En passant

The day started with swimming. Jumped in the sea, scream, stayed for a brief but numbling while, and then got out again into the hottest part of the day.

Then there was picnic, and walking on the beach. And after that there was gym. An hour and a half of gym.

Damn but I'm wrecked now. And unfit. But my brain appears to be recovering from the deadness it was suffering from at the end of the exams - during them, too, if I'm to be honest. So that's good, at least.

Books 91-92, Fiction 87, Non-fiction 5.

Actually not technically 91-92, since I read about six books before and during the exams, but cannot now speak coherently about them. Seeker's Mask by PC Hodgell is excellent, though.

Fiction:

87. Vernor Vinge, A Deepness in the Sky.

Reading this occasionally felt like an exercise in endurance. It is an epic, and I mean epic, SF novel, but unlike many SFian novels that spend pages describing their technology or what-have-you, this book is very strongly character centred. Interesting, and compelling, but long. The first Vinge book I've read, and I'd read more on the foot of it, but in smaller doses.

Non-fiction:

5. Marcus Rediker, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750

This is one of those history books that should be marked 'not for beginners'. As it happens, it's the first book on maritime history I've ever read, and while it is a very solid description and analysis of maritime economic, social and labour relations of the period, it's not the most forgiving introduction to the topic.

The chapters on the 'Seaman as Collective Labourer', the 'Seaman as the Spirit of Rebellion' and the 'Seaman as Pirate' are especially interesting and illuminative of cultural formation processes and labour relations of the period. Fascinating stuff.

Recommended for the well-read layperson, not as an introduction.

En passant

The day started with swimming. Jumped in the sea, scream, stayed for a brief but numbling while, and then got out again into the hottest part of the day.

Then there was picnic, and walking on the beach. And after that there was gym. An hour and a half of gym.

Damn but I'm wrecked now. And unfit. But my brain appears to be recovering from the deadness it was suffering from at the end of the exams - during them, too, if I'm to be honest. So that's good, at least.

Books 91-92, Fiction 87, Non-fiction 5.

Actually not technically 91-92, since I read about six books before and during the exams, but cannot now speak coherently about them. Seeker's Mask by PC Hodgell is excellent, though.

Fiction:

87. Vernor Vinge, A Deepness in the Sky.

Reading this occasionally felt like an exercise in endurance. It is an epic, and I mean epic, SF novel, but unlike many SFian novels that spend pages describing their technology or what-have-you, this book is very strongly character centred. Interesting, and compelling, but long. The first Vinge book I've read, and I'd read more on the foot of it, but in smaller doses.

Non-fiction:

5. Marcus Rediker, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750

This is one of those history books that should be marked 'not for beginners'. As it happens, it's the first book on maritime history I've ever read, and while it is a very solid description and analysis of maritime economic, social and labour relations of the period, it's not the most forgiving introduction to the topic.

The chapters on the 'Seaman as Collective Labourer', the 'Seaman as the Spirit of Rebellion' and the 'Seaman as Pirate' are especially interesting and illuminative of cultural formation processes and labour relations of the period. Fascinating stuff.

Recommended for the well-read layperson, not as an introduction.