Jane's Journal

Matt S. wanted to start a book club with our tabletop group and I of course jumped at the chance to get some more direction in my reading. We set up a list and chose to start with Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time. Below are my notes.

Part 1.
"The protagonist (Avrana Kern) is kind of a scary human bitch who shows a lot of insufferable traits: rampant ambition, disregard for her colleagues and other humans. And then this absurd twist happens, making me very curious how she will change and grow during the story."

The story is about an experiment with monkeys being subjected to a nanovirus to mate exclusively with other monkeys that are infected with this virus, and the virus also enhances their natural abilities. This way the humans hope to create a new breed of humans quickly, while awaiting the results of the experiment in cryo in a pod above the planet.
But something goes wrong...and the monkeys never make it down to the planet.

In Part 2 we read that the pod above the planet sends out a maths test, and I wrote "Of course it is a maths test, THE universal language.
Also, I guess the spiders are not done evolving yet, but the humans will take their planet (or try to)."

Humanity has almost destroyed itself in a mutiny, and the survivors salvage what tech they can, venturing out to other solar systems because Earth is beyond saving. These humans arrive at the planet with the pod and the nanovirus and it is more beautiful than they could ever dream. The pod warns them not to interfere with the experiment and is ready to blast them from the sky...

Part 3.
"Nice to read the humans and spiders seem to go through the same things. As above, so below.
The spiders' evolution including religion, scientific discovery and even slavery is impressive.
Human society is degrading while the spider society is (slowly) growing.
And then instead of a peaceful solution, humans do what humans do..."

All in all it was somewhat of an interesting read, but there was one huge flaw with this book: as interesting as the presumed protagonist Avrana Kern was in the first chapter, as indifferent I was for the spider's fate. They are too alien, their society too strange, to empathise with fully. They communicate by tapping their (many) legs in a certain rythm for crying out loud.
I suppose spiders going to space is something that could happen, especially after thousands of years of forced viral evolution, but there was never a point in the book that I felt for Portia, or Violet or Fabian. They were just too alien!

And the humans in the story were no better off: while we did follow a human crew throughout the book, I never felt any attachment to the historian. Him being put into cryo between parts of the book and never being fully briefed at what is going on, makes it no easier to empathise with the humans. If the historian can't fully understand what is going on and what has been happening in between his cryo-sleep, then how can a reader empathise?

I'm glad to have finished the book and it was an interesting concept, but I don't think I'll be reading it again any time soon.

Clearing out the cupboards. We're keeping all our comics (aw, no free Calvin & Hobbs for you!) but I'm getting rid of some old crap:

( click it! )

If you want a book, tell me in the comments. I'll send it to you anywhere in the world if you pay for shipping. For the rest: they're FREE!

One condition: I want to get rid of these by Omen. Either I mail it, or I bring it to Omen, but if it's still in the apartment after October 2nd, it's going into dev/null.

On Friday we visited the big bookstore in the center of Rotterdam where I'd ordered the two hardcovers of Robert Jordan we were still missing. We also picked up several other books. The newest Pratchett, of course (Unseen Academicals), as well as the newest from Jacqueline Carey (Namaah's Kiss). I've also picked up the four books from the Twilight series, as I enjoyed the movies and the books are reputedly better.
So that cost us a nifty € 187,45.

Yesterday we were picked up by the lovely nathreee and her charming husband and we visited the Midsummer faire in the Archeon historical park. The weather wasn't too great but we dressed warmly. Our motto was "Every victorian lady needs a druid, a samurai and an arab to protect her" or "motley".

Nathreee went shopping for hats and found two lovely hats that suited her extremely well. I just bought cheese, a t-shirt from Fairbow ("There are only two kinds of people on a battlefield: targets and archers"), six historical arrows, and of course my new lovely: a longbow.
It was ex-pen-sive and draws 35 lbs at 28".
Spending this much money on a longbow is a good excuse to go shooting more often. I hope we can still sign up for the Archon open longbow shooting this September...

