Reading in the dark - Books read in April
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Books read in April
1. The Memory of Whiteness by Kim Stanley Robinson (1985) [scanned myself]
One of my favorite science fiction novels, in which music meets physics to create a synesthetic experience of space and time. Poetic prose, trippy images, and Machiavellian plots--what's not to like? Also, and oddly I had forgotten this, the protagonist is a blind musician. While he does have artificial eyes, a cool feature is that they are not perfect in that way that science fiction likes to render all prosthetics, but instead only give the musician a limited degree of low vision.
In the world of Kim Robinson's Mars trilogy, Memory of Whiteness is set after the Mars trilogy although Robinson wrote this right before he began the trilogy.
2. Mad Bad and Sad: Women and the Mind Doctors by Lisa Appignanesi (2008) [scanned myself]
Discusses the history of madness in women from the early nineteenth century through the present, with a focus on exploring how tied up the mind doctors were in not only diagnosing but transforming these patients into "star patients" who helped to make these doctors famous. I use the phrase "star patients" because not only, as the author points out, is there some transference from the doctor to the patient regarding what he desires in his ideal patient, but because many of the female patients discussed were themselves famous, from Mary Lamb to Virginia Woolf to Sylvia Plath (a slight disappointment was the lack of any mention of Caroline Lamb, who seemed referenced in the title, as she described Byron as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know," although the same could have been said, perhaps, of herself).
One of the truly disturbing threads is how male doctors linked creativity, or any mental exercise at all, particularly reading, with mental instability in women. These women were often given enforced "rest cures" --not to mention, often highly addictive drugs-- in order to prevent them from doing anything, period. Lots of fascinating information about the connections between women's writing and madness, such as the real-life doctor portrayed in the story "The Yellow Wallpaper."
Very readable prose, good starting place for the subject.
3. "Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight" from _Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences_ by Ursula K. Le Guin (1987) [Bookshare.org]
I Read about this story in _Coyote At Large_ and really can't believe I've managed to miss it all these years. A young girl is stranded in the desert after being in a plane crash and is temporarily adopted by Coyote. Fun feminist myth plus wacky eyeball humor--highly recommended.
4. Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies (2006)
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) alexx_kay read this one to me--it was a Christmas present from him--and it is just a really fun book with lots of very witty rhymes and pictures portraying some fun-loving bats. The author does a lot with the pictures, including the fact that he includes different types of bats.
You can hear Daniel Pinkwater and one of the NPR hosts reading this book and describing the pictures here
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5507234
--stick around through the end and you'll hear a few verses of Jimmy Durante singing "The Day I Read a Book."
5. _The Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature_ by S.T. Joshi, editor (2000) ]scanned myself]
6. _The Modern Weird Tale: A Critique of Horror Fiction_ by S.T. Joshi (2001) [scanned myself]
I admit, I only heard about S. T. Joshi from mssrcrankypants at the 2007 Readercon http://www.readercon.org ,
since it is difficult for me to hear about small and/or indie press books, as they tend to not get a lot of publicity. Better late than never, though, and I was really excited to have an annotated edition of Lovecraft's _Supernatural Horror in Literature_, as it is one of the best books on horror, made even more valuable by Joshi's footnotes and bibliography.
As for Joshi's _Modern Weird Fiction_, it put into words some of my niggling sense of annoyance with a lot of contemporary horror, mostly in the fact that much of it seems to be mainstream fiction dressed up in cliched dimestore Halloween costumes. Don't read this unless you want your critical appreciation of horror heightened.
7. _Little Brother_ by Cory Doctorow (2008) [etext]
Previously raved about in this blog.
8. "The Scarecrow" by Neil Martinson article from the magazine Proof (2008) [scanned myself]
alexx_kay pointed out this magazine in the Harvard Coop because the cover featured Patrick McGoohan as Dr. Syn in the Disney remake "The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh." The article turned out to be a fascinating discussion not only of the Dr. Syn movies but also of various traditions involving scarecrows, complete with a few book titles on the subject.
The Dr. Syn entry in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Syn
has more info on the Dr. Syn films, the original book series, and various readings and reenactments.
