is it crunchy? do kittens like it?

[ironymaiden]

i dunno. i went home from work today feeling decidedly crappy and slept solid from 3pm until 8pm. need to stay awake now to sleep through the night and feeling very sad about missing another rehearsal.
i'm about halfway through Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and i'm plodding on with the grim determination that i applied to The Witching Hour - i can see the edges of something great here, and i'm sure that if i read on i'll be rewarded. right? right?*
meanwhile, i've got a list of other thick novels i'd like to read. i'm tempted to ditch it for other things, but i've put in the time now and i know that if i stop i won't remember enough to pick it up again without starting over.

so, peanut gallery...
[Poll #628625]

*The Witching Hour never paid off. i can't believe i actually tried reading the sequels in hopes of the story i wanted appearing. those are hours of my life i'll never get back.

Comments

[solcita.livejournal.com]

What, no option for "borrowed it from a friend and am in the process of reading it"?

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

As it so happens, not only do I have a copy and intend to read it, but I also have a signed copy in the reversed color scheme as an investment. So there.

And now I know why you weren't at rehearsal tojnight. Everyone was asking after you (and they all asked me speecifically; you must be my girlfriend or something). Feel better, honey.

[varina8.livejournal.com]

Based on your poll results, this one has moved to the bottom of my must read list. Life is too short and my reading list too long to persist if I'm not engaged by page 50 (sometimes less if the author touches one of my hot buttons).

[joyful-storm.livejournal.com]

As I mentioned, I was seduced into it after seeing Susanna Clarke read from a footnote she would have liked to include, but instead was forced to use the time it would have required to finish the book instead. Priorities, priorities. I think I like her better as a short story writer than a novelist.

I found the set up to be much more interesting than the conclusion (so if you're bored already, look out!). It doesn't end cleanly, rather it maunders into one of those nebulous sequel-foreshadowing "endings" - really, it more just stops. I don't know which is worse, the idea of a sequel or the idea that in the decade it will take to be published that I will have forgotten the aggravation of the original and might attempt to read it.

It's kind of reminiscent of Vanity Fair, but in a world with magic, and without characters like Becky Sharpe.

I disliked it less than Iron Council. I enjoyed Quicksilver more, but that hits on a lot of obscure pet topics of mine. I haven't read any George R. R. Martin.

(FWIW, I read Lasher first, felt like I was missing a lot of backstory, and went and read The Witching Hour. Didn't help, it's just missing.)

[ironymaiden]

well, what do you think so far?

[buhrger]

i've not yet read it, but it's been recommended to me by two people, both of whom seem to have fairly reliable taste in books.

as to whether kittens like it, i think the questions then needs to be "is it shiny? is it jangly?"

[and by the way, it's precisely in cases of i'm sure that if i read on i'll be rewarded. right? right? that i tend to flip to points later in the book and read snippets. it means i'm Evile, i realize, but there it is.]

[buhrger]

and with reference to your list of other thick novels, and in contrast to llynecat, i'd take iron council over quicksilver - i enjoyed both, but did a lot less flipping forward with IC (and so, in spite of knowing that [spoiler deleted] does something [spoiler deleted] to [spoiler deleted] somewhere towards the [spoiler deleted] of the book, was nonetheless surprised when and how it actually happened.)

as to GRRM, i'm following mort_q's lead on this and waiting for the series to be finished before i start it.

[mrdorbin.livejournal.com]

I have a copy of Quicksilver I can loan you if that would be helpful. I never got past page 50, and I'm sure I can find something else to use to press water out of tofu in the meantime.

[ironymaiden]

i've already tried flipping to points later and it's more of same. i'm at 491 out of 896 now, so i'm considering powering through it in order to say yes, i read it all and...

[ironymaiden]

I'm sure I can find something else to use to press water out of tofu in the meantime.

i wish i had thought of that for the last option. it's beautiful. the real question is: is it worth wrapping in plastic before you do so?

[mrdorbin.livejournal.com]

I am unable to knowingly allow a book to come to harm, even if I hated it. I had curry explode from a container onto a bell hooks and I was fraught for days. I do:

book
plate
paper towels
half of tofu sliced lengthwise
more paper towels
other half of tofu
yet more paper towels
plate

, so there's no risk of water damage.

I'm thinking it might be smarter to do it in the sink and get rid of the paper towels step, though.

[buhrger]

i've also actually read books from both ends towards the middle - read first chapter, read last chapter, read second chapter, read penultimate chapter, read third chapter, read antepenultimate chapter, and so on.

Page 355

[loloc.livejournal.com]

And I can't decide whether to stop or keep going either. I'm saddended that it just get's less interesting as the book goes on as I'd rather hoped for the reverse.

I am planning to keep reading it. I do, in fact, like many of the footnotes better than most of the book but it's all enough to keep me interested.

I am surpressing my troubles with the logic of magic in this book. There does not seem to be any reason for why one piece of magic is possible and another not.

Re: Page 355

[ironymaiden]

or in fact how anything happens. is it about force of will? is it about forming the right incantations? i've always been rather mechanistic about magic, but i'd be happier if Clarke would blow it off with genetics or something. anything. or maybe if anyone had a genuine emotion...

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

Oooh, can I steal your icon?

Re: Page 355

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

Right, yeah, so Sunshine by Robin McKinley and The Doomsday Book - if you haven't read these books I promise they will take the bitter taste of time wasted out of your mouth.

Re: Page 355

[ironymaiden]

Doomsday Book, loved it. i'm surprised i didn't pick up Sunshine before, since i've loved McKinley from The Blue Sword on.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Guess that means you like it! ::grin:: Sure you can steal it, but if you're going to do that, please steal the credits from my icon page, too.

Re: Page 355

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

Elliot Bay had it misfiled under horror. It's really a great read. I've been picking up everything she wrote since I read The Blue Sword a couple of years ago.