Random Cute Cat Photo

I’m trying to archive my digital photos and I found this one of Cally. She’s looking so cute I decided to share.

Pretty, Pretty

Lookie, my books have arrived from The Book Depository:



I love this edition of Sunshine and I decided so go with the trade paperback for Deerskin as I find that size easier to read than a mass market paperback these days for books only available in paper.

I find this rather ironic, being one of those people who used to call trade paperbacks abominations because they were neither a hardcover nor a mass market. But reality -and age - come to us all. If this is the edition that's easier to read (and the price is reasonable), then that's the one to buy.

The most important thing is that I have pretty new books. Yay!

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Reading orders

Do you struggle with working out what order to read a series? Especially if the books haven’t been written in sequential chronological order?

I’m currently having this problem.

I want to reread Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Liaden Universe books, and I have no idea what order I want to do it in.

Strict chronological order doesn’t work for me, since the first two books chronologically, Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon were written much later and I think you really need to have an appreciation of Liad and its “current” universe before going back to those two if you’re going to get the most from them.

I thought I was going to read it in publication order (something I certainly tend to prefer on a first reading) but something is stopping me. I think part of it is that the two I read first (at the suggestion of friends) weren’t published first, but I feel like they should be read first, probably because that’s the way I did it originally. When I started the series, those two were first chronologically, so it made sense to start there. But more books have been written since then which messes up my reading plan even further.

I think I’m just going to have to make up a “Kerry” order and go with that. It won’t be justifiable by any specific logic, but if it’s most comfortable for me, surely that makes it right for me? The authors themselves say that there is no set order, so I’m free to do it my way, right?

It’s starting to feel like one of those logic puzzles where you have to fit everything into place with clues. There are small groupings that go together and do have a set order, but some overlap and there’s one coming up that ends the plot lines of more than one sub group. I’m finding it surprisingly stressful, which reading shouldn’t be.

Thinking out loud…

The Parents’ Generation

1. Local Custom
2. Scout’s Progress
3. Mouse and Dragon (due June)

“Current” Books

1. Agent of Change
2. Conflict of Honors
3. Carpe Diem
4. Plan B
5. I Dare
6. Ghost Ship (due 2011)

Crystal Universe

1. Crystal Soldier
2. Crystal Dragon

Theo Waitley

1. Fledgling
2. Saltation

Stand Alones

1. Balance of Trade

That sequence doesn’t work for me, although I do like having all the mini-sequences laid out clearly. So let’s look at publication order…

Publication Order

1. Agent of Change
2. Conflict of Honors
3. Carpe Diem
4. Plan B
5. Local Custom
6. Scout’s Progress
7. I Dare
8. Balance of Trade
9. Crystal Soldier
10. Crystal Dragon
11. Fledgling
12. Saltation
13. Mouse and Dragon (due June)
14. Ghost Ship (due 2011)

While that makes a certain developmental sense, it isn’t what I want. So let’s try the next option…

Chronological Order

1. Crystal Soldier
2. Crystal Dragon
3. Balance of Trade
4. Local Custom
5. Scout’s Progress
6. Mouse and Dragon (due June)
7. Conflict of Honors
8. Fledgling
9. Saltation
10. Agent of Change
11. Carpe Diem
12. Plan B
13. I Dare
14. Ghost Ship (due 2011)

Okay, that’s looking better, but I don’t want to read those first three first. What if I move them to the bottom, take out the two Theo books since I’m reading them now and add in the short story collections? I think that leaves me with something I can work with…

Kerry’s 2010/11 Reread Plan

1. Local Custom
2. Scout’s Progress
3. Mouse and Dragon (due June)
4. Conflict of Honors
5. Agent of Change
6. Carpe Diem
7. Plan B
8. I Dare
9. Crystal Soldier
10. Crystal Dragon
11. Balance of Trade
12. Liaden Unibus I
13. Liaden Unibus II
14. Ghost Ship (due 2011)

I don’t know that this is the slightest bit of interest to anyone, beyond a look into my disordered mind, but writing it down has helped me work out what I want to do. That means it was a useful exercise.

Yay, books on the way (aka I love Robin McKinley)

After reading – and absolutely loving – Robin McKinley’s Sunshine that I borrowed from the library, I knew I just had to have my own copy. Books costing what they do over here, I toddled off to the website of The Book Depository (wonderful people who have free international shipping) to order a copy.

I was all set to hit “Order” when I checked my Google Reader and discovered that Calico Reaction (join her June bookclub read of Sunshine) was having a competition to win a signed copy of the book. I hesitated in my shopping and entered the competition instead.

Robin McKinley competitions seem to be the order at the day at the moment, as Ms McKinley herself is having a competition to win an ARC of her new book, Pegasus, due out in November. All you have to do to enter is comment on her forum, Facebook, or Twitter with your favourite line from one of her books.

After a bit of thought, I chose my favourite line from the oh-so-wonderful The Blue Sword which come towards the end when all the villagers accompany Harry back to Corlath:

- including Rilly, who was beside herself with excitement, and her mother, who was beside herself with Rilly -

There were so many excellent entries that I immediately decided I need to do both some McKinley rereading and catch up on any of her books I haven’t read yet. This forces me to admit that Chalice remains on the TBR Shelf and for some reason I didn’t get into Rose Daughter the first time I tried to read it. Both have now been bumped up the to-be-read-list.

I was quite pleased to see that there was only one book I both didn’t own and hadn’t read, which was Deerskin. I know exactly why. At the point the book was published, I wasn’t in the right headspace to read about some of the issues the book addressed (it’s a retelling of the fairy tale Donkeyskin and if you check the link you’ll see what I mean, but I don’t want to be directly responsible for spoiling anyone).

There were so many wonderful lines from Deerskin posted and I’m a different person know, so the book immediately went on to my mental wishlist.

Upon reflection, I also realised that the odds of me winning the copy of Sunshine are pretty small, so I succumbed to temptation and ordered both Sunshine and Deerskin from The Book Depository. Both have now shipped and I’ll be able to start haunting the PO Box in a week to 10 days until they arrive.

If I get lucky and win Calico Reaction’s competition after all, some lucky friend will get a copy of a wonderful book. But it won’t be signed, I’ll be keeping that one for myself.

Testing, testing...

In an attempt to make an actual blog post (at least occasionally), I've installed a blogging app on my iPhone. This is simply a test to see how it works.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone