What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing. So much stress.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday! The last Comics Wednesday in which comics stores are actually receiving comics now that Diamond has stopped shipping new comics! Who knows what happens now. I have emailed my LCBS about them mailing me my pull (because obviously I want to pay up whatever I actually owe them) but they haven't written me back yet.

( 2020 Force Works #2, Fantastic Four Marvels Snapshot #1, Road to Empyre the Kree Skrull War #1, Star #3, Tarot #4, X-Men #9Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

I might read something! I just discovered that the local library system lets me have an e-card so I can check out e-books from any library in this half of the state. Seems like a good deal to me. If I can relax enough to ever read again, that is. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

What I Just Finished Reading

I am a giant stressball and have been reading nothing.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( 2020 Iron Age #1, 2020 Machine Man #2, Captain America #20, Captain Marvel #16, Excalibur #9, Guardians of the Galaxy #3, Marvels X #3, Spider-Woman #1, X-Force #9Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

I have no idea. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

What I Just Finished Reading

Ben Aaronovitch, False Value: The latest Rivers of London book. These books are always solidly written, and the mystery here was reasonably entertaining, but I think mostly it was hampered by me not caring much about Peter and Bev's relationship, which the book clearly wanted me to.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Avengers #32, New Mutants #9, Sub-Mariner Marvels Snapshot #1, X-Men #8Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

Dunno. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( 2020 Rescue #1, Doctor Strange #4, Excalibur #8, Iron Man 2020 #3, Marauders #9, Marvel #1, Strikeforce #7Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

Now that I convinced Lysimache to buy the new Rivers of London book, I should probably read it. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

What I Just Finished Reading

Daniel L. Everett, Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle: Part memoir and part grammar, this is the account of a SIL missionary who went to the Amazon to try to convert the Pirahã tribe to Christianity and ended up losing both his faith in God and also any belief in Chomsky's Universal Grammar, which I have to say is a hell of a thing for one language to do to you. A really interesting read, but it wasn't very well-organized and couldn't seem to decide who it was pitched at, because the general public isn't going to care that Pirahã has no recursion and the linguists reading this are going to want more detail -- all the glosses are at the sentence level, for example. Still, I'm really glad I read it, just for all the Pirahã data, limited as it is: no colors, no numbers, no quantifiers, a consonant inventory that rivals Hawaiian in number, and no recursion, which... wow, that is a lot.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( 2020 Force Works #1, Avengers #31, New Mutants #8, Star #2, Tarot #3, X-Force #8, X-Men #7Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

I wanted to read the new Rivers of London book but Lysimache says it costs too much and she is the one who buys them for the household, so I don't know. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing. But, hey, my copy of a Steve/Tony zine from Poland got here! I... can't read Polish.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( 2020 Machine Man #1, Captain America #19, Captain Marvel #15, Guardians of the Galaxy #2, Marauders #8, Marvel's Voices #1, New Mutants #7Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

I started Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes (pop-linguistics non-fiction by the guy who did fieldwork with the Piraha, which probably means nothing to non-linguists but their language is Very Interesting and if you have ever been a linguist you have heard of them, I'm sure) although alas so far it seems to be mostly about his personal feelings about missionary work. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing, but I did answer all my email and made some headway on a fic.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Doctor Strange #3, Excalibur #5, Iron Man 2020 #2, Marvels X #2, X-Force #7, X-Men #6Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

I would like to read a book. We shall see. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

I caught up on comics!

What I Just Finished Reading

I do not think it will come as a surprise when I say that I haven't read anything. I am only just now tackling the comic book backlog.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday! Time to play catch-up!

( Comics from January 23Collapse )

( Comics from January 29Collapse )

( Comics from today, February 5Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

Well... it's gonna be a lot of email. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing! But I did write a bunch of fanfiction and then get an eye infection that is making looking at the computer moderately painful, go me. I probably shouldn't be writing this right now but I like comics.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Avengers #29, Iron Man 2020 #1Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

I don't know but it's gonna be after I get all my vision back. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

What I Just Finished Reading

Randall Munroe, What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions: It was a Kindle deal at some point recently, so I bought it and do not regret it. It has definitely answered a lot of absurd hypothetical questions and also I appreciate that the author occasionally used his trademark stick figures to provide cartoon illustrations. (I think my favorite question was the one about how far away a single human has been from all other humans and if they were lonely, featuring Apollo crew saying that, no, being alone on the dark side of the moon and not even being able to talk to Houston was really refreshing.)

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday! Keeping up with X-Men is hard.

( Excalibur #5, Fallen Angels #5, Marvels X #1, New Mutants #5, Star #1, Strikeforce #5, X-Force #5Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

Who knows? Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

Happy New Year! I know that every year I usually do a big review of fic I posted in the past year but I felt like that was just going to be depressing because I barely posted anything and didn't finish any of the big stories I am working on. Anyway.

