Current reading
Feb. 27th, 2022 04:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vivdunstanCurrent main reading as of end of February 2022.
I’ve newly started the dark academia novel A Lesson In Vengeance while still finishing off the vasculitis book club’s choice of the month, Us by David Nicholls. The latter is entertaining enough, though overlong for my tastes. But I will finish it.
I’ve newly started the Treasure Palaces collection of short essays about museums and galleries around the world. I’m particularly keen to read its penultimate one about the ABBA Museum in Stockholm, where we had a marvellous time. But I’m going to read in order. There are 24 essays.
Rachel Clarke’s junior doctor tale is a good read, but frustratingly jumps about in the chronology far more than necessary or helpful.
I’m keen to finish Jim Crumley’s book about Autumn, though I have major issues with some of his writing and frequent self plagiarism. He’s a nature writer from Dundee.
And I am still slowly making my way through Loren Wiseman’s collection of Traveller RPG club magazine editorials, which is very enjoyable, even for someone who has never played or read Traveller RPG. But best savoured.
I’ve newly started the dark academia novel A Lesson In Vengeance while still finishing off the vasculitis book club’s choice of the month, Us by David Nicholls. The latter is entertaining enough, though overlong for my tastes. But I will finish it.
I’ve newly started the Treasure Palaces collection of short essays about museums and galleries around the world. I’m particularly keen to read its penultimate one about the ABBA Museum in Stockholm, where we had a marvellous time. But I’m going to read in order. There are 24 essays.
Rachel Clarke’s junior doctor tale is a good read, but frustratingly jumps about in the chronology far more than necessary or helpful.
I’m keen to finish Jim Crumley’s book about Autumn, though I have major issues with some of his writing and frequent self plagiarism. He’s a nature writer from Dundee.
And I am still slowly making my way through Loren Wiseman’s collection of Traveller RPG club magazine editorials, which is very enjoyable, even for someone who has never played or read Traveller RPG. But best savoured.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-28 02:14 am (UTC)More on terminology. I detest the term "self-plagiarism". It's become somewhat common parlance but it really does not make logical sense. In academic work, its republishing existing work (which is against the rules of many academic journals) but it's not as serious an offence as plagiarism (which is misrepresenting someone else's work as one's own and since in academia reputation is almost everything, that's a serious sin). In other forms of writing, re-using one's previous work can be annoying for those who've already read it, but I don't thin it deserves a label like "plagiarism". It's like the use of the term "piracy" for unauthorised sharing of copyrighted material https://stallman.org/articles/end-war-on-sharing.html .
Do you use some sort of app for those "lists of books" pictures?
no subject
Date: 2022-02-28 03:26 am (UTC)I wasn’t sure about using the term self plagiarism, and wouldn’t normally use it, but I have never seen anything like what’s going on in Jim Crumley’s book, certainly not in a popular book. Extended chunks of the book throughout are just very long quotes from his past books. Which yes I find very annoying! I’m not the only reader to have this almost visceral reaction. I should probably just give up on the book, but when he’s not quoting himself at considerable length there is often interesting new material. No the book is not any kind of edited highlights collection, he just likes quoting himself at length. An awful lot.
Any app or program that can do collages should work. I use PicCollage on my iPad, setting up a 3x2 grid I can then plonk cover photos into, tweak and then add a background colour/pattern. I like the visual grid because it can accurately capture the usually 6 or so main books I’m reading at one go. My Kindle Paperwhite can show 6 books on each main screen, so I tend to focus on that many at a time.