2024 and the reading of books
8I just finished Mister Magic by Kiersten White and it was… extremely and unexpectedly Mormon. Not in a bad way, exactly, but more YA-friendly, I guess? Not pro-Mormon, but Mormon-infused. Early on they’re like, we’re driving to Utah, and I thought, oh, is this book about Mormons? And then at one point there was a children’s song about modesty, and I thought oh yeah, this is all about Mormons. Anyway, it’s about the former cast of a defunct children’s show of which there are no extant tapes available and something happened 30 years ago. And Mormonism. You can sort of sense all the influences when you’re reading it.
I’ve started A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay. A couple of pages in the narrator said she prefers to be called Merry and I was like, oh, is this We Have Always Lived in the Castle? Apparently there’s a dedication to Shirley Jackson that I missed because I’m reading it on the Kindle, so, yes. It’s at least two Shirley Jackson books. I’m excited!
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Story checks out.
I always ponder how my reading has changed so much in my 50+ years of being a reader. In my teens, I was the geek/nerd girl reading mostly hard SF (with the concessional space opera) (Met Asimov ones even.)
Then I got into fantasy and lighter SF. Mostly now I can’t read much of either. Not sure what it is, but they are no longer my cup of tea. I will read ‘fantasy’ where the plot line is main stream and the characters are Fae or Shifters or Whatever other Paranormal of the week is in vogue, sometimes or "future fiction’ where the plot takes place in the future so people live off world perhaps, but nothing like what I did back in the day.
I read adventure novels of various types and some ‘procedural’ type stories. But mainstream literature still bores me to tears. When it comes to movies and TV a lot of the same is true. I mean, I will still watch modern day Trek, but much of the newer stuff doesn’t hold my interest (and Trek probably would not if I had been a rabid trekkie back before the trekkie vs trekker wars).
Been reading the Pendergast novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. There is definitely a ‘fantasy’ component with a 150 year old young woman and Frankenstein like experiments but overall it is your typical weird procedural series where the procedure is never followed, LOL
I used to read incessantly. The internet has been bad for that. I still read but mostly online; at least some of it is good stuff like articles from the Atlantic or NYT, but a lot of it is silly lightweight stuff like Buzzfeed articles
or other stuff in my Apple newsfeed. (Or this forum!)
I mostly like mysteries - mostly police procedurals or series with compelling characters and locations. Occasionally I’ll run across a book that’s just strange and wonderful even though it’s not a mystery, like Moon Palace by Paul Auster. My friend gave me Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr with a note saying “you will be sorry to reach the end of this book, but glad you started it.” But I still haven’t started it.
@Kyeh sounds like me. I was reading nonstop as a kid and through my teens, 20s…into my thirties and then something changed in my head… I just can’t stay focused on them anymore. Still read, as you say, online stuff… I have a lot harder time staying focused on a long book now.
@OnionSoup I’m not happy about it; but I guess there’s hope. A friend of mine got that way before I did, and he’s now back to reading long actual books all the time.
@Kyeh @OnionSoup
Do most of my “reading” now w audiobooks.
Sometimes I still read a book. If it’s technical or there’s no recorded or e-book version.
If I can get an e-book version of a book, I just get the software to read it to me.
@Kyeh @OnionSoup
One of the reasons I “read” using audio versions is that I can clean or drive or cook or exercise or shop or stand in line or whatever at the same time.
When I find some title that interests me and the. I find there’s no audio version and no e-book version (so that I can make software read it) then I’m annoyed.
”now I have to actually sit down and read this with me actual eyes!”
And then I’m aggrieved. Cause I can’t do something else at the same time.
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Exception for tech stuff, I read that in printed form.
Must concentrate etc.
@f00l @OnionSoup Well, I should try that - I never have but I bet it would really help me get more stuff done.
I usually have a book I’m reading, either the physical book or Kindle…and an audio book I listen to while running…I just finished “Julia: A Retelling of George Orwell’s 1984” by Sandra Newman and just finished listening to “Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult” by Maria Bamford. I enjoyed both of these books a bit more than I thought I would!
Recently, I’ve been doing nonfiction
Specifically history or stuff about movies
I haven’t really read in years. When I was a kid/teen I tore through the entire library. Well three of them. Three different library systems. Well plus whatever the school had.
Hardy boys/Tom Swift. When we went on vacation out west I checked out a literal stack to read in the back of the car/station wagon. Nacy drew was also fine. Timothy zahn/all the star wars novels. Rogue squadron. Etc. later the YA series
Stephen Ambrose. He wrote a lot of other non fiction WWII books besides band of brothers. Whatever else they had to on the displays that looked interesting in addition to him
David Weber for honor harington and others.
James Webb WWII fiction.
