reading etc
Jul. 7th, 2012 09:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishCurrently rereading Gene Wolfe's Latro books, because I wanted something both meaty and familiar and because I'm running Agon. They're still excellent, even if I'm not sure exactly how many werewolves there were in the first one. (I'd thought 'two' at first but now I'm pretty sure there was only the one and someone was lying to Latro. Like they do.)
Also, while I'm still not sold on the Device as a reading platform for narrative fiction, it does pretty well for RPG books. Been reading Ken Hite's Nights Black Agents, which is sort of "Jason Bourne Versus Vampires," and the 13th Age beta-test, which ought to be Just Another Fantasy Heartbreaker but so far at least seems to be an acceptable blending of mechanics that encourage storytelling and role-playing with D&D-style Bashing It With My Axe. Also, dear gord reading PDFs in Ibooks drains the battery like nobody's business.
Tangent: non-narrative reading scratches some sort of itch for me. Strategy guides, RPG books that mix worldbuilding with rules... I've even been known to read board game rules over lunch. My tentative guess is that they're things with rules and guidelines, they describe systems that I can understand.
Off to B'ham again today.uilos cleared the bookcase's Go-Away Shelves into two largeish tubs so we'll be taking those to one or two of the giant used bookstores down there and trading them for books we'll actually read again sometime. Then there's Readercon in Boston next weekend, from which I should not bring back too many books because luggage.
In the interest of Doing All The Physical Caretaking a few weeks ago, I started swimming in the mornings. I also saw a chiropractor for my stupid shoulder and stupid wallet-sciatica. Turns out the swimming is aggravating my stupid shoulder, so that's out. Back to running in the mornings I suppose. Will have to see about finding a decent route. At least it's neither hot nor humid out here.
Also, while I'm still not sold on the Device as a reading platform for narrative fiction, it does pretty well for RPG books. Been reading Ken Hite's Nights Black Agents, which is sort of "Jason Bourne Versus Vampires," and the 13th Age beta-test, which ought to be Just Another Fantasy Heartbreaker but so far at least seems to be an acceptable blending of mechanics that encourage storytelling and role-playing with D&D-style Bashing It With My Axe. Also, dear gord reading PDFs in Ibooks drains the battery like nobody's business.
Tangent: non-narrative reading scratches some sort of itch for me. Strategy guides, RPG books that mix worldbuilding with rules... I've even been known to read board game rules over lunch. My tentative guess is that they're things with rules and guidelines, they describe systems that I can understand.
Off to B'ham again today.
uilos cleared the bookcase's Go-Away Shelves into two largeish tubs so we'll be taking those to one or two of the giant used bookstores down there and trading them for books we'll actually read again sometime. Then there's Readercon in Boston next weekend, from which I should not bring back too many books because luggage.In the interest of Doing All The Physical Caretaking a few weeks ago, I started swimming in the mornings. I also saw a chiropractor for my stupid shoulder and stupid wallet-sciatica. Turns out the swimming is aggravating my stupid shoulder, so that's out. Back to running in the mornings I suppose. Will have to see about finding a decent route. At least it's neither hot nor humid out here.
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Date: 2012-07-07 04:34 pm (UTC)I personally don't like reading rulebooks, and I kinda feel bad about that because it leads me to have a bunch of games I don't know how to play, but I think stuff like The Unix Programming Environment is great calming bedtime reading. I bet that's why: same sort of feeling of "I know how this is put together now, I can understand this."
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Date: 2012-07-07 08:39 pm (UTC)*nod* Zarf once (review of Rhem? Rhem 2? maybe?) mentioned being an information junkie, and once having read the spec for I think it was Jabber, just because it was there. This... is sort of like that, but in measured doses. I do like learning about new stuff. This isn't that. It's more the feeling of a complete understanding.
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Date: 2012-07-07 10:44 pm (UTC)And yeah, same thing. I already know pretty much everything that's in Unix Programming Environment (except the shell scripting stuff). I just like reading about it.
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Date: 2012-07-07 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-08 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-08 03:47 pm (UTC)I have found pack-n-ship places to be very effective for adressing this problem (in my case from computer events with 50% off book sales in the vendor room, but books is books, to misquote Ellis Parker Butler). Ship 'em to myself UPS ground, and the cost isn't outragous. Takes a week or so to get them; maybe longer in your case because of the border, but they get there...
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Date: 2012-07-08 05:37 pm (UTC)Also, I am trying hard to pare down the total mass of pages in the apartment, and 'luggage' is as good an excuse as any.
(On the other hand, it's only a long-weekend trip, so I'll have more space in the luggage than usual.)