Next in the Educate Myself in Classic SciFi series, I read The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin, at the recommendation of Themba. I was really impressed! It’s about a physicist, Shevek, who comes from the satellite planet Anarres and goes to main planet Urras. Anarres is supposed to be a world of imposed anarchy, or at least a society with no central power. Despite all intentions to keep any group from gaining power over another (or perhaps because of this), society still somehow starts to develop a sort of power imbalance. On Urras, however, Shevek is quite literally imprisoned by the overly capitalist society.
I was particularly interested in the linguistic relativity elements (I guess because I’m a language person), especially the idea that language on Anarres wouldn’t have a possessive form at all because that whole concept isn’t part of the collective mindset. It reminds me of Anthem, of course, and how their language exists exclusively in the collective tense.
However, I can’t help but feel that the book may not mean quite as much to later generations (say, people born in the 1990s onward) because (a) they didn’t grow up with the Soviet Union and there is a very clear parallel to the US-Soviet Union tension on Urras, and (b) the ansible probably doesn’t sound all that amazing to people for whom texting and videochatting are the norm. Just a thought.
Anyway, very highly recommended. If you liked Anthem and/or Stranger in a Strange Land, you’ll like The Dispossessed. Especially you libertarians.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: leguin, politics, science fiction, space, utopia/dystopia, war
Because free shipping is just the best thing ever!
M-Edge is offering free shipping on e-book jackets and accessories until Valentines’ Day. Just use the code MEDGE214 when you check out. While you’re at it, get me the New Yorker Bookopolis jacket! I can’t bring myself to buy another jacket but I wantsssss the preciousssss.
And for you nookies, their B&N Nook jackets are available now too. They have several different options, many of which are compatible with their book light. Make sure you get the appropriate book light – it looks like there’s one for the Kindle jackets and a different one for the Nook jackets. Anyway, the Kindle light is white and the Nook light is black, so you have no excuse for mixing it up!
Also they have the new Guardian which is meant to be “the only floating waterproof case for Kindle”. Sounds exciting, but I would be way too scared to test it out. I think I need a video where they dunk that baby in the water to ease my discomfort. It’s not meant to be out until “Spring 2010” and apparently will be available in six colours. There’s only one picture so I can’t tell exactly what will be coloured but it sounds neat anyway.
I can just imagine reading with my Guardianed Kindle in the bathtub…
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: kindle case, m-edge, promo, recommended
Since I’m somewhat interested in technology and have a blog, I am obviously compelled to give my expert analysis of the new Apple iPad. If you have somehow missed everything about the iPad, try Gizmodo and Engadget since they’re pretty good at consolidating information about the newest gadgets.
Basically I agree with Gizmodo’s 8 Things That Suck About the iPad. I just don’t think it offers enough for people who have actually already bought one or several gadgets that offer portability; as someone who has a Kindle, a netbook, a Blackberry, and an iPod Touch, there’s nothing new the iPad has to offer me. Also, how in the world are you supposed to type on it? Do you hold it up and type with your thumbs? I’m not sure I can reach that far with my thumbs. Or do you put it down each time to type properly? (Not to mention I’m atrocious at typing on touch screens. I just can’t get it right.)
And since this is a literary blog, and pretty much the only thing I care about is books, I have to comment on the iBooks app. I certainly think it looks wonderful, but I don’t think we know enough about it yet to really jump ship. The top publishing companies are working with Apple, but I firmly stand by Amazon’s bookstore; it’s amazing. It has had almost every book I wanted, with the only exceptions being where the author explicitly refused (ahem, J.K. Rowling!) We also know nothing about any of iBooks’ features. I definitely don’t think it’s a Kindle-killer: I really think that people who want/have a Kindle are looking for a reading device which has an extensive library and which doesn’t give you a headache after several hours. I’ve read on my iPod Touch some and I can’t stand it. It’s not the size of the screen – I sometimes read on the Kindle with the biggest font size and there are about 60 words per page (bad eyesight + no contact lenses!) – it’s the backlit LCD screen. I just can’t handle it for more than a few pages. E-ink still wins on the extensive reading front.
So for me, the iPad just doesn’t cut it. (Plus, Amazon is launching a Kindle app store. I’m not sure if I really want any apps on my Kindle, but at least they’re addressing the Apple threat.)
Oh, and it’s pretty damn expensive. I already pay $30 a month for my Blackberry plan, no thanks.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: amazon, apple, geeking out, kindle, official personal opinion disclaimer, technology, to ebook or not to ebook
Simply a classic. I’ve finally decided to get to work on Anne Rice because I randomly read Memnoch the Devil one time when I was a kid (really far too young to be reading Rice) and felt like I needed to finish out her books.
