dusk but of course dusk in Britain in June & July is like 11pm! It also sounds like the British "glow worms" might be harder to spot. That website says that only the females glow but the females don't fly, whereas American fireflies actually fly and glow whilst they're flying.

posted by Sodapop at 5:29 pm (EST) on Sep 15, 2008

Ok sorry about the HTML thingy there. I wish you could edit comments.

posted by Sodapop at 2:26 pm (EST) on Sep 15, 2008

Well I never knew that! I've never seen them in the UK but I've just found A HREF="http://www.galaxypix.com/glowworms/#Coun...">this website. There don't appear to be any in the Lancashire area which explains why I've never seen them. And they're a different species from the fireflies here in the US. Here, in Georgia, I haven't seen any but in Maryland and New York, in the middle of the summer there would be fields full of them. It's an amazing sight. My kids loved running around trying to catch them.

posted by Sodapop at 2:25 pm (EST) on Sep 15, 2008

Just stopping in to see what you've been up to....

posted by MtnSk8tr at 11:59 am (EST) on Sep 14, 2008

Wow, you have an amazing range of groups too! I'm going to have to have a look at some of yours...

posted by wandering_star at 4:50 pm (EST) on Sep 10, 2008

Thank you very much for your kind wishes. I am looking forward to sharing with you all when I returen.

posted by maggie1944 at 10:49 am (EST) on Sep 10, 2008

Mithai by Tarla Dalal ?... YES ! ;o)

posted by WisdOMbooks at 4:38 pm (EST) on Sep 9, 2008

Thank you for your message re-Combining. It was a great help.I used to be able to do it, then, somehow, forgot and couldn't remember how I found out in the first place. Put it down to increasing old age. Thanks,again. F/H

posted by Foxhunter at 5:53 am (EST) on Sep 3, 2008

That's great! Thanks for letting me know, I'm very pleased.

posted by etcetera at 11:19 am (EST) on Aug 31, 2008

Thanks.
Really it's OK - it's just a few strained muscles. Not even a scrape on the hand I used to catch the fall, despite the gravel.
Going to ride with more caution for a while, but I know myself - it will subside ;-)

Buying a new bike is worse, but the timing is good - bikes are never cheaper than with the coming of winter, when the shops wants to replace the bikes with snowgear and stuff... so I hope to get a good deal. Should had bought one last autumn but decided I still wanted the old one. But facing a total refit of this one? Better buy a new...

Still, makes me smile when I think of the look on my colleagues faces when I told them "on gravel you have to go fast enough to ride through the skid". They think I'm crazy, lol.

posted by Busifer at 6:39 am (EST) on Aug 29, 2008

Thank you very much for the invitation reading_fox! It's a great group, just perfect for my interests, I'm so glad you included me :-)

all the best, Katherine

posted by katylit at 1:21 pm (EST) on Aug 21, 2008

yeah I got back just fine thanks :)

posted by RuneFirestar at 11:52 am (EST) on Aug 19, 2008

Thanks for the suggestions. I haven't read the complete Faded Sun trilogy, and it's fairly high on my TBR pile. A friend lent me Kesrith, in amongst a bunch of very assorted books, as a way to introduce me to sci-fi and fantasy. Most of them were okay. But I really liked The Faded Sun world.

posted by walk2work at 3:13 pm (EST) on Aug 18, 2008

...but fun and entertaining fluff :-)
I also decided to tag at least the first one as humour, because of that. I can't possibly see anyone taking them for serious stuff!

I accepted the invitation, btw. Had no idea there was such a group. Thanks.

posted by Busifer at 3:03 pm (EST) on Aug 13, 2008

Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed Casteret's book. I thought your review hit the mark fairly well, but you must remember the book's French originals were written a long time ago when attitudes towards the natural world were for the most part very different. Englishmen, for instance, were still shooting tigers for fun. Taking a few geological curiosities would have been regarded as a suitable reward for the intrepid explorer, especially as underground photography was so difficult. On his physical courage, I imagine that anyone who survived the trenches of WW I felt himself to be invulnerable!

posted by gibbon at 4:31 pm (EST) on Aug 10, 2008

There's an article today on Tor.com's blog about Cherryh and the Atevi books.

http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_...

posted by fleela at 11:29 am (EST) on Aug 7, 2008

Thanks for clarifying the gender of P.D. James. Guess I could have checked out the author's profile, but it was getting late so I didn't investigate too deep. No problem on how long it takes - you have plenty of reviews I want to go back and look at anyway. Your library includes several authors I haven't read before, but have always had in the back of mind to check out one day. I should get some good direction on where to go from your comments. Thanks.

posted by exlibrismcp at 12:10 pm (EST) on Aug 6, 2008

Thank you, not only for answering my tagging question, but also for picking one of my most favorite authors. I may have read the book before but don't remember it clearly at all, so it will be sheer pleasure to read it again.

Elizabeth

posted by ejj1955 at 3:14 pm (EST) on Aug 5, 2008

Oh, you're most welcome!
I'm just so happy that you people had such a good day together.
:o)

posted by clamairy at 10:21 am (EST) on Aug 4, 2008

As far as I know there is only one Mcdonalds in waterloo. So I think we are safe. :)

Cheers again,

Rune

posted by RuneFirestar at 5:56 am (EST) on Jul 30, 2008

Scraped Knee Brigade. It's sort of silly (well, obviously) and hard to explain. There are a few books I group together because they feature young men in varying states of affliction. Sort of like a little boy with a scraped knee--I feel a strange urge to give 'em a bandaid and a kiss on the forehead. This is my sole evidence of maternal instinct so I try to cherish it for further analysis.

posted by meersan at 10:11 pm (EST) on Jul 29, 2008

You are a star!!

I hope to be in to waterloo by 10:30 so that's perfect! As to where to meet I'm thinking by McDonalds or something like that? right now mobiles are a bit of a problem for me cause mine got cut off. But if you can't find me just ask them to ask for me over the pa. I'm sure there are no other RuneFirestars likely to be about :P

posted by RuneFirestar at 11:39 am (EST) on Jul 29, 2008

Fox-ji,

Do you have any count of the number of people you have lured to LT? Tim should give you some sort of kickback...or maybe an engraved gold bookmark...

posted by MtnSk8tr at 2:49 am (EST) on Jul 26, 2008

Hee, I thought it looked like a fox but I didn't want to say so in case it was your Finnish spitz puppy or something... :)

posted by meersan at 12:46 pm (EST) on Jul 24, 2008

vroom! (I really should go to sleep...) Are those your dogs? Cute!!

posted by meersan at 5:39 am (EST) on Jul 24, 2008

I don't actually own Kil'n Time - although it's purported to be a sequel to Kil'n People, so it's in my catalog as a reminder/wish list as I enjoyed the first book. Although Amazon and various sites list the title with an ISBN and publish date of 2006, it doesn''t seem to actually exist as yet...at least, I've never found a copy for sale. I'm beginning to wonder if it's just an alternative title.

And yes, I "borrowed" my nickname from Pern.

Nerilka

posted by Nerilka at 1:19 pm (EST) on Jul 22, 2008

Is that a live fox on your profile page?

posted by rbott at 1:01 pm (EST) on Jul 20, 2008

Wow - cool - delighted to hear you liked it! R. M. Meluch has always written superb characters and well-worked, not predictable plots.

Her more recent Merrimack series is just pure fun, fast story with sensational casting.

I have tried to find everything she's done - it's all worth a look.

posted by JannyWurts at 9:49 am (EST) on Jul 15, 2008

Yeah I imagine the castle's popularity has soared since it was featured in the Harry Potter film. The HP connection was, I think one of the main reasons for visiting although I'm sure the "World's Largest Treehouse" was a large part of the attraction for my brother.

posted by Sodapop at 1:52 pm (EST) on Jul 12, 2008

Heya, I just read all the reviews of Gents, after writing mine. I had assumed that the book was set a decade or so earlier than it was published. That would presumably sort out what seemed to be factual errors to you (e.g. the wages)... although I also do have my doubts about the employment of THREE people at one set of loos any time this century!

posted by gemmation at 6:04 pm (EST) on Jul 8, 2008

OK that is just too bizarre! My son is in England at the moment, visiting my family, and my brother and his wife have taken him to Alnwick for the weekend.

posted by Sodapop at 6:48 pm (EST) on Jul 5, 2008

Thanks for the invite to the Fforde Ffans group!

:o)

posted by missylc at 11:24 am (EST) on Jul 2, 2008

You don't need a knowledge of sailing to read Llewellyn's books. They're set in the sailing world, but not full of arcana about the sport...very much like Francis when it comes to horses. Possibly the only exception is Sea Story (Great Circle), and even that's not hard to read. I guess the analogy I'd make is: where Francis would have a horse trainer trying to figure out why his horses aren't running well, Llewellyn would have a sailboat maker trying to figure out why a boat he made failed catastrophically in a medium wind, killing someone.

They have the same light, easy read tone as Francis books do.

One enjoyable thing about them is that most are set in a small sailing town in Britain so that, as you read a couple books, you start to recognize the supporting casts--Charlie Agutter, the main character of one book, is a background character in another, etc.

I guess I'll go ahead and give the rest of The Gap series a read then.

posted by TadAD at 6:26 am (EST) on Jun 26, 2008

By the way, since you seem a Dick Francis fan, have you tried Sam Llewellyn's books targeted at adults (he also writes for children)? They're about sailing rather than horse racing, but they have a similar feel and I found them very enjoyable. You can read them in pretty much any order though, if I remember correctly, Death Roll was his first.

posted by TadAD at 1:29 pm (EST) on Jun 25, 2008

Thanks for stopping by. Our libraries actually overlap even more than they do right now as I'm only about 20% of the way through listing my books...simply not enough time.

Thanks for the Janny Wurts recommendations. I read her Cycle of Fire stuff a long time ago and really enjoyed it, but I've never stopped back for more of her books. I'll give them a try.

posted by TadAD at 3:08 pm (EST) on Jun 13, 2008

It's Fictionwise. They are all ebooks. I could never imagine reading ebooks until I read a few on Netlibrary through our local library. I next bought the Outlander series from ereader. I plan to buy the paper version. I then found Fictionwise and really was hooked.

I'm in a historical romance phase and the prices can't be beat. I really like the company. They are not a publishing house but buy from small publishers with new and up and coming writers. They offer older books written by current popular authors and its often possible to get new bestseller for a 100% rebate. They offer a few free books and have a small free lending library. Anyone can purchase but if one reads a lot they offer a membeship which discounts all books 15%. I post reviews of their books on the site. The books are exact copies of paper editions. Once in a while I will purchase a novella and I tag it as such.

