Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

dustydigger

@Muddy_Walker

 I love those old authors. Checking my catalogue,I have read 17 Asimov and 11 Clarke books,and no less than 29 Robert A Heinlein books! Very few modern authors where I have read more than a handful of books. Jim Butcher (21books),and of course I've read lots of paranormal romances,people like Nalini Singh,Norah Roberts,Patricia Briggs etc.

I am too much of a wimp to enjoy many horror books,I mainly like old stuff like Poe and Lovecraft,no gore

Checking my book catalogue,I only have 104 books on my horror ''shelf'',out of a total of 4986 books. Compare that with 1400 crime novels,758 science fiction,488 urban fantasy,and even 213 paranormal romances,and that horror tally looks pretty pathetic!

dustydigger

Morning all. Random thoughts

+Since when did we think 6C was a brilliant high temperature. Hmm,probably since one night last week it was -15C here.. Very damp though,doesnt do my ricketty bones much good.

+Two days doing nothing because of back pain,but today I will do a final check on my xmas gift bags. I still need 2 cards at least,but for the most part they are fine. Will clean the fireplace and mirror. I never did find the bag of tinsel etc. I usually drape tinsel all round the mirrors and picture frame. But cant be bothered,at least there is basic decoration done.

+I have heaps of asd@ delivery stuff sitting on the kitchen table,no idea where to put stuff. After the celebrations,starting 2nd January I will start using up stuff.

 I'll see how little we can spend in the holiday period.No deliveries,and I have lots of meat and fish,the biggest food items

+My energy company informed me of energy price reductions from January. Wow,a princely 0.4 pence reduction on our electric units. I use about 2500 units a year,so thats about £10 a year. I see what Martin means when he says changes will be miniscule.

Not going to notice a £1 a month drop when I am paying £110 a month more than l did last year!

+shortest day of the year,a mere 7hrs 10 mins here in the northeast,around 7hrs 48mins down south. Poor old beanielou gets about only 7 hrs,if the sun is even visible between fog,sleet,rain intervals! . And the less we think about Shetland etc the better!.

+ making determined efforts to read that annoying book. Now up to 429/878 read :)A mere 449 pages to go!

 ----------------

Still done nothing.I started this post around 10.30 am,expecting to get some stuff done Mr D wanted me to help him put his bets on,then went upstairs,then came back and he had done his online bets wrong. Instead of''all matches by day'' he had done bets where you have to be 2 goals up. to win  .....sigh......I spent 30 mins yesterday explaining the difference,he's completely forgotten. So I had to go through and cancel all the bets,and start again on the right section,taking a break to do the spuds and dinner prep.Its now  after 12 and nothing done apart from dinner prep.Life seems to be just spinning wheels,or running on a treadmill like a hamster,getting nowhere!

slm6002

Another day or so and you will be past the half way point of the book

weenancyinAmerica

Life is too short to read books you don't like.

beanielou

Crime for me.
Probably 85% of what I read!

Muddy_Walker

Cheerleading the book! Wee Nancy I completely get you but I do understand the completion need…..I think in my many years of reading I have only ever stopped 5 books because I either hated the plot, the writing style, the characters, the grammar…….didn’t have a tv growing up (forces child living abroad) so reading was my entertainment and I was brought up to finish what I started. Admirable trait mostly but can be a right pain in the neck as well!

Dusty what is the general plot? Do you like the main character? Can you “see” what the writer is talking about?

🌼🌼

dustydigger

weenancyinAmerica said:

Life is too short to read books you don't like.

I am getting better as I get older at jettisoning bad reads,like all the rubbish self published kindle stuff I have been reading,but in the case of a challenge read,the challenge is to read certain books,and I feel that skipping in that case is cheating.I saw one person on Book Tube,who said he''reads'' 1000 books a year. On closer inspection it turns out he STARTS up to 1000 books a year,and either reads a synopsis or 20 or 30 pages of the text then thats it!

So at least for important books,or challenge reads,I endeavour to fully engage with the book. After all,a good part of my reading is from lists of award winners etc. that have interesting things to say,or are widely influential on other writers.

Some dull crime novel will perhaps push me towards giving up on it,wont bother me and I wont add it to my ''shelf'' to count as books read. But the books I read in SF are mainly of higher quality and I respect book and author more.

dustydigger

Muddy_Walker said:

Dusty what is the general plot? Do you like the main character? Can you “see” what the writer is talking about?