Tom Clancy.
Frank Herbert.
More obscure authors. Some we had to fill out that paper written form to get a transfer for. And the old orange display library terminals to find if they had it with the mechanical keyboards…
Strangely enough idk that I knew about LoTR till the movie but read it before the dollar theatre had it.
I basically shredded through sections of the library. Granted we had like 5 tv channels, and used dial up in the 90s, and you didn’t have the stress of being an adult and streaming to turn your mind off…
Still it feels weird that it was a massive
part of my life and I never do it anymore.
I keep telling myself I need to start reading again but I never do.
Off to check prod lol
@unksol David Webber is an interesting character. Whenever he came into the bookstore he would be wearing a fedora and a vest with all sorts of pins on it saying things like “Die Barney Die”. I think he would have an unnecessary cane too… although that might just be my memory inserting that detail.
Most of the authors I met seemed a little eccentric to be honest. David Webber would always go straight to our sci-fi section. He wouldn’t buy anything, he’d just push all the other books on the shelf flat against the wall and pull all his out a couple of inches then leave. We always had to go clean up and straighten the sci-fi section again when he left.
@OnionSoup @unksol
Hah - sounds like a jerk!
@Kyeh @unksol Other than that, he wasn’t too bad. He was polite to us… before going to adjust all our sci fi books at least. I knew several people who met Grisham, apparently he is a real jerk.
The nicest author I met though is Nicholas Sparks. Super nice guy.
@OnionSoup @unksol Oh, okay. Grisham, hmm - I don’t read his books, so don’t have much of an opinion about him. Haven’t read Sparks either, but I know he writes very heartfelt things so good to know he matches his image. Do you own a bookstore?
@Kyeh @unksol no, I was an assistant manager at one to pay my way through university. That was a really fun job.
@OnionSoup @unksol Oh, I worked at my college bookstore too! I started off stocking the university insignia crap which didn’t interest me at all, but I got to work in the book section later.
@OnionSoup @unksol @Kyeh
met so many SF authors because I worked cons. I remember some long gone, Robert Heinlein, Sturgeon, Ellison (ass that he was), My ex got drunk one con with David Gerrold while they sat on a window ledge (Lucky they didn’t fall off). Listened to Robert Silverberg be an old man with a kids these days rant a few years ago. Met Marion Zimmer Bradley before dementia set in, Knew Katherine Kurtz from my SCA days, have autographed books from her from when she was looking at our library and pulled them off the shelf and autographed them. Thought I missed it until ConJose and is when I really decided the world has changed too much for me to fit in anymore.
Anywho, memories
@Cerridwyn @OnionSoup @unksol Interesting! I was thinking back about author’s talks I attended from time to time; I saw Marge Piercy (liked her,) Amy Tan (felt a real connection when she talked about growing up in the US with an Asian mother,) Ruth Rendell (she was unnerving because she never smiled!) And wondered why it seems like those events are so much scarcer now. Probably the fault of the internet.
@Kyeh @OnionSoup @unksol
As a kid (16-18) I shelved books in the public library. I got in trouble stopping to read fiction books (to see if I wanted to check it out - I often had 20 or so checked out at once as I read one book about every two days and some I decided I didn’t like so didn’t finish) so they made me work non-fiction. Nope. Didn’t fix a thing. I found a ton of interesting books there too. I was lucky they didn’t fire me for that. Really made my interest very broad.
@Kidsandliz @OnionSoup @unksol
They should have been happy you were reading! I worked one year at the kids section of the public library when I was in college but even there I got distracted reading the books. My boss didn’t think much of me.
A friend of mine worked at the post office and said the magazines were a huge temptation. But even so he worked harder and faster than all the other guys there.
@Kyeh @OnionSoup @unksol absolutely the fault of the internet and of the change in society. bookworms tend to be introverts or ambiverts, and likely those talks were the only time they left the house, LOL. now all those authors have blogs, and the introverts claim social anxiety (some probably do have it but) and then came covid
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @OnionSoup yeah… I worked student security patrol for a couple years and there had been calls for someone(man) doing something else in the stacks besides reading so. Definitely would prefer that
@Kidsandliz @OnionSoup @unksol Oh. Yeah. The college library I worked in had that happen all too frequently.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @OnionSoup a little more passionate about books than I was at least lol
@Kyeh @OnionSoup @unksol college library - I worked there too. They switched me to the check out desk due to, um, on the clock self education on a variety of topics.