Probably wished you had not asked. I am disabled and our libraries are not always as accessble as they could be. I download audio and ebooks from Netlibrary and rent from booksfree (tagged netlib and bf) all of my owned books are tagged "own". I am slowly cataloging and thought I had another 400 or so to enter, but last night I upped it to a possible 600 when I found the computer books I share with my son amd remembered the cookbooks.

Bet you wish you never asked. Babbling comes from being alone so much.

I just love LT and this group is a great idea.

fran

posted by muzzie at 3:18 pm (EST) on May 23, 2008

Hello again,

In case you're interested, I asked Karen Miller about why she wrote The Accidental Sorcerer under a differrent name & here's her reply:

Hey Seanie! Well, basically it was because the Rogue Agent books don't quite fit stylistically with the other books. They're epic historical fantasy, and the RA books are standalones in a series, with a more modern backdrop. So it was decided to give them a different 'branding', to avoid muddling.

Take Care,
Seanie

posted by Seanie at 10:18 pm (EST) on May 11, 2008

Unfortunately, I've slept since reading Bad Luck and Trouble, but I recall reacting when Reacher wondered to himself how the other victims had been overpowered. If Child provided an explanation, then I must have missed it. Is it possible that Reacher was speculating to himself how events might have transpired?

As to Adam Hall's Quiller... On one hand, I always like to read a series in chronological order (chronological in terms of when stories take place, not necessarily when written) if possible (unless there's a good reason not to). I'm not sure that this is really necessary with the Quiller novels as they don't build much from story to story, especially given how little we ever really learn about Quiller (19 novels and we never learn his name...). The only things that "advance" from story to story are the "relationships" (and that's a tough word given the context) that he develops with the various control officers that he works with and the state of the world (the earliest books are firmly in the Cold War; the last book involves the Russian Mafiya). Given all that, my favorite novel in the series was probably Quiller (titled Northlight in some countries. Trying to rank the others would be somewhat of an exercise in futility as they are uniformly great books (just that some are ... er ... greater? ... than others).

The biggest caution that I alwasy give to new readers of the Quiller novels is to put aside their preconceived notions of how the story should be told to them and let Hall tell you the story the way Quiller wants to.

For more information on the Quiller novels (and to read a little-known Quiller short story by Adam Hall), check out The Unofficial Quiller Web Site.

Happy reading.

posted by MSWallack at 11:39 am (EST) on May 8, 2008

Hello!

Yep K.E. Mills & Karen Miller are the same person - Not sure why she's writing under a pseudonym already, The Accidental Sorcerer may be targeted to a younger audience I guess. I've just finished reading it & I loved it, There's an online discussion with the author herself meant to start today through the Voyager website which should be fun :)

posted by Seanie at 8:21 pm (EST) on Apr 30, 2008

thanks for the invite to the outdoors group. I do hike and try to hit my hammock at least once a week in the summer. What?! it's outside! : ) I don't bicycle, but I do have a couple of motorcycles and that's an outdoor activity, too.

cheers,

K

posted by Bookmarque at 9:25 am (EST) on Apr 23, 2008

I'm happy to be back. Yes, I haven't got to grips with the changes yet. It took me a while just to try and work out how to post my review. I need to explore a bit, I think. Well done, you, for keeping the game alive.

posted by InigoMontoya at 10:19 am (EST) on Apr 22, 2008

Hi. The prodigal daughter returns. It's been a lonnnnnnnnnng couple of weeks, I know, but between computer troubles and other tragedies, I've been out of action on the reading front. I finished my last reading challenge and just need to get up the creativity to write the review. Nice to be hear that the thread has kept going.

posted by InigoMontoya at 12:29 pm (EST) on Apr 21, 2008

To answer your question, no, it was nothing to do with Stormed Fortress - it happened a long time ago with Stormwarden - the book was published at Christmas time, sold out about instantly, and due to the timing of inventory, year end, holiday crush, nobody noticed. The decision was made NOT to reprint, until the second book came out....then the publisher "decided" a two book series ought to be a trilogy - I objected, since it wasn't written that way - and took another year to REWRITE the second half of the story to make their request fit the story....Stormwarden's performance was utterly forgotten, when they published Keeper of the Keys, finally, they only reprinted a tiny run of book I, and that killed the progress of the series...it was later recovered nicely when I re-sold the series, both here in the US and overseas. What resulted was a horrid delay in my career path....

Several times in the UK, when the bigger series sold out its hardback/trade paperback run, they opted not to reprint, but hold out for the mass market...so the books had lapses of about eight months from their new release. It does make it hard to keep momentum going.

The jury is still out with Stormed Fortress, over there - they've almost sold down the first run, remains to be seen what they do with it, after. It's a very very conservative climate, right now - and there is a warehouse crisis going on, where the distributor/retailer side will NOT warehouse books anymore - quite suddenly - it's a cheap cost cutting move, but now, they only order tiny amounts - what's being shelved basically. So the publisher is being asked to turn on a dime and take over that expense...and they have no space! It's a bloodbath, at the moment, with titles being pulped left and right, to make room for the ones that are justifying the warehouse space by sales....makes reprints harder than ever.

One understands it's a phase that will eventually work itself out...but survival in the meanwhile is the prick.

THANK YOU for pointing out the chat feature - I will go check it out right away.

When you are ready for more recommendations, I can happily give you a steer! There are a lot of great reads out there, a bit off the beaten track.

Best - Janny

posted by JannyWurts at 1:03 pm (EST) on Apr 15, 2008

Hey -- glad to hear you enjoyed Sarah Zettel! There's a string of other recs I could make, based on the fact you appreciated that read - if I'm hard to contain - yes - just ask. I do love to support that kind of quality.

For great characters and a way zippier pace, (I know you read SF) try R. M. Meluch's Tour of the Merrimack series - beginning with The Myriad. These are just plain old fashioned fun. I got a few great laughs at some of the twisty angles of view.

posted by JannyWurts at 11:17 am (EST) on Apr 13, 2008

Hi,
Thanks for the comment, but I do know about that ability. I don't actually use recommendations myself much (I've got enough unread and wishlist books already!), but I don't mind my wishlist books being included for recommendations. If I'm interested in a book enough to wishlist it, I'm also interested in recommendations that it might generate.

(On the other hand, when next I look at recommendations, I'll use a tag to exclude books that I've rated with one star - those that I didn't like. Most of those I've gotten rid of, and would put in a separate collection that I would exclude from recommendations.)

What I don't like about using a wishlist tag is that those books show up when other people look at my profile and see random books from my library. For some reason it bothers me that books I don't own show up there.

posted by rorrison at 5:15 am (EST) on Mar 31, 2008

Well that was easy - fait accompli, for now at least. Thank you ever so for the quick tip - you know I must have looked at that particular page half a dozen times but never picked up on the 'add to my favourites', so a thousand times I thank you.

I dare say the other timesinks offered will also be of benefit, so many thanks in advance for these too.

Having been a carnivore for the majority of my life I can only but agree with your comments, also on the avatars - then again, sometimes I believe that animals are nicer 'people' than we are.

As ever, take care of you and yours,

TheDaftTree

posted by TheOneTree at 10:24 am (EST) on Mar 30, 2008

FYI: Shejidan crashed last night. Guild aware & was on rooftop all night. They will not come down for a bath until problem is solved.

posted by MtnSk8tr at 12:18 pm (EST) on Mar 29, 2008

Thanks for letting me know, I looked at it once or twice and found it fascinating - I'm a bit lazy on the tags :(

Now I have noticed that books now have a status of "to read" or "currently reading" and I cant wait for when these are accessible from the main library lists and not just each book's page (so i can mark the 200 or so I need to read --shame--). Mostly I cannot wait for it to appear on the connections page since it would be interesting to see what people are reading and have on their tbr pile (or being able to ask your connections which book from your tbr pile you ought to read next, or see if you have tbr books in common... that's be fun)

You mentioned a group about new features, so I have now joined this in hope I will know when any of these happen. I can dream :)

posted by iphigenie at 8:22 am (EST) on Mar 29, 2008

My apologies, Reading_Fox, for not answering your question - yes I have read Mistwraith and thoroughly enjoyed it both times. Janny would have to be one of my favourite authors. I think there is only one book currently listed that I haven't read at least once.

The reason that my bare bones library has no comments, et cetera, is that I am still in the throes of loading it up onto LT. My Beloved presented me with this laptop on Christmas day last year and, in between working (disgusting hours), being with Beloved and other associated loved ones, reading (every chance I get) it all gets to be about loading up the library. Hopefully I will finish soon and begin tweaking. I still need to learn how to use LT and Blog and a squillion (yes, I know, not a word) other things coming into this century. I'd really like just to know how to mention who my favourite authors are in my profile. Sigh, it'll happen in it's own good time I dare say.

It's 2am, I'm for bed. As ever, take care.

posted by TheOneTree at 1:00 pm (EST) on Mar 28, 2008

Hello ReadingFox, very nice to hear from a fellow GDer.

On the sharing of similar books thingy, all I can say is you have great taste! lol.

And yes, although it's probably a bit lame, S.Donaldsons Thomas Covenant series was the very first series I ever read, it also happened to be the very first book I read after discovering there was such a thing as fantasy sf (this was soooo long ago now). I'd only read JRR Tolkiens Lord of the Rings prior to this. The One Tree book always struck me probably because of the natural order of all things - there should always be a balance, but most probably from the Tree in David & Leigh Eddings The Belgariad series, and most definately with the of Polgara the Sorceress.

Also, love your set-up of the tags - I started out doing my own thing in tags when I joined, and finally read up on what tags are 'supposed' to be used for and changed it all. I may jolly well change it all back now.

Enough rambling from me, take care.

posted by TheOneTree at 11:45 am (EST) on Mar 28, 2008

Hi Reading_Fox -

Oh, you have made my day, with your comment, as to how much you enjoyed Curse of the Mistwraith!!! This series needs its friends, with Britain just repackaging all of the series, and the US program tied up in suspension, in the crush and bloodbath of two mergers.

To answer a few of your questions: each successive volume will "reintroduce" the elements you need to move ahead...but not REPEAT them - you will see into the event through another character point of view - NOT - as a flashback. The action in this book does NOT ever "reverse" timeline - it is either simultaneous, or forward from the last scene. Rather, you will see into an old event from a new angle and it will ALWAYS deepen the understanding of it (or you will see the misunderstanding of it perpetuated by another's shortness of vision). Many of the things that look traditional will unveil and be - well, you will see! - the social interaction and political tensions were too much to put in all at once, and that will deepen and astonish you. Each time you read another volume, you could re-read the earlier ones - and see what you missed, and realize - it was already there, but for your own assumptions....therefore, this is an ongoing puzzle, you will ALWAYS see more, and nobody whos re-read, even ten times, stops seeing the depths and heights move outward. This is in the design.

