Reading meme
Feb. 7th, 2013 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyphomandraI 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.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 09:12 am (UTC)Hee! *hearts*
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 09:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 09:31 am (UTC)YES, YES. THIS IS MY LIFE.
Protip: R. Cooper likes men called Bertie. Hence: Bertie the dragon (A Boy and His Dragon), and Bertie the cross-dressing fantasy prince. No more Nate! Hello Bertie!
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 09:43 am (UTC)My main problem is not mentally picturing everybody else involved in the story as either Jeeves, an Aunt, or an acquaintance who is either going to propose marriage, get into trouble or both.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 10:05 am (UTC)