Katherine Nabity's Blog, page 243
August 20, 2012
It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? (08/20/12)
This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!
This Week I’m Reading:
Lake Effect: Tales of Large Lakes, Arctic Winds, and Recurrent Snows by Mark MonmonierThis is from NetGalley. Looked interesting, and when is better to read a book about snow and arctic winds than in August. I’m hoping that it will be somewhat “popular” in its tone and not strictly dry science. Anecdotes may not be science, but they certainly help describe science.
Doctor Who Dave Gibbons Collection by Pat Mills, Steve Moore, Steve Parkhouse, Dave Gibbons (illustration)Industry legend Dave Gibbons illustrated a classic run of Doctor Who comics, and this oversized book collects them all And in full color Gibbons-drawn strips began appearing the very first issue of Doctor Who Magazine (then titled Doctor Who Weekly), starring the Fourth Doctor as portrayed by Tom Baker, and Gibbons continued as the primary artist until issue #69, a Fifth Doctor tale. This volume also features an introduction by Gibbons, along with early Doctor Who sketches from the master. (Goodreads)
Another one from NetGalley. Already about 40 pages in.
Short Story of the Week:
“Wolf Trapping” by Kij Johnson over at Apex
The Usual:
A poem, a section of Poetic Edda and a chapters of A Clash of Kings.
What I Read Last Week:
Took part in Bout of Books 5.0. Finished up Kiss of Steel, finally, as well as the steampunk anthology I was working on and We Need to Talk About Kevin. Reviews will be coming, probably in that order.
Bout of Books 5.0 – Wrap-Up
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 13th and runs through Sunday, August 19th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 5.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.
GOALS – Achieved!
I was a little worried.
The May Bout of Books was my first multi-day read-a-thon and it was awesome. I followed it up with the Wicked Wildfire Read-a-thon and, likewise, had a blast. Thrilled at this new-found activity, I jumped into Once Upon a-Read-aThon and High Summer Readathon. And didn’t do so well. Some of it may have been the vibe (geeze, these readers are young and exuberant!), but most of it was probably me and summer apathy.
I was looking forward to this Bout of Books, but feared that maybe the bloom was off. Happily, my enthusiasm is perennial. My goal was ~600 pages. I passed it by a bit, reading 718 pages. I also took part in a few challenges and visited new blogs. I plan to visit more this week.
BOOKS Finished
All of these were in-progress, but 700 pages is 700 pages!
Library Books:
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (8/23) FINISHED!
Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories by Gavin J. Grant (Author, Editor), Kelly Link (Author, Editor) (8/27) FINISHED!
Galleys:
Finish Kiss of Steel by Bec McMaster (9/1) FINISHED!
Doctor Who Dave Gibbons Collection by Pat Mills, Steve Moore, Steve Parkhouse (9/18) Continued.
From the Bookshelf:
Finish Through Darkest America by Neal Barrett, Jr.
Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury by Sam Weller (Editor), Mort Castle (Editor) Read a couple stories, as well as Ray Bradbury stories that were mentioned in the stories’ notes.
Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis (a re-read). Started.
Updates
MONDAY: ~101 pages read.
TUESDAY: ~110 pages read.
WEDNESDAY: ~159 pages read.
THURSDAY: ~37 pages read.
FRIDAY: ~100 pages read.
SATURDAY: ~161 pages read.
SUNDAY: ~50
August 18, 2012
Bout of Books 5.0 – Friday & Saturday
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. For all Bout of Books 5.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.
Friday
Started at 69% of Steampunk!, ended at 90% (about 88 pages).
Read pg 32-39 of Shadow Show; pg449-454, “The Sound of Summer Running,” in Bradbury Stories. (12 pages)
Saturday
Picked up Steampunk! at 90%. Finished at 97% (~29 pages)
Next already-in-progress: Kiss of Steel. Started at pg. 267.
Total
Number of pages I’ve read today: ~100 (Friday)
Total number of pages I’ve read: ~507
Reading/Read: Steampunk!, Shadow Show, Bradbury Stories
Writing progress: 0 on Friday.
