The dance is sweeter than the song

[rolanni]

Today is all about the errands, including a physical therapy session, a stop at the library to return books, at Staples to drop off used ink cartridges, and at Goodwill to drop off Various and Sundry.  Deliveries may happen; in particular, delivery of my replacement trackball.  There's also a phone call to make, but that may wait.  I'm in phone-avoidance mode, and it's not an emergency phone call, after all.

Also, somewhere in there I ought to do some writing.

The weather has reverted, slightly -- down to 30F/-1C on the overnight, and slow to warm this morning, though it's nice and sunny; should be a good day for running around.

For those who care about such details, I'm re-re-re-re-re-&c-reading Hellspark by Janet Kagan, because -- comfort book.

What're y'all reading?

Comments

[melita66.livejournal.com]

I'm in the midst of Guy Gavriel Kay's River of Stars. It's set in the same world/country as Under Heaven but another dynasty or two later. Kitai is a reduced place...I'm rocking along. Because I stayed up way too late on Saturday night (late night caffeeine! cold! great book!) I'm almost halfway through it's 600+ pages.

Before that, Emilie and the Hollow World by Martha Wells.

To Be Read Pile just got bigger

[bookmobiler.livejournal.com]

Currently I'm sort of re-reading C E Murphy's (Mizkit) Walker Walker Papers because I some how lost track and missed a couple. I just finished #7 and have started No Dominion.
HellSpark is getting added to the TBR pile. Now I just have to find one of my copies.
This is one of those books that always makes me sad when it's over because she never did a sequel.

reading

[k-10b.livejournal.com]

Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs (print)
Besieged by Rowena Cory Daniells (nook)

[sb-moof.livejournal.com]

Just finished rereading the Theo books. Have started reading With the Lightnings by David Drake. It's taken me a while to warm to it, but I think I will like it when all is said and done. I need to find a copy of Hellspark for my collection. $45 or $48 new on amazon is a bit beyond me at the moment.

[reedrover]

Hellspark is awesome comfort reading.
I'm trying to get through Daughter of the Sword. I'm having trouble sympathizing with the main character.

[bercilakslady.livejournal.com]

I'm rereading Midnight Blue Light Special by Seanan McGuire. I may start rereading War for the Oaks by Emma Bull right after.

By the way, I enjoy finding out what you're reading, so thank you for posting that info.

[pedanther]

I just finished reading A Little Princess for the first time. (Another first: it's the first novel I've read on my new e-reader.) Parts of it are really charming, but on the whole I still prefer The Secret Garden.

[otterb.livejournal.com]

I also find Hellspark and Mirabile great comfort reading and wish I could get e-book versions so that I'd be able to fall back on them easily while traveling.

I just finished Martha Wells's new steampunkish YA fantasy Emilie and the Hollow World. As with all of Wells's work, the worldbuilding and nonhuman civilizations are marvelously complex, believable, and fascinating. Emilie is a wonderful heroine who meets her inadvertent adventures with great sense and courage and meets some fascinating people (some all of them human) along the way. Plus, dirigibles and a submarine. Highly recommended.

I'm not sure what I'm reading next. I want to get the new Mary Robinette Kowal. I also have sitting on a corner of the piano A Turn of Light by Julie Czerneda, Siding Star by Christopher Bryan, and Cascade Effect (sequel is to Fighting Gravity) by Leah Petersen.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Yay, Hellspark! I love the trader/languages angle. Luckily, I still have my worn paperback copy. I wish for more fun space traders in exotic cultures stories.

I've just finished reading Carol Berg's The Soul Mirror. Impressive stuff, I was so caught up in the story I had to block off more time than my usual snippet-at-a-time pace to see how it ended.

I am of course, saving Necessity's Child for the right time to read it.

[charlie russel (from livejournal.com)]

Boundary by Eric Flint and Ryk E. Spoor. This is a re-read, since I've forgotten everything about it, and I want to read the latest in the series, Portal. So a quick run through the earlier ones.

