Random books from iphigenie's library
Infinity Plus One by Michael Bishop
Fool's Fate (Tawny Man) by Robin Hobb
The Optimum Nutrition Bible by Patrick Holford
Moralities: Sex, Money and Power in the 21st Century by Joan Smith
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
L'espace prend la forme de mon regard by Reeves
The many-colored land by Julian May
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Interesting libraries: ablachly, afurst, Ammonite, astark, author-izer, battlinjack, benfulton, brunhilde, CarolynJean, charlenemartel, chrisharpe, clamairy, clockerb, daniellebarlow, daniellefong, dchaikin, deliriumslibrarian, DJMurphy, DJMurphy, dkennedy, dmstraker, dweinberger, erikvanlaere, faithx5, Grammath, GuitarBuster, idanush, iftyzaidi, IsaacRichards, JannyWurts, jessamyn, Kristine_Smith, lcutlip, libraryofus, linus_evans, matociquala, naominovik, paulhurtley, reading_fox, ringman, rowens, sararyan, scottpack, seanmcbride, sfaddict, slothman, SqueakyChu, TheOtherJohnC, truepenny, turtleswim, veejane, Wattsian, wdpgaara
LibraryThing authors: David Gries (DavidGries), Janny Wurts (JannyWurts), Kristine Smith (Kristine_Smith), Alan Furst (afurst), Michael Martin (cyberoutlaw), David Mitchell (davidmitchell), David Straker (dmstraker), Mark Jason Dominus (dominus), Jessamyn West (jessamyn), Elizabeth Bear (matociquala), Naomi Novik (naominovik), Will Shetterly (willshetterly)
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Member: iphigenie
CollectionsRead From Others (55), Your library (1,519), Wishlist (1), Currently reading (3), To read (43), Read but unowned (290), Favorites (101), All collections (1,831)
Reviews19 reviews
Tagsscience fiction (324), fantasy (249), contemporary fiction (131), science (102), french (101), magical realism (101), !locate (94), !sell or give (91), curiosity pick (91), recommended (90) — see all tags
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GroupsAll Books Africa, Asian Fiction & Non-Fiction, Banned Books, BookMooching, Books that made me think, Club Read 2009, Crime, Thriller & Mystery, CueCat questions and help, En français, Everything Is Miscellaneous — show all groups
Favorite authorsChinua Achebe, Iain M. Banks, Pat Barker, David Brin, Lois McMaster Bujold, John le Carré, C. J. Cherryh, Anne Cuneo, Fannie Flagg, C. S. Friedman, Ursula K. Le Guin, Alice Hoffman, Barbara Kingsolver, Nancy Kress, Ken MacLeod, Sara Paretsky, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Terri Windling, Janny Wurts, Marguerite Yourcemar (Shared favorites)
Favorite bookstoresSalts Mill, The Thumbed Page
Favorite librariesIdle Library
About meI love books. Seems obvious since I'm here and this is the first site where I have bothered to spend time actually building something.
Lets get the key hobbies out of the way... When not at the computer or reading a book or laughing with friends... I am a film buff, an amateur photographer, a mountain climber and hiker (with the camera!). This year is the year where I rediscover hobbies I have left behind in the past few years.
I'm endlessly curious. I like exploring, from little known places to independent music, alternative films, small publishers... This carries over to the computer where I have a keen interest in independent shareware, independent games, alternative websites and communities.
About my libraryI read a lot of fiction - modern and contemporary fiction mostly. I have a large number of science fiction and fantasy, and a lot of magical realism/modern myth. I also am reading quite a lot of african fiction. But I would say speculative/anticipation fiction is my predilection - i.e. scifi
On the non fiction the topics would be community, science, media and internet, linguistics, feminism, development, ecology, and quite an interest in books about myth.
I have far less non fiction than fiction as I used to get them from the library whereas I would buy fiction to read it in the original language. For the same reason I own very few books in french even though it is my first language.
I find it very hard not to buy books. There is no better place to whittle away a spare hour than a bookstore or library. I had to give myself a rule that I cannot buy more than 3 books in any bookshop visit, and I am sticking to it. Although make an exception for second hand/charity shops, i.e. if the books are cheap.
I have also given myself the rule to not buy new books unless I have read at least one book on my TBR pile (my 888 challenge is almost entirely from my tbr pile) or reread 2 books I have already read.