Here's a little overview:
Curse of the Mistwraith sets the stage and establishes the "main conflict" in its first phase.
Ships of Merior/Warhost of Vastmark were designed to be ONE book, but size caused a split of the UK edition, and the American paperback - if you get the old US hardback, they are one volume, Ships of Merior. Plan to read these together, they cover the "second phase"

Alliance of Light is the third Arc, and it is in five volumes, but meant as ONE STORY. Prepare for the fact Fugitive Prince "restages" for what will culminate in one blow off your socks SEQUENCES of climactic events. Fugitive Prince and Grand Conspiracy set the foundations, Peril's Gate climbs it to the tipping point, and Traitor's Knot brings the convergence, and Stormed Fortress just plain explodes the rollercoaster ride to finish. Consider it, if you want, the "last two chapters" of Mistwraith....it won't let you off the hook by way of intensity.

The fourth Arc, Sword of the Canon will be two volumes, Initiate's Trial, and Destiny's Conflict.

The fifth Arc is projected to be one volume, and close out the series.

There's your road map - you can pass it to anyone, I don't mind in the least!
I am totally thrilled you enjoyed the ride - and very very hopeful what's in this series can become better known so we can begin to retrench and get a new US venue for it. It's supported now, in London and Australia/NZ, and also still pretty accessible on the used market on US Amazon. It sorely needs word of mouth by readers who KNOW that, like Erikson, they stage until things are set up, then unwind with a BANG....the twists and the staging take folks by surprise, and not familiar with my work, they don't realize unless they finish, that I never ever shrink from delivery of the payoff.

On the tips on the LT features - thank you so much! I will look them up - planning as you posted to get some interview links up, and a bio, and other little goodies.

If you think the beginning chapters of Mistwraith would be better as sampler recordings, I can do them - I felt? stuff from the heart of the story maybe was a better representation....it's a forest for the trees, thing.

I posted the audio links for Hell's Chasm in the nonspoiler, too.

Thanks again for sharing your delight!
Janny Wurts

posted by JannyWurts at 11:33 am (EST) on Mar 26, 2008

Reading_Fox -

Ah, that makes me happy, that you are enjoying Mistwraith! There is a glossary at the back, that should assist with any issues of complexity - just look up the name or term, if you have a sticky moment. All the books have this feature, updated to the ending point of the last volume, so there are no spoilers. There are also little tidbits of info with the definitions not included in the text, for the fun of it.

This series but definitely needs its friends, with no US venue at the moment. And Stormed Fortress makes such a crashing finish to Arc III, I feel, anyone starting the series now has a tremendous advantage, in having all the continuity available with no wait between volumes.

On travel your way - I have a free airfare in mileage good to go overseas....and I may just spend it to go to Europe. We are mulling this over. France has bought 3 volumes of the series for translation, and with London gearing up for the mass market edition of Stormed Fortress, a trip to some museums so my husband can look at paintings, and a stop to meet people in editorial who don't know me might just be a good idea....we are torn, between doing that, or going on a trip to Africa with a wildlife painter, to paint -- decisions!!! I will definitely let you know what we settle on...prerequisite, we have to get good cat care, as I have some older guys who have a few special needs. (ever seen a Bengal cat? We were blessed with two, given from our vet as waif rescues, and they are just AWESOME!!!! despite having only one eye.) I like dogs, too, have had some truly special ones, but not any at the moment. Three horses are enough.

Right now, I have just finished using Garage Band to make mp3 files, for free download, of some teaser chapters - my webguy will have them up in a few days, so you can have some audio clips of a few bits, for your commute. (I did an hour excerpt, from Mistwraith's chapter 4, and another 55 minute clip from Chapter 11.) My next project for this weekend is to do the first 3 chapters from To Ride Hell's Chasm. Meant to do this, years ago, but mastering another software inbetween all the other rumpus and creativity was a seesaw ride. I'd start, then not have any time for months, and forget Everything, then have to start over. Feels good to have made progress - I'd like to play with the music aspects, too, eventually. Got a loft full of instruments to make a racket on, anyhow.

Hope you are thriving - and that the rains you all are getting, over there, aren't putting too much of a dent in your hiking and biking.

Have a great Easter!

Janny

posted by JannyWurts at 11:51 am (EST) on Mar 22, 2008

Reading_Fox - you have distracted me, but only in a good way. And not significantly, with regard to the writing, which goes on, regardless. Starts of books are always a rocky road, getting everything launched Just Right. And this one is the start of a new arc, to boot.

Too bad on Mistborn - I just gave my copy away, I could have sent it to you...I cannot keep every book I buy. And I only save the ones I know I want to look at again. This one had a very interesting system of magic - original to say the least.

On excerpts - when the publisher puts the book together, there are "signatures" - set numbers of pages that fold, and are cut, when the book is complete. Therefore, sometimes when the text of a book falls short of filling up the last signature, there will be blank pages - often filled with ads or lists of other author's books, or, if you are lucky, an excerpt of a book of your own. I think this is a nice practice for paperbacks - but in a hardbound, when this occurred, I always try to take a stand and ask for appendix material, or maps, or more artwork to fill the space. That's what we did when there were extra pages in Fugitive Prince (I asked for a printing of the entire lyrics of a ballad mentioned in the novel) and in Traitor's Knot's US edition, we put in an appendix that answered some of the most frequently asked questions.

I really really hope you enjoy Mistwraith - it's a strange sort of book, in that, the expected will NOT happen. Like Hell's Chasm, it will take awhile to set up. By the halfway point, it will start to tip, and be warned - do NOT read the last two chapter sets with any interruptions pending...that would likely fry your brain. People who finish this book NEVER forget it. You will see some of the "themes" of earlier novels handled in this series with a lot more power and depth.

I am right now creating mp3 excerpts of readings of select chapters as teasers for download. So if you commute, you could have an audio file for part of it. (I will let you know which sections - I've recorded one already, but plan to try another before I upload to the website).

What am I reading now? Carol Berg's Breath and Bone. She's a writer (rare) who takes chances, shows the grittier edges of a character, and does the deeper look into both sides of a conflict. I really love her stuff. Her first trilogy is a gift in a world of vanilla fiction. I am liking this next series too - her longer series (D'Arnath) was not quite as well knit as the first trilogy, (it had some repetitious plot points) but was altogether readable.

I also just finished Sagittarius Command by R. M. Meluch, she's such rip roaring fun. Amazing she's so undiscovered. Her work, Jerusalem Fire had such depth it was astounding.

Hope you have a fine Easter! It's a pleasure to correspond with you, and I do look forward, someday to a REAL beer - though the virtual will do on Anniversary Day.

Best - Janny

posted by JannyWurts at 10:19 am (EST) on Mar 20, 2008

Thanks! I thought it fitting, since you introduced me to LT in the first place, and, here's my first year's anniversary just weeks away, and well - it's fun, I'm still here! I'd raise a beer to that in good company. The Green Dragon has provided a LOT of laughs - I lurk far more than I post, if you had not guessed.

I hope you are well - and obviously reading - I saw your post in finishing Elantris. Are you planning to go on to Mistborn?

posted by JannyWurts at 11:45 am (EST) on Mar 19, 2008

A friend and I were just talking about what terrible eye witnesses we would be, and here's further proof. Of course that's a fox and dog in your avi . . . duh! My excuse might be that I was wearing my glasses instead of my contacts and I don't see as well with them . . .

I'm mooching Janny's [Sorcerer's Legacy], hoping that it's a standalone and I haven't inadvertently picked something midway in a series. I checked her website and Amazon and I think I'm safe! (I try not to read too much on Amazon, as I don't want to read any spoilers beforehand.)

Looking forward to it!

posted by ejj1955 at 2:06 pm (EST) on Mar 14, 2008

I hadn't really thought about posting a review of a book I didn't actually finish, but I'll give it a whirl.

posted by Jenson_AKA_DL at 10:40 am (EST) on Mar 14, 2008

Hi,

Thanks! I do love Cherryh's books and have read nearly all of them. My LT library so far is pretty lopsided--I found this site as I was embarking on a reorganization of my books, and the first thing I did was pull out most of the sci fi/fantasy books (as they are so dear to my heart) and list those. My books have been piled haphazardly in an upstairs bedroom since my house was flooded in June 2006 (I lost several boxes of books and the bottom shelf of every bookcase on my ground floor, ugh), so I was delighted to find this site to help with the organization effort.

I happened on Janny's library because of the shared fantasy works, I think, but I've never read any of her work. However, LT also led me to BookMooch, and I've just mooched one of her books, so it's on its way to me!

The other thing this site prompted was to put all my "TBR" books in one place (well, in several boxes), and I was shocked to find out how much there is. I probably shouldn't get any new books for a year or two (ha! like that will stop me).

I love your avatar--is that your dog and cat? Very cute!

Cheers,
Elizabeth

posted by ejj1955 at 4:06 pm (EST) on Mar 13, 2008

Hi! Thanks for the invite. That group is actually one of the (several dozen) ones that I've got on "watch." I have this weird fear of joining too many groups. I know it's silly. I really ought to just go ahead and join them all, instead of being a lurker who occasionally participates. I'm so bad that I only just a couple of weeks ago finally "joined" GD. *sigh* I think part of my thinking is that by joining, I somehow commit myself to actually keeping up with all the threads - something that I'll never in my wildest dreams be able to do!

OK, yes, I'm neurotic. It's also early, and I'm always very wired from several cups of Tazo's aptly-named "Awake" tea right before I go into the classroom to teach.

