It turns out that a TBR shelf was the best idea I ever had. I’ve made the top section of my little bookshelf into a priority-reads shelf. Now when I am wondering what to read, and I think longingly of library books, my TBR shelf is like a stern little taskmaster going “Oh no you don’t, missy. You have all these books right here in your own very room.” And then I read those books instead, and honestly? I bought or asked for most of those books myself. There is no reason to suppose that I will like them any…
24 CommentsReading the End Posts
What now? 4th of July weekend was ages ago and I am the laziest book blogger ever for only getting around to posting about Rough Crossings: The Slaves, the British, and the American Revolution at the start of August? Fair point. In my defense, I read this book all in one weekend, and if you haven’t been carting a book around on the subway for several days, it hardly even feels like a book you read at all! So I forgot about it. And that’s really not my fault. Because of the subway thing. (No, you’re the lamest excuse ever.…
17 CommentsSoooooooooo. So. So. The Great Night. How shall I describe it? The Great Night is like if Neil Gaiman had written A Midsummer Night’s Dream. What’s that you say? He has written “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and it was nothing like this? Then give me a moment to find another analogy. It’s like if Lev Grossman (about whom more in a few days) wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Actually, that analogy is pretty solid. Lev Grossman and Chris Adrian occupy spaces in my head that are not terribly far apart: I might easily recommend either one of them to someone…
5 CommentsIf you liked A Game of Thrones for its tight plotting and political machinations, you should like the sequels also. That is what I say. Martin’s writing does not make my heart sing, nor do his characters possess the depth and intricacy of, say, Chaim Potok’s. But my stars, the man can handle the plot. How his brain can contain all these plot strands is beyond me. I sometimes went slightly into character overload — the Dornishmen and the Iron Islands guys and particularly the gangs of scavengers were too many for me. When they get removed from their natural…
27 CommentsHere’s what’s happening, y’all. My sister has been in town, and I am moving house. I have been doing lots of cool, fun stuff with my sister. We went to see the coolest ever exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Design the other day, this thing about small worlds, which was so unbelievably beautiful. And we went a-picnicking on Governors Island on Sunday, wearing flapper dresses. Then also I am moving house. I’ve finally found a new apartment (yay!) in an area that looks like I’m going to like a lot, with roommates who seem terribly nice, and a…
57 CommentsMay I tell you a story about Athens? Please be aware that you can’t answer “no” to this question, because there is no chance at all of my not telling you this story about Athens. Once upon a time, there was an Athenian king called Pisistratus. Pisistratus was a pretty good king, but like many pretty good kings he had two not-so-goodish sons, Hippias and Hipparchus, who took charge of Athens after Pisistratus died. Hipparchus died (that’s a whole other story), and Hippias was an awful king, so this fellow Cleisthenes went trotting round to Sparta and asked them please…
37 Comments