Mike > Recent Status Updates

Man, this should've been a memoir. Gitlin's life sounds really interesting, and he barely talks about it.

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman: 4/5 A tad bit predictable, but Gaiman is still a creative and engaging writer.

Cave and Julia by M. John Harrison: 2/5 I guess I see what Harrison was going for, and the writing is fine, but there's more narrative summary than story, and none of the ideas here were really that interesting.

The more I read this, the more I realize how much Alan Moore was/is a stereotypical anarchist.

Effigy Nights by Yoon Ha Lee: 3/5 Another one with a lot of very good ideas. Unfortunately, Lee's reliance on infodumps and narrative summary took away a lot of the interest.

Rosary and Goldenstar by Geoff Ryman: 1/5 I'm still trying to figure out what this was supposed to be, but my best guess is that it's a very un-funny, confusing alternate history. It falls flat on its face either way.

This ending is so predictable. Even as a kid, I think I could've seen it coming.

Maybe it seems kind of unfair of me to focus on Callahan's handling of gender identity so much. But it's such a big part of this book, and he handles it so badly. Maybe if this were released in 1999, I could forgive it, but for a book released in 2009, there is no excuse for ignoring transness the way he does. I can only chalk it up to conscious transphobia, at this point.

Even after reading this book, the connection between drugs and revolution is still kind of fuzzy to me. From what I can tell, the New Left basically said, "Drugs make me feel really good. But, like, revolution though."

Zero for Conduct by Greg Egan: 3/5 This was another badly-written story. The diction was overly-complex purple prose, to the point where it became difficult to follow the story. (The use of jargon and names of Afghani and Iranian cities that most readers wouldn't be familiar with doesn't help). It's a shame, because the story is actually quite cool. I loved the protagonist.

I'm trying my best to figure out Callahan's stance on gender identity, but it's confusing as hell. My best guess is that he sees a distinction between being 'physically' a boy or a girl and identifying as a boy or a girl. I know that he has a concept of being 'physically' neither male nor female, but does he have a concept of non-binary gender identities? Or transgenderism? There's no telling.

Man, radical leftism was a lot less radical back in the day than it is now.

I'm pretty nervous about this one - it's too soon to tell for sure, but Callahan seems to be using 'man' and 'person with a typically functioning penis' interchangeably, which isn't a great sign.

Some Desperado by Joe Abercrombie: 2/5 The story was pretty cliched, and the writing was contrived and confusing. Abercrombie at least put a lot of effort into making the action realistic, and as far as cliched stories go, this one is at least well-paced and immersive. But it's the awful writing that really got me.

There's a lot of interesting stuff here. If only Jessica weren't so much of an empty protagonist.

Still liking these fairy tales, particularly The Snow Drop. These feel a lot like the ones Andersen wrote very early on.

Gitlin is, as far as I can tell, doing a decent job of keeping his biases out of the informational parts about liberalism and radical leftism.

At least we're back to real fairy tales, finally. I kind of liked The Toad and The Porter's Son, particularly The Toad.

Holy shit, you guys, I'm seven books behind on my reading challenge. This has never happened before - literally, I've never, ever been behind by even a single book since I started doing them. My reading pace has slowed so much - I finished only three books in October, and today, I finished the first book I've completed in almost a full month. What the hell happened?

There is some good information here, I just wish it was more well-organized. Gitlin can't tell if he wanted to write a memoir or a nonfictional book.

Why are these stories even here? These aren't fairy tales, these are nonfictional accounts of Andersen's travels.

The Things We Do for Love by Janis Owens: 3/5 The writing is okay, but Owens just doesn't seem to have a very interesting story to tell.

Message in a Bottle by Michelle Richmond: 4/5 Some tonal issues, but the story and theme are very interesting.

It's often difficult to tell how involved Gitlin is in whatever movement he's talking about. Overall, the format of this book is just confusing - most of the book reads like it should be a broad account of the radical left-wing movements of the sixties, but the memoir elements just muddle it instead of adding anything.

I think I've already read most of Andersen's good stories. The first part of this anthology was mainly shorter vignettes, which I sort of like. But now, there are more and more extended stories, and I'm mostly finding them boring. Andersen's style gets a little tedious when it goes on for more than a few pages.

I wonder if this would appeal to me more if I were more familiar with the culture and political movements of the sixties. I'm not finding myself very interested in Gitlin's story so far.

I like this a lot better when I see this as primarily Gitlin's memoir centering around his political beliefs, with the factual information about the political movements of the sixties as background for his own personal journey. Which would be great, if not for how long he lingers on the factual elements and how much less he talks about himself.

This is really interesting. Gitlin seems to have done a lot of research, rather than just relying on his personal experience for everything. That was definitely a good move.

Hiding Out with Holden Caufield by Suzanne Hudson: 5/5 Really well-written and interesting

Tote Monkey by Joshilyn Jackson: 4/5 The biggest secondhand embarrassment I've felt in ages.

For the Good Lies by Barb Johnson: 4/5 Not as interesting of a story, but it's well-written.

My Life as a Spy by Cassandra King: 4/5 I'm not really sure what to make of this story, but it's at least interesting.

I'm kind of nervous about reading a whole book from a white guy that takes this attitude towards social justice movements. He seems to treat organizations advocating for the rights of a particular oppressed group of people with a lot of suspicion. But we'll see how it goes, I suppose.

It's really interesting to see how the writing industry worked a hundred fifty years ago. It's so totally different from today.

Right now, in this book, I'm reading a novella-length autobiography of Andersen. His life isn't that interesting, but he does paint a fascinating picture of himself. He feels like a child thrust into the adult world, in his over-sensitivity and his reliance on the kindness of others.

It's not that I dislike these stories, they're just taking forever to read. I have to read other books at some point.