Reading for fun...

for August 26, 2010: If you’re not enjoying a book, will you stop mid-way? Or do you push through to the end? What makes you decide to stop?

There are two reasons to read books: for information, or for pleasure.

If it's a book I'm reading for information, I'll read until I get the information.

If it's a book I'm reading for pleasure, I'll stop when I realize I'm not enjoying it. That probably won't be mid-way through. It will probably be less than fifty pages into it. If a book meant for pleasure isn't pleasurable, it's a waste of my time.

I would read more, probably, if someone whose taste I trusted had really enthused over it, or if it were part of a series in which I'd loved the other books.

Series...

30-day Book Meme: Day 04 - Your favorite book or series ever

The Lymond books by Dorothy Dunnett, starting with The Game of Kings.

That's almost too easy. So much my favorites. Other contenders:

1. The books about the battleship Macedon by Karin Lowachee, starting with Warchild
   
2. The books about Attolia and Sounis by Megan Whalen Turner, starting with The Thief
   
3. The "Dumarest of Terra" series by E.C.Tubb
   
4. The Spenser series by Robert B. Parker
   
5. The Marcus Didius Falco novels by Lindsey Davis
   
6. The Dalemark series by Diana Wynne Jones
   
7. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

...and no doubt many others.

Picturesque Toronto...

( Some pictures I took in Toronto... of Toronto itself. )

FanExpo: The X-Men panel...

On Friday evening I went to the X-Men panel at FanExpo. I sat behind a family costumed as X-23 and Logan:



I particularly loved the upsweep of the kid's hair at the sides, Wolverine-style. Before starting the panel, the speakers announced that they'd spotted a celebrity in the audience, and introduced the kid as Wolverine. He gave us a convincing snarl, and a wave of the claws.

( For reasons... )