Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Books and Things

Dammit! I was really going to start blogging again, at least semi-regularly, but it hasn't been happening. I could blame "too much time spent on Twitter" but there are plenty of times I'm not on Twitter and I think about blogging something but I'm like, "Nah. Not in the mood. Maybe later." It's just habit I think. I used to be in the habit but now I'm out of it and it's not so easy to get back into it. Part of it too, I think, is knowing that I will spend time writing something and maybe three people will read it or maybe none and I'll never know because one has anything to say.

Okay, sorry, I'm starting to whine about how unpopular I am and nobody wants to read that. Let's get to what I'm really here for today: books!

I finished reading The Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin several weeks ago and have been wanting to rave about it but I don't know quite what to say other than, "It's fantastic!"

I first found out about it on Twitter. At first I didn't think much about it but then someone said something about a "sentient planet"? So that immediately got my attention and made me want to read it. As it turns out, it's not really clear whether the planet is actually sentient or the people in the story only believe it/he is, like we believe in God but, let's be honest, there's no proof that He/She/They/It actually exists.

Okay, let's quickly leave that can of worms behind us. It's also not clear, to me at least, whether these books should be categorized as science fiction or fantasy and that's one of the things that I like about them - it doesn't matter. Magic is mentioned, not as something that is performed but more like a force that exists, like gravity or magnetism or maybe the weather. But they also mention technology - mostly the technology of dead civilizations that the characters in the story don't understand. And, I don't know, there are just things about the story that seem "science-y" to me, a non-science-y person.

This trilogy has an epic, important, feel to it. I highly recommend it but maybe not to everyone. It is dark and often violent and involves some child abuse so if you're especially sensitive you might not enjoy it. But I really don't have the words to tell you how excellent The Broken Earth Trilogy really is.

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I'm currently reading Persepolis Rising, book 7 in The Expanse series and loving it as always. And there are a dozen or more books that I want to read absolutely right away! One of my favorite things about Twitter is Book Twitter - all the readers and especially the many authors (some of them true superstars, in my mind at least) who freely engage with readers just like ordinary people. I have discovered more Must Read! books in a month on Twitter than I did in a year before I went back to spending time on Twitter.

My final thought for this post: Twitter (and the rest of the Internet) is whatever you make it. It can be politics and ugliness or it can be friends sharing books and cat pictures. It's all up to you.

2 comments:

  1. As I've said elsewhere: I will never, ever forget how on Twitter, that night in January 3 years ago, when neither my brother nor I knew where our parents were, and it turned out my dad had been taken to the ER, and for about 20 minutes I didn't know if either or both my parents were alive or dead, the people who were on and who virtually "sat with" me and offered prayers until I found out my dad was going to be OK (and my mom had just followed the ambulance to the ER)....I can't think of Twitter as bad or evil because of that.

    It really is who you follow. if someone distresses me I mute them for a while and then try unmuting. But yes, it is also an excellent medium for sharing cat pictures (or other nice pictures; I like it when you RT art)

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    1. Oh, yes! Art is another one of my favorite things on Twitter. I have discovered so much. For example, Edward Hopper. The only one of his paintings I had ever seen was Nighthawks - that one with people sitting in a diner late at night. I neither like nor dislike it very much so I never thought about searching to see what else he painted but I have seen a lot of his work on Twitter that I actually like pretty well.

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