Friday Challenges
Oof. Never got to them. Hung out with the husband playing EQ2 too much. ;)
Saturday Challenges
Music hosted by My Not So Real Life
The rules are simple. All you have to do is choose one book that you’ve read this year, or one of your favorites, or even a book that you’ve read for the readathon. Then, choose a song that matches your book. Post a picture/link to your book, and a embed/link your song.
One of my favorite “finds” of the past year has been Elmore Leonard’s westerns. I’ve read two this year, thus far. Leonard is becoming my go-to light read.
My musical pairing is Days of the New. Day of the New has always seemed to me to be what might happen if cowboys rocked. This remix of “Enemy” has too much swirvy bass and I don’t know what’s with the zoomy synth near the end, but the acoustic guitar is there and the lyrics are very Leonard.
Obviously, their most famous and more indicative song is “Touch, Peel, and Stand.”
Page 99 Test hosted by My Seryniti
Choose a book that you have on your to read list.
Read page 99
Comment below and let us know how you feel! Did page 99 draw you in or push you away? Are you more curious or less?
I’ve been meaning to do this with a re-read. I have one on my list though I probably won’t get to it: Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis. Page 99 is all about a bright suburban morning…and Xanax and dead crows. Yep, the things I liked about this book.
August 16, 2012
Bout of Books 5.0 – Thursday
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. For all Bout of Books 5.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.
Picking up Steampunk! An Anthology Of Fantastically Rich And Strange Stories at 60%. Not much in a reading mood today. Yet. (How many people use ‘yet’ at 10pm?)
Number of pages I’ve read today: In Progress…
Total number of pages I’ve read: ~370
Reading/Read: Steampunk! An Anthology Of …, Shadow Show
Writing progress: In Progress…
Thursday Challenges
Candy Challenge hosted by BookSmartie
I don’t know about you but I used to love eating and reading at the same time – I don’t even know why. So for this challenge (also, because my rating system just screams candy) I’d like you to share either what’s your favorite snack while reading – do you snack at all? Or do you – like me – sometimes try to eat (or drink) exactly what the characters in the story are having?
I had never thought about eating what characters are eating, though every time I have them I think about Captain Cully telling Schmendrick to “have a taco” in The Last Unicorn. It’s so random and sort of anachronistic. As a writer, I’m uncomfortable if my characters aren’t eating and drinking regularly. During 24-hour read-a-thons, I seem to end up eating holiday candy. For week-long read-a-thons, I eat what I usually eat, but while reading. Lately, the food of choice has been “on a pita.” (PB&J-on a pita. Turkey and cheese-on a pita. Eggs and potatoes-on a pita.) The non-book-friendly recent snack? Jalapeno Cheetos. Luckily, I’m reading mostly via Kindle Cloud Reader (aka on my PC). Additionally, pickles and vodka have been the house cocktail. Tasty. Makes me want to break out some Pushkin.
Bout of Books 5.0 – Wednesday
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. For all Bout of Books 5.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.
Read pgs 19-31 in Shadow Show, past midnight in bed last night and before napping today. Picked up We Need to Talk About Kevin at 63% and finished it.
Number of pages I’ve read today: ~159
Total number of pages I’ve read: ~370
Reading/Read: Need to Talk About Kevin, Shadow Show
Writing progress: Nothing. Terrible arthritis flare-up. It was a day of reading, napping, and brain fog.
Wednesday Challenges
Book Word Search hosted by The Musings of ALMYBNENR
Did it! spent half my time looking for “GraveMercy”. Fun challenge.
Match the Zombie Book Cover hosted by The Busy Bibliophile
Scored…low.
August 14, 2012
Bout of Books 5.0 – Tuesday
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. For all Bout of Books 5.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.
Didn’t get to bed until 4am; up at 8:30am. I wasn’t up that late reading or even doing much writing, but debating with my husband about what makes a catchy/singable tune. It’s world-building for his novel.
10:03 
- We Need to Talk About Kevin, picking up at 36%
15:48 – Check-in: at 48%. Went through my RSS aggregator, which was neglected yesterday. Only going to do one challenge today.
After drinking a Zero Carb Rockstar and eating dinner, I finally took a nap. Read “Unprotected” by Simon Rich, recommended by Ken. Very nicely done character sketch. (Approx. 2 pages)
Stopping at 59% of Kevin to do some writing. Of course, then I didn’t write. I played EverQuest2 for a while. Then I read more (to 63%). Then I wrote.
