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Actual reading, though mostly on my Kobo, so not paper books. :)
33) "Murder Must Advertise" by Dorothy Sayer. I loved this book, it had some amazingly great quotes about consumer culture which I posted on Facebook (and that totally confused me, because then I remembered posting about the book so why has my books post not got a copy of that??). She worked in advertising, so she knew the place inside out, and it shows. Lord Peter Wimsey is working undercover in the advertising firm, and it turns out that, even though he seems to be conscious that the work is ridiculous, he still enjoys it, and he likes having coworkers.Possibly he even likes having a boss to make happy. Unfortunately, in order to balance out the prosaic dullness of his life in the daytime, he needs to run around all night playing Harlequin to enchant a drugged up rich girl into talking to him about where she gets the drugs and who else is involved in the distribution. I say 'unfortunately' because I had a hard time buying into the whole 'enchanting' bit, and it mainly made me wonder how little sleep he can get by on and why his Harlequin suit didnt stink so bad it would be disenchanting.
Facebook is being a pain about showing me my posts, but I finally found one with the search function:
Like all rich men he had never before paid any attention to advertisements. He had never realized the enormous commercial importance of the comparatively poor. Not on the wealthy, who buy only what they want then they want it, was the vast superstructure of industry founded and built up, but on those who, aching for a luxury beyond their reach and for a leisure for ever denied them, could be bullied or wheedled into spending their few hardly won shillings on whatever might give them, if only for a moment, a leisured and luxurious illusion.
34) "Night Watch" by Terry Pratchett. Of course I can assume you all just re-read it, too.
35) "Pyramids", Pratchett. Matt's been re-reading in order and kept chortling about Pyramids, so I needed to catch up.
36) "In the Company of Theives" by Kage Baker and her sister Kathleen Bartholomew. It was a re-read, but I had read it so long ago that things seemed only vaguely familiar. You can definitely see the patch-lines in the last story where Kathleen Bartholomew put it together from Kage's notes after her untimely death (may she rest in peace), and I'm glad she did and I appreciate her for giving us another Joseph and Lewis story. But. I did think that story ("Holywood Ikons") went almost or even perhaps a bit over the top in the zany department. (Also, I'm sorry but little details like this bother me: It's set during WWII, I think, and Lewis left his ration book in his bread box when he vacated his apartment because of a rat infestation, but when Joseph goes to fetch it he says that there's no bread left 'of course' but the ration book is intact. The implication seems to be that the rats ate the bread, but ... what are bread boxes for if not to keep rats away from your bread?)
37) "Sourcery" Pratchett. How much do I love the amazing part the Librarian plays in this story? Only Rincewind knows how amazing the Librarian is. And only the Librarian can scare and inspire Rincewind into facing up to the ultimate magics armed only with a half-brick in a sock. This is the story where Rincewind really shines, and his powers of running away actually manage to save the world.
Other random stuff:
I don't know if I should claim Asimov's anymore, since I never seem to read them cover to cover. I read as much as I wanted to in the one which had "Lemuria 7 is Missing" as the setpiece, and that 'as much as I wanted' did not include "Lemuria 7 is Missing," as a quick scan-through showed very little dialogue and indicated a very 1950s style story of "rich girl and her parents and her fiance and her boyfriend on a skylark expedition". I mean, the timing couldn't be better with the Titan sub going down ("Titan the Billionaire Killer" Eor calls it.). Eor tells me there was no real conclusion to the story: Everyone dies and there's the implication that aliens killed them in order to cover up their existance. His summation was "billionaire worship and conspiracy theories."
I'm still in progress on the Asimov's that has "Gravesend" featured, and I think I've started the most recent Asimov's as well.
I may drop my re-listens of "Good Omens" and "The Furthest Station", but then again I may go back to them later.
I have also started listening to "The Unspoken Name" which is a story about a young girl raised to be a seer and a sacrifice at 14, saved from that and trained up as a fighter for the next two years. So far there's lots of vague worldbuilding (people regularly and on scheduled routs travel through The Maze, which links different worlds, but how large those worlds are is not clear) which squeaks by because it's all from the young girl's POV. Also, I honestly can't even remember her name even though it's repeated nearly every sentence, so I'm not sure how invested I am in this story.
33) "Murder Must Advertise" by Dorothy Sayer. I loved this book, it had some amazingly great quotes about consumer culture which I posted on Facebook (and that totally confused me, because then I remembered posting about the book so why has my books post not got a copy of that??). She worked in advertising, so she knew the place inside out, and it shows. Lord Peter Wimsey is working undercover in the advertising firm, and it turns out that, even though he seems to be conscious that the work is ridiculous, he still enjoys it, and he likes having coworkers.Possibly he even likes having a boss to make happy. Unfortunately, in order to balance out the prosaic dullness of his life in the daytime, he needs to run around all night playing Harlequin to enchant a drugged up rich girl into talking to him about where she gets the drugs and who else is involved in the distribution. I say 'unfortunately' because I had a hard time buying into the whole 'enchanting' bit, and it mainly made me wonder how little sleep he can get by on and why his Harlequin suit didnt stink so bad it would be disenchanting.