🌼🌼

This book is notorious for its incomprehensibility,its graphci sex - of all kinds,and I do mean graphic.I couldnt explain the story,but I came across an excellent summary online;

Dhalgren takes place in the fictional city of Bellona, a city that once had a population of two million but because of a strange disaster (a series of fires? a race riot?), there are only about a thousand inhabitants left there. In general, Bellona is a pretty dangerous place to find yourself: people die unexpectedly; acts of violence or debauchery occur randomly and often; and a gang of thugs, called the Scorpions, run the streets by night. To stay safe, it’s best to wear an ''orchid'', a bladed weapon that I imagine looks like the Wolverine’s fist, if you have one.

Soon after arriving in Bellona, Kidd (or Kid, or the kid—he’s not even sure of his own name) meets Tak Loufer, who, in these first pages, serves as a guide to the ravaged city. Laufer explains, “You know, here… you’re free. No laws, to break or to follow. Do anything you want. Which does funny things to you. Very quickly, surprisingly quickly, you become… exactly who you are.” Kidd, is, as he soon discovers, a poet. But he is also a nomad, an observer, an adventurer, an eyewitness.

The reader explores the city of Bellona through Kidd’s fragmentary perceptions: time unfolds in loopy swirls because, for the most part, Kidd is figuring things out as he goes and he has a very tenuous relationship not only with his own consciousness but also with his past. Some conversations or events happen multiple times—seen from different angles, in different lights—while other, seemingly important details are withheld indefinitely. Ideas and images are introduced, partially developed, refracted, cut down. Reading Dhalgren is a bit like being held upside down from your ankles and dangled off the back of a speeding truck.

The first few hundred pages set up this hallucinatory,bizarre city,with its violent unpredictable  set of character,almost all of whom are unlikeable.Twice I got this far then abandoned it. This time I am approaching it carefully and seriously,and I have now reached 504/879 pages. I have at least a grip on setting and characters,which were bewildering at first. Also the beginning of the book has a lot of description,wandering around the city and the like.

Now there is a lot more dialogue. The strange SF sort of elements,the timeline dislocation etc are engaging my attention. The graphic sex and explicit language are difficult for me,but I am seeing the purpose. The book is making me think of Kurt Vonnegut's ''Slaughterhouse Five'',which also depicts a dislocation of time as the protagonist struggled with his sanity after horrific war experiences. I am very sure Chip Delany had studied that book closely.. His srtress factors were very different. Black and gay were not a popular background in the early 70s for an author. Chip Delany met all his bigoted enemies  head on and unashamed.

To me the city of Bellona,with its burnt buildings,looted stores.rootless population is an obvious metaphor for the the wastelands of inner city black life,back then in the 70s,hardly better today. In this book of the 70s white readers delved into black city life,its mores its violence etc,its harsh humour and often unexpected kindnesses among the cruelty and depravitydelved,into a whole new world. It made Delany famous,and after that he wrote almost no SF,he became an essayist,speaker,academic,black activist.

I am glad I persevered though the very slow,fragmented,bewildering build up.I can now see more implications,but it still vague,bizarre and disturbing.

This is why I try to plod on with SF classics,in the end they are fascinating ,even thought provoking. But so not easyreads!

Ouch I do go on,dont I? This post is nearly as long as the book!

All I've done today is clean the big mirror and the glass tv table,arranged some stuff  around the tree..Will now tidy the toy box,area,its a mess.then a vacuuming will see the sittingroom sorted. Kitchen this afternoon,bathroom tomorrow,and thats it. Never mind the horrors of the bedrooms,still full of stuff moved to decorate.. I have new bedding which I'll put on tomorrow,chaos and mess is hidden away,and I will just relax. I'll slow cook steak tonight. We'll have xmas dinner cooked by DS1,probably loads of stuff from DS2,whose home the tribe are taking over on xmas day,and the steak will do for Boxing Day. Maybe some sort of beef pie? Not sure yet,but I want to veg out as much as possible through the rest of the year.

I'll try to pop in occasionally,but probably not much

beanielou

Happy new bedding.
Have a lovely time  xx

Muddy_Walker

Dusty I looked up that book and you are a braver person than me. I won’t be tackling it! Having done o level and A level English lit at school (one of the last for o levels) I was very glad to read a book and not have to dissect it, apply themes, learn great chunks of text to quote in exams 😳
I usually had a different opinion to my classmates on Shakespeare characters too which didn’t make me very popular. Hamlet got on my nerves he dithered and procrastinated soooo much…..I always felt sorry for Shylock as he was persecuted for his beliefs and way of living. And some of the female leads were quite……nasty.
my thoughts anyway!