Sunday Status Update: August 10, 2014

This week, Oin.

Oin: Well, it happened again last night. Some dignitary was visiting from the West (Gondor, this time), and of course when Gloin and I enter the hall, King Dain gets that look on his face, and he gets up to introduce us. Do we introduce ourselves with our father’s name? No we do not. We can’t help that Grandpap hated him and he wouldn’t change the name. But of course Dain found out. And now he has everyone else doing it. Oin son of Groin. Oh, will you pass the gravy, son of Groin? How’s the knee today, Groinsson? Just what I’d expect from the line of the magnificent Groin. Half of them don’t even try to pronounce it correctly, they just go straight for how it looks on the page. You know what? I’ve had enough. I’ll go with Balin to Moria. Can’t be worse than this place.

Kat: This week I spent several days in my local insane asylum after listening to H.P. Lovecraft  stories for 25 hours straight. (I suggest that if you read Necronomicon, you spread these out a bit.) They wouldn’t let me have any books in my padded cell, and even if they did, there wasn’t enough light to read by. After some intense therapy and lots of downers, things weren’t getting better, so I escaped using a technique I learned in a book by Alexandre Dumas. After swimming home and getting a hot shower, I was finally able to settle down with Ian McDonald’s Evolution’s Shore, a fascinating story about the future evolution of humanity.

Kate: This week I finished listening to Kelly Link‘s Magic for Beginners (review to come). What a wonderful, weird, mind-bendy collection that was! It made me think about what I expect from fiction. I also re-read The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman, which spun me down the Internet rabbit hole reading anything by Grossman that I could find. Finally, I read The House of the Four Winds, by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. I’ll be reviewing that this coming week. 

Terry: This week I read Sleep Donation by Karen Russell, a novella that posits a world in which people have terminal insomnia that can be cured with an infusion of sleep from a healthier sleeper. Interesting stuff.  I also finished Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb (hey, I’m not a fast reader — just a constant one, and it’s over 600 pages long), finishing at about 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning, which should give you some idea of how compelling it is.  Now I’m at that weird and uncomfortable “between worlds” feeling that I get when I’m not fully immersed in someone else’s world.  Not sure what I’ll read next; I’m rather spoiled for choice.  I’m particularly tempted by The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley; yep, I think that’s the one.

Tim: This week I was terribly busy with work (in fact, I’ve been so wrapped up that it’s actually a bit difficult to believe a week has already gone by), so I’m afraid my reading got no further than my own notes. I’m in the home stretch as regards this course, however, so hopefully things will begin to ease up over the next week. There are a lot of books to look at!

TIM SCHEIDLER, who's been with us since June 2011, holds a Master's Degree in Popular Literature from Trinity College Dublin. Tim enjoys many authors, but particularly loves J.R.R. Tolkien, Robin Hobb, George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, and Susanna Clarke. When he’s not reading, Tim enjoys traveling, playing music, writing in any shape or form, and pretending he's an athlete.

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