Right. All that to say, "thanks," and I've already got my eye on you freaks (you cycling freaks, that is!) ;P

Cheers,
A very wired Dani

posted by philosojerk at 9:47 am (EST) on Mar 12, 2008

I've read a lot of Anne McCaffrey, especially when I was a little younger. I'll give the other two a try though. Summon the Keeper is the first in the Keeper Chronicles which I really liked, but she writes a lot of different types of things. The Blood Series is good if you're into more scary stuff for instance. Or the Valor series for more pure Science Fiction.

posted by sydaisy at 3:47 pm (EST) on Feb 14, 2008

Welcome to our group. I'm kind of curious as what cave as a verb means in your profile. If you want you can post about it, or just post a comment in my profile. Also have you tried Tanya Huff? Her writing is usually a good fantasy humor combination, especially the keeper chronicles.
Sydney

posted by sydaisy at 3:00 am (EST) on Feb 14, 2008

Reading Fox-ji,

One wishes to thank you again for pointing us towards LT! It's a real joy!

posted by MtnSk8tr at 5:09 pm (EST) on Jan 30, 2008

Thanks for the invite and for the book suggestions! I got Good Omens over Christmas - I'll have to move that up my TBR pile. :)

posted by StarGazer72 at 1:15 pm (EST) on Jan 25, 2008

I put them in for the anthologies/collections/magazines in order generally speaking. So if a story appears that is really common, like, say, Nightfall by Isaac Asimov, it will be put in each time.

Then when you sort by entry order for that publication, they appear in the correct order.

posted by bluetyson at 5:25 am (EST) on Jan 25, 2008

Yes, that's the one... by the bridge. I'm the reverse of you, not born here, but lived here most of my life.

I'm just off to buy some cider ;-)

posted by Tane at 12:30 pm (EST) on Jan 21, 2008

Nice review of Perdido Street Station. I had much the same feelings. One typo caught my eye. I think that should be "tome" not "tomb" when referring to a sizable book (:-{)}

posted by PghDragonMan at 1:38 pm (EST) on Jan 18, 2008

It is embarassing! I hesitated to even post on Shejidan about my LibraryThing participation until I DID have my Cherryh cataloged but I have poor impulse control. I sorta just started cataloging on the stuff nearest the computer and the Cherryh is nearer the bed.

posted by CyanDag at 11:11 am (EST) on Jan 16, 2008

You have reviewed a remarkable number of books,Reading_Fox. I look forward to reading them!

posted by stellarexplorer at 9:50 pm (EST) on Jan 12, 2008

I do much the same - go to a real brick and mortar store, buy a stack and read it through. My TBR pile is a short shelf, mostly because it could be a tremendous, tempting distraction!

Nice to see you're already enjoying Daughter -

It's particularly fun to see the shift in temper between LT readers and the general scrimmage. I expect to discover certain types of new authors much faster.

posted by JannyWurts at 2:50 pm (EST) on Jan 10, 2008

Hey reading_fox --

Sorry for the long delay getting back to you on the Niven/Pournelle question - I've been offline and busy w/ the holidays for a while now.

Yes, The Gripping Hand is an excellent sequel - although it's been many years since I've read it, so I can't recall too many details other than it takes what was excellent about the Mote in God's Eye and expands upon it, the well-developed and in-depth characterization, examination of military culture in space and the problems/opportunities that creates and alien contact/culture interactions with humans. I would definitely give it a go if you enjoyed the first book.

I'd also highly recommend the duology the Risen Empire and Killing of Worlds by Scott Westerfield if you enjoy interesting takes on military sci-fi. These two books were meant to be published as one, and I read them in a SFBC ed. as a omnibus edition and would recommend getting them both as they are really a cool look at what battles in space would be like considering the contingencies of distance and space.

Anyways - thanks for the invite as well - I really enjoyed the entre into fantasy that the pern books gave me, although i haven't kept up with the series since the son took over. Just started getting too out there for me at some point - although if a particular volume would be good to give a chance to, I'd be interested in hearing your recommendation.

posted by chani at 10:37 am (EST) on Jan 2, 2008

So glad they finally came!

The Elmore Leonard is very idiomatic, so if you need any translation services, just ask.

Hope you enjoy the books and best in 2008.

posted by littlegeek at 2:42 pm (EST) on Dec 30, 2007

RF-ji,
The CueCat is WONDERFUL! Works like a dream, straight out of the box. Very fun, very easy & saves a boatload of work, esp. for someone like me with a massive, unusual library. SQUEEEEE!

posted by MtnSk8tr at 2:34 am (EST) on Dec 27, 2007

RF-ji,

I don't know yet how well/easily the CueCat works as it just arrived yesterday & I haven't tried it yet. The quantum leap in # of books cataloged was simply from the search function, or going to other people's libraries & clicking on ones I own. However, even that was laborious as so many of mine are first or unusual editions, imported, or uncommon, so I've had to scan in a number of covers, edit LT info, tag the signed volumes, etc.

We have over 700+ climbing-related books -- not to mention the many hundreds of volumes on other subjects. I'm *barely* started: the project is obviously going to take many months, if not years. But, this is a totally cool site & I love it. Thanks for alerting me to it. We need to start another Shejidan thread on it, but I'm waiting until I have more of my books cataloged....which is also waiting until after the holidays.

I'm working both Christmas Day afternoon/night & NY Day afternoon/night. Bleh. Can't wait for the drunks, assaults, auto accidents, etc. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

posted by MtnSk8tr at 12:22 pm (EST) on Dec 22, 2007

I had considered trying a CueCat, & just ordered one because of your encouragement. We have so many books that it is probably the only way we'll ever get them all cataloged.

posted by MtnSk8tr at 1:13 pm (EST) on Dec 15, 2007

You asked a question in the Homeschool group about science. Were you just trying to stir things up, or did you want to have a conversation? There are a couple of answers there to your question. :)

posted by MrsLee at 11:16 am (EST) on Dec 15, 2007

Not so much "better things to do", but "too many things to do", LOL!

I have such a huge library, putting it here will take eons. We have nearly 700 volumes in our climbing library alone.

For now, I'm just ttrying to get the books entered, then will need to edit for edition, etc. Many of our mtneering books are 1st editions & signed.

I'm encouraging my husband to put the Spokane Mtneer's club library on LibaryThing. If he doesn't, I will. But, that will be a project for MONTHS from now.

posted by MtnSk8tr at 10:58 am (EST) on Dec 14, 2007

Hi,

My first thought about Patrick White was the same as thewordygecko -- there isn't really anyone you can say is "like" Patrick White. Peter Carey is a possibility, especially if it's the Australian and magic-realist aspects of White that attract your father. I saw an interview with him where he acknowledged White as one of his main inspirations. Maybe Illywhacker or Bliss - Oscar and Lucinda only if your father is really into the historical fiction side of things. (I haven't read True history of the Kelly gang). Or move backwards to Australian writers like Henry Lawson or Henry Handel Richardson (haven't read the latter) who influenced White.

A bit further off: if he is attracted by the "critical colonial epic" side of White, what about trying South African writers like Nadine Gordimer or J.M. Coetzee? Or even early Doris Lessing.

If his favourites are things like The Aunt's Story or Riders in the Chariot, he might be interested in Primo Levi.

posted by thorold at 4:20 am (EST) on Dec 14, 2007

Gidday Fox,

Patrick White is such an imaginative writer, with all the psychological blood and guts, that I hesitate to say anyone is like him! However, I wonder if your father might look at Peter Carey (my personal favourite is History of the Kelly Gang, but I hated Bliss; enjoyed Oscar and Lucinda; can't say anything about the others, but I feel he shares a similar spirit to White) or Alex Miller (Landscape of Farewell, Journey to the Stone Country). However, Miller really only shares the same gravity of attention to Australia, its indigenous peoples, and the landscape. Quite different style of writing, lacks the sarcasm. Michelle de Kretser's The Hamilton Case is very very good, if your father hasn't read it yet.

If I think of anything else, I'll let you know.

Cheers

Sue

posted by thewordygecko at 8:57 pm (EST) on Dec 13, 2007

I recommend William Gaddis, The Recognitions, for your dad.

posted by etcetera at 5:51 pm (EST) on Dec 13, 2007

Thanks - you have a grand name as well.
Besotted

posted by bookbesotted at 2:38 pm (EST) on Nov 29, 2007

I stopped at N with the alphabet books because I moved to a new town and the library wasn't as convenient to get to. Not to mention it was small and I often had to wait a long time for books. =( I'll probably pick them up again soon as there is a branch of the Boston Public Library right next door to where I work. Its smaller then my town library but much for convenient. Plus its a larger organization and so I am bound to get books faster. I got those books from the library as they didn't interest me enough to buy them. Ya know?

I've seen Terry Pratchett in stores but don't think that I've looked all that much at his books. Are they worth the read? I have a new library card that is just begging to be used...much to the annoyance of the unread books on my bookshelf. I have to keep close watch on the card...else it might go missing...a victim of foul play. Although I have appeased my books somewhat by commuting into the city again. Longer commute + train = lots more reading time. Books like that.

posted by Irisheyz77 at 8:54 am (EST) on Nov 28, 2007

Thanks so much for answering my "spoiler" question on the Dresden books. And thanks for not saying too much. I knew he wouldn't get killed, but had been curious if he ever got out of the Curse of Damocles (spelling too), or if was forever overly paranoid about the Council trying to kill him over breaking rules. I would also assume that even if he was no longer cursed that he would still be wary of the Council, what with his history, it would be understandably and also would be a good plot line that an author would not want to waste.

Knowing that the "Curse" portion of the Dresden/Council relationship is taken care of in the first book, actually makes me more likely to read them too. ^_^

Thank you

posted by CursorsFury at 6:32 pm (EST) on Nov 27, 2007

Your description of Morgaine does ring a very distant, tinny bell. I think I must have read one of those books a loooooong time ago.

posted by MuseofIre at 7:45 pm (EST) on Nov 25, 2007

Oh, and here are a couple of possibly useful links about the Boulder Pledge, which I am trying to refrain from posting into certain people's comments thread as a pointed reminder of why spamming can be counter-productive...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulder_Ple...
http://bw.org/ube/boulder.html

posted by JulesJones at 6:23 pm (EST) on Nov 22, 2007

In answer to your question -- for a lot of people on LiveJournal, the obvious way to set up a group to discuss a common interest is to create a LiveJournal community. :-)
It's not just "because it's there", though. If you've already got an LJ, an LJ community is a very convenient way to follow a discussion group.

posted by JulesJones at 6:00 pm (EST) on Nov 22, 2007

Hi Reading Fox,

In answer to your comment/question -

Hunter of Worlds is the book that got me started on collecting Cherryh's works. The copyright is 1977, which puts it at one of her earliest works. According to Cherryh on her website, Hunter of Worlds is very, very far down the time line of the Alliance/Union Universe. It is a stand alone novel which I have read at least twice, utterly fascinating, although it is not one of her better-known works.

I have five more Foreigner books to read, but have used BookMooch to send for the first three of Chanur novels. Looks like the rest of '07 is going to be Cherryh year!

posted by Pandababy at 10:57 am (EST) on Nov 22, 2007

Yeah, so, I suck. I just realized I never replyed to your message from the end of October. I apologize!

