Remembrance Of Earth's Past

Another Hugo Award winner, this first book The Three-Body Problem was exciting, so exciting that I had to read the following two books.  I listened to the audio versions of the first two, and read the last one as an e-book earlier this year.  Either medium was excellent, I enjoyed each book thoroughly.  This is a trilogy that is truly epic in its telling throughout all three books (something I did not expect since the middle book is what I have typically considered to be just filler... a place saver until you get to the end of the series when it gets all exciting again.  But The Dark Forest kicked butt all on it's own and was more exciting than the first book in its own unique way.  I actually wondered what more Cixin could say after I finished The Dark Forest, it had all seemed pretty well sewn up by the end.  Oh boy was I surprised, jubilant even, while reading the third book  Death's End.  I was cheering at one point, oohing and ahhing at another point, while still being pretty clueless as to how it would all play out in the end.   Reading these books was like bouncing on a trampoline... I never stayed still.  There was a various array of feelings running through me from one segment to the next (though it was never exhausting as emotional upheavals can be, it was always gentle).

I have raved enough about The Three-Body Problem that my husband went out and bought a copy of the first two books. I plan on reading them when we have the complete set as I figure that there is much that I would have missed listening to the audio book.  I think it says a lot about a book, especially hard/military science fiction genre books like these, that I would want to return to the story again.

This is science fiction with what I consider to be the traditional story telling style of the Chinese saga.  There are so many components to the books it reminded me of Romance of the Three kingdoms and had such a classic way of relating events that had me also thinking of Journey To the West.  These fractions of stories all wove together to make an incredible and inevitable result (which Cixin has very carefully helped you to understand that there could not be any other way to conclude his story).  It's clever and original and not what I have come to expect from a regular "Earth is being invaded by hostile aliens and this is how we fought them" type of story.  Death's End is nominated for the Hugo this year, I wish Cixin Liu the best of luck.

Tips

There are books that are very difficult to read.  Being as obsessed as I am with "reading it all", and wanting to tackle all of the books listed on my Great First Lines of Literature coffee mug, I had to read this book, no matter how hard it is to read.  Not because it was just on my mug but because Thomas Pynchon is listed in a few of my reference books and Gravity's Rainbow happens to be the most often mentioned books of his to be read...

I tell you now... it was a doozy.  That is where the title of my blog entry comes in today.  I have tips for die-hard readers who want to tackle this particular book (which was a really hard slog).  

First, I found it hard to begin (even with it's Great First Line!), and I had to backtrack a few times before I could get into the rhythm of it.  I had the ebook to start, but felt that it was too hard to move around in (going backwards and forwards as I did), I considered buying a hard copy (but after some progress through both the ebook and the audio, I found my disgust for the subjects in the book made me very reluctant to hold such a book in my hand!  I knew for certain that I would never wish to revisit this novel ever!).  So the audio book was my primary route through this book with the ebook on hand for some clarifications on certain names etc.,

Essentially, I think that Gravity's Rainbow is all about what men may like to do with their penises (and I'm not saying that all men would want to do this!).  I could look beyond the various sexual encounters in this book, and the sex-free portions to try and find the underlying meaning of what it is all about, but to me it read like something I remember learning in college at one of my psychology courses and it bored me to tears then (what else could the rockets be about but the many ways of "lifting off"?).  I truly do not care about complexes, ids, egos or the bodily fluids of humans and what they might want to do with them.  It is not essential to my understanding of the world to know or care about such things.  I should state that while I was disgusted about a lot of what I read, I am not standing in judgement of what two consenting adults may like to do to each other, honestly it is none of my business! 

So, on to the tips.  I strongly recommend that you not drink or eat while reading this book or even have much food in your stomach (this really helped me a great deal).   I was nauseous a time or two before I decided to cut out the food and drink.  I also recommend that you give yourself some time after reading each installment to soothe or cleanse your mind of what you read (it can be very disturbing).  Music is great, a fluffy, comfort read is good ( I would visit some of my favourite fan fiction sites), poetry can be helpful... I mixed it up because I didn't want to associate any of my favourite things too much with what I was reading.  

You should know... I don't think that there really was any point to this book.  No real purpose other than my statement on what I think it was about (penises). Or maybe all of the gross stuff just distracted me from what Pynchon was trying to say... I'm not interested in re-reading this book to find out!  

Good luck!

Opening My Mind

Two years ago, before going to Australia, I bought myself a Samsung tablet.  I had put a great deal of thought into what I wanted to buy, what size it ought to be and also what uses I would need it for.  The initial plan was to use it for communication as the cell phone DH bought last time we were in Aus. would have become obsolete, plus I wasn't willing to pay for another.  So a tablet was my choice.  I found it to be an extremely useful gadget (and it became my primary computer when my laptop blew its motherboard shortly after).  Not only could I email and text my family, but I could also do my banking, read books on my Kindle app and listen to music.

Every time I hopped on a bus in Canberra, I could plug in and listen to music.  I spent a lot of time riding and listening... it was pure bliss!

As a travelling device, my tablet was perfect (especially on my way to and from Australia on a non-stop fifteen hour flight, which was mostly in the dark).

I  am trying to stop being a consumer, so the tablet seemed like a very handy "Swiss Pocketknife" with all its different apps that enabled me to do more than I expected.  It also meant I wouldn't have to buy a Kindle.  While I think electronic books are a "neat" thing, it is anathema to me to have just one device for one purpose.   Kudos to Amazon for thinking that one through and providing an app.  I have bought many ebooks from them because of it.  Including many of these:-

                                                 

 Naturally it took me a while to get to that point (reading an ebook), but when I finally got there, I haven't looked back.  I like having access to books in any form, and I truly love the fact that I carry around with me several hundred books in my purse.
It was only this year that I found yet another neat use for my tablet.  As usual it takes a while for me to come around to a new idea, and this time it was audio books.
I read up to three hundred books a year, which doesn't leave a lot of time for other things that I also like to do.  At one time I used to churn out a dozen quilts a year, knit and crochet etc., but now that my hands are often holding books there just isn't the time.  I don't often watch television (which is when I used to get a lot of stitching done), but books have by far drowned out most other interests.  On average I make one, maybe two, quilts a year now.  I prefer to piece my quilts by hand... there was lots of applique and English paper piecing once upon a time.
One of my goals for this past school year is to read past and present winners and honors of the Newbery Award.  I have been hard on the scent, tracking these books down from various sources. From the BCLibraries Cooperative Library2go there was only an audio file available of the particular book I was tracking down.  So I had no choice.  I had to check it out. I hadn't really thought it through, but finally there I was sitting and listening to a book and it struck me that I really shouldn't have idle hands so I grabbed what I was working on (a set for a new baby) and a new era in my life was born!  I can both create with my hands and listen to a book at the same time!  These are my first results:-

Thank goodness for opening my mind to new possibilities!