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livI haven't got much new to add for Reading Wednesday, so I'll pick up a book meme that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ghoti posted, since it contains at least some questions I haven't answered before.
What was the last sf/f/h book you finished reading?
A door into ocean by Joan Slonczewski. Which is about the most recent book I've finished at all, I'm still reading slowly and rarely.
What was the last sf/f/h book you did not finish reading?
I gave up on Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić. It's very clever and non-linear, but that's precisely the reason I didn't finish it. Normally even when I'm finding a book isn't quite my thing, I am driven to finish it because I need to know what happens in the story. But with DotK I wasn't even sure there was a story there, and if there was you had to piece it together from the fragments in the form of encyclopaedia entries.
What was the last sf/f/h book you read that you liked but most people didn’t?
I'm going to go with A stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar. It's not quite true to say that most people didn't like this book, given that Samatar won the Campbell and the World Fantasy Award and attracted some really major critical praise. But when we were all reading the Hugo nominated material, most of my friends didn't like aSiO as much as I did, so it's the best answer to this question that comes to mind.
What was the last sf/f/h book you read that you disliked?
Eh, I am pretty good at not picking out books that I dislike. Probably the most recent book that I had real problems with was Sixty-One Nails by Mike Shevdon, but I enjoyed in some respects as well.
How long do your 1-sitting reading sessions usually last?
Ideally, about 45 minutes to an hour. I sometimes read for longer than that but unless the book is really consistently thrilling and never drops the pace, I tend to get restless after about that much time. And in practice I sometimes read for 10-20 minutes in order to fill time for example on a short bus journey or similar time when the only entertainment available is portable. (If I'm just waiting five minutes I'll usually read the internet rather than a book, because I find reading for less than 10 minutes at a stretch frustrating.)
What are you currently reading?
Still Imajica by Clive Barker.
Do you like it so far?
Yes. I've read about a third of it, it's long but I'm also reading slowly. I don't love it, but it's definitely enjoyable especially now it's getting more into the secondary world stuff and moving away from simply setting up the characters and background in our world. I both like and am somewhat skeptical about the everything turned to eleven emotional intensity. I like the interesting explorations of non-standard sexualities and relationships, which is the reason I was recommended the book. I'm enjoying the world-building and the sense of magic, which is very alien and reaches towards the spiritual or numinous. I pretty much dislike every single character though, and I'm finding that the plot drags a bit because the narrative keeps stopping to describe emotions or setting in too much detail.
How long ago did you buy the book you are currently reading?
It was a gift,rysmiel gave it to my for my birthday, which was a couple of months ago. I started it nearly straight away, but I'm reading it slowly.
What was the last physical sf/f/h book you bought?
Stephen Donaldson: The last dark. I feel the need to clarify that I bought this for someone else; I gave up on Lord Foul's bane with extreme prejudice many years ago at the rape scene that occurs in the first few pages.
What is the sf/f/h sub-genre you like to read the most?
I am not sure. There are lots of elements I particularly enjoy in what I read, and I'm not sure those elements cluster in one particular sub-genre. I think if I had to pick just one it would space opera. Probably my favourite thing is well-realized characters in highly imaginative situations, and I'm somewhat more likely to encounter that in space opera than some other sub-genres. But if I think of my favourite genre books they're by no means all space opera, so I'm not sure.
What is the sf/f/h sub-genre you dislike the most and why?
I can read pretty much any genre if it's done well! I'm somewhat negative towards horror, partly because I don't like gory stuff and partly because I don't like story structures where everything gets inexorably worse, and I don't like the underlying assumption that the unknown is scary and dangerous and it's better to remain ignorant rather than investigate. But none of those characteristics apply to all horror, by any means.
What is your favorite electronic reading device?
The Sony PRS-505, hands down. It's lovely and solid while still being light enough to be fully portable. It's operated by buttons which are comfortable to use, not a touchscreen. It supports a whole range of file formats natively without having to mess around with Calibre. It was sold as a stand-alone, you pay for the device, rather than a subscription to a service, or something sold as a loss-leader to act as a portal to a particular web store. Because of that, it's easy to buy or download whatever reading material you want on a full-sized computer and side-load them into the e-reader.