Books snatched on bookmooch and similar places are not limited in the same way, so I acquired 159 in the past year and gave away about the same number.
Homepagehttp://www.iphi.net
Also onBookMooch, Diigo, Flickr, friendfeed, Last.fm, LiveJournal, Twitter
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Real nameJoelle Nebbe-Mornod
LocationBradford, UK
Account typepublic, lifetime
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Common KnowledgeSeries (352), Awards (352), Characters (4988), Places (1060)
Member sinceFeb 25, 2007
Currently readingThe White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good by William Russell Easterly
Freedom Evolves by Daniel C. Dennett
Talking from 9 to 5: Women and Men at Work - Language, Sex and Power by Deborah Tannen
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Abby
posted by ablachly at 10:12 am (EST) on Jul 29, 2009
posted by chrisharpe at 9:14 am (EST) on May 6, 2009
posted by DLSmithies at 9:40 am (EST) on May 5, 2009
posted by mene at 8:49 am (EST) on Apr 21, 2009
http://www.librarything.nl/topic/61922#1...
posted by mene at 3:54 am (EST) on Apr 17, 2009
I'm going to go through your library when I get a chance, obviously we have similar tastes (hobbies as well) :)
Cheers!
- John
posted by TheOtherJohnC at 12:22 pm (EST) on Apr 14, 2009
- myths we live by
- Anathem
posted by iphigenie at 5:11 pm (EST) on Jan 29, 2009
posted by iphigenie at 5:33 pm (EST) on Nov 8, 2008
"Iron Sunrise", Stross
I enjoyed this a lot more than I would have thought, it managed to balance the "out there" hard scifi singularity elements with characters and a plot that made sense. Grabbed my curiosity :)
Will have to read more
posted by iphigenie at 11:56 am (EST) on Oct 27, 2008
John Connolly - Bad Men. I didn't like "The Book of Lost Things", mostly because of the way many people had hyped it. It certainly was a very readable play-with-myth book but didnt grip me. Still, after reading an interview with him (http://meandmybigmouth.typepad.com/scott...) recently I figured I would give his crime fiction a try. So when I saw one on the shelf at the library, I borrowed it.
I then looked some more around the crime fiction shelf and took 2 more, both from authors I have read and appreciated:
Joseph Kanon, Alibi - I read a few of his books and since I really loved Los Alamos I will continue reading them for a while :)
Elizabeth Peters, Borrower of the night - should be a nice light read
I also requested (and paid a pound for, since they dont have it) Territory by Emma Bull, which I am really curious of reading. I try to do this now and then, in the belief it actually might be of help to authors to get their books in libraries :)
posted by iphigenie at 8:08 am (EST) on Oct 4, 2008
posted by iphigenie at 8:25 am (EST) on Oct 3, 2008
posted by iphigenie at 7:31 pm (EST) on Sep 25, 2008
D. J. Murphy
posted by DJMurphy at 12:33 pm (EST) on Sep 19, 2008
posted by iphigenie at 6:31 am (EST) on Sep 19, 2008
posted by iphigenie at 9:57 am (EST) on Sep 11, 2008
posted by iphigenie at 3:12 pm (EST) on May 20, 2008
posted by iphigenie at 8:51 am (EST) on May 3, 2008
Browsing through your library, I'm also struck by the fact that we seem to share books by authors across so many genres (except for the programming books - I think my acquaintance with programming never got beyond html for dummies!) Since I tend to buy so many second hand books, and given that Karachi's bookstores aren't as well stocked as one would want, my library has grown in odd and unpredictable ways. But as said, 'So many interesting books!'
My poor spouse has by now given up trying to reform me of my book buying habit and has decided to suffer in silence. When we moved countries last year, most of my books moved with us, much to my wife's chagrin.
By the way, I was quiet interested in your 888 challenge. I'm debating whether to take the plunge and join up. Over the last couple of years my reading has been very heavily skewed towards SF&F, and one of my resolutions for this year was to try and balance my reading out some more. Perhaps the 888 Challenge is just the way to do it?
posted by iftyzaidi at 11:22 pm (EST) on Apr 4, 2008
Cheers,
d
posted by dchaikin at 9:12 pm (EST) on Apr 2, 2008
It will be cool to see another R M Meluch reader - there are too few of us in my opinion for the quality of her delivery.