After returning to our apartment they picked up some chinese food while I tidied up a bit, not having had time to do so earlier that week(end). We watched Little Shop of Horrors which Remco enjoyed far too much. *grin*
A good day and good shopping with good friends. What more can one want?

Last night I traveled to Amersfoort to follow a course on reading quickly (Snellezen). Thanks to uncooperative trains refusing to depart I only had ten mintues to shovel my food into my mouth. Luckily the string beans were good -- I love string beans -- and they had potato parts to top up my starch and salt reserves. The chicken does not deserve a mention in any blog.

The course started with a measurement of the level of reading in ten minutes. I had nearly 350 words per minute, where others were a hundred words below that level. I knew I read quickly, but the course would tell if it could be done more quickly. We had to fill out 15 multiple-choice questions afterward, to measure comprehension. I scored 6 right answers on that, and I finished first.

We were told some tricks about reading quickly. You have to analyse the text and ask yourself "Are there any graphs or images with the text?" because you need to look at those before speed-reading your way through the text. Using a pen or finger to mark your place helps with the tempo as well as regression; whenever glancing at any text, your eyes mark the words above and below the line you're reading as well.
And our goals? To double the speed at which we read while still maintaining the same level of text comprehension. That's where reading quickly in the first test bit me in the ass, because now I needed to up my performance to 700 words a minute!

We drank coffee and continued. We read a chapter further along in the book for five minutes and then had one minute for a summary. Noting that I came to page 123, I scribbled down a short summary, glancing back at the text to jolt my memory. Next up we could read the same text for three minutes. I realised I'd already read and remembered parts of the text well enough to skip by them at lightning-speed and continue with the parts I didn't store well enough. After those three minutes, I had come to page 120, nearly as far as in the first five minutes. Another minute for a summary followed, and then one last minute to read, with a final 30 seconds for the summary.

I was really starting to hate the book now. It was on a subject I really can't wrap my head around ("Hoe word ik een rat" door Joep Schrijvers; tr: 'how to become a rat') because I've actually got a shred of empathy. At some point I was quite ready to fling the book away from me, because the writing style (condescending towards the reader) and subject apalled me so.

The final exercise saw us flipping forward another chapter, and reading for five minutes and summarising again for one minute, followed by another five minutes in which we had to try to read one quarter more than before. I tried a different trick when summarising now: writing down key words, and really keeping it brief. The chapter focused mainly on "past rats" -- i.e., how history has produced many rats, and how philosophers like Plato people like Machiavelli also justified rattiness, and so - the book seemed to conclude - ratness was to be embraced because it's okay to stab your boss in the back. I think I was snarling at the book. If you can backstab someone by rethoric, by all means, do!

In any case, I think I did really well at the reading tricks, and I got better at summarising as well. I didn't use to be so bad at it, but time constraints managed to force me to dust off my skills and perfect my technique. All in all, I was happy with the progress. Even if I need to read through the text twice, I still absorb the gist of the text despite its subject. If I can read such an apalling book nearly cover-to-cover (we skipped two or three chapters for further progress tests) in one night, I'm sure to do better at reading newspapers and difficult functional designs.

The trouble is, and I realised this as well, that the writer of this book had really taken care to have a clear structure in his book. A chapter would introduce the subject in a metaphor, telling the reader what he wanted to talk about in this chapter. Then, clearly cut into bite-sized paragraphs, the writer would highlight the subject from several angles, giving clear examples on the subject. Each paragraph had a clear title, and just by browsing back to the title and letting a glance of the following text lead my summary, I realised I had absorbed enough to get the message the writer was trying to bring across. I'll be interested to see how it goes with different subjects, or less structured texts.

So while I was pondering whether I really needed to touch upon the subject of the book, I realised that I'm far too grumpy and far too cold to really stress the fact that it's a terrible subject to write a book about. The last thing we need is people stressing the point of how you can have personal gain by stabbing your boss, your co-workers or even your friends in the back.
Should anyone want to get rid of my friendship, all they have to do is give me this book as a gift.

