Category: Books

I recently finished recording a story for LibriVox. I rather randomly selected a project to work and had the moderator assign me something to read. I ended up with “The Enchanted Canary” from the Red Fairy Book.

I recently picked up a copy of The Red Fairy Book while we were in New Orleans. I’ve read about a third of the stories and I am remarkably impressed by the assumed racism inside them.

For example, in The Enchanted Canary there is this line, with reference to a Prince who doesn’t want to marry any of the girls in the kingdom:

`My faith!’ cried Tubby; `do you want to marry a negress, and give me grandchildren as ugly as monkeys and as stupid as owls?’

I was reading the story out loud to my microphone when I got to that line and almost spit out my liver! Holy crap!

Of course, the rest of the stories have this same sort of thing. What biographers of Darwin have called “gentlemanly superiority”. This is something that emerges from the British Empire and it’s place astride the globe. Unfortunately, if I ever do read these stories to my unborn children, I foresee some judicious editing. And judicious excisions.

In some cases this will be moot. I won’t be reading The Enchanted Canary to any child simply because I don’t think it’s a very good story. There’s no there there, if you know what I mean. Now, the Twelve Princesses is good, but the Enchanted Canary just doesn’t cut the mustard.

I’m still reading these stories and I’ll finish up the book soon. I should remember to do some marginal notations as I go along so I don’t have to find out in impressionable circumstances that certain stories are not for today’s kids.

I finished reading Elantris by Brandon Sanderson today. Review: Good, but a few flaws (some big). I hope his novels get better—this is his first published work—otherwise I might stop reading.

I picked up this book because Mr. Sanderson was picked to finish the Wheel of Time (WOT) series in place of the late Robert Jordan. This situation merits some examination of his novels to see what kind of writing we can expect out of the last WOT book. According to Tor, we’re about a year away from the last novel and everyone who is a WOT groupie is anxiously awaiting it.

I’ll get the another novel by Sanderson and see how it goes. As I said, hopefully it will be a bit better, although I have no real complaints about Elantris.

I’ve been reading a library book titled Great Scientific Experiments by Rom Harré. It contains discussion about the scientific method and how experiments contribute to it. It has 20 experiments that “changed out view of the world”.

It’s very interesting reading. A lot of each experiment’s discussion talks about the history and preconceptions that led to the particular experiment and how the experiment was a linchpin.

I like it. You might too.

I read Kate Elliot’s Manifesto this morning and it has pushed me over the edge to a decision I’ve been edging toward for the past few days. I will not finish Verner Vinge’s A Fire upon the Deep, despite being halfway through. Why? Because it’s boring me to death. I’m finding it to be work to read the next chapter.

What’s funny is the concepts in this book are interesting. Vernor Vinge is one of the oft-cited Singularity authors, and this book contains some interesting twists on the slower-than-light and faster-than-light travel dichotomy. It’s still boring though, which disappoints me. It really disappoints me because this book is a Hugo award-winner and I just can’t finish it. I’ve got other books on my stack that are calling to me.

If anyone has any Vernor Vinge recommendations, keeping in mind that this book won’t be completed, feel free to pass them along.

This man says many things I agree with concerning my reading of novels. No idot plots. Less Deux ex Machina. As I get older, I find myself less and less inclined to read stuff that I used to like. I guess this is me maturing as a critical reader; I demand more out of my escapism.