Treat books like tv?

Fun article from the Washington Times on how much of a book should you read before you abandon it--or should you do so at all?

One of her online friends reminded her there's even an abandonment rule: The "Deduct Your Age From 100 and Read That Many Pages Before Giving Up on a Book" rule. The older you get, the less inclined you are to waste your time on something that doesn't grab you.

So I can give up at page 64.

I have to admit, I'm trying to apply more of my speed-reading techniques learned in Poli Sci, to fiction. Speed reading isn't reading fast, it's just judicious skipping. Lately I've been taking teen books out from the library and skip-reading, just to get a feel for them and increase my product knowledge. Until I hit something wonderful like Angus, Thongs and Full-frontal Snogging, and then I read the whole thing.

Right now I've got a French book I half-abandoned. It was recommended by a bookseller in another store, but I'm having trouble getting into it. There are 4 characters, and each one is separately introduced, which always creates the problem of having to get into a book 4 times. I know from past experience that this can pay off--A Fine Balance starts with separate storylines, but it's worth the wait to see them all come together. (Lurved this book.) But Nikolski? ...I don't know. I'm on page 94 and I still don't feel sucked-in-a-fied. (Which is why I wandered into the Angus books. And now I've sidelined from that into Connie Willis, while I wait for my next Angus book from the library.)

I'm still not sure, however, if we should treat books like TV (as someone in the article says) and flip away as soon as we lose interest. I've read books that took awhile to get into, but by about 1/3 of the way through finally hooked me in, and I loved them. So maybe I should have a One Third rule. That would mean Nikolski has to get me in 10 more pages.

Man I wish we carried this book in our store

Slovenian book on pooping (click picture to see the rest of the book.)

2 good newses

1. Photographer Kyle Cassidy--who photographed Amanda Palmer dead, and people with guns, and writers' rooms--was at Worldcon photographing sci fi fantasy fans. And this happened:

At one point I looked up and a smiling woman handed me her model release and said "Hi, I'm Connie Willis." There was a long pause and I said "Hi. I'm a bit speechless." and after Connie Willis a lot more of the rich and famous swam through with the streams of fandom and I realized that one thing about f&sf which doesn't seem to be true of many other genres is that the authors, the best ones, every one, not only started out as fans but they still are.

I can't wait to see the photo! And all of them, cause I really like his work. (And he's a big cat lover, so I like his LJ too.)

2. After seeing the photo of me and my new BFF, my step-mother said we look like we're mother and daughter. I always knew Connie Willis was my long lost mother!! It explains EVERYthing. So exciting. ...The striking resemblance I supposedly bear to my so-called biological mother is quite the coincidence.

The Conquering Hero Returns

My husband is an Alpha Husband. Not only did he get the Connie Willis photo for me, today the hero returned from the last day of Worldcon with two Connie books.

One is Light Raid--an out of print book co-written with Cynthia Felice. I have one of their other co-written books (the only one in print), which I haven't even read --> you see, Willis writes her books slowly, so I keep Promised Land on hold for the day I get desperate. Now I will have two Willis reserves! Ha ha! Only I suspect I will get desperate soon, cause I'm in a Connie Mood and I can't wait for her new book in February.

i'm sooooooo shleepy

When I saw Connie Willis would be part of a panel Sunday morning at 9 AM, on why sci fi fans also enjoy the works of authors like Patrick O'Brian, Jane Austen, and Georgette Heyer, I was... tempted. But in the end I thought, no no... I've had a headache for 3 days straight... I can't handle more sleeplessness.

Then Fernando came home at 4 AM after partying, and said: "I'm leaving the house at 7 AM to see Connie! Be there or be squarish!" I hummed and hawed, and by the time I'd made up my mind to go, it was already 5 AM. I think I got about an hour of sleep. (None of this would have been an issue, except I was working that night.)

We got a nice seat in the front, and it was a very enjoyable panel, with lots of discussion about how reading an historical novel is like entering an alien world.

As you can see, Willis is one of those twinkle-in-the-eye types. I suspect Elizabeth Bennett looked just like her when she was reached 60.
Here's the full panel.

The next panel with Connie was called The Elders--it was supposed to be about what happens when suddenly you're the Ye Aulde Venerated Elder of sci fi writing. Elizabeth Vonarbug was the first to speak. She was really weird, cause I couldn't tell if she was just trying to be shocking, or she really meant all she said, or she meant it, but there was more to it. She said: I find this panel really insulting, being old SUCKS, everything about aging is insanely bad, why are we on this panel? While she was right in the middle of making a Heavy Deep and Emotional Point (that the longer you live the longer you see the same never-agains happen over and over, so of course we're all thinking about genocide or something)--just then the 5th panelist arrived. Interrupting, she asked the topic. When told: "What? You got me out of bed just to tell me I'm old!" Then she looked at the audience. "Get off my lawn!" Her interruption couldn't have been better timed. EV continued, but her moment just didn't carry the same gravitas.
Connie Willis then jumped in to say that, while everything EV said was true, Connie would be a Pollyanna til the day she died, and didn't think death was nearly as bad as we all think it is. (She has a whole book about facing death, called Passage.) Plus she felt the need to cheer us up before we all committed mass suicide (after each of EV's rants.) It was really funny.

After this I slumped back to the West Island. Fernando stayed until 10 PM. Here are some of his pics from later today, and from yesterday, but I don't know what they are. Will find out tomorrow.

(Stargate?)

(Just a funky dressed volunteer.)

(I think this was a hotel hall full of partying.)

And a mean looking Klingon!

Well maybe not so scary.

Connie, wankers, old cons, and Fernando disrupts everyone with racefail and Jar Jar.

The photos have been captioned with Adventure Stories. Excuse me if on your browser it looks like they're written in prose poetry. When I write in the blogger editing screen, the screen width is wider than once the post is published.

From Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants

Libby was applying some of Mutti's [what she calls her mother] face powder and lipstick to Angus whilst he sat on my bed. And he didn't seem to mind. In fact, he was purring. Becoming a furry vati [father] has made him alarmingly mellow. Or a transvestite.