I started up a new page here at Free Candy. It’s my Must-List. This is the list of things that I think you, yes YOU, should read, watch or listen to. Right now I just have some books on it, but it’ll be growing over time. There’s a link in the sidebar. Check back!
I’ve mentioned before that I’m a bit of a bookworm. When I’m not geeking out on technology, you’ll frequently find me with my nose buried in a book. Over the years I’ve amassed a ridiculously large collection of books, since most of my relations with libraries tend to be short-lived. I don’t know what it is, but every now and again I try getting my books from the library instead of the bookstore. It lasts for a few weeks or months, and then I’m logging onto Amazon and ordering away. It’s something of a problem.
My sister-in-law, Olivia, sent me a link to this cool new website called BookMooch which may be a solution. The idea is that I post books I want to get rid of. Other users can search for my books and “mooch” them. I send the book directly to them and get 1 point. With that 1 point I can mooch any book from anyone else. So it’s just a cool way to trade books! I listed a few books last week and have been waiting eagerly for someone to mooch one so that I could get some points and start my own mooch-mooching. But no one has yet. Please, internet people, mooch my books. 
It sounds a bit like a chicken-and-egg problem, how do you get the points to mooch in the first place? You get 1/10th of a point for every book you list. So, actually, if I could just find a few more books I’m willing to part with I’d be ready to go.
I got an email update on some changes to the site a couple of days ago and it turns out the site has only be live for about 2 weeks. Looks like Olivia led me to the party early! I’m excited for the concept and hope it works out. If any of you out there do give it a try, my user name is Tara. Look at my books and mooch away.
The other day I finished a pretty good book, His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik. It’s a fantasy book, but it’s set in England during the Napoleonic wars. It’s one of those alternate history-type books, and it’s really quite well done. As I finished it up, I flipped through the final pages until I got to the author’s bio on the back cover.
You can find the bio at the book’s official website, but I copied some interesting bits here.
Naomi Novik [...] studied English Literature at Brown University and did graduate work in Computer Science at Columbia University before leaving to participate in the design and development of the computer game Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide. Over the course of a brief winter sojourn working on the game in Edmonton, Canada (accompanied by a truly alarming coat that now lives brooding in the depths of her closet), she realized she preferred the writing to the programming, and, on returning to New York, decided to try her hand at novels. His Majesty’s Dragon is her first.
She started out with an English degree, continued to Computer Science, went and worked in the game industry, and then went back and wrote a book. Several books, in fact! The full credits for the title she worked on, which was an expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights can be found on MobyGames. She’s listed as a designer and the technical lead! That’s pretty nifty. Amusingly, as I was looking at the credits, the name of one of the other designers jumped out because he used to work at Mad Doc with me. Small industry.
Anyway, I just found this intersection of worlds to be interesting. I interact with game people all the time, but I love to read in my spare time. I don’t really interact with writers. Well. I think there might be a few people who write when they can at my company. But they’re not professional writers. And they’re probably all designers. I don’t think of programmers as creative writers. We have our own brand of creativity, but it’s not the same as crafting a world, a people, a history, characters and a story. So I am impressed at someone who has succeeded in some fashion in two very different industries. Very cool.
Oh, and if you’re curious about what I’m reading, check out my sidebar. I added a “Now Reading” plugin that I try to keep updated. You’ll find I read way to much fantasy. I always mean to read more good-for-me books. But that doesn’t always happen. Oh well!
During my lovely vacation a couple of weeks ago, one of the many books I managed to read was V for Vendetta. I read graphic novels on occasion. I started years ago with Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, which is truly fantastic. That series got me interested in reading more graphic novels. Since then, I’ve read one other book by Alan Moore, the interesting-but-not-fantastic League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (don’t judge it by the movie. OMG, please don’t. That movie was atrocious. The book is not the movie).
I attempted to read Watchmen, but felt like I was missing something. It is, apparently, some sort of commentary on the golden age of comics. I never read any of those and felt like I missed a prequel or something.
If you want to read Alan Moore, I say both thumbs up, ALL my fingers up, my TOES up, read V for Vendetta. Now, I know there is a movie coming out this weekend. And I am trying not to get too excited about a movie with such a stellar cast. In any event, you probably should read the book first. It’s a quick read, took me about 2 hours (and yes, I managed to look at all the pictures!) And whether the film is a good or bad, the book should be appreciated for what it is without seeing the actors from the film overlaying the artist’s (David Lloyd) vision.
The book takes place in England after World War III has wiped most of the world away. A fascist government rules over a terrorized populace. V is a mysterious vigilante. And that’s all I’ll say about the plot. Read it!
The book was written in the 80s, and takes place in 1997, which was, at the time, the future. There are a few elements which are dated, and some misconceptions from the time of its writing are apparent. If you pick up a newer copy it has a good foreward by Alan Moore explaining things and putting it into context.
It’s a dark and grim book with violence and terrorism throughout. But the story is deeply affecting and ultimately human. There is pain but there is also hope. I recommend it most definitely.
Now here’s hoping that the movie can achieve what few page-to-screen conversions have accomplished - remaining true to the spirit of the story, adapting what is needed to make things believable given the current state of the world, and not being overshadowed by the imagery of the original. I’ll let you know what I thought after I see it.
Well before I was addicted to any video game, I was addicted to reading. And though my World of Warcraft and Civilization habits have been keeping me up late into the night, last week I still found time to get absorbed in a good book. Unfortunately that time was between the hours of midnight and 3 am when I should have been sleeping. But that’s besides the point.
Several years ago I read a book called Transformation, a fantasy book that I found really amazingly good. I couldn’t put it down - it was thoughtful and interesting, dark yet hopeful, and full of surprises and the mysteries of believable characters. The author, Carol Berg, followed it up with two sequels that, though enjoyable, didn’t come anywhere near the level of her first book. After that, there was a stand-alone book, not so good, and then a new series, The Bridge of D’Arnath. The first three books in the series were quite adequate, but again, not up to her first book.
All this was of course, quite a disappointment. But ever a loyal book fan, I keep buying her books, which remain entertaining, though not fantastically awesome. Enter Book 4 in The Bridge of D’Arnath series, Daughter of Ancients. Though it had its share of cliches and obviously tidy wrapups, it was great. At its core is the mystery of a woman who seems too good to be true. She sweeps in and rebuilds a world shattered by catastrophic events that were chronicled in the first three books. But the question of her story and her motives had me eagerly turning pages.
If you’re looking for a great fantasy read, try Transformation. If you’re not quite sated at that point, finish the series out with Revelation and Restoration. But then give The Bridge of D’Arnath a try, starting at book one, Son of Avonar (a book with its own fair share of twists and turns, but just not quite as good as Berg’s best work). It’s worth the climax. Berg doesn’t flinch from portraying people at their worst, but she also always holds out the hope that within everyone there remains something worth saving. That’s a sentiment worth holding on to.