Yeah, it looked like a try to me. What are ya gonna do I guess. Also, I don't remember which match it was now (NZ v France?), but there was a penalty awarded that seemed to me it could have easy been a penalty try. As you say, such is sport.

It was a good World Cup though. I think I was most disappointed with France. They beat some great teams, and eliminated NZ, then end up finishing fourth. Ouch.

posted by dodger at 11:46 pm (EST) on Nov 17, 2007

Yes, I know what you mean. Some good quotable passages that I come upon never make it into my comments because I'm too into a book to stop and mark them. I've actually gotten into the habit of keeping those little sticky tab things floating around the house, so that when I'm reading, I can quickly mark a spot without stopping. Then I just enter the quotes when I've finished a book and am writing the review. It's amazing how far neuroses can take you, eh? ;)

Cheers

posted by philosojerk at 9:46 am (EST) on Nov 15, 2007

Hi reading_fox,

Thanks for the note and adding me to your interesting libraries list. I'm going to pass on your invitation to join the McCaffrey group -- I like her early Pern works, but I lost interest in her later stuff.

Of Cherryh, besides the Fortress series, I have read Tree of Swords and Jewels and the sequel, whatever that was called, and the Faded Sun trilogy, which I really loved. I also read one of the Chanur series, I think, and something else, maybe Downbelow Station, which didn't really grab me. Morgaine sounds familiar, but I can't remember a thing about it.

Look forward to chatting with you again.

posted by MuseofIre at 2:31 pm (EST) on Nov 14, 2007

A little off-topic so I came here instead of posting in the thread, but I love that you brought up one of the many great rants from KSR's global warming trilogy. I don't have the rant on the WB, but a few of my faves are recorded in the "Comments" field for those books in my catalog. It really is a great series, and Frank has to be one of my all-time favorite fictional characters.

posted by philosojerk at 7:04 pm (EST) on Nov 13, 2007

Thanks for the invites, reading_fox! I joined the Fforde groups, but I think I'll continue to watch Pro and Con for a while. I'm enjoying the discussions there, but adding a useful comment would take more time than I have at the moment. :)

posted by Iralell at 9:23 am (EST) on Nov 13, 2007

Thanks for the note about the Weyr and Hold group. I'll go take a look.

PS: What kind of dogs are these? They're very cute. And wow! The ears on the little one! Looks very foxish.

posted by sandragon at 1:38 pm (EST) on Nov 11, 2007

No I have not read all of the Tolkien Books only the Trilogy, The Hobbit, The Sil,UT, Both vols. of The Lost Road...,and large parts of the reference books. I doubt I'll ever get through them all but am working on it! yes Gerald Durrel sense of humor seems to have gotten him through a whole lot of interesting predicaments. Of course you know that his brother was the other famous Durrel (Lawrence)tho I'm not ewven sure right now what he wrote. Of course he was one of the dinizens of [My Family, and other Animals].The touchstones aren't picking up on that on e But it's one of Geery Durrel's goodies.

posted by Vanye at 9:23 pm (EST) on Oct 31, 2007

I see that you seem to be a reader of Gerald Durrell! I have read most if not all of his works w/the exeption of the one you reviewed. I used to laugh myself silly when reading his stuff. When I was in college I used an excerpt from one of his books in an Oral Interpretation (Speech) class! I have always loved his sense of humor as well as his obvious concern for the animals & people w/whom he worked. Glad to find someone else who also appreciatesd this writer. 8^)

posted by Vanye at 5:10 pm (EST) on Oct 29, 2007

Robin McKinley and John Scalzi. It didn't exactly start out that way...

I thought I had all of McKinley's books, but then I found out she'd done a handful of kids' books, and had short stories in some anthologies that I hadn't heard of. All but one are out of print, so I spent a lot of time and not a little money getting them through abebooks and amazon booksellers and such.

And with Scalzi, well, I have almost all of his fiction - he's fairly new to the fiction scene, so it isn't that hard. Unfortunately, the ones I am missing are out of print, limited edition, and probably signed as well, so there's no chance of my getting a copy of Agent to the Stars (though they might be reprinting it) or Questions for a Soldier (not going to be reprinted, far as I know). He also has done a number of nonfiction books that I don't have, but I haven't decided yet if I care quite that much.

And when it comes down to it, I guess I have everything by Alan Revere, but those are reference books. And there's only 4 of them so far. Though I would like the new edition of Professional Goldsmithing, I heard he made substantial changes...

posted by bluesalamanders at 9:58 am (EST) on Oct 25, 2007

I love Oysterband. I've seen them twice at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, and we're hoping to see them at a regular concert next spring. A friend is supposed to be buying the tickets and I keep forgetting to ask if she has got them yet. Their last gig at the EFMF was memorable - they were the closing act on Saturday night and there was a massive lightning storm with torrential rain. Needless to say, the hill emptied pretty quickly, which was a pity because it was a great show. I stuck it out :)

posted by tardis at 5:37 pm (EST) on Oct 15, 2007

Thank you -- the haiku muse seemed to go into hiding when I wrote in pirate-speak, so I mostly resorted to word-play. Afterwards, I wrote "raccoons" just to make sure she hadn't been offended. Actually, I hadn't written any type of poetry for a very long time, so this was a lot of fun for me. Thanks again for the kind words.

posted by SilentInAWay at 11:19 pm (EST) on Oct 4, 2007

Unfortunately, I'm mostly a wanna-be caver. I've only been in a handful of caves, (heavily supervised; I definitely don't have the expertise to go down on my own!), and I live in a flat, caveless wasteland. Sigh. Someday, hopefully.

posted by xicanti at 12:12 am (EST) on Sep 29, 2007

"My least favourite are the vertical caves where you spend all day joining the dots on a piece of rope and then prussicking back out again having touched the sump. I prefer the opportunity to explore a bit."

Boy, do I agree with that! I did it once, decided there had to be more fun somewhere else! 8^}

THanks for inviting me to join your group...

posted by drneutron at 6:49 pm (EST) on Sep 28, 2007

What caves did you manage to visit that are relatively untouched? Although, I probably won't have heard of them.

A few of the guys at work got together in the mountains in West Virginia to explore a cave on private property that's had visitors, but only a very limited number. We drove about 4 hours, caved all day, then drove 4 hours home. It was a *long* day. After hitting Nutt cave a few times, we came across a couple of others on private property where access was also limited, and so were relatively untouched. None of these had names, per se, just the name of the property owner.

Nutt cave was neat because it had a really nice belly crawl at the entrance followed by a wade up an underground stream before you got to the big rooms and crystal structures. Really nice cave. Some of the others we hit were mainly mudholes with no major rooms and structures.

That was 15 years ago, though, so things are probably less unspoiled now...8^(

posted by drneutron at 11:54 am (EST) on Sep 28, 2007

Yes I'm based in Manchester :)
Had a quick look at the itenerary for the Literature Festival, but it all seems a bit "creative writing-y" if you know what I mean.

posted by wonderlake at 11:11 am (EST) on Sep 28, 2007

From the Go Review That Book group, The Lions of Al-Rassan is completely fine (i.e. unread and at home), although it might be a bit before I can get to it. I'm sorry that link didn't work... it worked fine when I posted it, but now when I click on it all I'm getting is one of my three current reads. Hrmph.

I've enjoyed the two Kay books I've read so far; which one have you read?

posted by fyrefly98 at 8:14 am (EST) on Sep 28, 2007

Unfortunetly we don't own an Aga

Sadly, nor do I now, but it was the one thing that made the house bearable when I was a child. (Ancient house with no central heating.)

What's the issue with Todd (Mccaffery)'s book that you haven't finished it? I haven't bought
it because in general I find different authors are poor at continuing an established series.
But I'm interested to know if that is the case this time?

Yes, pretty much - I shan't bother to buy any others by him.

posted by sarahemmm at 7:55 am (EST) on Sep 27, 2007

Hi, Foxy!

I see you too have a high proportion of 'unique' works - I do envy you the Aga and Indian
cookery books.

You'll see I have now catalogued all my Pern books, and can reasonably claim admittance to the Weyr & Hold group. I haven't managed to finish the book by Todd, though.

posted by sarahemmm at 2:41 am (EST) on Sep 27, 2007

When time came to choose a username, my mental process went something like this:

"Username? Okay. How about my name? Nah. How about one of my usual nicknames? Oh, come on, Danny, have some fun; be original! Okay. So, what's this site all about? Books. Uh huh, and what does that have to do with me? Well, I write books, I have books, and I read books. How about BookReader? No, probably already taken, too easy. What if I translated it? Yeah. Spanish? Libro leer-- leyendo--- ...okay, not into Spanish. French? No, I don't remember enough of that, either. Well, only one language left, so German it is. Buch... Leser, I think. Yeah. And, hey, in German, everything ends up becoming one word, so I have a one-word username! Yay!"

And thus did I become Buchleser.

...bet you weren't expecting that long of a reply, were you, Foxy? :)

posted by buchleser at 11:32 am (EST) on Sep 26, 2007

Reading Fox,

I read your Favorite Terry Pratchett Characters comment, and became curious to know if you work in mental health, or if that is more of a pastime.

posted by buchleser at 7:06 am (EST) on Sep 26, 2007

I believe I now know why my series sometimes show in a sensible order. LT has, sometime recently, changed its sort algorithm so that sorting by one column then by another doesn't lose the first sort, for entries which match equal on the second one. So if you had been looking at something in entry order before sorting my catalog by author, that would explain it. This topic has come up in Site talk: Series Order?.

posted by jimroberts at 4:55 am (EST) on Sep 25, 2007

Yes, Oswaldtwistle is a bit north of Manchester, next to Blackburn.

Starting from Hamburg, go south of the river. Now set off in any direction, just avoiding crossing the river, and you will soon be in Niedersachsen, aka Lower Saxony.

posted by jimroberts at 2:04 pm (EST) on Sep 20, 2007

How've you managed to get all the series' to come out in order without tagging them? Is it just carefully entereing in the correct order? (although of those we share your Inspector Morse books are higgelty pigglety).

I don't know! For the series I regarded as series when entering, I did try to enter in order, largely to simplify numbering them, which I've done in Comments, maybe you didn't display that column. But in the case of the ones tagged 'william brown', I know I put one of them in out of order, but it still shows up in the right place. When I look at a sorted series in my catalog, they show in reverse order. I wasn't really thinking of Morse or Perry Mason as series, they got entered higgeldy piggledy and don't have numbered comments.

despite reading widely I've never been good at spelling.