Number of pages I’ve read today: ~110 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: ~211 pages
Reading/Read: We Need to Talk About Kevin, short story from The New Yorker.
Writing progress: Rewrote the beginning of ch. 23. Manuscript is over 70K words!
Tuesday Challenges
Limericks hosted by Curiosity Killed the Bookworm
For today’s challenge, I’d like you to write me a bookish or bloggish limerick.
There once was a readathon-er in Tempe
Whose coffee pot bordered on empty.
She read books too slow;
Her page counts were low
Until the Red Bull made her all peppy!
August 13, 2012
Bout of Books 5.0 – Monday
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. For all Bout of Books 5.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.
Started just after midnight with Capt. Morgan, Diet Pepsi, and We Need to Talk About Kevin. Started at the 16% mark. Went to bed at the 20% mark.
In bed, read the first story in Shadow Show, pg. 11-18. Started “Usher II” from Bradbury Stories, pg 668-682. Finished it this morning.
09:12 – PB&J & coffee. Migraine auras make reading difficult.
11:00 – Laundry and Twitter chatting!
15:07 – Dinner from Pei Wei. At 27% of Kevin.
Number of pages I’ve read today: Still in progress.
Total number of pages I’ve read: N/A yet.
Reading/Read: We Need to Talk About Kevin, Shadow Show, Bradbury Stories
Writing progress: None, yet.
Monday Challenges
Literary BFFs hosted by Auggie Talk
Everyone has that one character. The character that they know they could relate to, get along with, have fun with, and laugh with. A literary BFF! Tell us who your literary BFF is and why they’re your always friend. What do you guys do together? What do you talk about?
If I could be BFF’s with one literary character it would be Molly Grue from The Last Unicorn.
Not the youngest, the most beautiful, or the most even-tempered, Molly is practical, logical, and quite courageous. I’d like to think that we’d be the sort of neighborhood friends that my grandmother had. We’d have coffee every morning and maybe get together in the afternoon if something *happened* in the neighborhood or in our lives.
We’d commiserate about our men. Mine, still working on a computer algorithm for creating concordances of diverse books. Her, still trying to turn iron bars into cheese. “He’s getting closer. He turned them into yogurt yesterday, but the cheap kind with too much high fructose corn syrup in it.”
Lunches would be sandwiches with chewy bread made by her and desert cocktails made by me. “I really wouldn’t have thought that vodka and pudding would go together.”
And while I’d never press and never ask, she would occasionally on cool mornings when the seasons were mid-change tell me about the unicorn, but only because I’m the only one to never press and never ask. “Her mane really wasn’t like dandelion fluff. It was more like cotton wood down.”
Passing Books hosted by Reading in Texas and The Space Between
To enter this challenge, tell us what happens to your books after you have read them.
If the book is one that I think I might read again, however small the possibility, it finds a place on my shelves or gets boxed up. I have more books than shelf space, so I rotate my books between shelves and boxes. If I don’t think I’ll read the book again (and I’ve learned to be honest with myself about this), I post it at PaperbackSwap. I’ve been using PBS for years and it’s a good way of trading out books, basically for the cost of postage.
August 11, 2012
Bout of Books 5.0
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 13th and runs through Sunday, August 19th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 5.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.
MY GOALS
Obviously, I got too big for my britches with High Summer Read-a-thon, but I’m going to shoot for ~600 pages again. Also, I’m also going to keep track of my writing progress. I’m working on rewrites and I need to get them done in the near future.
Going to keep the reading light, from some combination of the following:
BOOKS TO READ
Library Books:
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (8/23)
And whatever other holds might come available.
Galleys:
Finish Kiss of Steel by Bec McMaster (9/1)
Doctor Who Dave Gibbons Collection by Pat Mills, Steve Moore, Steve Parkhouse (9/18)
From the Bookshelf:
Finish Through Darkest America by Neal Barrett, Jr. (a re-read)
Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury by Sam Weller (Editor), Mort Castle (Editor)
Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis (a re-read)
The Weekly Usual:
A chapter of A Storm of Swords, a poem, a short story, and a section of Poetic Edda, unless I read them on Sunday.
