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September 28th, 2012
 | 02:50 pm
For starters, I finished the last required text for the Fantasy and Science Fiction Literature class I've been taking free online at Coursera.org, which was Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow. I found it a very fast read, rather than the slogging that led to me not finishing Herland or The Left Hand of Darkness, also for the class. It deals with privacy and the results of 9/11 in America, with the erosion of personal freedom here, ostensibly to "protect" us. I found the book way too plausible in the USA that it depicts, though I hope he's wrong. I'd recommend a read to anybody who likes SF.
Once free of the study constraints, I blew through two more books. First was Osprey Campaign #38: Colenso 1899: The Boer War in Natal which didn't really interest me nearly enough, but I finished it just because I was feeling my oats. I find the Boer War history disturbing, what with the concentration camps and the destruction of Boer infrastructure to force the win. Then, I read Osprey Campaign #62: Pearl Harbor 1941: The Day of Infamy. I knew how it ended, as I've read a number of books on the topic going back to junior high school, but they had some good graphics, especially in the maps.
I've been running roughshod over the eMatic electronic reader, and I expect to burn through several more books this month.
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You really should go back and finish The Left Hand of Darkness. It's a classic for a reason. *Sigh*. I made a deal with my wife, years ago, that I would stop reading a book if I wasn't enjoying it, and move on. Okay - that's your choice and I can accept that. I'm just surprised that was the reason you stopped reading it. From the earlier post I had assumed you just ran out of time to get the assignment done. To be sure, that was true; having to finish one or more books each week was a problem, and in that books' case, I did have a lot of other things I had to do while I was reading it. OTOH, I had plenty of time to get the reading done, but I found my mind wandering in the midst of paragraphs, or dropping off to sleep over and over again in lieu of reading. My mind was telling me something... | From: |  moria923 |
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| Date: | September 28th, 2012 06:58 pm (UTC) |
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When I first read THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS four years ago, I had a hard time getting into it. When I finally did, it made its way under my skin in a big way. But I certainly understand anyone who says it was a slog for a while. Sorry, but I'm just not willing to continue a book I'm not enjoying. There's hundreds of books that I want to read that I WILL enjoy. I've been meaning to pick up one of Cory Doctorow's books, thank you for reminding me. Le Guin's books for me all suffer from a dragging beginning, but do pack a punch at the end. I've never been able to read one of her books for fun though. I liked the Earthsea Trilogy. Not most of the rest, though. |
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