Certain People I Could Name
Jun. 20th, 2005 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alfvaenI have finally finished Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Not to imply that I didn't enjoy it, which I did, mostly, but it was long, and it was physically thick and heavy. I got tired of stuffing it into my backpack to take to work, which didn't leave much room for things like my lunch and my CDs and tapes to listen to.
It was a decent book, and probably a good candidate for the World Fantasy Award, if not the Hugo, but I can't say that it'll become one of my favourites. It could have been shorter, being very slow at the beginning and middle, and it took a long time for the plot to become clear. But it had a great sense of place and time, of early 19th century England(and bits of the rest of Europe), and obviously Susanna Clarke put a lot of thought into the history of magic in England, at least. (Though not outside of it, for some reason. But that kind of Anglocentrism is also in keeping with the times.)
Now I have to move on directly to the Peter Watts book(Behemoth, Part One: β-Max), since it and Jonathan Strange are both due back on Saturday. At least this one, having been split in half, is only 300 pages. Less than half of Jonathan Strange. Boy, those publishers sure love their midlist authors!
I'm also reading Barenaked Ladies: Public Stunts/Private Stories, for which I swear I've been waiting for two years to come in at the library. It's amusing so far, at least. I keep neglecting The Descent of Woman, though every time I do pick it up(it made a better book to sneak into the bathroom at work than Jonathan Strange, for instance)I enjoy myself reading it.
This evening I went to start up Winamp, and it told me a new version was available. I decided to upgrade, since I had a story to read for the Cult of Pain meeting(on a Wednesday this month). Unexpectedly, with the free upgrade was a free 50 MP3s to download from eMusic! So I happily used those up with the rest of my evening.
Of course, like all legitimate music-download sites, the selection was limited and quite scattered. However, I was able to find enough. Firstly, I remembered that They Might Be Giants' "Long Tall Weekend" had been available from eMusic, so I downloaded that one. Then I found not one but two(!) Miranda July albums. After that it was a little bit harder, but I decided to go for a Glenn Tilbrook solo album(whose title I've forgotten). The remainder were mostly single tracks--a couple of Peter Himmelman, some Stereolab and Negativland, one by the Lilac Time(I was thinking of Stephen Duffy because he's a good friend of Steven Page from the Barenaked Ladies), and I tried a couple of new bands, In Itself and Brian Jonestown Massacre.
Now I just need to get some more CD-Rs so I can burn some of this stuff. I like the physical backup.
It was a decent book, and probably a good candidate for the World Fantasy Award, if not the Hugo, but I can't say that it'll become one of my favourites. It could have been shorter, being very slow at the beginning and middle, and it took a long time for the plot to become clear. But it had a great sense of place and time, of early 19th century England(and bits of the rest of Europe), and obviously Susanna Clarke put a lot of thought into the history of magic in England, at least. (Though not outside of it, for some reason. But that kind of Anglocentrism is also in keeping with the times.)
Now I have to move on directly to the Peter Watts book(Behemoth, Part One: β-Max), since it and Jonathan Strange are both due back on Saturday. At least this one, having been split in half, is only 300 pages. Less than half of Jonathan Strange. Boy, those publishers sure love their midlist authors!
I'm also reading Barenaked Ladies: Public Stunts/Private Stories, for which I swear I've been waiting for two years to come in at the library. It's amusing so far, at least. I keep neglecting The Descent of Woman, though every time I do pick it up(it made a better book to sneak into the bathroom at work than Jonathan Strange, for instance)I enjoy myself reading it.
This evening I went to start up Winamp, and it told me a new version was available. I decided to upgrade, since I had a story to read for the Cult of Pain meeting(on a Wednesday this month). Unexpectedly, with the free upgrade was a free 50 MP3s to download from eMusic! So I happily used those up with the rest of my evening.
Of course, like all legitimate music-download sites, the selection was limited and quite scattered. However, I was able to find enough. Firstly, I remembered that They Might Be Giants' "Long Tall Weekend" had been available from eMusic, so I downloaded that one. Then I found not one but two(!) Miranda July albums. After that it was a little bit harder, but I decided to go for a Glenn Tilbrook solo album(whose title I've forgotten). The remainder were mostly single tracks--a couple of Peter Himmelman, some Stereolab and Negativland, one by the Lilac Time(I was thinking of Stephen Duffy because he's a good friend of Steven Page from the Barenaked Ladies), and I tried a couple of new bands, In Itself and Brian Jonestown Massacre.
Now I just need to get some more CD-Rs so I can burn some of this stuff. I like the physical backup.