I'm not good at spelling either, but I installed a spell checker in Firefox so it doesn't show :-) I've looked at some more of your reviews - there are quite a lot of typos or misspellings, though it doesn't normally interfere with understanding. There are occasional missing words too though, which spell checking won't help with, like "can is carried through" in your review of Monstrous Regiment: "can be and is"?

Are you a visitor in Germany or native?

Not native, long-term resident. It came of looking for work outside London, which is great for a visit but not, IMO, somewhere to live.
Are you really in Manchester UK? When I was growing up in Oswaldtwistle, Manchester was The Big City A Long Way Away.

posted by jimroberts at 11:21 am (EST) on Sep 19, 2007

Re your review of Cities in Flight: "metasize"? Is that a word? Maybe "metastasize", though that doesn't seem quite apt either.
Does your invitation to criticise apply to your profile too? It's "separate', not 'seperate'. (But please don't criticize 'criticise'.)

I guess I should alter my profile to say more about accepting criticism.

ETA: you have typo "soem" in review of Science of Discworld.

Jim Roberts

posted by jimroberts at 10:01 am (EST) on Sep 19, 2007

Hello Reading Fox,

thank you for the comment. The book Morphy is talking about is O.J. Simpsons "If I did it". Where he hypothetically or not so hypothetically talks about the murder of his ex wife.

I have been in China since 2004 now... Married to a wonderful native 2 month ago. Hehe, ask your brother... there must be something about Chinese girls ;).

I work as marketing consultant for a Chinese online incoming tour operator (chinahighlights.com). Our office is in beautiful but small Guilin, South China (Guangxi Province). The city doesn't have the amenities of big cities like Beijing or Shanghai, but its clean and safe with fresh air and a lot of nature around.

I don't think I will be going to the Olympics next year... Prefer watching it comfortably in front of a big TV screen. I have seen to many big events in China... and if you experience the Chinese Holiday Time once or twice, you stay away from traveling in peak seasons....

posted by J_ipsen at 9:22 am (EST) on Sep 19, 2007

We get almost no rugby coverage here! Not even on an obscure cable channel. You can purchase individual matches on pay-per-view, but their $25 a game! If you’re a satellite subscriber you can buy a channel for $15 a month that carries a lot of the games (plus some football and even GAA). We used to have a cable channel called Fox Sports World which aired a lot of rugby (and football, and even Swedish and Finnish hockey) but they changed it to Fox Soccer Channel (a bittersweet change for me) and now it’s almost exclusively football programming. There is an Internet broadcast I can subscribe to for $15 a month, but they don’t archive any of the matches so I’d have to watch them live on my computer, and given the time differences I’d have to be in front of my computer at six or eight in the morning for a lot of matches!, which won’t happen. ;-)

However, despite the lack of coverage, rugby has some popularity. There are quite a few armature clubs and leagues across the nation; and the 2007 Churchill Cup (played in California) was broadcast on an obscure cable channel, and the crowd was decently large. Also, the Sevens did get some TV coverage, although it was only in the form of a highlights show shown a few times a week.

So for the most part I rely on a variety of Web sites and video clips, and I have a few past matches I’ve downloaded from file-sharing sites. Other than that, I have to travel to see any rugby!

posted by dodger at 8:05 pm (EST) on Sep 9, 2007

I presume we’re talking rugby? (Sport-wise my brain has been in Rugby WC mode!) England disposed of the US nicely, though I will say they probably should have beaten them by a bigger margin. The US isn’t a bad team though, considering it’s made up of armatures, and rugby is less than popular on this side of the Atlantic. I probably should be cheering for the US, even though they have the proverbial snowballs chance in hell, but I’d like to see Ireland, NZ, Australia, or Wales win, and I can deal England winning again. ;-)

Part of me wishes that I could have seen the Australia/Japan match: 91-3! It was probably boring to watch, but it’s not often you get to see a thumping like that.

posted by dodger at 5:13 pm (EST) on Sep 8, 2007

On my page you asked:

> How connected are you to Nimble publishing? owner?
> If so assuming that you like the response to Early Reviewer trial, will you be adding other books in a > similar vein to those in you catalog? I (and many other Lters) would love to be an Early Reviewer of > > Alaistair Reynolds's work or similar - as yet no titles in these fields have come up for review.

>Just curious

Yes, if the Early Reviewers trial works well, I will continue to add new books to ER, and some of them will be from genres that I personally enjoy. I would love to publish some science fiction, especially by the likes of Alastair Reynolds. Aspiring SF writers check out "Why Publish With Nimble Books" at my website. ;-)

posted by wfzimmerman at 12:29 pm (EST) on Sep 5, 2007

Hi!

A bookstore stocking an entire series depends on a couple of things.

1. Is the book even being printed at this time. -- There are a lot of series out there that only have one run of printings. Once those 300,000 or 500,000 or however many are printed, are gone, they are gone. No more to be found. BUT a lot of times, they will reissue "first in series" for a sequel coming out. Um, example -- Janet Evanovich -- she comes out with a new book every summer. So guaranteed, right before the next book comes out, the bookstore stocks up on all other books in the series to hook the new reader. It totally depends on the series.

2. Bookstores are there to make money. Period. End of story. If a series has ten books in the series and the first seven in the series has not sold a single copy in three years (that is called dead stock, btw) then they are going to pull those books off the shelves to make way for books that WILL sell. Book ten in the series just came out & the demand is high for it. They are going to have multiple copies to satisfy the demands of the customer. It is inventory control, plain & simple. Supply & Demand.

If you can't find a book in the series that you are looking for, ask a bookseller. They can very easily order it for you if it is available to order.

I hope that answered you questions!! Good luck!

posted by charlotteg at 11:54 am (EST) on Aug 24, 2007

Hi - thanks for looking at my library. I haven't really started on the sf books yet, which is why Pern books are not yet on. I think I have all of them, and reread them every so often. I also have some of AMcC's other books - A Stitch in Time and The Year of the Lucy being the ones I can recall off the top of my head. My aim is to have all the shelved books catalogued by Christmas, so do drop by again!

posted by sarahemmm at 11:47 am (EST) on Aug 21, 2007

> Shejidan, Cherryh's home site

Cherryh's site is great; can't wait for the new Cyteen book to come along.
I haven't checked out Shejidan yet, but I really, really should..

posted by wyrdchao at 6:31 am (EST) on Aug 21, 2007

Thanks for your interest in my library! Look like we're both Cherryh fans, too. Like you, I own everything in my catalog, and hesitate to review things without re-reading books.

I'm also thinking of starting a topic (either in the Non-fiction or the SF group), on your favorite books to re-read. I do this regularly and it seems like there might be some interest in that. Would you be interested in this, and do you have any preferences as far as which group it should be in?

posted by wyrdchao at 12:23 am (EST) on Aug 21, 2007

Hey, thanks for the invite to the German group. I was sitting in front of the computer yesterday desperately trying to remember my German so I could reply to my host mother in Berlin ... joining this group will help me catch up with the language again. And there are so many great German authors!

Thanks again.

-corey

posted by ichliebebueche at 10:55 am (EST) on Aug 16, 2007

thanks for the invite to the bird group. I am there.

Rubber stamp community: kind of like tupperware, a neighbor of mine hosts a party where we make handmade greeting cards with rubber stamps. She sells stamps, papers, tools, etc. etc. There is lots of interest in the USA - rubber stamping magazines, rubber stamps for sale on ebay, goes on and on but I enjoy it.

I like being retired. Looking forward to having LT stimulate broad reading experiences. I use the library more now, less buying books. My library probably represents my history more than my current interests.

posted by maggie1944 at 12:09 pm (EST) on Aug 14, 2007

Thanks for the HTML note.

I'm still working on Iron Council; I'm about a third of the way through. I'm really liking it, but it is another dark book so far. The darkness in Perdido Street Station was one of the things I liked about the book, but this one seems less dark in terms of gross descriptions, and more in terms of political idealogy. I should be done with it by tomorrow night; if you're interested, I can give you a little more info then?

posted by bibliophool at 12:17 pm (EST) on Aug 10, 2007

Thank you for the addition to your interesting libraries... Between those on the list, and yourself, I'm in admirable company. :) I hope to rejoin you all a bit more literally, on the terra firma of LT's groups, soon. It's been sadly missed of late (even if the lack is my own fault).

Unless my eyes deceive me, you've mastered the trick of typing comments in disappearing ink. :) Very neat. A bit like lemon juice, though - it leaves traces (and, until you half-char the thing on a light bulb, gives the atmosphere a slight lift).

Take care, and please eat an extra mouthful of brussels sprouts, of cheese, of pasta, for me...

Eurydice

posted by Eurydice at 2:59 am (EST) on Aug 9, 2007

Hiya, thanks for the invite! It does indeed sound like my kind of group :-)

Tis true we have Heffers, although strangely I don't seem to shop there very often. I should really start doing that - I used to love Blackwells when I lived in Oxford.

I don't go walking round here - my husband and I tried once and gave up because it was a flat arable desert. I get major hill cravings on a regular basis - all our holidays have to be somewhere with hills and we decamp to the Lake District about twice a year! I'm deeply jealous of your living in Manchester - I did my degree there and could see the edge of the Peak District from the top of my department. How I miss just being able to pop out for a walk! We're going to the lakes next week and I'm quite looking forward to purchasing the last two Wainwrights :-) They're worth a look if you ever visit the Lakes. And possibly even if you haven't, they're a work of art.

posted by LizT at 5:32 pm (EST) on Aug 8, 2007

Ello there, fox. *smile* what a charming bio you have.

Thank you thank you for leaVing me a comment whilst passing through the LT maze. Aren't comments delightful? I've often been teased on here by some other users for my obvious glee about comments, but it is because I am always entirely grateful to meet any kind of reader who shares the same sort of love I do for books. It really -is- harder to find some of your own ilk in the -real- world. At least that's been my experience. In any such case (I digress often), *ahem* It is an honor & a pleasure to make your acquaintence. :)

"We do share an ecletic mix of fantasy/sf/contempary/classic/reference works, so I've added you to my interesting libraries list. Of the 35 we share I think my favourite would be Good Omens, hotly contested by Jasper Ffordes' works, the least favourite is definetly Eco's pendulem which I really disliked."

Yes, yes we do! What an interesting combination of books we have in common... and, also like you, "Good Omens" is one of my absolute favourite novels! It is in fact one of the only books I reread every year, either from habit or the sheer bliss of dwelling, for just a bit, in Aziraphale's Used Book Store. *sighhhhh* What I wouldn't give to have a store like that!!! *big grin*

Much bliss & happy reading! ;)
~PandorasRequiem

posted by PandorasRequiem at 3:42 pm (EST) on Aug 6, 2007

Hello Reading Fox!

Thank you for your message! The picture on my profile has been taken in Berlin last summer. If you wanna read more about it, here's the official link:

http://www.land-of-ideas.org/CDA/printin...

Cheers,
Gio

posted by Gio at 5:59 am (EST) on Aug 6, 2007

Hey fox!
Thanks for the invites to both "Weyr & Hold" and "Revelstone" - will check in there when I can!
Hope to get more of my extensive SF/fantasy library online soon!
cheers
AtlantisGirl

posted by AtlantisGirl at 2:49 am (EST) on Jul 23, 2007

Thanks. Not trying to persuade anyone on religious issues, though. My hope is that people will keep their minds open to argument, much as John Stuart Mill suggests. Much appreciate your helpful suggestions as I'm brand new to this website.

John

posted by johnumana at 4:27 pm (EST) on Jul 19, 2007

RE:- Casteret, there are stacks of copies on Abebooks site, cheapest hardback from a British bookseller is £3.50 plus postage. There are cheaper Penguin and Dent paperbacks but I wouldn't advise them as the paper at that time was very poor quality and photographs didn't reproduce well on it. Not a caver myself, had rheumatic fever in 1940-41 for which there was then no treatment but bed rest and aspirin, it ruled out active sports in my youth and afterwards I was too busy. Heart trouble recurred three years ago and prevents me walking any distance, a great pity as I would have loved to explore Derbyshire with a relative who now lives in Hathersage.

posted by gibbon at 5:23 am (EST) on Jul 18, 2007

I came to you site by a devious route but I see that you ask for suggestions of caving books. As far as I can see I own the only copy (in the current 16 million) of Norbert Casteret's "Ten years under the earth". It was published in the 1940's by Readers' Union - fascinated me then and I still re-read bits sixty years on.

posted by gibbon at 7:20 am (EST) on Jul 17, 2007

Thanks. I've got so many on-going projects with my library, that I had kind of let that idea go. My library needs a major cleaning, but I haven't had time to really work on it much. At the moment I'm spending most of my time trying to merge my home excel sheet (~1800 books) and my LT library (exported to an excel sheet). But, my thoughts have evolved a little from this summarizing idea. What I really hope to do it take works I consider similar and find a tag to link them (I'm thinking of similarities that are just my own constructs and probably wouldn't be noted in a library). So, for example I have the cheesy Tag "explores aspects of love."... hmmm... that really needs a better name... anyway it's my only real example in place.

posted by dchaikin at 10:02 am (EST) on Jul 11, 2007

Thank you for heads up on the Pratchett group! I'm a little isolated from any Discworld fans as I am up in the mountains of Vermont... I am so glad I stumbled on this entire LT site!

posted by noonlight at 12:58 pm (EST) on Jun 29, 2007

Thanks for letting me know about the second Waitman book, The Divided - I'll have to try and find a copy.

Had no idea the title existed.

Best - Janny Wurts

posted by JannyWurts at 10:02 am (EST) on Jun 28, 2007

Hi - thanks for the invite to Outdoor Readers. I don't know how I missed that group before, but I signed up immediately.

Have you seen this catalog? They might also be interested.
http://www.librarything.com/profile/nynj...

posted by oregonobsessionz at 3:56 pm (EST) on Jun 27, 2007

Hi -

You asked what books you might take to fill in for your quiet time - here are a few of my favorites that perhaps aren't as widely read as they could be.

Roberta Meluch - published as R. M. Meluch
very deep characters, plots you can't predict, astonishing insights. She does primarily SF, but the plot twists are priceless.
Her new series is incredible. (The Myriad) This reads quickly and amusingly with a stunner of a twist that just knocks the breath out of you. I discovered her work with Jerusalem Fire, which blew me away, if you can find a copy.

Kaitie Waitman - The Merro Tree -

This author disappeared after her first book - which I thought was wonderful. Probably its beauty and depth passed some readers by - but it's a great loss. The characters, world building and philosophy behind it was so rich, I have mourned there were no others by this author. Her use of language was also a command performance, and the ideas really made me think. Not many books can do that, to this degree.

Sarah Zettel - she does some of the finest character driven SF, but if you haven't discovered her Isavalta series (fantasy) you are in for a real treat. Very fine characterization, and a well worked out backdrop of interlaced realities.

Thanks for introducing me to LT.

Best -- Janny Wurts

posted by JannyWurts at 9:08 am (EST) on Jun 27, 2007

I just noticed your comment about my Cherryh collection. I probably own 99% of her stuff - there are a couple of short pieces printed for sf conventions that i don't have. I've read, and bought, her books ever since 1976, when a friend turned me on to Gate of Ivrel in the Morgaine series. She seems to go through stages as a writer, with particular worlds or styles grabbing her attention and then being replaced by others. I find some more compelling reading than others, but all her work is worth my reading time.

I check out Sejidan every now and then. I also check her current writing notes regularly. Lately it's mostly been about her personal life - skating and moving house - but I'm excited to see that she's back in the Cyteen world. I'm really looking forward to that one, and hope to see it published next year.

posted by arethusarose at 2:15 am (EST) on Jun 17, 2007

Hiya. Re the confusion of "Legends"

Legends (now "Legends I") - was an EXCELLENT anthology first sold in big fat trade paperback (can't recall if did HC)... and also later released in a split of two paperbacks, lets call them (a) and (b).

These were mostly sold in Commonwealth countries as 'special overseas editions' and opinion at the time was divided into "OK HarperCollins, you've ripped me off again by making me pay for 2books costing MORE than the original trade" vs. "Thanks HarperColl, I now won't have a 18cm paperback that bulges at the spine after 2 mths".

We both share Legends I (a)... and I also have the (b).
Together, they make a truly excellent collection of strong authors who contribute wonderfully realised short tales from their own fictional universes.

To answer what's stories are in (b), I've added the index to my LT copy (search Legends in my catalogue) so you can see what you've missed!

The confusion gets worse because Legends I was so popular that Rob S did a 2nd one. Called Legends II.
I was no longer a student, so sucked it up and bought the Trade PB when it came out :-)
It was good, and I love Neil Gaiman's Shadow story in there but overall..I liked the first collection best.
(Will add Legends II contents to my LT comments this weekend for you so you can see how the what short stories and authors are in Legends II)

Anyway, this long story explains why the Legends books on LT are such a combining mess of vagrant IBSN's & covers :-)
If you're looking for a copy on Abe..be very careful on what you think you're buying. It's safer to check the cm dimensions.
Have a happy weekend
(edit) 2nd comment submission as the first one hiccuped

posted by ryn_books at 8:05 am (EST) on Jun 15, 2007

Hi, Looks like we're both celebrating being back on LT by racing each other to help newbie's. Must be the underscore in our user names. :-)

posted by ryn_books at 7:45 am (EST) on Jun 14, 2007

Hi! I am totally happy that LT is back up! This is my first comment, post or anything in three days. I thought I was going to have DTs LOL I had been thinking about the review I did on The Losers and wanted to re-read it. I usually do reviews off the cuff and right after I finish a book. When I finally got back to it today I discovered that yes, I had gone a bit over the top on the criticism and toned the review down a bit. Anyway, I always think of books as an experience, whether I like them or not and am thrilled with the Go Review that Book! Group. I just wanted to thank you for picking out such interesting books (I did find The Losers interesting even if I didn't care for it). I'm thrilled to do Storm Front, I was so hoping someone would pick that one for me! It gives me an added excuse to read it now instead of months from now.

posted by Jenson_AKA_DL at 6:40 am (EST) on Jun 14, 2007

'Tis Minas Tirith! And I like it for the same reason -- Tolkien feel. It's one of Alan Lee's drawings, of course. I was browsing through his stuff and liked this one best that day. :)

posted by lefty33 at 6:43 am (EST) on Jun 8, 2007

Hello there!
The pic is from Google. I was looking for images of the bookcovers I still do not have and I literally stumbled into it. It might be a drawing by Russell Flint, but I am not sure.
Yes, I agree on the fact that it's a shame there are no longer stories such as the nursery rhymes or fairy tales (the old-fashioned kind, I mean). I guess I am more comfortable in the past, especially Victorian or thereabouts.
I was in Manchester, very briefly, over thirty years ago. One of my dearest friends lives in Wigan (yes, the peer and all), and it was the very first time I was in England.....lovely memories....
What's your favourite reading material?

Paola :-))

posted by aluvalibri at 6:35 am (EST) on Jun 8, 2007

I am alive and well, and hope to be back soon. I mentioned I was involved in a fandom and it's been sapping up most of my time, but it's over now and just mopping up. Give me a week and I'll be on the ball.

posted by InigoMontoya at 12:49 pm (EST) on Jun 5, 2007

So glad you enjoyed the Go Review that Book! choice. I enjoyed your review and I'm putting Sorcerer's Legacy on my wish list :-)

posted by Jenson_AKA_DL at 11:26 am (EST) on May 16, 2007

Reading_Fox - I just found my way back to that GreenDragon thread where you asked about Butcher's Furies series. I would characterize it as fantasy, definitely not "supernatural." Read the 1st Furies book, then found [Storm Front] (1st Dresden). Liked both and will continue both series, but have lots on the TBR pile. I have found that sometimes when I read too many of a newly discvoered author series at once then enjoymnent factor goes down. Although waiting for prolonged periods to have Jordan make progress on the [Wheel of Time] series is causing the enjoyment factor to lessen too.