Facebook is being a pain about showing me my posts, but I finally found one with the search function:
All over London the lights flickered in and out, calling on the public to save it’s body and purse: SOPO SAVES SCRUBBING-- NUTRAX FOR NERVES-- CRUNCHLETS ARE CRISPER-- EAT PIPER PARRITCH-- DRINK POMPAYNE-- ONE WHOOSH AND ITS CLEAN-- OH, BOY! ITS TOMBOY TOFFEE-- NOURISH NERVES WITH NUTRAX-- PARLEY’S FOOTWEAR TAKES YOU FURTHER-- IT ISN’T DEAR, IT’S DARLING-- DARLING’S FOR HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES-- MAKE ALL SAFE WITH SANFECT – WHIFFLETS FASCINATE. The presses, thundering and growling, ground out the same appeals by the millions: ASK YOUR GROCER-- ASK YOUR DOCTOR-- ASK THE MAN WHO’S TRIED IT-- MOTHERS! GIVE IT TO YOUR CHILDREN-- HOUSEWIVES! SAVE MONEY-- HUSBANDS! INSURE YOUR LIVES-- WOMEN! DO YOU REALIZE?-- DON’T SAY SOAP, SAY SOPO! Whatever you’re doing, stop it and do something else! Whatever you’re buying, pause and buy something different! Be hectored into health and prosperity! Never let up! Never go to sleep! Never be satisfied. If once you are satisfied, all our wheels will run down. Keep going—and if you can’t, try Nutrax for Nerves!
Lord Peter Wimsey went home and slept.
Like all rich men he had never before paid any attention to advertisements. He had never realized the enormous commercial importance of the comparatively poor. Not on the wealthy, who buy only what they want then they want it, was the vast superstructure of industry founded and built up, but on those who, aching for a luxury beyond their reach and for a leisure for ever denied them, could be bullied or wheedled into spending their few hardly won shillings on whatever might give them, if only for a moment, a leisured and luxurious illusion.
34) "Night Watch" by Terry Pratchett. Of course I can assume you all just re-read it, too.
35) "Pyramids", Pratchett. Matt's been re-reading in order and kept chortling about Pyramids, so I needed to catch up.
36) "In the Company of Theives" by Kage Baker and her sister Kathleen Bartholomew. It was a re-read, but I had read it so long ago that things seemed only vaguely familiar. You can definitely see the patch-lines in the last story where Kathleen Bartholomew put it together from Kage's notes after her untimely death (may she rest in peace), and I'm glad she did and I appreciate her for giving us another Joseph and Lewis story. But. I did think that story ("Holywood Ikons") went almost or even perhaps a bit over the top in the zany department. (Also, I'm sorry but little details like this bother me: It's set during WWII, I think, and Lewis left his ration book in his bread box when he vacated his apartment because of a rat infestation, but when Joseph goes to fetch it he says that there's no bread left 'of course' but the ration book is intact. The implication seems to be that the rats ate the bread, but ... what are bread boxes for if not to keep rats away from your bread?)
37) "Sourcery" Pratchett. How much do I love the amazing part the Librarian plays in this story? Only Rincewind knows how amazing the Librarian is. And only the Librarian can scare and inspire Rincewind into facing up to the ultimate magics armed only with a half-brick in a sock. This is the story where Rincewind really shines, and his powers of running away actually manage to save the world.
Other random stuff:
I don't know if I should claim Asimov's anymore, since I never seem to read them cover to cover. I read as much as I wanted to in the one which had "Lemuria 7 is Missing" as the setpiece, and that 'as much as I wanted' did not include "Lemuria 7 is Missing," as a quick scan-through showed very little dialogue and indicated a very 1950s style story of "rich girl and her parents and her fiance and her boyfriend on a skylark expedition". I mean, the timing couldn't be better with the Titan sub going down ("Titan the Billionaire Killer" Eor calls it.). Eor tells me there was no real conclusion to the story: Everyone dies and there's the implication that aliens killed them in order to cover up their existance. His summation was "billionaire worship and conspiracy theories."
I'm still in progress on the Asimov's that has "Gravesend" featured, and I think I've started the most recent Asimov's as well.
I may drop my re-listens of "Good Omens" and "The Furthest Station", but then again I may go back to them later.
I have also started listening to "The Unspoken Name" which is a story about a young girl raised to be a seer and a sacrifice at 14, saved from that and trained up as a fighter for the next two years. So far there's lots of vague worldbuilding (people regularly and on scheduled routs travel through The Maze, which links different worlds, but how large those worlds are is not clear) which squeaks by because it's all from the young girl's POV. Also, I honestly can't even remember her name even though it's repeated nearly every sentence, so I'm not sure how invested I am in this story.
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