(no subject)

[skygiants]

Okay, this was and is going to be a booklogging post, but first I have to express my glee over BSG - I think this may have beaten out Faith as my favorite episode this season, in part, I admit, because I am a sucker for hilarity and hilarious awkward. The dialogue was definitely the snappiest it's been all season, I think - dude, Gaius Baltar was on tonight. Trying to bond with the Hybrid! Preaching to the Centurions just for the lulz! Also, Helo and the Eights (Roslin: "You are not married to the entire production line!" Helo: "OR MAYBE I AM!") struck me as funny, because I am kind of a bad person, but also painful and something that needed to be done. I'm always fascinated when they explore the complexities of just what it means to be that close to a Cylon, and the individual identity thing, and yeah. D'Anna: also fabulous, I had forgotten how much so; I really liked the way they explored Roslin's development, I loved her patching up Gaius, and Roslin/Adama at the end was kind of the most awesome thing imaginable and I'm not even a gigantic 'shipper. It is episodes like this that get me excited about the show.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. I have been trying to get myself into the habit of reading more nonfiction now that I am not having regularly scheduled learnings, so I picked up Melanie Rehak's Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her. That makes two nonfiction books for this year! . . . both of which were in fact nonfiction about the production of fiction, but, you know, baby steps. Anyways, I devoured Nancy Drew when I was little (and 'fess up, guys, I know at least some of you did too) and I remember only gradually figuring out that Carolyn Keene was not real - mostly when I tried doing the math and realized she would have had to be writing constantly from the 1930s to the 1990s - so the most interesting part for me was reading about the development of the ghostwriting process, the struggles over the character between ghostwriters and editor, and the creative syndicate's attempts to keep up the illusion that there was a real, consistent Carolyn Keene. As for the rest, I would have liked a less biography and more analysis of the changes in the books over the decades (glaring omission: the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys crossovers!) but it was a pretty interesting look at the publishing process and collective creation of a character.

Also, now that I have finished all the nonfiction books in my to-read pile, if you have any nonfiction book recs to throw at me I would appreciate it!

Comments

[ceitfianna]

*thinks* I loved Nancy Drew growing up, I've been a mystery addict since I was a wee person. Good maritime books, there's one about the Bellerophron and one called Sea of Glory, an awesome biography of Captain Cook, can't remember the author's name though.

Okay that's all I've go for now, I might have more later and I do love the Mallorys so much.

[skygiants]

Thank you! *makes notes* Maritime history is something I know very little about but always seemed very cool, so these are definitely going on the list. :D

(Me toooo. I think as soon as I go home I'm going to have to reread Deep Secret - after I read House of Many Ways, of course!)

[ceitfianna]

House of Many Ways, what's that?

[skygiants]

It's the new Howl and Sophie-verse book! Coming out in TWO DAYS OMG! *overdose of glee*

[agonistes]

sldkfjsldkjfd. That last scene. That last scene. <3333

As for nonfiction:

Reenchantment: Tibetan Buddhism Comes to the West, by Jeffrey Paine. I rec this one because it is as much a look at a marketing campaign as a commentary on Tibetan Buddhism and geopolitical issues -- it's fascinating.

Maps and Legends -- Micahel Chabon. Speaks for itself, rather, but I am loving reading it in bits and pieces as I get the time -- it's good for that.

Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X, by Deborah Davis. I don't know much about art history, and it was a really engaging read -- and it's about a period of time in France that you have exhibited minor amounts of interest in before. Ahem.

Chronicles. Bob Dylan. I like his prose.

[skygiants]

I KNOW. <3 *filled with glee forever*

And ooh! *adds to list* Maps and Legends I had already been planning to acquire, but these all look extremely interesting - especially Strapless. (Due to my just minor amounts of interest. Yes. >.>)

[genarti]

I read Girl Sleuth recently, and very much enjoyed it. It wasn't quite what I expected from the cover -- I, too, thought it would be less pure biography and more analysis of the books and the character -- but I ended up being fascinated by the result anyway. Such a complex dance of opinions and social mores and very strong personalities! It was deeply interesting, and not a view of the writing process I'd had before in quite that way; it's a very strange sort of syndicate creation, that. Certainly nothing I would ever have guessed at as a kid reading Nancy Drew books by the handful.

(Although, entertainingly, a few months before I read it I reread the very first Nancy Drew book! And spent the entire time giggling at how horribly bad it was. Oh well.)

[skygiants]

Oh yes, it's an incredibly weird, fascinating process, and brings up a whole lot of questions about authorship and the creation of characters - and what it really made me wonder about is the similar syndicates going on today, and how they work. There's one giant one that publishes the Gossip Girl books etc., and then there's ghostwritten 'single-author' titles like Sweet Valley and Goosebumps . . .

(Yeah, part of me kind of wants to reread Nancy Drew books now, just to see! And the other part is like NO BAD IDEA. CHERISH YOUR MEMORIES.)

[genarti]

Isn't it, though? I especially noticed all the attention to the tiny details -- "Please don't use this verb as it is not feminine enough," kind of thing. I really wonder how much of that (adapted, of course, to the current era) goes on in those kinds of books nowadays, too.

And, heck, the current Nancy Drew stuff. Those were still coming out last I checked...

(*giggles* It's... kind of fun? And, I mean, it's possible that some of the later ones are better. I dunno. But reading the first one, it was just... well, the prose was kind of awful, but the social class stuff was really fascinating. In an entitlement trainwreck way, but still.)

[skygiants]

Reading 1bruce1 (I can't help it! It's like crack!) has really made me wonder about that too - I really wish there was a way to see edited and unedited manuscripts of those things, with the requested changes. Um, but obviously the syndicates that are still around make pretty sure that doesn't happen . . .

And yes, I think you're right! Though I loved the old ones best when I was little. The new ones kind of made me squint and go "that's not Nancy!"

(Ohhhh yes. *rueful* - That was the other interesting thing, when the book kept talking about how Mildred Wirt would try and jazz up her writing with fany verbs, and Harriet Stratemeyer would be like "DUMB IT DOWN. STUPID IT UP MORE". But yeah, the whole social class thing is especially interesting when you consider it was the Depression era when they became really popular. Everyone was poor!)

[takiena_called]

This is just to say: WTF, have all of my friends found that Nancy Drew book at the same time as me? I picked it up on the discount books section early this semester, and a month later Gen found it, and now you!

I find this to be a ridiculous coincidence.

-TL (not Finn. Who doesn't read Nancy Drew. Ew, girls.)

[skygiants]

*cracks up* Basically I think it hit the discount racks section of EVERY BOOKSTORE at once - at least, it was hanging around mine for at least a few months, I know. I actually started reading it then! And then I forgot about it, and then finally went back to buy it.

[genarti]

WE ARE ALL STALKING YOU AND YOUR BOOKSHELF. DUH.

[dictator-duck.livejournal.com]

WELL OBVIOUSLY. I SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT. :O