Recently read books

[luzula]

I am getting tons of reading done, what with all the traveling. A couple of months ago, I finally caved and got myself an ereader (a Pocketbook 360) and wow, I love it! Such a relief not be lugging lots of books around. I am reading lots of fic, too, which is a good thing since my to-read list had grown really long, but it would be far too much work to write about it all (although I do have a good workflow for leaving comments, at least).

Frontier Wolf, by Rosemary Sutcliff

By now I feel like I know what I'll get when I read a Sutcliff book. Which is not a bad thing, because I love her writing! Nnngh, there were some truly lovely descriptive passages in this book. And the characters and plot really worked for me, too. I didn't really see the Alexios/Hilarion that seems to be the popular pairing, though? Alexios/Cunorix was far more obvious to me (though wow, talk about tragic), and I see that isis has recently written this pairing. *puts on to-read list* Although I mostly read this book as gen, actually--it doesn't particularly make me want shippy fic.

A Matter of Oaths, by Helen S. Wright

This has been recced on my reading list (though I don't remember by whom) and you can download it for free at the link above. It's science fiction, and my favorite bit was the worldbuilding, with spaceships being run by a tightly knit team of people communing while submerged in a "web". There's a canon gay couple and a nicely twisty plot, too. This book falls into the "I enjoyed it, but it didn't blow my mind" category, I suppose.

Comments

[isis]

Isn't an ereader the most fabulous thing for traveling? I hope you're having a great time!

Anyway, you have made me happy by saying you don't see Alexios/Hilarion, because I always feel out of step with the fandom for that opinion. I mean, Hilarion is a great character, and hey, he's alive at the end, but the only context in which I can read them as a pairing is post-canon Hilarion healing Alexios' broken heart through affection.

I'm happy to say that mine is no longer the only Alexios/Cunorix out there, as osprey_archer has a very nice one, and carmarthen has written a few stories which allude to this relationship, even if they're not really about it. It's clearly not a pairing which lends itself to happy fluffy fic! (I mean, the whole book is very much not happy fluffy, which is another reason I have difficulty with some of the fic.)

I forget, have you read Mark of the Horse Lord? I read these two books in close succession, which was probably a mistake, because oh, my heart.

Perhaps I can tempt you to participate in Sutcliff Swap this year?

I agree with your assessment of A Matter of Oaths. I liked it, but didn't find it amazing.

[luzula]

Well, I can understand how people see Alexios/Hilarion at the very end, but I didn't see anything before that, and I was looking for it, since I knew it was the popular fandom. I read them as colleagues, with Alexios having won Hilarion's trust and friendship at the end. OTOH, Alexios/Cunorix are pretty intense in that shieldbrothers sort of way.

Yeah, I read that angsty soulbond fic by osprey_archer, and it was great!

No, I haven't read Mark of the Horse Lord yet--I thought I'd read some other stuff inbetween and then do Sword at Sunset as my next Sutcliff.

I actually have considered Sutcliff Swap, yes, but I haven't decided yet! It would give me a chance to write some landscape description, at least... : ) Although I'm always nervous signing up to write a fandom I haven't written before.

[isis]

I approve of your reading plans! And I will beta-read for you if you participate in the Swap, so please do and write lots and lots of nature porn!

[luzula]

That's good to know! I suppose what's holding me back most is all the historical detail. It's a bit intimidating.

[jesse_the_k]

I'm chiming in to say:

1. I read Mark of the Horse Lord when I was ten, and it was the first time I saw gay people as part of my world.

2. I would be fascinated to read your commenting workflow for your Pocketbook 360 (if you ever get that bored). Or if you could point me at someone else's thoughts on the topic?

[luzula]

2. Well, I am on a long-distance bus now, so hey, why not? : ) Anyway, I think what I do now is probably a bit redundant, since it's evolved over time.

But this is what I do: I find a fic on AO3 that I want to do. Then I mark it as "to read" and download the epub into a "new fics" folder on my Dropbox. When I need to connect my ereader for charging, I also upload all the epubs in the "new fics" folder to the "fic" folder on the ereader. Then I move those epubs from the "new fics" folder to a "reading" folder on Dropbox.

When I've read a fic on the ereader, I mark it as read. Then every once in while, I go through all the fics marked as read on the ereader, and I open them up in my browser. I give comments/kudos and mark the fics as read. Then I erase them from my ereader. If I want to keep the fic, I move it from the "reading" folder to the "have read" folder on my Dropbox (which has fandom sub-folders), otherwise I erase it from the "reading" folder. And that's it!

If I'm someplace without internet for long (like up in the mountains) I keep a doc file for comments to paste in later, since I know I'll forget what I wanted to say otherwise.

Marking it as to-read on AO3 is a bit redundant, I suppose, but I like being able to see all the fics in a list, and anyway it's just two extra clicks to mark/unmark. Also, if I download something not on AO3, I use the "grabmybooks" extension on Firefox.

Many Thanks!

[jesse_the_k]

This is awesome — it solves problems I've been having, and makes me consider getting one of your readers (I'm using an iPod Touch now, and oh! the knots I'm tying myself in now). Particularly wonderful is the comment-on-me folder. I've been emailing myself cryptic notes (keyboard on iPod = hell) or Pinboard posting notes but there's nothing like the whole doc.

In short: http://youtu.be/eEcLuVhRbkU
Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing!
(one of the best pop duets EVER!!!!)

Re: Many Thanks!

[luzula]

I'm so glad it's helpful! I have no idea how other people are doing this.

I really like the Pocketbook. It reads a wide range of file types (including epub, mobi, doc, pdf, rtf, and html), and it's very customizable (apparently you can change a lot about the display, and map the buttons to whichever function you want). You connect it just like an ordinary external hard drive your computer. It has no keyboard, but then I don't use it for writing anyway. This is the review that convinced me to buy it.

Alas, am on internet too crappy for streaming now, but I'll listen to it later!