Musing Mondays

This week’s musing asks…

What devices –if any– do you read books on? Do you find it enjoyable, or still somewhat bothersome? Or: If you only read the print books, why haven’t you chosen to read on any devices?

No e-readers for me yet. And, quite honestly, I have no desire for one. Give me a real live hold-it-in-your hands book every time. Part of it is that feel of a "real book in my hands" experience...but a big part is also the fact that I spend 80-90% of my day (work and blogging) onscreen. When I read for pleasure, I want it to be a totally different experience from work...and I'm not going to get that if I'm staring at another glowing screen.

I can see advantages. If I traveled more than I do, it would be nice to carry one light-weight e-reader instead of the 10 books I think I need to get by on vacation. I have a friend with vision issues who has just discovered how much she loves to read because she can now change the font to something that is easy on her eyes. That's all good--and I definitely don't see e-readers as evil inventions taking over my hard copy favorites. But e-readers are still not for me.

[Click the image to join in]

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a bookish meme hosted by Book Journey. It's where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It's a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list. So hop on over via the link above and join in...and leave a comment here so I can check out what you are reading.

Books Read (click on titles for review):
Prayers to Broken Stones by Dan Simmons
The Masks of Time by Robert Silverberg

Currently Reading:
Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett: The wizards at Ankh-Morpork's Unseen University are renowned for many things—wisdom, magic, and their love of teatime—but athletics is most assuredly not on the list. And so when Lord Ventinari, the city's benevolent tyrant, strongly suggests to Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully that the university revive an erstwhile tradition and once again put forth a football team composed of faculty, students, and staff, the wizards of UU find themselves in a quandary. To begin with, they have to figure out just what it is that makes this sport—soccer with a bit of rugby thrown in—so popular with Ankh-Morporkians of all ages and social strata. Then they have to learn how to play it. Oh, and on top of that, they must win a football match without using magic.


Books that spark my interest:
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells
The Future on Ice by Orson Scott Card (ed)
Murder & Magic by Randall Garrett
The Jesus Incident by Frank Herbert & Bill Ransom
Future Crime by Cynthia Mason & Charles Ardai, eds.
Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

[You will notice the preponderance of science fiction titles...I'm in the midst of the Science Fiction Experience "challenge" sponsored by Carl V. SF will be the main item on the menu until the end of February.]

The Masks of Time: Review

I'm not sure if I've changed or this is just one of Robert Silverberg's duds. Once upon a time I loved Robert Silverberg--in all of his 1960s-era, free-love, hippie-culture weirdness (Dying Inside, anyone?). But The Masks of Time seems over the top to me--at least now. Maybe the teenage/college age me still would have loved this one. The 40ish/middle-aged me....not so much.

So...what we have here is time travel. We begin with Professor Leo Garfield, a physicist, who has spent his career searching for the answers to time travel. At the time of the story, he's figured out how to send a few particles back in time--only to have them explode from the effort. And he's feeling depressed and like his life's work has been a waste of time (no pun intended). So, he takes a break from his work to stay with his friends. The husband is a former colleague who gave up physics when he was on the verge of a discovery that would revolutionize power supply. He's still struggling with his decision to suppress his findings. It also happens to be the end of the century--late 1990s. And the world has gone crazy with Apocalyptic fears. The world is going to end, you know. One happy crew from the individuals we meet to the world at large.

Into all this drops (quite literally--from the sky) Vornan-19, a man claiming to be from 1,000 years in the future....and whose main goal in this time travel trip seems to be to sleep with as many people from the past as possible. Wait, no, that's not what he says. He's here on a sight-seeing tour; gathering up information about his backward ancestors to take back to the folks in the future. Yeah, that's it. And everywhere he goes he creates upheaval of one sort or another--from riots to straight up property damage. Garfield and a team of intellectuals (from historians to anthropologists to psychologists) are called on by the US Government to escort Vornan-19 around the good ol' USA--as ambassadors of a sort, but also to keep an eye on him and to try and figure out if he really is a man from the future or just a particularly adept con artist.