Unfortunately it's also completely obsolete, and there's nothing on the market currently that has really any of those desirable features, let alone all of them. I kept mine going as long as I could, and then replaced it with another second-hand device, but the e-ink screens last a couple of years at most, and the batteries stop holding charge, and if you have to feed the thing every few hours it's no longer properly portable.
What was the last sf/f/h eBook you bought?
The night circus by Erin Morgenstern. It was one of my favourite books of 2014, though I never got round to reviewing it.
Do you read books exclusively in 1 format (physical/electronic)?
No, not at all. In some ways I would like to use my e-reader exclusively, so I don't have to carry heavy p-books around. But a whole bunch of the books I want to read aren't available in ebook format (basically I really like stuff from the mid-20th century which is in copyright but out of print, and doesn't have an ebook version, so I'm still buying these books from charity shops and second-hand shops.) Also people give me p-books as presents, because I have lovely friends and stupid DRM makes it hard to gift or lend e-books.
Oh yeah, and DRM makes me much less willing to switch to e-books. If I have to buy DRM'd stuff and faff around with special software or stripping the DRM to even get the book onto my device, that's a big barrier when all I want to do is pick up something to read. And if I go seeking for books without DRM, I have been forced to move to an e-reader which is really only set up to buy from one retailer, a Barnes and Noble Nook in this case, so it's still a bit of a faff to get my files onto the device, because I'm working against what the thing was designed for though at least they haven't outright forbidden it. (I have bought precisely two books from the Nook store, because on the second attempt I paid full retail price for a corrupted file I couldn't open and getting that refunded turned out to be more hassle than it was worth.)
Do you read eBooks exclusively on a single device?
Basically yes, my Nook. I don't like reading novels on my phone or desktop. I'm not really happy with it, though, I bought it cos it was cheap.
ghoti posted, since it contains at least some questions I haven't answered before.What was the last sf/f/h book you finished reading?
A door into ocean by Joan Slonczewski. Which is about the most recent book I've finished at all, I'm still reading slowly and rarely.
What was the last sf/f/h book you did not finish reading?
I gave up on Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić. It's very clever and non-linear, but that's precisely the reason I didn't finish it. Normally even when I'm finding a book isn't quite my thing, I am driven to finish it because I need to know what happens in the story. But with DotK I wasn't even sure there was a story there, and if there was you had to piece it together from the fragments in the form of encyclopaedia entries.
What was the last sf/f/h book you read that you liked but most people didn’t?
I'm going to go with A stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar. It's not quite true to say that most people didn't like this book, given that Samatar won the Campbell and the World Fantasy Award and attracted some really major critical praise. But when we were all reading the Hugo nominated material, most of my friends didn't like aSiO as much as I did, so it's the best answer to this question that comes to mind.
What was the last sf/f/h book you read that you disliked?
Eh, I am pretty good at not picking out books that I dislike. Probably the most recent book that I had real problems with was Sixty-One Nails by Mike Shevdon, but I enjoyed in some respects as well.
How long do your 1-sitting reading sessions usually last?
Ideally, about 45 minutes to an hour. I sometimes read for longer than that but unless the book is really consistently thrilling and never drops the pace, I tend to get restless after about that much time. And in practice I sometimes read for 10-20 minutes in order to fill time for example on a short bus journey or similar time when the only entertainment available is portable. (If I'm just waiting five minutes I'll usually read the internet rather than a book, because I find reading for less than 10 minutes at a stretch frustrating.)
What are you currently reading?
Still Imajica by Clive Barker.
Do you like it so far?
Yes. I've read about a third of it, it's long but I'm also reading slowly. I don't love it, but it's definitely enjoyable especially now it's getting more into the secondary world stuff and moving away from simply setting up the characters and background in our world. I both like and am somewhat skeptical about the everything turned to eleven emotional intensity. I like the interesting explorations of non-standard sexualities and relationships, which is the reason I was recommended the book. I'm enjoying the world-building and the sense of magic, which is very alien and reaches towards the spiritual or numinous. I pretty much dislike every single character though, and I'm finding that the plot drags a bit because the narrative keeps stopping to describe emotions or setting in too much detail.
How long ago did you buy the book you are currently reading?
It was a gift,
rysmiel gave it to my for my birthday, which was a couple of months ago. I started it nearly straight away, but I'm reading it slowly. What was the last physical sf/f/h book you bought?
