Sun-drenched, Windswept

I expect this weekly roundup to be thoroughly demolished since classes have started up again, or maybe dominated by my class readings.

What I've recently finished reading:

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett. This was fun, though not as good as Going Postal, which I felt had a more character-driven plot. In Guards! Guards! it was just "hey, let's summon a dragon in a convoluted plot to gain power" and the consequences thereof. But there were some brilliant moments, like Vetinari and his dungeon, and the attitude of Ankh-Morpork citizens (really, the city itself could be called a character). I think I'll keep reading the City Watch series and see where it goes.

What I'm currently reading:

Red Rising by Pierce Brown.

Made a bit more progress. I'm not really liking the narrator so far, though I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the cockiness, the anger, and the lack of other personality traits. Moist von Lipwig might have been a liar and a cheat, but he had personality in spades. But this guy? Eh.

Worldbuilding is interesting so far but I'm still 30 pages in. What I really want to know is why the reds are on Mars in the first place and if these people are humans or some alien species. The color-coded caste system (?) reminds me of Amenta except Amentans are actually aliens.

China Wakes by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

It's been a month and I'm still reading this book. So much of it is still relevant that it's easy to forget that it was written in 1994, and then they mention that Hong Kong is still in British hands. There's also an extreme lack of internet. They mention that in the 1990s censorship around literature and media was actually loosening up -- I wonder if the internet gave Chinese citizens more freedom or gave the government more ways to monitor them. (The answer is probably "both".)

I know that much of Chinese fandom is in forums, locked behind registration requirements to make it harder for the government to take them down for writing, say, porn. And then you have all the web novels, which I assume still exist because it's hard to filter through so much text, even with the help of technology. But visual media (or maybe just shows?) seems to be more constrained -- you still have crackdowns on content like Guardian the drama, which was released just last year. Ugh.

In other news, I found that really good Newt/Newt/Hermann fic (yes, there are clones, and yes, there are identity issues in spades) that I read a long time ago back when I was heavily into Pacific Rim and am trying not to waste all my free time reading that instead.

Oh, hey, I get to use my new icon for this :D I still haven't figured out the best way to use icons. Anyway, school's coming up in a little over a week. I don't know whether to be excited or nervous.

What I'm currently reading:

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett. Because a bunch of you recommended that I read this, I'm reading this. It's fun so far. Reading Going Postal first has made me think that Terry Pratchett does chapters, but he doesn't, really.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown. A friend of mine really likes this series. I've only read the first 20 pages so far. Not much to comment about so far, except my brain keeps wincing at the way he uses camel case for names, likeThis. Brain, why are you so nit-picky?

China Wakes by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Slow going.

Webcomic Recs

Caught up with these two recently. Good stuff.

Heir's Game - When a new heir to the duchy of Belluna comes of age, there is held the Heir's Game: a brutal series of duels to determine the heir's bodyguard. When Theuden, the new heir, meets Isran, a quiet duelist with a mysterious past, their love will threaten to change everything. (LGBTQ, romance, political intrigue)

Lavender Jack - What begins as a simple game of cat and mouse leads the two opposing forces of Detective Ferrier and Lavender Jack down a rabbit hole of mysterious organizations, betrayal, and lost love. (Mystery, thriller, flavors of Holmes/Poirot/Jeeves & Wooster)

Now that I've made some goals for the year, I might as well keep myself accountable with a hopefully weekly reading post. And while I'm doing that, I might as well talk about other media, so here we go.

What I'm currently reading:

The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway. My friend E really likes this book and even got me a (fuzzy neon!) hardcover copy of it, so I'm finally getting around to reading it. I'm only about a hundred pages in, and so far it's very... interesting. A little long-winded, but also humorous. It's very much "the mundane made absurd" at times. Also, the first chapter is entirely unrelated to the next two, and I'm looking forward to see how it ties into the rest of the book.

China Wakes by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Another recommendation from a friend, who lent me their copy. It's dated -- it was published in 1994 -- but hopefully this will give me a place to start when it comes to Chinese history.

What I'm currently watching:

Guardian (镇魂) - I'm on winter break right now, which means time to actually watch things! I've just finished episode 26, and am at the point where they've basically paired up all the members of the SID. Now, whether I actually like the love interests... ehh. I maintain that episode 13 was the best episode of the series so far, because that was the first time I've ever actually fangirled over something. So much squee.

What I'm currently listening to:

Well, what I should list here are podcasts like The Adventure Zone or SAYER or something but I remain incapable of listening to podcasts while multitasking, which makes it difficult for me to get into anything.

So here are some songs I've been listening to:

• Dramaturgy - Eve
• Kyoumen no Nami - YURiKA
• The Moss - Cosmo Sheldrake

And as a bonus... I recently stumbled upon "One Day More," except Waluigi is every part and it is great and terrible.

The hubbub with Tumblr and people jumping ship made me want to make Yet Another Social Media account, this time on here and Mastodon, despite not really being active on Tumblr. I have the worst habit of making a million accounts on all the things. Here we go again...

I'm thinking of using this journal to post more long-form musings on worldbuilding, writing, and so on. As for my actual writing, I think I might post some in sunset_city, because of course I've already made a writing archive.

In any case, I've procrastinated enough. I'll write up a proper introduction later. Time to tackle my final projects and papers!