This read was a major disappointment for me. As I mentioned above, I used to love Silverberg (and perhaps I still do--if the book is right). But this just seemed like an excuse for a lot of free love and folks running around nude--because, hey, it's absolutely okay, you know. But, seriously, if the culture is okay with it, why do we still call it fornication? And then, there's the whole struggle that Jack (Garfield's friend) has over his power supply discovery. Like it would be a bad thing to come up with a solution to the world's power problems and, oh, incidentally, maybe solve the problems of hunger and crime and other social ills while we're at it? Oh and the ending is a bit of a let-down as well. I'm afraid that this is one time that Silverberg just hasn't sold me on his story--and that's been a rare thing over the years. I'll have to give him another try. But, in the meantime, two stars for this outing. Barely.

Prayers to Broken Stones: Review

Prayers to Broken Stones is a collection of the early short stories by Dan Simmons. I remember being knocked out by his novel Hyperion when I read it in the early 90s. My best friend sent me this collection of short stories shortly thereafter and I somehow managed never to get around to reading it. All I can do is shake my finger at my younger self and say, "You missed something. Should have read it sooner."

Wow. I don't remember making the connection to Harlan Ellison when I read Hyperion, but if anyone comes close to writing like Ellison, it's Simmons. (And, interestingly enough, the introduction is written by Ellison and he claims to have discovered Simmons.) He has that same ability to move effortlessly between genres...a little horror here, a little science fiction there, a little bit of the dark thriller...and all of it making deft and accurate comments on the human condition. And this is his early stuff--the "I'm just getting into my writing groove" stuff. Makes me want to run out and buy the most recent thing he's written just to see if he kept it up and made it better.

This book has it all--from pyschic vampires who get their jollies (and "feedings") from making other people kill to a story of Resurrectionists who can bring your mom or dad or son or lover or whoever back from the dead. But is that really a good thing? There are stories built on the battle of Gettysburg and the loss of the Challenger shuttle. And stories cutting the televangelists down to size. There's even a story explaining why there seems to be so much more cancer nowadays....and stories that hold the seeds that would grow into Hyperion.

The man can write. He can take you back in time to a Civil War battlefield or whisk you away to a planet you've never heard of--and you absolutely believe that you're there. He may have just started in these stories, but he's miles ahead of other first-time writers. Four stars.

Favorite quotes:

I desperately want to talk to her now. I want to ask her who it was who so deftly crafted and shaped the legend that was our love.

"Remembering Siri" (page 121)

The past is dead and buried. But I know now that buried things have a way of rising to the surface when one least expects them to.

"Iverson's Pits" (page 237)

Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot is a meme hosted by Alyce at At Home with Books. All you have to do is "post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mr. Linky on [her] blog. Photos can be old or new, and be of anything as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give is up to you." All she asks is that you don't just post random photos that you find online. (Click picture for close-up).


I got sidetracked by life back before Christmas and haven't posted a Saturday Snapshot since Dec 13 (Has it really been that long??? Yep, blog archives don't lie...). Since I'm still stuck in time before Christmas (snapshot-wise), I thought I'd share this picture taken at the Mayberry Cafe on New Year's Eve. Santa still hadn't made it back to the North Pole yet.

Friday Memes

Book Beginnings on Friday is a bookish meme sponsored by Katy at A Few More Pages. Here's what you do: Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments section. Include the title and author so we know what you're reading. Then, if you are so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line and if you did or did not like that sentence. Link up each week at Katy's place.


Here's mine from "The River Styx Runs Upstream" the first story in the short story collection Prayers to Broken Stones by Dan Simmons:

I loved my mother very much. After her funeral, after the coffin was lowered, the family went home and waited for her to return.

