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Reading meme
Feb. 7th, 2013 09:53 pmI might almost be getting the hang of this.
What I've just read:
Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto. I like all of Gawande's books, and this was actually better as a reading experience than I'd expected - I'd read his original piece in the New Yorker, and quite a bit of the associated literature, so I thought it might all be a bit of a retread, but there's new material and it's all very well put together. I particularly like his emphasis on heroic values being about discipline, training and teamwork rather than being the bold maverick (he talks about that pilot who landed a bird-struck plane on the Hudson River, only as opposed to the media he presents it as a story of teamwork and expertise, together with having - yes - checklists to go through). I also like the work he does on implementing checklists, and working out how to make them work in practice. Very good.
What I'm reading now: Two interminable m/m romances, both of which have a premise and characters with potential, which are then irritatingly squandered in favour of lots of sex and a complete detachment from any emotional or narrative consequences from anything outside sex, leading to a kind of bubble of explicit unbelievability. Both have a lead called Nate.
I am also still reading The Looking Glass War. A transformer blew nearby two nights ago, so I sat out on the front deck and read it by the fading evening light, which was all terribly atmospheric until a mosquito bit me on the ankle.
What I expect to read next: Something without a Nate in it. Also, those Len Deightons aren't getting any less overdue. Also, after a rec from mossybomb, I am going to heroically throw myself onto an m/m with an urban fantasy setting with shape-changing dragons.
What I've just read:
Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto. I like all of Gawande's books, and this was actually better as a reading experience than I'd expected - I'd read his original piece in the New Yorker, and quite a bit of the associated literature, so I thought it might all be a bit of a retread, but there's new material and it's all very well put together. I particularly like his emphasis on heroic values being about discipline, training and teamwork rather than being the bold maverick (he talks about that pilot who landed a bird-struck plane on the Hudson River, only as opposed to the media he presents it as a story of teamwork and expertise, together with having - yes - checklists to go through). I also like the work he does on implementing checklists, and working out how to make them work in practice. Very good.
What I'm reading now: Two interminable m/m romances, both of which have a premise and characters with potential, which are then irritatingly squandered in favour of lots of sex and a complete detachment from any emotional or narrative consequences from anything outside sex, leading to a kind of bubble of explicit unbelievability. Both have a lead called Nate.
I am also still reading The Looking Glass War. A transformer blew nearby two nights ago, so I sat out on the front deck and read it by the fading evening light, which was all terribly atmospheric until a mosquito bit me on the ankle.
What I expect to read next: Something without a Nate in it. Also, those Len Deightons aren't getting any less overdue. Also, after a rec from mossybomb, I am going to heroically throw myself onto an m/m with an urban fantasy setting with shape-changing dragons.
