Internet Down

Roary Contemplates Asking for Advice

This past week, my internet connection was out for about thirty-six hours.  Although I could (and did) write, my inability to do e-mail, check in on social media, work on updates to my website bookstore, and other such on-line work gave me more time to read.  It also made me reflect how the expectations as to what a working writer’s life will include has changed in the last several decades.

But that’s a subject for another time, I think.

For those of you unfamiliar with this column, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week.  Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazines.  The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.  If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.  It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.  And it’s also a great place to tell me what you’re reading. 

Completed:

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune.  Audiobook.  I liked it a lot.  However, don’t read it and expect anything earth shatteringly new, just charming and well-written.  That can be enough.

DreamForge Anvil, issues three and four.

xxxHolic by Clamp.  Manga.  Full series (which encompasses nineteen volumes or seven in the omnibus).  Important note: “xxx” here stands for “fill in the blank” not super-porny.  “Holic” means an addiction of any sort.  I’ve read part of the manga before, seen the anime, which ends short of the end of the manga.  This time, thanks to Jim’s birthday present to me, I had the entire run to read!  Full of numerous plot twists and turns, and that’s without the crossover with another Clamp title, Tsubasa.  Not a title I’d recommend to someone unfamiliar with manga.

In Progress:

Age of Faith by Will Durant.  Audiobook.  Yes.  I’m back to this.  In the section about medieval Catholicism.

Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie.  The novel that introduced Miss Jane Marple.  Yes.  I’ve read it before… 

Also:

New issues of American Archeology and Vogue just came in.