**This really snagged me. After all...if mother is dead and the coffin has been lowered...how is she returning?

The Friday 56 is a bookish meme sponsored by Freda's Voice. It is really easy to participate. Just grab a book, any book, and turn to page 56. Find a sentence that grabs you and post it.
Here's mine from "Eyes I Dare Not Meet in Dreams" the second story in the short story collection Prayers to Broken Stones by Dan Simmons:

"I'm not sure we need any more surprises," Bremen mumbled.

Theme Thursday: Know

Hosted by Reading Between the Pages

Rules
*A theme will be posted each week on Thursday
*Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from your current book that features the theme
*Post it and don't forget to mention the author and title of the book
*Event is open for the whole week
*Link back to Reading Between the Pages

This week's theme is KNOW (aware, knowing, realize, etc).

Here is mine from "Remembering Siri," a short story in Prayers to Broken Stones by Dan Simmons (p. 111), It's kind of long, but I thought it was such a great passage (I trimmed out a bit at the ***):

"You've been to places I'll never see," said Siri in a rush. Her voice was the same. Almost the same. "Merin, my love, you've seen things I cannot even imagine. You probably know more facts about the universe than I would guess existed But you know very little, my darling."

***

"How do you mean?"

She squinted away from me for a few seconds and absently brushed back a strand of hair. Her left hand stayed firmly around both of mine. "I'm not sure," she said softly. "I think one begins to feel when things aren't important. I'm not sure how to put it. When you've spent thirty years entering rooms filled with strangers you feel less pressure than when you've had only half that number of years experience. You know what the room and the people in it probably hold for you and you go looking for it. If it's not there, you sense it earlier and leave to go about your business. You just know more about what is, what isn't, and how little time there is to learn the difference. Do you understand, Merin? Do you follow me even a little bit?

Booking Through Thursday: Inteview

This week's Booking Through Thursday is an interview:

What’s your favorite time of day to read?

Any time, any where--especially now that life is so crazy that I have to squeeze it in when I can. BUT, if I have my druthers--then at night, in bed, all cozy.

Do you read during breakfast? (Assuming you eat breakfast.)

Yes. See first part of answer above.

What’s your favorite breakfast food? (Noting that breakfast foods can be eaten any time of day)

French Toast

How many hours a day would you say you read?

At least one hour. Sometimes more--depends on how the rest of my life is. At the moment, it's crazy and I'm lucky if I get my one hour in.

Do you read more or less now than you did, say, 10 years ago?

I'd say about the same amount. I've always squeezed in every moment of reading that I can.

Do you consider yourself a speed reader?

No. But other people (Cheryl, I'm looking at you) would probably say yes based on the number of books I average a week.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

teleportation--both of my self and other people/things (I would love to just whisk myself to work and not have to worry about parking)

Do you carry a book with you everywhere you go?

Oh, yeah. Can't stand the thought of being stuck in traffic, in an elevator, waiting on anything and not having something to read.

What KIND of book?

The one I'm reading at the time. Probably a mystery, but could be anything from nonfiction to poetry to a classic lit book to science fiction to.... As you can see, I'm a very eclectic reader.

How old were you when you got your first library card?

5 or 6

What’s the oldest book you have in your collection? (Oldest physical copy? Longest in the collection? Oldest copyright?)

Oldest editions (physical books): Put Yourself in His Place by Charles Reade (1870) and Hide & Seek by Wilkie Collins (1873)

Longest in my collection: Probably my 5 volume set of Nancy Drew books (1950s) that used to belong to my mom--given to me when I was 7.

Oldest original copyright: Dante's Divine Comedy

Do you read in bed?

Oh yeah.

Do you write in your books?

Why would I want to do that? Only books I ever wrote in was for college.

If you had one piece of advice to a new reader, what would it be?

Read what you love. And don't let anyone tell you what you should or shouldn't read. If you love romance novels and that's what you want, then don't worry about people who say you ought to read classics or books to improve your mind or whatever. If you don't love it, then it's not fun--it's work. And who needs more work in their life?

Teaser Tuesdays

MizB of Should Be Reading hosts Teaser Tuesdays. Anyone can play along. Just do the following:

*Grab your current read.*Open to a random page.
*Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.

*BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! You don't want to ruin the book for others.

*Share the title and author too, so other TT participants can add it to their TBR lists if they like your teaser.

Here's mine from "Eyes I Dare Not Meet in Dreams" a short story in Prayers to Broken Stones by Dan Simmons (p. 41):

The morning seemed to last forever. It rained before lunch, and for a while it looked as if the swimming would be canceled. Then the sun came out and illuminated the flowerbeds on the front lawn. Bremen watched sunlight dance off the moistened petals of Turk's prize roses and listened to the roar of the lawnmower. He realized that it was going to happen.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (On Tuesday)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? ** is a bookish meme hosted by Book Journey. It's where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It's a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list. So hop on over via the link above and join in...and leave a comment here so I can check out what you are reading

Books Read (click on titles for review):
My Name Is Legion by Roger Zelazny
The Problem of the Green Capsule by John Dickson Carr
The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells

Currently Reading:
Prayers to Broken Stones by Dan Simmons: A woman returns from the dead with disastrous results for the family who loves her.... An old-fashioned barbershop is the site of a medieval ritual of bloody terror.... During a post-apocalyptic Christmas celebration, a messenger from the South brings tidings of great horror.... From a ghostly Civil War battlefield to a combat theme park in Vietnam, from the omnipotent brain of an autistic boy to a shocking story of psychic vampires, journey into a world of fear and mystery, a chilling twilight zone of the mind.

Books that spark my interest:
Nothing Can Rescue Me by Elizabeth Daly
Star Trek & Philosophy: The Wrath of Kant by Jason T Eberl & Kevin S Decker
Proust & the Squid: The Story & Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Imagined London: A Tour of the World's Greatest Fictional City by Anna Quindlen

**For the record, life is crazy at the moment and it will only be by great good luck that I actually post my regular memes on the right day.

The Invisible Man: Review

The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells is another one of those classic stories that "everyone" knows. There have been countless adaptations in film and I even participated in an abridged play version of it in grade school. (We actually used marionettes.) There weren't exactly oodles of female parts in the play...so I got to be Dr. Kemp. Quite simply it is the story of Griffin, a brilliant scientist who happens to discover the secret of invisibility. After trying it out on inanimate objects (a piece of wool and a pillow), he then uses it on a white cat....and finally on himself. He thinks that it will make him powerful and allow him to do all sorts of things undetected. But, of course, there are aspects of invisibility that hadn't occurred to him and he soon finds himself in difficulties.

At its heart, The Invisible Man is about power--and what uses and misuses man makes of it. Griffin becomes more and more selfish, only thinking of his needs and his gains. It soon becomes apparent that either the process has driven him mad or his lust for power has done the job. By the end of the story, we all know that he would quite willingly sacrifice anyone provided he might get what he wants. It is interesting to follow Griffin's slide into madness and see how far he will go. It is also a bit alarming to think that perhaps any us might do the same given the proper incentive--there is that adage that "every man has his price." Perhaps every man also has his power trip--the one that might send him over the edge. Let's hope not.

The story is often credited as one of the earliest science fiction stories, but Wells preferred to think of it as a "scientific romance" (romance using the older meaning of embellished story rather than dwelling on a love story). He would point out the differences between this story and those of Jules Verne, his contemporary. Verne regularly speculated with science that might exist, although it did not yet exist in his time. Wells used what he called "scientific patter"--making a theory of invisibility sound good, but with no solid basis in scientific fact. Fortunately both produce stories well worth reading. Four (invisible) stars for the Invisible Man.

Vintage Mystery Challenge Update

Vintage Mystery Challenge Addendum: I have decided (based on poll results already collected) to adjust the challenge. There will now be a Mini-Challenge Level--for those who would like to participate at a lower commitment. Choose any theme for a commitment of 4 books. Please see Challenge post (click button in the sidebar) for full details. Thanks to all who voted!

