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larryhammerFor Reading Wednesday, a shortish post.
Finished:
Read aloud: Books 1, 2, and 49 of The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids by Debbie Dadey & Marcia T. Jones -- which have enough creepy bits to scare but have enough plausible deniability as to whether there really are monsters around town, including a vampire for a third grade teacher. (Not much else -- mostly it's been a couple rereads but, more often, games that have been requested.)
In English: Gigi, Colette -- a reread, picked up because … I forget why. I'm most struck, this time, how we almost never get either Gigi's or Gaston's points of view. I'm still mulling the story's attitude towards a relationship with a large age difference (he's thirty-three, she's fifteen and being groomed by her family for a soon-to-start demimonde career in the Belle Époque).
In Chinese: In paper, a couple early readers. In electrons, Chapter 1 of 仙灵图谱 (roughly, "Pictures of Immortal Ling"), 云芨 (Yun Ji)* -- picked through with the aid of an ereader app that pops up definitions of words I don't know, which is most of them. I followed the general story but fully grasped maaaybe two-thirds of individual sentences. To my surprise, given the author's reputation, Ling is a male protagonist. I may try the author's current serial, 天芳.
* Author of Lady Cultivator and Phoenix Destiny, both of which I'm still keeping current with the English translations.
(FWIW, I'm not counting translations nor research for same in this bucket, though this has been taking up much of my time lately.)
In progress:
Rebirth of the Strongest Empress, North Night (夜北) -- Female-protagonist xuanhuan, with a do-over-rebirth. Yes, I've dropped two of the author's other novels, both loosely connected, but for the moment the usual irritating elements (which has always included the male love interest) are minimized. Up to ch300, current with the translation.
DNF:
The Desolate Era (莽荒纪), I Eat Tomatoes (我吃西红柿) -- Extruded Xuanhuan Product by a wildly bestselling author. Yes, I've ALSO dropped two of his other novels, both having very similar narrative formulas as this. This one, though, I haven't dropped it because of "NOPE!" though I'm on the edge of doing so for "meh" at chapter 275. Part of the problem, these days I rarely find children of high privilege to be interesting protagonists. Another problem is that the only character with more complexity than cardboard is a female love interest who's being set up as All Wrong.
---L.
Subject quote from King of Pain, The Police.
Finished:
Read aloud: Books 1, 2, and 49 of The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids by Debbie Dadey & Marcia T. Jones -- which have enough creepy bits to scare but have enough plausible deniability as to whether there really are monsters around town, including a vampire for a third grade teacher. (Not much else -- mostly it's been a couple rereads but, more often, games that have been requested.)
In English: Gigi, Colette -- a reread, picked up because … I forget why. I'm most struck, this time, how we almost never get either Gigi's or Gaston's points of view. I'm still mulling the story's attitude towards a relationship with a large age difference (he's thirty-three, she's fifteen and being groomed by her family for a soon-to-start demimonde career in the Belle Époque).
In Chinese: In paper, a couple early readers. In electrons, Chapter 1 of 仙灵图谱 (roughly, "Pictures of Immortal Ling"), 云芨 (Yun Ji)* -- picked through with the aid of an ereader app that pops up definitions of words I don't know, which is most of them. I followed the general story but fully grasped maaaybe two-thirds of individual sentences. To my surprise, given the author's reputation, Ling is a male protagonist. I may try the author's current serial, 天芳.
* Author of Lady Cultivator and Phoenix Destiny, both of which I'm still keeping current with the English translations.
(FWIW, I'm not counting translations nor research for same in this bucket, though this has been taking up much of my time lately.)
In progress:
Rebirth of the Strongest Empress, North Night (夜北) -- Female-protagonist xuanhuan, with a do-over-rebirth. Yes, I've dropped two of the author's other novels, both loosely connected, but for the moment the usual irritating elements (which has always included the male love interest) are minimized. Up to ch300, current with the translation.
DNF:
The Desolate Era (莽荒纪), I Eat Tomatoes (我吃西红柿) -- Extruded Xuanhuan Product by a wildly bestselling author. Yes, I've ALSO dropped two of his other novels, both having very similar narrative formulas as this. This one, though, I haven't dropped it because of "NOPE!" though I'm on the edge of doing so for "meh" at chapter 275. Part of the problem, these days I rarely find children of high privilege to be interesting protagonists. Another problem is that the only character with more complexity than cardboard is a female love interest who's being set up as All Wrong.
---L.
Subject quote from King of Pain, The Police.
no subject
Date: 7 August 2019 05:47 pm (UTC)Maybe I should take another look.
no subject
Date: 7 August 2019 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 August 2019 08:18 pm (UTC)