Recent reading (with additional rambling)

[luzula]

I started on the next book club book (The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern), but it did not hook me. Really I just want comfort reading right now--I am still having housemate woes. I went home to fetch some stuff before we leave for the family summer place, and after meeting my housemates who are moving, I started crying (luckily after leaving). : (

Most of my comfort reading now (and has been for a while) is apparently books set in 18th and 19th century Britain. This is clearly spillover from my fandom, but I guess it's also pure escapism, because it's so different from my own life. Well, sometimes escapism is what you need. So anyway, I reread Beck and Call by Annick Trent (set in 1790's Britain, of course). I know I recently recced that, but I hadn't actually read the finished version, as opposed to reading the draft in chunks. I think the best thing about it is how realistic the characters' lives as servants feel: how they don't have much free time, how their masters' demands shape their lives, the class gradations between the servants, the economic precarity if they lose their place. And yet, it's not at all a depressing book--it's engaging and the characters still have agency, and also I love how the ending finds a new path in life for one of the characters which neither he nor I had imagined, but which made me very happy.

It was also enormously satisfying to read, for the first time, a book which I had bound myself! Actually it's quite easy to take an epub and format it for bookbinding. An epub is just a glorified html file, and you can search/replace the html with Latex code, and then of course you have to do some manual stuff as well. But easy, on the whole, now that I've got the hang of it. I remember being annoyed that the Murderbot novellas were not available in one volume, for example, but I guess I can just make that happen for myself now, if I want!

In other good news, I have my first vaccination shot booked in twelve days!!

Comments

[seascribble]

I liked that book a lot! I found it that the valets had a lot more free time than I found necessarily believable, but as we all know, I only know anything about Romans haha.

[luzula]

Well, I guess it kinda skips some of the time where they're just valeting, and focuses more on where they can find time to do things that they want! But I think there's still enough constraint on them that I was constantly aware of it.

I know nothing about Romans, but my head is stuffed full of knowledge about 18th century Scotland, ha ha.

[jjhunter]

Ooooo, I will have to check out 'Becky and Call'. Thank you for the rec!

I totally hear you on the comfort reading kick. I'm in a similar state myself - just devoured everything Celia Lake (n.b. author is a friend of mine) has written - generally books set around early 20th century wartime Britain, historical fiction with magic. I imprinted on that time period from Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series + Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey, and it's a pleasure to find someone else doing their research well for that same time.

Hurrah for book binding, and double-hurrah for your pending first shot!

[luzula]

I hope you enjoy it! : ) (But do note the title when you search for it--it's 'Beck and Call'.)

And thanks for your rec as well, those books do sound interesting! I think it's a time for comfort reading for a lot of people...

[nnozomi]

I will have to look up Beck and Call! That sounds really well done. (My escapist reading is usually WWII Britain non-fiction--so many interesting diaries, and also it's comforting to think, well, whatever is bothering me right now at least nobody's dropping bombs on me, knock wood.)

Congratulations on the upcoming vaccination! I hope the housemate situation sorts itself out soon and well *hugs*

[luzula]

It's funny how comfort reading doesn't have to actually be about situations where everything is fine--for me, it just needs to take me out of my own head and be emotionally engaging. I can definitely see how WWII Britain non-fiction could do that.

And thanks! *returns hug*

[jesse_the_k]

at least nobody's dropping bombs on me

Thanks for explaining why I've been enraptured by nonfiction during the last fifteen months.

[chestnut_pod]

Yay vaccine!

[luzula]

Indeed! \o/

[lyr]

Yay vaccine!

[luzula]

Yes, finally!!

[regshoe]

Oh dear, I am sorry about the housemate situation—I hope things improve <3

I know what you mean about historical books making good comfort reading! At the moment I feel like I want to read absolutely nothing but Victorian novels for the rest of the year or so. Oh, I liked that thing about the ending of Beck and Call too—unexpected but so appropriate, and a really good happy ending.

And hooray for the vaccine :)

[luzula]

Thanks!

I have a habit of saving books up that I'm looking forward to, but I think I should try to stop doing that and just read them now when I actually need comfort reading.

Yes, it will be such a relief to be vaccinated!

ETA: and re: historical books, I can sometimes feel weird that I'm reading so much about some other country? Like, why am I not reading more Swedish books? OTOH, maybe reading about another country is part of the escapism. Or maybe I'm just caught up in the general Anglophone cultural dominance. OTOH, maybe I should just stop questioning and enjoy what I enjoy, especially at this moment. : )

[regshoe]

Just reading them now sounds like a good plan :)

Yeah, I don't know... I suppose if you're reading lots about Scotland and England then it might partly just be the fandom connection with FotH? From my perspective, most of what I read is British, with occasional books from various other places. I usually don't like to read many American books, just because the US is so omnipresent on the internet and in culture generally—but then reading about another place and time can certainly be more escapist, as well as it being interesting to learn more about other places/cultures through fiction.

OTOH, maybe I should just stop questioning and enjoy what I enjoy, especially at this moment. : )

...but this also sounds like a good plan!

[luzula]

Yes, I definitely think it's fandom spillover from FotH. If that were a large fandom, I would of course be reading lots of fic, but since it's not, I'm sort of widening my circle of what is fannishly relevant, I think.

[feroxargentea]

Congrats on the vaccine! (It seems quite late? I know you're a little younger than me, but still, it seems quite late.)

[luzula]

Thanks! Not every country has got as far with the vaccination as Britain--Sweden has given about half of all adults their first shot now, and 25% are fully vaccinated.

Am I younger than you? Actually I have no idea how old you are...I'm 42, at any rate. : )

[feroxargentea]

I'm 45, not so different :) I got jabbed early because of being National Health Service staff, but mostly it's been done in strict age order. I think we're down to first jabs for age 25 now.

[jesse_the_k]

Sorry to hear about the housemate issues -- and it's okay to cry.

Hooray for vaccination, and congrats on finding something to keep your mind off the world on fire -- FotH and bookbinding, two absorbing topics which go well together.

[luzula]

I'm at the summer place now, and I feel a little better. Thanks! <3

We have started interviewing potential roommates now...here's hoping we find someone I can feel comfortable with. Meanwhile, I'm finding distraction where I can!