The Problem of the Green Capsule: Review

John Dickson Carr is one of the grand masters of the locked room and the [apparently] impossible crime. And, of course, The Problem of the Green Capsule is another such specimen. It begins with Dr. Marcus Chesney lecturing his household and associates on the fact that eyewitnesses are unreliable--that, as has often been said, if ten people observe the same incident then ten different versions will be told. And, as he later writes in a letter to Dr. Gideon Fell, "Show them a black-and-white record of it aferwards, and they will believe you; but even then they will be unable to interpret correctly what they see."

This subject has long been a hobby-horse of his, but the latest lecture has been brought on by an incidence of poisoning his home village. One child was killed and several others became deathly ill when someone slipped strychnine-laden candies into the stock of a local merchant. The police are at a loss to find evidence enough to capture the culprit and suspicion falls upon Chesney's niece and heir Marjorie.

In order to prove his point and, as we later find out, to show how Chesney believes the poisoning to have been accomplished, the doctor arranges for a demonstration to be performed in his own home. He has three in his audience--his niece, her fiance, and a friend who is a psychologist. Harding, the fiance, is set to film the entire show. Chesney and an unknown player go through a scene in his darkened library. The doctor sits at a desk with various objects on it, pretends to write some sort of note, and then a man in coat and silk hat, muffled to his nose and wearing dark glasses and gloves, comes into the room. The mysterious figure forces a green capsule into the doctor's mouth and then leaves. When the show is over and the lights go up, the doctor dies of cyanide poisoning before he can find out how his audience has fared in their observations. Once the three observers realize what has happened, they rush outside to see if they can catch the mysterious visitor. They find his costume in a pile outside the french doors and the handyman lying prone under a tree--a victim of the proverbial blunt instrument.

The police begin investigating, but it seems that everyone who is a viable suspect has an alibi. And, as Chesney predicted, each of the observers saw things just a little bit differently. It is going to be difficult to bring the murder (and the poisonings) home to anyone. But then the inspector on the case brings in Dr. Fell who has a way of making the most mysterious plain and unraveling the most impossible conundrums.

This is another excellent example of Carr's taking a seemingly impossible situation and giving it enough twists and turns to make it come out right..and quite simply too. As always, the clues are all there and as soon as Fell dangled them under my nose, I was all "of course! I should have seen that." I had a fine time with my first installment in the Colorful Crime portion of my Vintage Mystery Challenge reads. Four stars.

*Oh, and this counts for several other challenges too.

Friday Memes

Book Beginnings on Friday is a bookish meme sponsored by Katy at A Few More Pages. Here's what you do: Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments section. Include the title and author so we know what you're reading. Then, if you are so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line and if you did or did not like that sentence. Link up each week at Katy's place.


Here's mine from The Problem of the Green Capsule by John Dickson Carr:

It began, as a certain man remembered it, at a house in Pompeii. He never forgot the hot, quiet afternoon; the silence of the Street of Tombs broken by English voices; the red oleanders in the ruined garden, and the girl in white standing in the midst of a group in sun-glasses, as though in the midst of a group of masks.

The Friday 56 is a bookish meme sponsored by Freda's Voice. It is really easy to participate. Just grab a book, any book, and turn to page 56. Find a sentence that grabs you and post it.
Here's mine from The Problem of the Green Capsule by John Dickson Carr:

"I also trust that this removes some of Major Crowe's doubts as to my sanity or my good faith; and, before any more tempers are lost this evening, can anyone oblige me with a cigarette?"

Theme Thursday: New

Hosted by Reading Between the Pages

Rules
*A theme will be posted each week on Thursday
*Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from your current book that features the theme
*Post it and don't forget to mention the author and title of the book
*Event is open for the whole week
*Link back to Reading Between the Pages

This week's theme is NEW (fresh, newest, latest, etc).

Here's mine from The Problem of the Green Capsule by John Dickson Carr (pp. 86-7):

Then he arranged to get himself a crack over the head--self-mutilation to prove incapacity isn't a new thing--and showed that he couldn't be Dr. Nemo.