Nutmeg Holler > Meg's Page o' Books > booknoser entries | archives | profile | contact me a record of books I read. 2006: latest month 2005: December | November | October | September | August see the archives for books prior to August 2005 Dec_2005.html Shadow of Saganami - David Weber (2004) Began: December 28 | Finished: December 29 [12/29] Picked this up from the library (for the second time) on my wanderings yesterday. Started reading it a bit. I'm skipping through it pretty heavily, mostly only slowing down for the good guys. This is the start of a follow-on series after the Honor Harrington series - it reads a bit differently without a single main character to follow. [12/30] Skipped the bad guy chapters almost entirely. The Swiss Family Robinson - Johann Wyss (1813) Began: December 22 | Finished: December 25 [12/29] Started this at wing night; it's an old favorite. Every child's fantasy - or mine, at any rate. Shipwrecked on a tropical island, abandoned by the captain and crew. But the ship was stocked to start a new colony, so the available stores combined with their knowledge and ingenuity are enough to create a fascinating life for themselves. The moralistic tone can be annoying at times, but I've read it so many times that I'm used to it. I'd like to get a nicer edition of this one. I had a falling-apart mass market copy for years. Now I have a mass market copy that's in better condition, but it's so old that when I opened it the front cover crease started cracking. I did find myself bothered by something on this reading for the first time ever. The Swiss family Robinson kills everything. They conquer everything. They top no hill without then laying claim by building something, a shed, a cottage, whatever. They manage to capture some young swans, against resistance from the older swans, and bring them back home to "decorate" the bay. They capture a pair of rabbits and colonize an island with them. Same with a couple antelope. Some monkeys mess up one of their places, so the Robinson clan kills forty of them. 40. There's a sentence or two of remorse, and then they move in. They see some ostriches running and determine they must have some ostrich feathers - which means a male ostrich, which means they kill the only male ostrich in the group. Same thing when they decide to capture an ostritch - they take the only male from a bunch of ostriches. The whole book represents a philosophy of man's right to conquer and control nature. They build homes all over the place, they have a farm, a plantation, an orchard, grain and vegetable fields, plus pigeons, chickens, and other livestock at their primary home. All for a family of 6! I understand the need to stock up - shipwrecked on an island you can't be too careful - but it goes too far. Everything is a threat, or food, or both. Some bears lumber out of the woods; they're both shot dead. Fritz runs into a bunch of walruses while in his kayak, so of course he harpoons one - so he can have the head attached to the front of the kayak! They leave the rest of the walrus where it was killed, except a couple strips of skin for leather. I mentioned this feeling to Raff, and he suggested that the story was written at a time (late 1700s - early 1800s) when nature was regarded as infinite, an unending supply. Notions of conservation didn't exist. All of nature was a threat to man, and so therefore man had to overcome it, with no concept of nature having its own right to exist, and no concept of man being part of nature. This perspective provides some interesting context for the story. The loss of some my enjoyment in the novel is made up for by the opportunity to view it as a product of its time and culture, thus providing some insight into that time and culture. Another thing - they introduce all these foreign animal and plant species with no thought at all to their potential impact on the native flora and fauna. I guess they didn't think about that sort of thing back then. Skinny Dip - Carl Hiassen (2004) Began: December 21 | Finished: December 21 [12/29] Another loaner from Kelly, but this one was great. Smart, funny, good writing, a romance (though I bet if the author had been female there would have been more sex). One character in particular I liked - Tool. He's this big, hairy guy, with a history of being a cruel, bigoted crew boss employed on the big bad guy's vegetable farms. He also goes into nursing homes and steals painkiller medicine patches from dying people. But even before he starts to redeem himself (and he does, eventually), Hiassen writes about him in such a way that you start to like him despite his faults. If I saw this book in a library sale, I'd pay the 50 cents for it. Now that's saying something. Fourplay - Jane Moore (2001) Began: December 21 | Finished: gave up [12/29] Gave up after maybe 50 pages. A loaner from Kelly, who hadn't liked it either. Too many British-isms - I wasn't picking up the cultural references that I was clearly supposed to get. Also, the story starts with this woman finding out that her husband is leaving her for his secretary, and her reaction is that she's upset he's leaving. I would prefer an angrier reaction, myself. Of course, they have two kids -- I've noticed that mothers will tend to think of their children first, and it's certainly a bummer for them that their father's leaving. (And why is there not even a thought about the father possibly taking the kids, or at least a discussion of visitation and support? It's like the kids are hers alone.) At any rate, it's not a situation I can relate to, not having kids of my own. Charlie All Night - Jennifer Crusie (1995/2004) Began: December 17 | Finished: December 18 [12/29] This is another Mira re-publish of one of Crusie's early novels. I didn't know of its existence before randomly running across it in the Houston Public Library - I didn't have time to read the whole thing, but I read a few pages. Then by chance, Kelly at work mentioned she had it out of the library. So she brought it in for me to read over the weekend. Another fun early Crusie - they're all much shorter compared to her later books, which adds a straightforwardness and simplicity that I like. Much less sex in this book than most of her others. Lots of fun romance, though. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911) Began: December 13 | Finished: December 18 [12/29] Started this at burger night one week. A great story. I'd like to get a copy of The Little Princess, which I'm not sure I've even read before. I've seen at least three different movie versions, though. But back to The Secret Garden. Being a rather contrary child (and adult, to a certain extent), I strongly empathize with Mary Lennox, the English orphan sent from her home in India to her uncle's house on the moors in England. I think when I read this as a kid (which I did many, many times, as testified by the condition of my copy), I wanted to find a way somehow to cause a similar change in myself as what happens to Mary. The Diamond Age Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer - Neal Stephenson (1996) Began: December 6 | Finished: December 11 [12/29] Started this on a business trip to Houston. I'd only read it once, years ago. I need to re-read Snow Crash now. When I read them before, I liked Diamond Age better (and I think that may still be true). It's still a keeper. The end leaves you wanting more, but I guess I don't always need my endings tied up in a neat bow. There's enough there for me to make up a few sequels of my own. read other DiaryLand diaries | recommend my diary to a friend | DiaryLand.com

©2005 MegSite web design | Last Updated: | Top