What I Just Finished Reading

Once again, I fail at books. I did set a Goodreads reading goal so I guess that's something. Also for the first time in my life I registered for a Worldcon supporting membership, so now I can vote for the Hugos and my opinions will count for something.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Marauders #5, Tarot #1, X-Men #4Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

Actually I started reading that book that's a collation of xkcd What If answers because that seemed friendly and non-intimidating. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

I know it's not Wednesday! But today comics came out on Thursday!

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Doctor Strange: Surgeon Supreme #1, Incoming! #1Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

I have plans. I have so many books. I just... have to read some of them. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday! I need to stop trying to keep up with the X-side. Dear God.

( Avengers #28, Excalibur #4, Fallen Angels #4, Guardians of the Galaxy #12, History of the Marvel Universe #6, Invaders #12, Marauders #4, New Mutants #4, Tony Stark Iron Man #19, X-Force #4Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

Still nothing. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

What I Just Finished Reading

Mark Kurlansky, The Food of a Younger Land: The WPA's Portrait of Food in Pre-World War II America: I picked this up because I thought it might be relevant for my fanfic needs, and it turned out to be more of a primary source document than I thought it was. Apparently in the 30s the WPA employed a bunch of writers to make travel guides (because they had people of wildly varying skill levels and I guess they figured those would be hard to screw up) and when they finished those they decided to do a cookbook of regional specialties called "America Eats," except Pearl Harbor happened and it never got published. So this is an edited compilation of some of the more entertaining entries. If you're looking for help with your Cap fanfic, NYC's section has an exhaustive description on how to get food from an automat -- what foods are good, how much they cost, how you actually do it -- as well as the information that at a soda-fountain lunch counter you can apparently order a triple-decker PB&J sandwich. Like, where the peanut butter and jelly don't touch because there's another slice of bread in the middle. I have to say, this has never before occurred to me as a food possibility.

Marvel 1602: Look, I finally read something I hadn't read before for the Discord Book Club! I didn't like it much! I think basically Neil Gaiman's work isn't really for me anymore, and this book just came off as so pleased with its own cleverness that it didn't care about anything like keeping the characters in character; they all basically existed as puppets to serve the cleverness of the plot, or that was what it felt like to me. Also I really, really hated what he did with Steve Rogers. And it did not explain why the New World has dinosaurs.

Marvel 1602: New World: I actually liked this better than the first one even though it was much more your standard comic fare. I felt like the characters were better-characterized, I appreciated the Tony Stark whump, the Native Americans had speaking roles and actual agency, and also there were more dinosaurs.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Captain America #17, Captain Marvel #13, Fallen Angels #3, New Mutants #3, Strikeforce #4, X-Force #3Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

I dunno. I have a lot of books. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing. It hasn't really been a very productive week.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Excalibur #3, Marauders #3, X-Men #3Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

A book about the foods of the Great Depression. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

What I Just Finished Reading

Caroline Fraser, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder: A very well-written (I mean, it won a Pulitzer) but also extremely unflinching biography. If you're the kind of person who wants the authors you love to also have been perfect people, you may want to avoid this. I'm still trying to figure out why Wilder was apparently virulently against the New Deal and Social Security, but, you know, the government literally handing out homesteads was fine as was settling on land that, y'know, belonged to someone else. Also, wow, I do not remember there being a minstrel show in one of these books. Maybe they have been edited even more.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Avengers #27, Fallen Angels #2, Ironheart #12, New Mutants #2, X-Force #2Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

A book about food in the Great Depression. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

What I Just Finished Reading

Emma Vanderpool, Sacri Pulli: A Tale of War and Chickens: I stole this out of Lysimache's bag before she could take it to school; it is a story for beginning Latin students about the consul Publius Claudius Pulcher and the sacred chickens and it does in fact have several chapters written from the POV of a chicken (whose POV is in all caps, in Papyrus font) and also I now know what noise Roman chickens make ("glocio"). Yes, this is the "if they don't want to eat, then let them drink" guy.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Avengers #26, Captain America #16, Captain Marvel #12, Excalibur #2, Marauders #2, Strikeforce #3, Tony Stark Iron Man #18Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

Still making my way through that Laura Ingalls Wilder biography. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Fallen Angels #1, Guardians of the Galaxy #11, History of the Marvel Universe #5, Invaders #11, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #50, X-Men #2Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

Okay, I'm actually partway through a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Wow, did she leave a lot out of her books. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

As an addendum to my previous post, the vote tabulation here was even better (or possibly worse) this time than watching the newspaper update a Google Sheet in real time. This time, what happened was that after the polls closed, while the local news was still saying 0% reporting, people were posting to the local Facebook group pictures of handwritten notes (on notebook paper) of the final count, which for some reason it took the news half an hour to report because I assume there are other official channels.

Somehow I thought this process would be... I don't know... more technological.

Anyway.

What I Just Finished Reading

I said I was gonna read a real book and I lied again. Sigh.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Black Cat #6, New Mutants #1, X-Force #1Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

I would very much like to read a book. Please, brain? Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing. Sigh.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Doctor Strange Annual #1, Excalibur #1, Ironheart #11Collapse )

What I'm Reading Next

Dear brain: please let me read a book. Maybe this week. Please. Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments