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landofnowhereOathbringer, Brandon Sanderson. Started this, but as it's a giant brick of a book did not bring on my holiday travel. One note here is that I now know Shakespeare's history plays much better than when I last read any of the Stormlight books, and it's interesting to reflect on the Alethi political plots with that context (two of the major viewpoint characters are the uncle and cousin of a king who inherited young).
The Iliad, Homer, translated by Emily Wilson. Read some of this during travel -- so far I'm appreciating it but not blown away. It is interesting to read with the thought of "did this character/bit have an analogue in Perhaps the Stars?", but also this feels like too much intellectual effort to bring to the book on a first read.
The Queen's Gambit, Walter Tevis. Reread. I have only seen the first episode of the TV series (I mostly watch stuff with my partner, and it's not his sort of thing). However, my dad was a fan of Walter Tevis, and recommended Mockingbird to me when I was maybe 15 or so, and I enjoyed it. A bit later in my teens, I found his copy of The Queen's Gambit lying around, and felt slightly transgressive sneaking a read.
Anyway, I reread it now, and it was as readable as ever, I liked some of the character/coming-of-age stuff, and I can see how it was written to be adaptable to the screen. But also, at its heart it's a sports movie about chess, and I feel ambivalent about the sports movie genre because of the focus on young people who are The Best, but part of how any competitive endeavor goes is that most people who do it are not The Best.
The Iliad, Homer, translated by Emily Wilson. Read some of this during travel -- so far I'm appreciating it but not blown away. It is interesting to read with the thought of "did this character/bit have an analogue in Perhaps the Stars?", but also this feels like too much intellectual effort to bring to the book on a first read.
The Queen's Gambit, Walter Tevis. Reread. I have only seen the first episode of the TV series (I mostly watch stuff with my partner, and it's not his sort of thing). However, my dad was a fan of Walter Tevis, and recommended Mockingbird to me when I was maybe 15 or so, and I enjoyed it. A bit later in my teens, I found his copy of The Queen's Gambit lying around, and felt slightly transgressive sneaking a read.
Anyway, I reread it now, and it was as readable as ever, I liked some of the character/coming-of-age stuff, and I can see how it was written to be adaptable to the screen. But also, at its heart it's a sports movie about chess, and I feel ambivalent about the sports movie genre because of the focus on young people who are The Best, but part of how any competitive endeavor goes is that most people who do it are not The Best.