Stephen Donaldson: The last dark. I feel the need to clarify that I bought this for someone else; I gave up on Lord Foul's bane with extreme prejudice many years ago at the rape scene that occurs in the first few pages.
What is the sf/f/h sub-genre you like to read the most?
I am not sure. There are lots of elements I particularly enjoy in what I read, and I'm not sure those elements cluster in one particular sub-genre. I think if I had to pick just one it would space opera. Probably my favourite thing is well-realized characters in highly imaginative situations, and I'm somewhat more likely to encounter that in space opera than some other sub-genres. But if I think of my favourite genre books they're by no means all space opera, so I'm not sure.
What is the sf/f/h sub-genre you dislike the most and why?
I can read pretty much any genre if it's done well! I'm somewhat negative towards horror, partly because I don't like gory stuff and partly because I don't like story structures where everything gets inexorably worse, and I don't like the underlying assumption that the unknown is scary and dangerous and it's better to remain ignorant rather than investigate. But none of those characteristics apply to all horror, by any means.
What is your favorite electronic reading device?
The Sony PRS-505, hands down. It's lovely and solid while still being light enough to be fully portable. It's operated by buttons which are comfortable to use, not a touchscreen. It supports a whole range of file formats natively without having to mess around with Calibre. It was sold as a stand-alone, you pay for the device, rather than a subscription to a service, or something sold as a loss-leader to act as a portal to a particular web store. Because of that, it's easy to buy or download whatever reading material you want on a full-sized computer and side-load them into the e-reader.
Unfortunately it's also completely obsolete, and there's nothing on the market currently that has really any of those desirable features, let alone all of them. I kept mine going as long as I could, and then replaced it with another second-hand device, but the e-ink screens last a couple of years at most, and the batteries stop holding charge, and if you have to feed the thing every few hours it's no longer properly portable.
What was the last sf/f/h eBook you bought?
The night circus by Erin Morgenstern. It was one of my favourite books of 2014, though I never got round to reviewing it.
Do you read books exclusively in 1 format (physical/electronic)?
No, not at all. In some ways I would like to use my e-reader exclusively, so I don't have to carry heavy p-books around. But a whole bunch of the books I want to read aren't available in ebook format (basically I really like stuff from the mid-20th century which is in copyright but out of print, and doesn't have an ebook version, so I'm still buying these books from charity shops and second-hand shops.) Also people give me p-books as presents, because I have lovely friends and stupid DRM makes it hard to gift or lend e-books.
Oh yeah, and DRM makes me much less willing to switch to e-books. If I have to buy DRM'd stuff and faff around with special software or stripping the DRM to even get the book onto my device, that's a big barrier when all I want to do is pick up something to read. And if I go seeking for books without DRM, I have been forced to move to an e-reader which is really only set up to buy from one retailer, a Barnes and Noble Nook in this case, so it's still a bit of a faff to get my files onto the device, because I'm working against what the thing was designed for though at least they haven't outright forbidden it. (I have bought precisely two books from the Nook store, because on the second attempt I paid full retail price for a corrupted file I couldn't open and getting that refunded turned out to be more hassle than it was worth.)
Do you read eBooks exclusively on a single device?
Basically yes, my Nook. I don't like reading novels on my phone or desktop. I'm not really happy with it, though, I bought it cos it was cheap.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-02-18 12:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-02-18 12:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-02-18 12:49 pm (UTC)NOOK e-Reader
Date: 2015-02-18 02:14 pm (UTC)For page turning, the NOOK gives you a choice of touch screen and buttons.
Of course, the NOOK cannot handle books from Amazon but who wants to anyway?
Southernwood
Re: NOOK e-Reader
Date: 2015-02-18 04:06 pm (UTC)I haven't yet had serious problems with DRM, other than the failed attempt to buy from the Nook store, but Adobe has an upper limit on how many devices you can register to the same account, and I seem to be replacing my laptop every 4-5 years and my e-reader every couple of years, and I'm soon going to run out and probably lose access to the books I bought earlier. And there are perpetual rumours that Adobe is planning to flat out disable all older DRM, because the version they're using have been thoroughly cracked and they want to force everybody to switch to something they can more easily enforce. It hasn't happened yet but I don't have strong faith that my older DRM'd files will continue to be accessible.