UPDATES
Monday
Number of pages I’ve read today:
Total number of pages I’ve read:
Reading/Read:
Writing progress:
Notes:
Tuesday
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Writing progress:
Notes:
Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
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Saturday
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Sunday
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August 10, 2012
Friday Free-for-All (08/10/12)
A couple of weeks ago, I came across Steampunk: Poe at the digital library and put a hold on it. I didn’t pay too much attention to the book’s description and figured that it was an anthology of writers steampunking-up Poe tales. Which I thought had the potential of being good, or at least interesting. Instead, Steampunk: Poe is Poe’s original tales illustrated in steampunk style by Zdenko Basic and Manuel Sumberac. This didn’t work for me. The art is beautiful (though Kindle Cloud Reader doesn’t do it justice), but it just doesn’t go with the stories. That’s probably because Poe has a very visual style and I have very specific images in my head when I read. I don’t have room for other people’s new re-imaginings. (But, I’m interested in the duo’s illustration of steampunk Frankenstein. I don’t recall Shelley quite as vividly.)
I’ve been a Poe fan since I could read, more or less. I distinctly remember in 3rd-grade, or thereabouts, repeatedly checking out illustrated children’s versions of The Masque of the Red Death and The Pit and the Pendulum (as well as The Monkey’s Paw and a particularly creepy haunted boat cabin story that I don’t remember the name of). While it seemed pretty reasonable as a kid to have these in our teeny-tiny Lutheran school library, as an adult I started to doubt their existence. But I’d search the internet every-so-often looking for the illustrated Poe I know. On Wednesday, I found Red Death, complete with the startling cover I remember:
“Edgar Allan Poe’s The masque of the red death.” adapted by David E. Cutts & illustrated by John Lawn. Published 1982 by Troll Associates. Mahwah, N.J .
The best illustration in the book is page 24:
The blood splatters that don’t quite go with the picture creeped-out 8-year-old me. These books, though abridgements, were my first taste of Poe and other creepy tales and have definitely influenced how I “see” those stories.
Lastly, The Guardian brings us the Edgar Allan Poe Death Scene Infographic.
by Adam Frost, Jim Kynvin and Jamie Lenman
Click through for a better look. I’m particularly amused by the “Simian Involvement” category.
August 9, 2012
Throwback Thursday (08/09/12)
Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books!
Noting that book blogging onften focuses on new releases, here’s how Throwback Thursday works:
Pick a book released more than 5 years ago.
Write up a short summary of the book (include the title, author, and cover art) and an explanation of why you love it.
Link up your post at The Housework Can Wait or Never Too Fond of Books.
Visit as many blogs as you can, reminisce about books you loved, and discover some “new” books for your TBR list!
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
From my original post, 10/27/08:
This is one of the many Great American Classics that I managed never to read despite honors English classes in high school and a BA in English in college. I know it might seem strange to compare this book to two lesser books in the great classics scheme, but I will do so. I’ve never held with the notion of literature existing in a vacuum or only in the context of the time it was written. While reading, I couldn’t help but make comparisons to Berent’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Both are Southern novels (though Midnight is actually nonfiction) and both deal with crime and the court system. Both are filled with Southern peculiarities, though the primary difference is that Berent’s is from the perspective of an outsider and is an order of magnitude more tabloid in its treatment. (Not saying that Midnight is strongly tabloid at all.) Both are exquisitely written. The other novel that kept coming to mind is Alice Sebold’s Almost Moon. Yeah, I know, I’m comparing a Classic with a book that no one likes. One of the things that Sebold does well with Moon is that she doesn’t look away from the nastiness that being human can be. Lee doesn’t either. Ex., Mrs. Dubose is not pleasant and Scout’s attitudes toward her are rather cruel. And that’s a good thing. No character should ever be entirely sweetness and light (or pure evil for that matter).
As for the Issues of the book, much can and has been said. Honestly, I thought it got a little too didactic at the end instead of continuing to show attitudes through the behavior of the characters. As with many books, I wish I had read it earlier in life. Scout’s a great tom-boy character and I would have appreciated her more at a time in my life when I needed her. Great book though.
Not much else to add. This book is a classic for a reason.