Never saw the “other” activities in the library, however the carillon was in the library tower (which I played and had a key) and although my engineering friends and I would find “other” ways to enter despite my key. The university would shut those down one by one. They put the wrong kind of lock on the door in the end and so we could straddle the hall, throw a rope with double stick tape over the 6" gap in the top, catch the underside of the round knob, turn the door handle and bingo we were in. We’d do things like put (never damaged anything) micky mouse faces on the clocks on the tower, rigged the vertical lights to blink on and off running the off light to circle the tower…
Once we went fishing for people in the old elevator (could handle only one command at a time so if you pushed the call button before someone getting on pushed the floor they wanted it would come to us (other elevators were newer and that didn’t work but they didn’t go into the tower). We caught a library employee once. Opps.
We were bad, bad children. And had so much fun.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @unksol I worked briefly at a library in High School and then for bookstore in University. It wasn’t the university bookstore, it was a regular one. I met some authors through book signings, but a lot just because we were a not-large town with a disproportionately large number of authors living in it or near it.
I used to read like crazy. Started reading when I was 4 and being an insomniac throughout my younger years, I would churn through no-end of books. Stopped reading when I got in my late 30’s. Two things happened.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @OnionSoup lol I got in “trouble” so many times because we got these cheap ass AA flashlights at like church things as prizes and the obvious use was to hide under the sheets and keep reading after they made you shut off the bedroom lights because you were supposed to be asleep. But. Needed to finish the story.
My sleep schedule as an adult is just. Utter trash. For many reasons
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @unksol that’s the advantage of coming from a long line of insomniacs. They knew what it was like, and as long as I was doing something quiet and conducive to sleep (like reading) I was allowed to do so. My dad even installed a light on my headboard so I could have a reading light without having full room light on.
I’ve extended the same liberties to my kids as I know all full well the horrors of trying to sleep with lights off and just lying there awake for 8 hours, day after day, after day (I went through phases of trying to force myself to sleep, unsuccessfully). I’d never get sleepy, and never feel like I was lacking sleep.
@Kidsandliz @OnionSoup @unksol
The things you and your pals did sound funny and clever. I think unksol and I are talking about something a lot less interesting, just inappropriate and gross.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @OnionSoup
We would get calls about guys jerking off in the stacks.
Why I do not understand. There’s lots of other places to deal with that urge in college. I’m sure they had socks as a teenager. So. IDK
@unksol I don’t want to sound like an amazon commercial but getting a Kindle with adjustable font really changed my reading life. Plus downloading library books from the bathtub is cool.
@sammydog01 I don’t have a problem focusing on the text. I just. Kinda lost interest in things. I could read a book. I could play one of the 100 games in my steam/epic backlog. Or I could just turn on the TV.
I’m much more motivated when there are other people here. Like. Ok let’s schedule this for the kids and we could go to the lake and the museum is doing xyz this weekend.
When is just me. Idk. I don’t really care. I just go into maintenance mode
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @OnionSoup @unksol My wife worked in the library during college (graduated with a major in EE and a minor in English). After leaving her job in high tech to start our family, she got involved with putting together a small community library. She handles most of the book selection and procurement. Our home is like an annex to the library, with shelves and boxes of books (incoming and outgoing - she does most of the purchasing for the library, plus is active in book trading sites). She read ~250 books/40K pages last year. She usually has 2-3 books going at a time.
@Kidsandliz @macromeh @OnionSoup @unksol I’m impressed! I guess she hasn’t been corrupted by the internet.
@unksol “Maintenance mode.” Yeah, that describes how I was going in 2019 after Lee died.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @OnionSoup @unksol
Corrupting her is my job.
@Cerridwyn I mean I’ve never been to see an author or followed one. I just. Knew what I tended to like/what genre they wrote in and I went through so many so quickly… I could rapidly check the whole library catalog to see if there was something I missed or new. Back then.
I could mostly not begin to tell you who’s in what movie, not because I don’t like movies, but they are characters/actors and that’s not how I parse things. You did a good job or you didn’t.
I’m definitely an introvert. Always have been. Social anxiety is definitely a thing. I don’t know that being a bookworm or introvert is an indicator. Other than not an extrovert.
I am well aware I’m not good at carrying a conversation. Usually. When there’s a defined topic and I have something to contribute sure. We can talk about that. I usually fail in the asking part. I mean I dont really want anyone to ask me anything, don’t like taking about myself so. That jump to “what’s going on with xyz?” I have to force myself to remember to do.
If your default setting is I don’t want to talk about me cause there’s nothing to talk about… Interfacing with a world where everyone wants to talk about themselves. And you too. Can be… Uncomfortable
Small talk. Large groups of people… Definitely not my thing.
@mossygreen Thanks for the book talk!
I read Head Full of Ghosts and really enjoyed it. Right now I’m reading The September House by Carissa Orlando- it’s a great mix of haunted house, creepy, humor, and is getting darker every page.
