Lost in a Book
Jul. 4th, 2006 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rowynI just finished Lois McMaster Bujold's The Curse of Chalion, a novel which devoured me whole today. I started it late on Sunday evening and it wouldn't let me go. I managed to escape it for a good chunk of Monday, but today it insisted on having its way with me.
Lut is beside me and bemused; he chews through novels like this one in two or three hours. I used to do that, when I was a teen. I don't know why I read so slowly now; 500 pages and it probably took me 10 hours to read.
Lut says, "You should be grateful for that, you know." Perhaps I should. It's something to treasure a novel, to let it fill you up.
This was a very good book. I am struck by the contrast between the length of time it took me to finish this one versus the one I read previously. I spnt better part of three weeks to making my way through Tom Holt's Paint Your Dragon, and The Curse of Chalion -- which was nearly twice as long -- didn't last three days. It's not that the individual pages of Tom Holt's book read more slowly; it's that I couldn't be bothered to read it except when I was walking to and from work. Sometimes, not even then. I almost never sit down to read a book at home. Even at work, I'll typically read LJ in preference to a novel. At home, I'll play games or write instead of reading. I can read during my commute, and I can't do any of those things then. So I save reading for walking.
But today, there just wasn't anything I wasnted to do more than read this book. I managed to guilt myself into exercising, and Lut convinced me to watch a movie. But after some abortive attempts to write or play Puzzle Pirates, I gave up and read.
I was hoping that I could motivate myself to write some fiction of my own after I finished hers, but I don't seem to be in the mood for it.
One thing I dearly love about Bujold's works is that, while she's prone to writing sequels, she doesn't write what amount to multi-part novels. Every book ties up at the end. There may be some dangling threads here or there, hooks for the next story, but the gestalt of the single book is satisfying.
Which is good, because it means I am not craving to start the next Bujold book. I've got Paladin of Souls, which uses the Chalion setting again, next to me now, but I'm not going to start it yet. On the other hand there will be that walk to work tomorrow morning ....
Lut thinks I'll like it. For the sake of making some other use of my evenings, I hope I don't like it quite so much.
In the meantime: happy birthday, America.
Lut is beside me and bemused; he chews through novels like this one in two or three hours. I used to do that, when I was a teen. I don't know why I read so slowly now; 500 pages and it probably took me 10 hours to read.
Lut says, "You should be grateful for that, you know." Perhaps I should. It's something to treasure a novel, to let it fill you up.
This was a very good book. I am struck by the contrast between the length of time it took me to finish this one versus the one I read previously. I spnt better part of three weeks to making my way through Tom Holt's Paint Your Dragon, and The Curse of Chalion -- which was nearly twice as long -- didn't last three days. It's not that the individual pages of Tom Holt's book read more slowly; it's that I couldn't be bothered to read it except when I was walking to and from work. Sometimes, not even then. I almost never sit down to read a book at home. Even at work, I'll typically read LJ in preference to a novel. At home, I'll play games or write instead of reading. I can read during my commute, and I can't do any of those things then. So I save reading for walking.
But today, there just wasn't anything I wasnted to do more than read this book. I managed to guilt myself into exercising, and Lut convinced me to watch a movie. But after some abortive attempts to write or play Puzzle Pirates, I gave up and read.
I was hoping that I could motivate myself to write some fiction of my own after I finished hers, but I don't seem to be in the mood for it.
One thing I dearly love about Bujold's works is that, while she's prone to writing sequels, she doesn't write what amount to multi-part novels. Every book ties up at the end. There may be some dangling threads here or there, hooks for the next story, but the gestalt of the single book is satisfying.
Which is good, because it means I am not craving to start the next Bujold book. I've got Paladin of Souls, which uses the Chalion setting again, next to me now, but I'm not going to start it yet. On the other hand there will be that walk to work tomorrow morning ....
Lut thinks I'll like it. For the sake of making some other use of my evenings, I hope I don't like it quite so much.
In the meantime: happy birthday, America.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-05 01:01 pm (UTC)Do you think that I would like Bujold?
no subject
Date: 2006-07-06 03:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-05 11:51 pm (UTC)To me it seems...