Another interesting article from this magazine was titled "The Dada Girlfriends" by Molly Wicked, which discussed some of the women in the Dada movement and the tension between the movement and its complacency regarding maintaining the traditional roles of women in culture.
9. _Black Light_ by Elizabeth Hand (1999) [scanned myself]
A rereading of what is possibly my favorite Elizabeth Hand book due to its ievocation of the traditional weird story.
10. The Magician and the Fool by Barth Anderson (2008) [scanned myself]
The first seventy pages of this novel read a bit like a queer Tim Powers story, although at times it felt a little slow to me. Things soon speed up, however, and the last seventy pages or so speed by. I'm still trying to work out what the ending means; it's not ambiguous in a bad sloppy way, but in a "there are two ways you can interpret the story action" way, both interesting.
11. Death and Restoration: A Jonathan Argyll Mystery by Iain Pears (1996) [etext]
12. The Immaculate Deception by Iain Pears (2005) [etext]
Enjoyable art mystery set in Rome with two likable protagonists, Flavia, who works in the art theft division of the Roman police, and Jonathan, her fiance, a former art dealer turned art professor.
13. Armor of Light by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett (1988) [scanned myself, incomplete]
I should have loved this book, as Kit Marlowe is one of the main characters (the other being Spenser, of "The Faerie Queen" fame). Granted, this Kit is an older and supposedly wiser Kit who didn't die young, but he's pretty boring and mostly wanders about brooding over all the people who want to kill him. On page 23 it is decided that there should be a secret journey to the court of King James of Scotland, and by page 105 the journey still hasn't begun. What's worse, not much else has happened except lots of relationship angst on the part of Kit and Spenser (not with each other, sadly).
If you're a Kit Marlowe completist you will probably enjoy this more than I did.
14. _Consider Flebas_ Iain M. Banks (1987) [etext]
The first novel in the the Culture series. Space opera with lots of detailed world-building although the plot is like an SF Guns of Navarrone, which is actually appropriate, as see the reference to space opera.
Current Location: aerye
Current Mood: bookish
Current Music: birds twittering
Tags: books, reviews
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| From: | kbird |
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| Date: | May 1st, 2008 10:56 pm (UTC) |
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| | self scanning books | (Link) |
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I noticed in the post you scanned many of the books you read yourself. I'd be curious to know how you scan them? Ok, I know that wasn't phrased well, so let me restate the question. I'm most curious if you use a particular type of scanner, such as a book edge scanner or anything? Also, what scanning program do you use? I want to eventually scan some books for bookshare, and/or just try some scanning myself, so am just looking for others feedback.
Thanks,
K.
| | From: | kestrell |
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| Date: | May 2nd, 2008 02:26 am (UTC) |
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| | Re: self scanning books | (Link) |
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The setup I use is an off-the-shelf flatbed scanner and Kurzweil 1000. Kurzweil 1000 is the program specifically developed for visually-impaired users, while Kurzweil 3000 is developed for sighted users with print disabilities. The program is pretty expensive, I think it is approx. $800, maybe a little more (I've just been paying the update subscription costs for a number of years now, so I don't remember what I paid for it three years ago).
The Kurzweil Web site lists scanners which work with the specific Kurzweil program, but the scanners are really just standard off-the-shelf scanners you can purchase a any computer store, or do like I do, and purchase them from Amazon so they are delivered right to your door.
The other scanning/OCR program that many blind users purchase is Arkenstone Open Book, but I've always been really happy with Kurzweil and rcommended it to other blind people. One friend ignored my recommendation and purchased OpenBook and told me later he had some annoying issues with it and wished he had listened to me.
Still another option is --and I'm spelling this phonetically, not correctly-- Abbey [sp?] Fine Reader, although I've heard disrecommendations on the most recent version. Since this is a mainstream program I believe it is less expensive than Kurzweil, although it doesn't offer all the friendly features that Kurzweil offers. Kurzweil is an all-in-one package that scans, recognizes, and speaks whatever you scan.
Btw, I am, of course, using a Windows XP OS. Specifically, I have my scanner and Kurzweil set up on an old Pentium PC (old equals approx. four years old, maybe five). My main machine however is my Panasonic laptop, also running Windows XP.
Hope this helps, feel free to ask me more questions. |
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