And please, in the meantime, be nice to eachother, smile at people every day, and give without expecting anything in return. Wouldn't that just make a nicer world?

I'm feeling better and am up and about. Yesterday I still needed to return to the warm snuggly blanket every once in a while, I hope to not need that today. Big old Hoo-aaah for the immune system, I say.
I still don't want to go outside though, so NoKey will get the groceries while I prepare the house for Nathreee and Remco who will be staying over tomorrow.

I'm kind of tingling to get working on new projects, but forced myself to finish some of the old ones first. It always feels good to muck out the stable before bringing in the new straw, and such.
Also, nearly finished The Dragon Reborn. At this rate, I'll be ready for the latest in the series in two weeks, which is not desirable. What will I be reading after that's done!?

Been a busy weekend. Next to sewing, cycling, and the household I've also finished Karen Traviss's newest book in the Star Wars Republic Commando series: Order 66.

I sewed some wrap pants in dark blue polyester (a leftover), two shirts in light blue ribbed jersey (one short-, one long-sleeved), and a lovely little dark blue cotton skirt that falls just below the knee.

I'm going to shower and roll into bed now. Tomorrow is the first day I will cycle to work!

After four women's movies I've quite had it. My head is still not up to spec, though I'm feeling better.
One Night At McCool's, Charlie's Angels, Charlie's Angels Full Throttle, Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones's Diary the Edge of Reason have all been watched. Enough with the female movies already!

ETA: I'm getting sick of books about women, written by women, where the main character is shunned by all males. If you read the Clan of the Cavebear novels by Jean M. Auel, or like I'm doing right now "She who Remebers" by Linda Lay Shuler, the similarities are striking. Just like Jacqueline Carey must write about all forms of sex and Lauren Weisberger insists on writing how all New York Women must be fabulous creatures tottering about on ten inch heels, these women authors seem to revel in the idea that women in prehistoric societies are shunned for being a witch or being different and then cast out, at which point they find a mate or a lovely young male that goes on to protect them and shelter them and makes the world alright.

I wonder: how much of this lives in our daily society? Are women who are different cast out and shunned by their society? And do they then find a mate to protect them? Does Lauren Weisberger actually write the same kind of books as Jean M. Auel and Linda Lay Shuler, only from a different vantagepoint?

I can't postpone it any longer. Must ... start... in... Crossroads...of... Twi Aaarrrhghggggghhhhhhh
*runs offf*

I finished reading "The Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It's a very good book, and I can recommend it to everyone who is into the fantasy genre or who likes medieval/Arthurian legends.
Isaac Asimov (yes, the famous writer) said about that book: "the best retelling of the Arthurian Saga, absolutely compelling" etc.
A definite must-read. And don't dare to read it but in English!

Good. Anyway. The artsy stuff. I've been inspired by books before to draw about the characters. With the Vampire novels I was afraid because the images of Victoria (ah, the pose at the cargo yard, the leopard-accented catsuit and high hat!) and Lucita (the rose tattoo, her smart questioning eyes, and that one eyebrow arched!) and Theo and and and...might be very different from the images other people had in their minds...

In any case, Avalon inspired me again. *sigh*
When I get back to Veenendaal, I'll have enough to do. Move my desk upstairs to my room, work on projects, and work on art.

Another note: Livejournal should have a mood icon for "inspired".

Great.
This great big update I typed this afternoon. All lost because of a livejournal glitch.
In any case. Reading new book now: Ken Follett's The Cathedral. Action, medieval setting, etc. Yes, that kind of action.
And that's the reason why I didn't go for a re-read of The Goblet of fire in dutch. The action.

Brother came over with gf for dinner. I don't want to dive into that right now.
I'm not in a writing mood. Too bad that happy post I wrote this afternoon didn't make it. *kicks LJ*
Better not break it again...