I really love the sensuality of Rice’s vampires – it isn’t necessarily sexual but it’s erotic and consuming and so desirous. Anyway I really love the frame story of the boy interviewing the vampire Louis after the series of events with Lestat and Claudia and Armand.
I feel like I need to go back to the Team Lestat vs. Team Armand (sorry Stephenie Meyer, this is so much bigger than you are!) and I have to say I’m Team Armand. I mean I appreciate Lestat’s brokenness and desperation but he’s pretty batshit (no pun intended) crazy.
I have to put the Vampire Chronicles on hold for a while because I started reading Stieg Larsson’s books and I need to finish them!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: erotic, horror, rice, vampires
Books read in 2009: 78
Change from 2008-2009: +29!
Loved:
- Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood
- Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
- Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
- Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
- The World According to Garp, John Irving
- Life of Pi, Yann Martel
- Atonement, Ian McEwan
- The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
- The Persian Boy, Mary Renault
- Noli me tangere, José Rizal
- El filibusterismo, José Rizal
- The Secret History, Donna Tartt
Hated:
- The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
- The Sorrows of Young Werther, Goethe
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
- Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
Here’s to another great year in books! Thanks for reading!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: year in review
I can always count on Margaret Atwood to write something completely crazy and yet somehow profound. The Penelopiad tells the story of the Odyssey, but from the point of view of Penelope and the twelve maids whom Telemachus killed for suspected disloyalty.
My favourite parts are when Penelope rants about Helen (as in “of Troy”) because she was actually a total bitch and completely full of herself. It’s nice to see women being all catty even thousands of years ago.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: atwood, canada, gender, historical fiction
How come I never read this before?! John Irving is absolutely brilliant. The book was depressing and hopeful, amusing and disastrous. It starts out with Jenny Fields, a nurse who intentionally impregnates herself by raping a terminal patient. She names the boy Garp, and Jenny raises him on her own.
As Garp grows up, he encounters death and sexuality and everything that all adolescents suffer through, except his life is full of drama and insanity and chaos. I swear, there was not a moment where I felt like “Yawn, I could see that coming.” I definitely enjoyed reading it and was genuinely surprised and anxious as the events unfolded. Wonderfully written.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: academia, erotic, gender, irving
These books are AWESOME! Of course I read Twilight too but these are so much better. The best part about the Saga of Darren Shan (better known as the Cirque du Freak series) is that Shan really wrote them with pre-teen children in mind. In fact, they seem to be for pre-teen boys. I really like the voice and how Shan ever-so-surreptitiously sneaks in little vocabulary lessons just to make sure it’s a didactic experience. I also really liked Shan’s vampire mythology, and how it’s presented somewhat meta-humorously: he constantly refers to what traditional vampire lore and tells you “No, that’s not really how we vampire folk are… those are just stories” and it all kind of made me giggle.
There are twelve books in the series but I swear it didn’t feel like it. I think I read about two or three books of the series per day, depending on how much time I had to read. But yes, I bought all 12 books in the span of about a week. Yikes.
Read it! Give it to your children/siblings/cousins to read!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: adventure, book-movies, fantasy, series, shan, vampires, young adult
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road has gotten a lot of press lately since Oprah recommended it and it was made into a movie – and with good reason. It is one of the best books I’ve read in a while; it’s horrifying, yes, but amazing nonetheless. There are several scenes that are so absolutely wretched that I won’t likely forget them for a very long time.
The book is about a man and a boy who are on a journey towards the ocean after an unnamed (probably natural) disaster that killed off almost all of humanity and plant-/animal-life. For some reason they believe that they’ll be saved once they get to the ocean, and the whole time you’re thinking that there probably won’t be anything there, and they probably know it too, but it’s the hope that drives them so you keep telling yourself that it’ll be perfectly all right in the end. It’s an absolutely desolate, nerve-wracking journey that leaves you feeling as desperate as the man and boy.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: book-movies, future, horror, mccarthy, post-apocalyptic
by her side (or more likely, in her hand). Reads anything, especially old free stuff. For more riveting information such as this, try the aptly named 
The Millennium Trilogy
January 28, 2010 · Leave a Comment
…which consists of: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.
I’ve been putting off this write-up because I finished these books several weeks ago but I wanted to devote proper attention to this post. And I’m still going to be extremely vague. It was really, really fabulous. The trilogy was one of the most engaging, most stimulating plots I’ve read in a while. It really has something for everyone: gender studies, state of the art technology (not to mention technology namedropping), social criticism, media as an actor, mystery, and tons of sex. Really, the male protagonist sleeps with literally every main female character in the trilogy.
Nevertheless, highly highly highly recommended!
→ Leave a CommentCategories: Uncategorized
Tagged: gender, media, mystery, recommended, series, social commentary, violence