Also not a book but I just went to see Late Night with the Devil. It’s a lot like Ghostwatch- you might enjoy it. I certainly did.
@sammydog01 I just finished The September House, it was a fun read! Kind of what might have happened had Eleanor been allowed to stay at Hill House as written by a social worker. Thanks for the recommendation. I’m reading Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia right now, it’s a thriller about a sound engineer tracking down an (allegedly cursed) lost Mexican horror movie. Right now it’s mostly reminding me of that hour-long Alfred Hitchcock Presents starring Christopher Lee, but I’m hoping for some De Palma’s Blow Out influence.
@sammydog01 PS I have not seen Late Night With the Devil, but it looks amazing.
@mossygreen @sammydog01
Silver Nitrate is going into my list.
@f00l @sammydog01 Finished it yesterday, no Blow Up energy, SO much ritual magic, I loved it.
@f00l @mossygreen I just picked up Silver Nitrate and plan on reading it after I finish Nothing but Blackened Teeth. I’ve been on a haunted house kick lately. If you liked September House you might like A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher. I liked it anyway. It’s got bugs.
I just got back from seeing Late Night with the Devil again. The host thanks his parents who live in Berwyn, Ohio and wondered if it was a tribute to Svengoolie.
@f00l @sammydog01 Put A House With Good Bones on my libby request list. Oddly, they’re both available as audiobooks, but Nothing But Blackened Teeth is not available as an ebook. It’s probably at the library. If I do the summer adult reading program, I’ll go check.
David Dastmalchian has been on Svengoolie a couple of times, so it probably is a tribute (cool!).
@f00l @mossygreen Cool, I didn’t know that. The showing I went to had a Q&A after it which wound up being Dastmalchian chatting with Kevin Smith. I guess they’re buddies. I wish they did more stuff like that at the theater.
@f00l @sammydog01 So far A House With Good Bones makes an excellent companion piece to The September House and may have just started triangulating with Silver Nitrate.
@f00l @mossygreen By the way the comment you made about September House and Hill House was perfect.
2/3 of the way thru Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan
So much fun. Great summer read, with a touch of Edith Wharton and other masters of the novels if manners.
Also great skewering of idiot-ultra-rich-culture.
Interestingly … no truly influential person or powerful or creative person is v likely to live the endless-gorgeous-entertainment lifestyles as described.
The described lunges tykes are more applicable to family members, 2nd gen, and others who can afford it but are not out generating new stuff in the culture. (Exceptions for retired persons and for those whose public jobs are similar to high-end social lives)
Still, book is so much fun.
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For me, and for many readers, I suspect the “ick factor” for these lifestyles is pretty high, no matter how entertaining it is to get a peek into the private jet set life.
There a limit to how much total vacuity most of us could tolerate.
But it does seem that such limits on vacuity don’t apply at all to many of the “famous-for-being-famous” crowd.
He’s keeping very up to date. He brings mentions of Capote’s swans and other recently publicised persons and situations into the book.
One of the charming things about Kwan’s books is that he is both a natural skewering satirist, and also a deep-down romantic, at heart.
@f00l Ooh, maybe a touch of Anthony Trollope, too. Color me intrigued.
@mossygreen
All his books are a blast. He basically targets the ultra ultra rich idiots, for buyers are always a few sympathetic characters caught up in it, and most of the 6”bad guys” aren’t really evil; just messed up by their crazy family and social scenes.
Pretty much all hilarious esp when you realize some wealthy people actually do this sort of shit.
@mossygreen
PS I finished Kwan’s book and it was much much much fun till the end.
He needs to publish more novels, and publish them at least once a year.
Just read “Eruption” the Crichton book that Patterson finished. It was very typical Crichton and I enjoyed it.
@mossygreen I have a bad case of SSAS (seasonal short attention span) and get through about two pages before hey it’s hot why is it so hot is that a baby cardinal are the baby cardinals fighting the baby bluebirds GO BABY BLUEBIRDS. Fall should be better.
I finally finished Silver Nitrate and what an amazing book. Thanks for recommending it. My version had a list of recommended demon movies and guess what was there- Night of the Demon from Casting the Runes by M. R. James. We’ve discussed that before and it’s one of my favorite old movies. It also had the short story the novel was based on and that was great too.
I just started Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. My neighbor recommended it and I’ve been on the waitlist for months. As far as I know she doesn’t read horror novels but so far it’s pretty good. Maybe I’ll get it done before fall but I’m not holding my breath.
Here’s the list of movies in the Silver Nitrate Film Festival:
Mark of the Vampire (1935)
The Seventh Victim (1943)
Night of the Demon (1957)
The Witch’s Mirror (1962)
The Devil’s Rain (1975)
The last two are streaming for free, looks like I’ll be busy at lunch.