Date: 2006-07-09 06:31 am (UTC)I only read Paladin of Souls and I won't say anything about it except the quote from it I love when the main character is talking to a priest after confessing the events of the first book. The priest says something about "...but I think you underestimate the fogiveness of G*d" and she replies "G*d can forgive me, but if I don't forgive me then it doesn't really matter what G*d thinks, now does it ?" (except it was even shorter and had more wryness in it)
To me, this book and Laurie Marks' Fire Logic and Earth Logic were the only ones I've read in the last year (nearly the only ones I've read aside from Turtledove alt-history schlock and LE Modesitt)that had the pressing sense of reality to them. Yes, there are big crises going on in them, but the characters are not servants of The Plot. They have their own problems and their own issues and they're mostly trying to get through that.
(I love LE Modesitt but his characters are on a moral crusade that's bigger than them...they get dragged into it kicking and screaming but they end up taking to it like fish to water...and while their commitment is real, their personal life gets subsumed into the crusade. He writes a decent (if you can bear the ponderous angsting about necessary genocide and mass murder he is perhaps too verbose about) story in this vein (and forgive him for making each protagonist a 300 pt character in a 50 pt universe...they spend their points differntly at least, but still...) . But LM-B and Marks' are the only authors I've read in a long time whom I've seen avoid this whole style.)
Anyway the point is that Paladin of Souls compared to the majority of fantasy and sci fi I've read in a long time is very distinctive so I'm glad you stumbled across the first book since I'm sure it will cause the second book to shine even more :)
(Earth Logic also ended neatly...so neatly that I was _pissed_ that she wrote a sequel to that story, even though I understood that commercially there was no incentive for her to let the story rest there....but you can't say it didn't end firmly.)
I'm amazed you can read and walk at the same time. I could never keep my place wihtout running into a tree or a lampost....
Oh, and an afterthought
Date: 2006-07-09 06:32 am (UTC)Speed-reading vs... snail-reading?
Date: 2006-07-09 10:42 pm (UTC)>like this one in two or three hours. I used to do that,
>when I was a teen. I don't know why I read so slowly now;
>500 pages and it probably took me 10 hours to read."
How did you (and how does Lut) do that? The 2-3 hours thing, I mean. 500 pages in 120-180 minutes (we'll say 166 minutes) is 3 pages a minute! 20 seconds, and you're onto the next page. How is that possible? I'm not doubting you, by any means; my friend Bill can do the same thing. I just can't fathom being able to do that, and still managing to construct the world in my head at the same time.
I've gotten a little faster at reading novels over the years, but the more dialogue there is, the slower I go (because I "hear" the dialogue in my head, in near-realtime). I've even tried speed-reading books, because I'm unhappy with how long it takes me to read (and subsequently how rarely I do it, due to the aforementioned time investment.) But they seem to mainly apply to non-fiction books, because they tell you how to retain key elements of the book without telling you how to still actively experience the book. (At least, the ones I've read don't.)
If I could read Tolkien in the time it takes to watch the Peter Jackson Extended Edition DVD movie, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But as it is, just the first 120 pages took me several hours. (I'm guessing. I didn't time it.)
I think this is why I can't deal with Robert Jordan books... too much time-investment (for me), and not enough clarity (for me).
Okay, I'll end this note before it's longer than an entry.
Re: Speed-reading vs... snail-reading?
Date: 2006-07-09 10:57 pm (UTC)For me, speed comes from reading sentences at a glance. I don't see the letters in the words, or the words in the sentence, I see a shape. The back of my mind knows this shape means *this*, and those shapes strung together mean *that*. *Shrug* Lots of practice, and I don't "hear" the words. That slows me down, when I pause to mentally pronounce names, for example.
Its also a matter of focus, when I'm reading at that speed, I'm pretty much concentrating exclusively on the book.
I've cranked the speed up further when reading e-books, where I can adjust the width, where it doesn't require me to move my eyes back and forth, just down. And can also adjust the font, for size and clarity.
Admittedly, for highly technical matter, this method is horrid. But, I can still chew through an average Windows 2000 Server manual faster than the rest of the class.
And I have to agree about the Jordon books.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-20 08:24 am (UTC)I'm working on a print version of SCB, volume 1, and I'm doing some acknowledgements in the back. You haven't commented in a while, but you said many kind of rhelpful things at the begining. Especially, you helped me get the length of Edna's unbraided hair right, for which I am eternally greatful.
I'd love to mention you, but a. I want your permission, and b. I don't know your real name.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-20 11:07 am (UTC)I certainly would enjoy appearing in the acknowledgements! I'll put my name in a separate comment and delete it (I don't like having my RL name linked to my journal via search). If you don't get it, drop me an email at my livejournal account. (rowyn @ this site's name.)