Liked this, you may also enjoy The Merro Tree by Katie Waitman. Quite amazing, and just as richly imagined.
posted by JannyWurts at 7:55 pm (EST) on Apr 2, 2008
posted by iphigenie at 3:55 am (EST) on Apr 1, 2008
Just to let you know TAG MIRROR is BACK don't know for how long, but its there at the moment.
posted by reading_fox at 7:34 am (EST) on Mar 28, 2008
Cheers,d
posted by dchaikin at 2:07 am (EST) on Mar 27, 2008
South of London, we really enjoyed the maritime museums in Portsmouth, and of course, Greenwich. Lots of research stuff, there.
Devon and Cornwall and Dartmoor - wow.
I'd just love to go back!
Best - Janny
posted by JannyWurts at 11:42 am (EST) on Mar 26, 2008
Have you ever read anything by Sarah Zettel?
I tried to find the connections news page on LT, and all the poking around in the world didn't unearth that facet - where is it, can you give me a steer?
The French publisher is Bragelonne, and I will be writing them shortly to find out when they plan to release the first book. I know that they have already published the Empire series, that I collaborated with Ray Feist. (Daughter of the Empire, Servant of the Empire, Mistress of the Empire) and apparently, they are doing well...they are sort of a messy mix of Woman of Substance, Shogunesque fantasy, Aztec, and the kitchen sink...lots of political intrigue surrounding a woman trying to save her family in a male dominated culture....I did get a wonderful word from a young woman in Japan, that in her country, the three books are considered subversive women's reading. The Japanese published the first but declined the other three (no surprise there! The heroine brings down the whole culture by innovation and renovation of tradition). Anyway, your sister ought to be able to find those titles pretty easily in France.
We found Kent to be utterly lovely, and if you have never visited some of the horse racing centers around Newcastle ---
For totally jaw droppingly unpredictable, and by a thriller writer, too, but of an utterly different stripe - did you ever read Summer of the Red Wolf by Morris L. West? THAT book was crazymaking unpredictable and like nothing else he ever wrote, and it hit me, very sharply - still one of my favorites of all time. I like Dunnett for unpredictable, too - she writes fictional characters set in historical times, and does it with extremely masterful panache - not for everyone, though, as it's THAT unconventionally done. Does her research, too. She was a Scottish writer, and that really gave her work a neat voice.
posted by JannyWurts at 8:55 pm (EST) on Mar 25, 2008
On undertow: I started by feeling it was all far too familiar - a world at the edge, lots of people with a past, a corporation exploiting it, natives useful but in-the-way, revolutionaries, a bit of cybernetics, a heavy dollop of quantum... All done very competently but not that original, or maybe I have read too many similar books in the past few years. So I was starting to classify as a competent book, very readable, nothing wrong but not that memorable...
Then I hit the bit that is written from the perspective of the natives and these are *hugely* enjoyable and fascinating. I'm enjoying these so much, and wanting to get more, and this would keep me reading no matter what she puts in between. I hope she keeps this up till the end, even though that could almost be to the detriment of the book (as a whole) since I care less for the human characters and the main plot as a result. But it will make the book memorable for me, that's already certain.
I hope there'll be some nice twists to keep the story going and tie it all together, but the book is clearly on the up now, in my totally subjective opinion, and I am about halfway through.
posted by iphigenie at 6:35 pm (EST) on Mar 25, 2008
Are you liking Undertow?
posted by JannyWurts at 5:59 pm (EST) on Mar 25, 2008
posted by iphigenie at 5:57 pm (EST) on Mar 25, 2008
I will certainly check into some of the authors you've named - I read a lot more widely than just fantasy and SF, light and dark, sappy or serious, I like a change in fare. If you want a clue to books I DO NOT like - it would be ones with predictable plots. HATE THAT. If I see it coming, I get soooooo bored, and rampage at someone with a lack of imagination wasting my time, doing something so ordinary/or else overdone/not original - that, and today's swing toward vapid TV dialogue in period work, or an author's lazy lack of research into the most basic things, like use of horses, or sailing ships - that kind of gaffe sets my hair on fire, for sure! Ah well, grin. Might as well get griped over politics...
