january reads
Feb. 6th, 2019 01:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serenity_ribbonBecause I still haven't quite figured out what to actually post about (I was very much a reblogger on tumblr and my other social media is instagram) and I saw other people talking about books. This will probably be once a month, but maybe more often if I read a lot of books?
I have a very very long to read pile at the moment, half because the last academic year was ridic busy due to A-levels and I haven't quite got my shit together this academic year and half bc I... keep on adding books to it. And only two of the five books I read this month were actually on it. Great start, me!
Last year I read 12 books, two of which were assigned reading (and one of those a reread for exam prep) and I read five of the others over just over a week because life would just not stop happening. (Six of Crows might be the longest I've ever taken to read a book I actually enjoyed)
This month I finished:
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
I've been meaning to read this for at least five years and I finally bit the bullet and asked for it for christmas and it's just as good as I was told. I mean it does frustrate me that this is sort of known as the Gender Book because I got so much more out of what Le Guin was saying about other stuff, patriotism especially. I read one of the sections where Genly and Estraven talk about it on the day of the vote on May's Brexit deal and that whole section, but especially the line "What is love of one's country; is it hate of one's uncountry?" hit me particularly hard. Estraven has instantly become one of my favourite characters ever, tbh? I was not expecting how heart-wrenching their PoV was going to be.
...and then because I'm me I got out a bunch of her books from the library and bought some others.
Rocannon's World by Ursula K. Le Guin
Planet of Exile by Ursula K. Le Guin
Grouping these two together because they're 2/3rds of Planets of Exile and Illusion, a compilation of the first three Hainish novels. They're both quite good, but they're not Left Hand by any stretch of the imagination, mostly imho because they're both barely more than a hundred pages. I definitely preferred Rocannon's World but that might just be because I tend to prefer fantasy to scifi and it is definitely very fantasy-in-space.
Books I started:
Last Bus To Woodstock by Colin Dexter
I have a love-hate relationship with these books because on one hand the descriptions and sense of place are lovely and on the other hand... Morse as a person is the actual fucking worst. Like I had no idea how much they softened his personality for the TV show. Ugh.
The Wind's Twelve Quarters & The Compass Rose by Ursula K. Le Guin
Got this out of the library for Winter's King which is amazing and I would die for Argaven VII but all the stories in this are really good so far! Definitely makes me think about picking up more short story collections in general.
I have a very very long to read pile at the moment, half because the last academic year was ridic busy due to A-levels and I haven't quite got my shit together this academic year and half bc I... keep on adding books to it. And only two of the five books I read this month were actually on it. Great start, me!
Last year I read 12 books, two of which were assigned reading (and one of those a reread for exam prep) and I read five of the others over just over a week because life would just not stop happening. (Six of Crows might be the longest I've ever taken to read a book I actually enjoyed)
This month I finished:
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
I've been meaning to read this for at least five years and I finally bit the bullet and asked for it for christmas and it's just as good as I was told. I mean it does frustrate me that this is sort of known as the Gender Book because I got so much more out of what Le Guin was saying about other stuff, patriotism especially. I read one of the sections where Genly and Estraven talk about it on the day of the vote on May's Brexit deal and that whole section, but especially the line "What is love of one's country; is it hate of one's uncountry?" hit me particularly hard. Estraven has instantly become one of my favourite characters ever, tbh? I was not expecting how heart-wrenching their PoV was going to be.
...and then because I'm me I got out a bunch of her books from the library and bought some others.
Rocannon's World by Ursula K. Le Guin
Planet of Exile by Ursula K. Le Guin
Grouping these two together because they're 2/3rds of Planets of Exile and Illusion, a compilation of the first three Hainish novels. They're both quite good, but they're not Left Hand by any stretch of the imagination, mostly imho because they're both barely more than a hundred pages. I definitely preferred Rocannon's World but that might just be because I tend to prefer fantasy to scifi and it is definitely very fantasy-in-space.
Books I started:
Last Bus To Woodstock by Colin Dexter
I have a love-hate relationship with these books because on one hand the descriptions and sense of place are lovely and on the other hand... Morse as a person is the actual fucking worst. Like I had no idea how much they softened his personality for the TV show. Ugh.
The Wind's Twelve Quarters & The Compass Rose by Ursula K. Le Guin
Got this out of the library for Winter's King which is amazing and I would die for Argaven VII but all the stories in this are really good so far! Definitely makes me think about picking up more short story collections in general.