posted by cad_lib at 9:11 am (EST) on May 15, 2007

Hi Reading-Fox, thank you for your kind invitation to join the group, which I am happy to do. I am a very recent addition to the Librarything membership list and have been confining my activities to getting my books on the catalogue, so I am still feeling my way around the more esoteric services on offer! With regard to the outdoors I am getting on in years and have not been helped as I am currently slowly recovering from a damaged knee cartilage operation which has blighted my composure since last July! more than two months have passed since having the op and it still hurts when I put any real strain on it, I'm told to be patient and all will be well in time, I hope so but am concerned. Caving was what we Derbyshire rock climbers did in the twilight interval between October, when it became too dark for evening climbing and February when the hard freeze of winter impelled northward ho to Scotland or less frequently to North Wales in search of good ice. However, I managed to clock up quite a lot of good outings in Derbyshire, with trips to Yorkshire, and Swildens etc. Martyn Farr's book is a classic, but to be fair, the field is not overpopulated, sadly. As for sourcing books I have always been addicted, buy my new books from Amazon, and can not pass a charity shop without going in too see what is on the shelf, I have made some very good finds over the years.
I spend a lot of time in the Lakes and am currently working my way round 'The Birketts' the Complete Guide to the Lake District Fells' by Bill Birkett. Not quite halfway there yet, but hope to complete in 18 months or so. I always have mountaineering/walking projects on the go, physically and mentally, my rock climbing lies in the happily recalled past, and books keep me in touch. I cycle quite a bit and am in the process of buying a lightweight tent and plan some long distance walks and biking trips in the summer ahead. Not working now, so time is available for so many dreams and aspirations postponed!!
All good wishes,
Freddy

posted by summonedbyfells at 6:37 pm (EST) on May 3, 2007

Thank you, reading_fox! Yes, I like to walk a lot. I especially like to when I'm stressed as it helps calm me down. When I'm not stressed, it's simply an enjoyable time. :)

posted by Kerian at 11:09 am (EST) on Apr 27, 2007

I'll answer as well when I post my review on "Go Review That Book" for the benefit of the group, but I thought I'd drop you a line to say thanks for joining. I am still going to plod on with my alphabetical list on the basis of having two books on the go at the same time, one as per my stupidly anal tendencies and the other via the game. Anything to avoid having to make my own decisions, I guess. I thought I'd see whether there was any interest, and whether it would work at all, before publicising the group beyond this. As you rightly point out, it will by its nature have a much more leisurely pace than the similar thread on RYM. In the meantime, I see we've already hit a kink. I've added an FAQ, so hopefully that will help untangle it.

posted by InigoMontoya at 7:58 pm (EST) on Apr 26, 2007

The Deryni books are books by Katherine Kurtz. There are a number of them including Camber of Culdi, Camber the Heretic and Saint Camber (in one tri,ogy) and Deryni Rising, Deryni Checkmate and High Deryni (in another). They are historical fantasy set in a place called Gwynedd. The Deryni are a race of magic users who for various reasons including the misdeeds of some of their own as well as for reason of politics are vilified by many without their talents and considered heretical by the church.

There are some additional titles which I have not read yet, but I find them well constructed and engrossing.

http://www.librarything.com/author/kurtz... refers.

posted by Loyola at 4:54 am (EST) on Apr 26, 2007

Thanks for the comments on inviting people to the groups and for joining them. I fully concur with what you say about actively recruiting, but must admit I just feel to stretched at the moment to do it. Pity, but still that's the case. I will mention them on some of the Fantasy groups like Green Dragon though. I am also very tempted to set up a Deryni group. Have you come across these?

posted by Loyola at 3:19 am (EST) on Apr 26, 2007

It's nice to know there's another Cherryh fan in the world.

The nice thing about her is that a lot of her earlier works have come out in omnibus editions which makes replacing the books I've lost - for one reason or another - over the years so much easier. Cherryh was one of the first SF/F authors I read when I started reading the genre 30 or so years ago. She was a staple along with Asimov and Clarke.

posted by seitherin at 8:56 pm (EST) on Apr 11, 2007

Thank you. Fruitless is correct however - sadly.

Φιλοσοφία is just the Greek word 'philosophy' (philosophia). Look carefully at the alphabets and you'll be able to read it. I used that tag partly because it looked nicer, partly because I wanted to use it in a general fashion for whatever I think is philosophical, and avoid people coming in to tell me what should or should not be tagged, and partly because putting on Philhellene airs is a habit of mine, despite my ignorance of the language... "Existanai" is also from Greek - "ek" (out of) + "histanai" (place), meaning to be outside oneself, out of one's mind, from which comes the English "ecstasy" :).

posted by existanai at 3:02 pm (EST) on Apr 11, 2007

Hi reading_fox,
Thanks for you comments and interest, your fox is very appealing.
I was born in Cornwall, and spent my first 11 1/2 years in a village on the Cornish side of the Tamar, hence the interest (with a large dollop of nostalgia). I migrated to Australia with my parents and younger brother in 1959. I haven't been back since '97. I would like to spend more time there but at present this isn't possible. Now, when in Cornwall I yearn for some things Australian and vice versa when I am here. So my heart isn't 100% in either country. Rading about Cornwall is something of a substitute. The pull of the Cornish landscape in particular, is very strong.

Though I find it hard to believe I've only discovered Librarything in the last week or so, as a result I've added very few of my books.

posted by Carolynjoy at 6:01 am (EST) on Apr 1, 2007

Thank you! Right now I'm reading The Myth of Evil (nonfic, very interesting!) and I'm yet to decide if I will lug that around or if I should leave it at home and bring something more pocketsize (like Foreigner) as commutermaterial ;-)

posted by Busifer at 12:05 pm (EST) on Mar 26, 2007

Caving. Of course. I'm stupid. That's one of the many 'false friends' between English and French. (A cave is a cellar in French.)

It's rather difficult to explain Perec in a few words. You'd better resort to Wikipedia. It will be much more clever than what I can write myself. He didn't write many books, but each book is of a completely different genre. Life A User's Manual is about a block of flats in Paris. Each chapter is about the inhabitants of a different flat. From time to time, you come back to the same flat. It seems to be at random, but the progression in the block of flats follows that of a knight jumping on a chessboard. Perec invented many constraints in literature. This is just one of them. There is of course a general thread in the novel (how an idle, rich gentleman can manage to keep himself busy throughout his life), but all these descriptions of different people living in different flats are the occasion for Perec to introduce as many different sub-novels. (The subtitle of the book in French is Romans, 'Novels'.) This big book is really genial, up to its very end.

He also used another constraint to write La Disparition (Engl. transl. A Void), never using the letter 'e'. The translation is another tour de force... Some people say that there is one 'e' somewhere in the book, but I think it's a legend. It's funny to be read carefully, but the story itself is not up to the point. I wouldn't advise you to read it for your first Perec. But have a look at it in a bookshop or a library.

I don't know if I arose your interest for Perec with these couple of lines. Who knows?

posted by Pepys at 5:16 pm (EST) on Mar 20, 2007

I couldn't remember where I had read this advice about tagging books with a 3-letter alphabetical code as the first tag. And there you are... I've done this, but with a dot (or any other character used as a convention) to begin the tag (e.g. I use .BOS for tagging Boswell or Boston). This way to do brings all alphabetical tags first in the alphabetical tag list or in the tag cloud, instead of mixing them with classification tags. Do you think I'm wrong in doing this? (I'm asking you because you seem to be an expert tagger...)

About you: what do you mean by 'cave'? You taste wine or beer?
As many Anglo-Saxon readers, you do not seem to know Georges Perec. I never read books twice. I ever I had to do it, I would choose his Life, A User's Manual. It's tens of novels in one book.

Best wishes,

François

posted by Pepys at 12:31 pm (EST) on Mar 20, 2007

Reading_Fox: I cut my teeth on the classic science fiction of the 1950s and early 60s: Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke -- and was addicted to a very good magazine called Astounding Science Fiction. In the USA of the 1950s, sci-fi was an outlet for social criticism, although rather tepid social criticism.

I don't much care for the genre as it has developed since about 1970, with the exception of Roger Zelazny. Perhaps this is because reality has overtaken the imagination, in terms of both technical and social developments.

I have a fantasy in which I am time-warped involuntarily back to 1957, and must earn my own living. I decide to write a science-fiction novel, based simply on the reality of fifty years hence, from which I have come. I submit the manuscript to a publisher, and get a very nice rejection letter, that praises me for my technical imagination -- satellite TV, the internet, DNA crime detection, personal computers, laser eye surgery -- but says that my future society, with a Stock Exchange in Moscow, advertisements seeking to recruit more homosexual policemen in San Francisco, female military helicopter pilots, and a popular Black Presidential candidate named Barak Obama, strains credulity far too much. The publisher suggests that I try to be a bit more restrained, and realistic, in my imaginings of future history.

posted by Doug1943 at 9:37 am (EST) on Mar 20, 2007

I can't help but feel that I should confess that I not only own and have read books on mass spectrometry - but I even enjoyed them.

posted by piefuchs at 4:25 pm (EST) on Mar 17, 2007

Reading_Fox: I thank you for your kind comments. Yes, I live in that same Guildford, with that terrible travesty of a cathedral, daily reminding us of how far we have slipped down since the Middle Ages. The woods are still here, and I go for a walk in them almost every day.

I do read fiction, although my range is restricted. Of 20C authors, I like Patrick O'Brien, Mary Renault, Annie Proulx, Cormac McCarthy. Larry McMurtry.

And yourself?

posted by Doug1943 at 6:34 pm (EST) on Mar 16, 2007

Hi. On my profile you left a message asking about the quote I had. It's actually from a bookcover I found from a local used book store. I've provided a link to a photo,

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i148/b...

posted by beniowa at 1:39 am (EST) on Mar 12, 2007

Nice combining work! You must be utterly Doyled out, though.

posted by jjlong at 11:25 am (EST) on Mar 10, 2007

I am completely stunned! The photographer didn't make me look like Goldie Hawn as I made him promise but I don't look exactly like Bela Lugosi either, I don't think . . . . If my mother were here, she'd tell me to comb my hair out of my face. I hope Tim gets lots of new members. Thanks for your nice comments.

posted by kageeh at 9:06 pm (EST) on Mar 3, 2007

I hope you like Miss Zukas. Although she, herself, seems oblivious as to how anal she can really get much of the time, Helma's heart is in the right place. After the first couple of books, you'll either decide she's too far Over The Top -- or else you'll place an order for the balance of the series in one fell swoop! Happy reading!

posted by Seajack at 11:39 am (EST) on Mar 1, 2007

Note to myself

TAGGING for series order. Add two tags to each book. FIRST authors initials. Second series and order, then descriptive tags. eg CJC, fortress1, fantasy ...
View library by tags. this should get everything in the right way

posted by reading_fox at 5:58 am (EST) on Jan 12, 2007

Hi :)
On my page you said:

>From the defining Fantasy thread you posted on - is Crystalwizard really >your published author name? When you go to your LTauthor page that's what >comes up, should I look in bookshops for that name?

Yes. Crytalwizard is my published author name. If you'd like, I do have a website for all my books, with links to the publisher, links to the art and other information. It's here:

http://sojourn.omnitech.net

If you'd rather, you can walk into any book store and order the books. They are:
Book 1 - Wizard's Bane
Book 2 - Villenspell: City of Wizards
Book 3 - Wizards and Wanderers

(but they're cheaper from the publisher :) )

posted by crystalwizard at 2:34 am (EST) on Jan 11, 2007