My original family name originates from Switzerland, near to Zurich, and there are still relatives there who directly connect to the family tree, and the five brothers who originally emigrated. I was lucky enough, on my visit, to see the Alps under sunlight, and did some memorable hiking cum watercolor painting above the snow line. My husband and I also had some fantastic times in the UK southeast - truly wondrous territory around there, not to mention cool beers!
Pretty darn spectacular.
Book tours in the UK have taken me all over Great Britain, and we always took two weeks more to ramble into more remote areas of Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland - and I must say, you have heaven on earth for hiking and riding over there!
I wish my schoolroom French was better - in progress now/there will be a French translation of three volumes from the Wars of Light and Shadows, from Bragalonne, and I would love to know if it's a good take from the original text.
posted by JannyWurts at 11:18 am (EST) on Mar 24, 2008
I do have a small list of books, but not so small, if you consider that I only posted ONE volume by that many favorite authors - I usually have most everything those authors wrote in the library, and many other books, but the ones I omitted were not hot favorites. The non fiction titles are ones I have dog eared for research, or for some other reason felt held a fascination.
I am not familiar with the Connection News on LT - where do I find it, and obviously, I must be missing something!
What a delight to hear back from you - what was the most recent book you read that hit the spot? I am looking for a new read, in a new direction - my TBR shelf is depressingly cleared off....even thought I've been busy writing the Next, and also, making audio files for download as a teaser for some select books, which was a Learning Event!
I cannot IMAGINE trying to read Kristine Smith's books out of sequence! Gosh, they would not work at all - what a shame if people tried -I got the first, and followed her work ever since...I hope the mistake didn't turn too many people off. Bless your persistence in that regard - not too many readers bother tracking titles that carefully if a read disappointed them, they let you know That's IT! grin.
Enjoy Roberta Meluch - !
Take care - Janny Wurts
posted by JannyWurts at 11:32 pm (EST) on Mar 23, 2008
Feel free to ignore this, if you are a private sort or busy - or do feel free to start up a conversation if you would like - I always love to hear what attracted you to my libarary, and sharing recommendations is also the most fun.
You share quite a few of my favorite authors - among them, Kristine Smith, who seems rather under appreciated, in my opinion - I don't think I've seen anyone in LT who is familiar with her stuff, which is quite a pity. If you like her, you may also enjoy R. M. Meluch, who also does SF with a rippingly lively style and gorgeously rounded settings, intrigues, and superbly defined characters. In fact, I recommend her work very strongly. Her Myriad books are a good place to start, but for the real depths she can achieve, get hold of Jerusalem Fire, if you can find a copy, it's an astonishing, unforgettable read.
posted by JannyWurts at 12:26 pm (EST) on Mar 21, 2008
I recently joined the All Books Africa Group. As a publisher who has just released a novel about the Angolan Civil War, I thought it might be worth bringing to your attention. Ondjaki's Good morning Comrades has just been released (indeed, i'm not sure amazon has changed it status yet). Ondjaki is a Lusophone writer of international reputation, and our edition of Good morning Comrades introduces him to an English speaking audience for the first time. It will not be the last: Aflame Books in the UK is set to release his fable The Whistler, and I know New Directions is also looking at publishing something by him soon. We expect he will become one of the most celebrated African novelists of his generation.
Anyway, if you would like further information on Comrades, you can chcekc out our website at www.biblioasis.com. It is also available online on amazon and elsewhere, and available through any good bookstore.
Thansk for your time, and I do hope that this was not too intrusive. (We're a small literary press based in Canada, and we're just trying to do whatever we can to let potential readers know about the book.
Best wishes,
Dan Wells
posted by biblioasis at 9:45 pm (EST) on Feb 29, 2008
posted by ablueidol at 10:00 am (EST) on Jul 26, 2007
I have all of Stephenson's early books too (must admin snowcrash kind of lost me when i read it) but I haven't read the newer ones, been so busy in the past few years I have fallen behind on books. They're tied in to cryptonomicon, right?
But since you mention alternatives to Dan Brown, the thought I had most often reading some of Dan Brown's books was "i guess not enough people read Umberto Eco" - Foucault's Pendulum is obviously a lot heavier to read but very much worth it.
posted by iphigenie at 6:21 am (EST) on Mar 9, 2007
"Baroque Cycle", as conspiracy fiction it beats out the overrated likes of Dan Brown
posted by charliebucket at 9:14 pm (EST) on Mar 8, 2007