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Reading vacation
Aug. 27th, 2014 11:31 pmWhat did you finish reading
So most of my time while I was away was spent writing (SO MUCH WRITING OMG) or doing research (hey, falling asleep in the sun is totally research if you're researching Mediterranean climates), in some sort of desperate attempt to forget I can't draw anything lately (also escaping family). It didn't really work, but the research part was pretty fun. Eating random fruits of the side of the road: Blackberries (yum! and then jam!), almonds (so bitter), etc...
Most of my reading time was taken up by the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, for Reasons. This is some of the most intensive reading I've ever done in my life, but more on that later, when I'm done with The Secret Project.
I did read a couple of other things. Here are two I remember.
Paris Revealed: the secret life of a city, by Stephen Clarke: I loved this book. It was research for a future project of mine, but I did learn a bunch of things/appreciate the new prespective on some things. It's very good insight on Parisian life, for the most part. I was a bit pissed that the 14th and the 15th were grouped together and got a short-ish paragraph, at that, compared to the others. I loved the insight on how variable "Bon/ne + noun" is and how often we use them. I did not realise how confusing the street signs could be, mostly, because, like the Parisian-in-the-book I assumed everyone knew. I loved the mention of the 1060 plaques that commemorate victims and events of the Second World War, because THANK YOU (I have a problem with people who do the French = surrender monkeys thing). The bouquinistes are actually not allowed to sell anything but books, old papers and postcards. That doesn't mean it's all they sell, but it is the majority of it, so that was a mistake on the author's part. Agreed on the salade de chèvre chaud being a good way to judge is a restaurant was nay good, except vinaigre balsamique goes well with it (in moderation, obviously). The french cravate is an english tie, but the english cravat is a french lavallière, AND NOW YOU KNOW since it's not specified in the book. I lughed like a maniac at the "Angry second syllabe rule", because It was SOPT-ON.
No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty: Finished this one. I wasn't a big fan of the hardline "quantity over quality" approach. I can't remember if it was in this book or on the NaNoWriMo forums, but if it wasn't in the Book it's certainly in mine with some old the book's other advice. Anyway, it was a piece of advice I hated, because I thought it was 1) useless and 2) counter-productive: "don't use contractions". Seriously? The use of contractions can tell you A LOT about character (For example, "I am not" vs "I'm not" vs "I ain't") and you'd want to sacrifice this for, what, fifteen les words to write or whatever? No, thank you. And this is without going into stuff like blatantly cribbing from other sources. The book did redeem itself a fait bit with the ending portion on editing and stuff, although I didn't learn much. On the whole, I don't think I'd reccommend it. Maybe I would have a better opinion of it if I had read the daily speeches daily instead of in bursts, idk.
What are you reading now
The first volume of Aurore's Lady Liberty BD. Looking forward to late-life Chevalier d'Eon being involved in the American Revolution.
(Probably the Heroes of Olympus series for The Secret Project.)
What are you reading next
CRIMSON ANGEL (Barbara Hambly)! Can it please come out already? And after that, Kameron Hurley's THE MIRROR EMPIRE (global, DRM-free ebook drops September 2).
So most of my time while I was away was spent writing (SO MUCH WRITING OMG) or doing research (hey, falling asleep in the sun is totally research if you're researching Mediterranean climates), in some sort of desperate attempt to forget I can't draw anything lately (also escaping family). It didn't really work, but the research part was pretty fun. Eating random fruits of the side of the road: Blackberries (yum! and then jam!), almonds (so bitter), etc...
Most of my reading time was taken up by the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, for Reasons. This is some of the most intensive reading I've ever done in my life, but more on that later, when I'm done with The Secret Project.
I did read a couple of other things. Here are two I remember.
Paris Revealed: the secret life of a city, by Stephen Clarke: I loved this book. It was research for a future project of mine, but I did learn a bunch of things/appreciate the new prespective on some things. It's very good insight on Parisian life, for the most part. I was a bit pissed that the 14th and the 15th were grouped together and got a short-ish paragraph, at that, compared to the others. I loved the insight on how variable "Bon/ne + noun" is and how often we use them. I did not realise how confusing the street signs could be, mostly, because, like the Parisian-in-the-book I assumed everyone knew. I loved the mention of the 1060 plaques that commemorate victims and events of the Second World War, because THANK YOU (I have a problem with people who do the French = surrender monkeys thing). The bouquinistes are actually not allowed to sell anything but books, old papers and postcards. That doesn't mean it's all they sell, but it is the majority of it, so that was a mistake on the author's part. Agreed on the salade de chèvre chaud being a good way to judge is a restaurant was nay good, except vinaigre balsamique goes well with it (in moderation, obviously). The french cravate is an english tie, but the english cravat is a french lavallière, AND NOW YOU KNOW since it's not specified in the book. I lughed like a maniac at the "Angry second syllabe rule", because It was SOPT-ON.
No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty: Finished this one. I wasn't a big fan of the hardline "quantity over quality" approach. I can't remember if it was in this book or on the NaNoWriMo forums, but if it wasn't in the Book it's certainly in mine with some old the book's other advice. Anyway, it was a piece of advice I hated, because I thought it was 1) useless and 2) counter-productive: "don't use contractions". Seriously? The use of contractions can tell you A LOT about character (For example, "I am not" vs "I'm not" vs "I ain't") and you'd want to sacrifice this for, what, fifteen les words to write or whatever? No, thank you. And this is without going into stuff like blatantly cribbing from other sources. The book did redeem itself a fait bit with the ending portion on editing and stuff, although I didn't learn much. On the whole, I don't think I'd reccommend it. Maybe I would have a better opinion of it if I had read the daily speeches daily instead of in bursts, idk.
What are you reading now
The first volume of Aurore's Lady Liberty BD. Looking forward to late-life Chevalier d'Eon being involved in the American Revolution.
(Probably the Heroes of Olympus series for The Secret Project.)
What are you reading next
CRIMSON ANGEL (Barbara Hambly)! Can it please come out already? And after that, Kameron Hurley's THE MIRROR EMPIRE (global, DRM-free ebook drops September 2).