-
Now Reading
-
Category Archives: Opinion
I love counting whatever the amount!
20 August 2008 – 8:00 am
The amount today is three! Three years since I started Rat’s Reading as a standalone book blog.
Book Giveaways
Before I get into the year in review portion of this broadcast, here’s the fun stuff. I’m going to give away a couple of books from my personal collection. Two separate contests though.
According to the C.I.A. there are 266 nations, dependent areas, and other entities on Earth. (…)
Virtual blog tours
and other pitfalls of book blogging
18 August 2008 – 12:30 pm
I’ve been doing the Free Books roundups for about a month now. Doing so has crystallized my opinion regarding so-called virtual blog tours. For those who are quick with their web surfing fingers, the short version is I don’t like them so much.
To explain why, first I have to retell why I blog at Rat’s Reading. First and foremost this is an electronic substitute for a book reading journal. (…)
Ad Hominem
1 August 2008 – 8:00 am
If you search the web for author’s views on reviewing, you’ll find numerous admonitions to review the book, not the author. In today’s editorial, I want to explore that…
First, a little bit of literary theory. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be too deep. I can look at books one of several ways. I can look at a book as independent of its author and everything else. All the meaning of the book can be read in the text. (…)
Apologies and Gender Balance
30 July 2008 – 10:36 pm
Newspapers often get things wrong and then bury their corrections. Earlier today I got something partially wrong, so I want to make the correction more prominent than the mistake.
SFSignal is one of the blogs I read. They started a series called Mind Meld, where they ask a number of people connected to the industry (using connected in a loose way) a question of the week. Sometimes it’s serious, sometimes it’s more fun. Today’s question was about world building. (…)
Obscure but great science fiction, feminist style
3 June 2008 – 8:36 pm
One of the blogs I read, Feminist S.F., is currently looking for obscure but superb speculative fiction that features groups that are still generally ignored. In other words, the protagonists are women, black, Hispanic, gay, etc. After seeing a list of Top 10 Obscure But Superb Science Fiction Novels, the kind of list that seems to sprout up every other week or so on the S.F. blogosphere, the Feminist S.F. (…)
Top reviews
6 May 2008 – 12:55 pm
It’s been one year today since I installed a decent statistics package for this web site. So I thought I would take the opportunity to check the status of what I’ve written.
The top ten reviews are:
Title / AuthorViews
Principles of Macroeconomics: Third Edition / N. (…)
Instantaneous Transfer
24 March 2008 – 11:44 pm
I’m currently reading Kay Kenyon’s Bright of the Sky. It’s a multi-universe story. In other words, a parallel worlds story. The main character, Titus Quinn, travels to another universe, one in which he accidentally visited years before and where his wife and child are presumed lost. Travel between universes brings up a huge problem in my head. The same problem comes up in any time travel story. It comes up in any travel between universes story. (…)
Book abuse!
19 March 2008 – 5:43 pm
I do not own pristine books.
I am not a book collector, not in the way for which some organizations award prizes at least. I acquire books because I want to read them. As long as they are in readable shape, I’ll take them. This is one of the reasons I have been grabbing books from the free boxes in from of Michael’s Books in Bellingham. This is why I attend the Friends of the Seattle Public Library’s massive book sale frequently. (…)
Women riding side-saddle
10 March 2008 – 5:15 pm
I’ve been mulling over an editorial on female characters in literature for a while. Since I ripped on author Joe Abercrombie yesterday for his female characters in Before They Are Hanged, it’s high time I got down to business on this.
I’ve only read a few books that are generally classified as chick lit. The Devil Wears Prada recently and a few years ago I read Bridget Jones’ Diary and Good In Bed. I did not like them. (…)
Racial bias in science fiction and fantasy
16 February 2008 – 12:27 am
Blogger S. M. Duke is asking science fiction and fantasy reviewers to help him figure out if there’s bias in science fiction and fantasy. He wants us to note some stats in our reviews:
For every book you read in the SF or F genre, take a note of which ethnic, religious, social groups are present within a work in a significant way. What this means is if the main character or a significant character is White, Black, or Asian, then write that down. (…)