[manywaters.livejournal.com]

I prefer Mirabile to Hellspark, but they're both good. Presently trawling through cookbooks and blogs and mounds of vegetables in my quest for the perfect pickled carrots and radishes to pile on a Vietnamese style sandwich.

[patknuth.livejournal.com]

I'm reading Tracy/Teresa Grant's Regency mysteries. Deborah Crombie recommended the newest one on her FB page and Amazon had an earlier title at bargain book price so I read one and kept going. She started writing the series about Charles and Melanie Fraser as Tracy Grant. When she got a new publisher, she was asked her to change her name and the name of the primary characters, so now Teresa Grant writes about Malcolm and Suzanne Rannoch, who have friends, children and servants with exactly the same names as Charles and Melanie Fraser.

To make things more complicated, the books written by Teresa Grant take place (so far) before the ones Tracy Grant wrote about Charles and Melanie Fraser.

I see that Barnes & Noble has got some of the Tracy Grant books, including some Romantic Suspense titles I haven't read yet, listed for 2.99 each right now.

I think it might be time to pull out Hellspark again. It's definitely one of my comfort books, and since we're getting ready to move back into our newly renovated library, comfort reading sounds like a good thing.

Reading/listening

[daughterofhonor.livejournal.com]

Reading? Well, besides books and papers and projects for work (teacher and all), I'm ostensibly reading Prince in Camelot by Courtway Jones. I think I picked it up about three weeks ago. It's an enjoyable book, and I love the abnormal type face, but apparently I'm not really reading at the moment.

So where am I getting my story? Liaden audio books, actually. :) I'm in the middle of Fledgling at the moment, and champing to get to I Dare, but enjoying the fact that I haven't read the Theo books as often as the others, so there's more I have forgotten.

Stephanie

replacement trackball

[barbinbandon.livejournal.com]

Seems like you just replaced one a few weeks ago. If you find a good one, please dish.

Just finished Protector by Cherryh and Magnificent Devices and Brilliant Devices by Adina. They were all awesome.

Now I'm reading Fated by Benedict Jacka. So far so good.

[thewol.livejournal.com]

I'm rereading C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner series to culminate with the just published "Protector" -- I'm at book 12 now, and "Protector" is #14. Behind on Kindle reading. Have Jane Fanchers two (of three) Netwalkers books in the queue as well as "Queen Victoria's Book of Spells" which is a collection of short stories, first two books in Robin Hobb's Rain Wilds Chronicles, the first two books in the Aetherial Tales by Frieda Warrington, the new Shadow Unit stories by Bull, Bear, et. al, So many books, so little time. . . .

What I'm reading

[craig reed (from livejournal.com)]

Alternating between these three:

"Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History" by Florence Williams

"Stolen Words: The Classic Book On Plagiarism" by Thomas Mallon

"Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the Elements, From Arsenic to Zinc" by Hugh Aldersey-Williams

Shifter

[gilraen2.livejournal.com]

I got Shifter by Janice Hardy in the mail on Saturday and opened it to just look at a couple of pages before putting it somewhere on my "to-be-read" shelf. 200 pages later I stood up and made some breakfast. It's a well-paced fantasy with a novel premise (at least one I haven't seen before) and nicely wrought characters. I think it's a YA - but that's not really meaningful. Good story.

Comfort books...

[gareth griffiths (from livejournal.com)]

Loved the comment about comfort books. Back in the 70's mine used to be 'pilgrimage' by Zenna Henderson - one of the first what I guess now would be called fantasy books. For many years now it's been Elizabeth Moon's "Deed of Paksenarion" original and now the new series, and of course as the Liaden books. What I love is the way they operate on many levels - each re-read I pick up more bits I missed or didn't have the context to understand last time. They have the emotional warmth and comfort that make them like playing a favorite piece of music. I love hearing some songs over an over - why shouldn't I love reading some books the same way...