on books

[edenfalling]

One (1) box of old books = two (2) sore arms, twelve (12) dollars from a used book store, eight (8) blocks to carry the remaining books to the library book sale donation drop-off, and one (1) tired and irritated Liz.

Math is fun. Really.

Weirdly, the bus driver (what, you thought I was going to walk downtown carrying twenty-odd pounds of printed material?) this morning is going back and reading books he never got around to during his childhood, and we had a nice conversation about that. He asked for reccommendations, and, after I recovered from the total blankness of mind that is always the initial result of such questions, I pointed him toward Diana Wynne Jones and Ursula LeGuin (for Earthsea, you understand). I hope he likes them.



ETA: There's a discussion of Earthsea in the comments.

Comments

Fantasy

[arkeus.livejournal.com]

hum.. Ursula leguin is ok, but it's a bit old school... personaly i prefer emotionaly challenging boks like hte liveship traders and so on... ah fantasy :-)
you have read chtallon's curse by lois something right?

Re: Fantasy

[edenfalling]

*blinks* How the fucking hell is the Earthsea series not emotionally challenging? (Though I'd prefer the term 'engaging' to 'challenging' -- one works with a book, not against it.) You don't have to be flashy to say something worthwhile. In fact, I find, quite consistently, that 'quieter' books usually make a much greater impression on me and stay with me longer. LeGuin has shaped a large part of how I see the world, and how I write.

Yes, I've read The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold, as well as the two other books in that 'world,' Paladin of Souls and The Hallowed Hunt. I like them, but not to the same depth. Whether that's because the stories and writing just don't resonate with me in quite the same way, or because I was simply older at first reading than I was when I read Lewis, LeGuin, Jones, L'Engle, etcetera, I really couldn't say. I did like her magical systems, though. They're definitely not the usual thing, and she's extrapolated them in interesting directions.

Re: Fantasy

[(Anonymous)]

hum... you must be older than me then :-)
oh, i liekd earthsee alright. But i just found the relationship in it pretty shallow. no rel *character*. Not to turn your head, but even you make better ones. I am not saying the magic system and world of earthsee is badly. it's anything but. it's just the characters that are so bland. They are given a *name*. and then... poof. At least, that's my opinion. of course ,i tend to like more-intelligent_and_emotional-than_the_norm!characters.

Re: Fantasy

[edenfalling]

I'm 23, if you were wondering. :-)

I read Earthsea out of order (I do that to a lot of series, because I can't always find them in order and I am massively impatient when it comes to reading material) so I started with The Tombs of Atuan, when I was... eight, maybe? I think I was in second grade, so I would have been seven or eight. (I was one of those strange, scary children who read on a third-grade level when I was five years old, so I almost always ended up reading 'above' what librarians and parents' groups recommend as 'age-appropriate' books.)

Anyway The Tombs of Atuan was a revelation to me -- here, unlike some other stories I'd read, and most particularly unlike the fairy-tales I devoured back then (the number of fairy-tales I read as a child is frankly terrifying to contemplate), was a story with a girl as the main character. She was isolated and young and restricted despite her power, but she made her own choices and by god did things. Arha/Tenar could quite easily have left Ged to rot and stayed in her familiar life as the priestess of the Nameless Powers. But she chose to change, to alter her entire perception of the world, and to venture out into the unknown.

That struck an unbelievably strong resonance with me.

To me, choice is one of the most important elements in a story. And not just obvious or flashy choices, like going out to fight the great evil. Inward choices, alterations of perception, changing points of view... those fascinate me.

I said LeGuin got to me. I really wasn't kidding. :-)

All the Earthsea novels hinge on choices, and recognition of self. I love them for other reasons as well -- I am ridiculously fond of islands as a milieu, I really like dragons, I adore the way she recognizes the power of words, and I love the cool reassurance of LeGuin's narrative style -- but choice is a really big selling point. Oh. And the lack of whining. The characters get upset and tired and stressed, but they don't really angst about it. That is an unimaginable relief to me as a reader.

(Also, while I only read the Chalion novels a month or two ago, I also only read Tales From Earthsea and The Other Wind as they were published, which was only a few years ago. And it didn't occur to me until maybe two years after I'd read The Tombs of Atuan that it was part of a series. So I was somewhat older when I read A Wizard of Earthsea, The Farthest Shore, and Tehanu.)

Re: Fantasy

[arkeus.livejournal.com]

hum i see. i musth ave read earthsea in english, meaning htat i would have been thirteen or fourteen at that time, so it didn't leave me such in impression. on the other hand, i read dune and tolkien at 9, and Dune left a mark on me, even though i now realise there are better books. On the other hand, i am realy disappointed by my early love of tolkien (i even had to do the cooking for a month for my brother to lend me his third tome) as i have now rad *much* better fantasy books. hgave you read anything by robin hobb? i don't know if you'll find htat too angfsty, but it is pretty challenging and really well written. I will never forget some of hte scenes and betrayals in it.

About choices, you are right. it is interesting. Though earthsea isn't my preferred book about choices... there are others :-)
yeah, you are old :p (i am 19)