Hurray!

[kikotei]

I'm back into reading books. I hadn't read any books since really, last winter.

I'm not counting tankouban though. I've certainly been reading those as if I were drinking water. ::sheepish:: Would probably explain why I have nearly 500 of them. Both English and Japanese. hehehehe....

I tried reading 'Doctor Illuminatus' last night. I really did, what with the alchemy, and a british author (I have a weakness for british authors, Jacques and Gaiman for example) and all, but the book was really not very interesting. Not to say that it was poorly written, but there was nothing in the first couple of chapters that caught my interest. Apparently the author also writes nonfiction, and honestly that's what it feels like. A cold and impersonal accounting of a story.

So I decided to snag acopy of 'The Game' instead, which is part of my other weakness. Sherlock Holmes stories. This particular author has written a number of tales about Holmes in his 50s and 60s, with a female partner. I kinda fell out of the series after Mary (gah! she's a Sue!) and Holmes got hitched. The three books that happen before they get married are great. 'The Beekeeper's Apprentice', 'A Monstrous Regiment of Women', and 'Oh! Jerusalem' were fun reads with Mary learning the detective trade and trying to prove that she's as smart and talented as any man. The following three or four are not so good. Six chapters in, and I'm still reasonably interested despite the whole marriage thing. But we'll see.

Comments

[clary.livejournal.com]

aha! i read the first 3 as well ^_^

the mary/sherlock holmes ones that is...

i enjoyed the first and second...the third i don't even remember finishing. and yes! mary sue in published writing. but i found it wasn't so bad.

[kikotei.livejournal.com]

::nodnod:: Mary doesn't grate as a Mary Sue until the later books. Those three where she's still a teenager or in college are the better books.

Later she feels very Mary Sue perfectly useless.