Wordless Wednesday

The Diana is a lo-fi camera with a plastic lens that I paid too much for, but which takes dreamy, square-shaped photos with 120 format film. I have a digicam, but even though its low-light capabilities are pretty great for a snapshot camera, the zoom is pretty short which limits the types of subjects I can get interesting shots of. I decided that I might have more fun with a “weird” camera, and got the Diana. Light leaks and double exposures are fun!

Somehow it makes shots that would normally be boring into something special. I should have some to share with you soon.

I read that it’s actually the color slide film, cross-processed as film negatives, that gives this type of camera it’s signature look, but I found that the photos made from color negative film came out just as interesting in a different way.

I also ordered a Surprise Pack of 120 film, some of it expired (but not by much).

This week’s musing asks . . .

If you were going to write a book, what would you write about? Would it be fiction, or nonfiction?

I have at least five ideas for books in my head at any given time, always fiction. Most are set in the medieval time period, some are set in what’s called a “secondary world” (think Middle Earth or similar), and all have an element of magic in them.

If I wrote nonfiction, I’d like to create an illustrated journal of life in Japan, such as At Home in Japan: A Foreign Woman’s Journey of Discovery by Rebecca Otowa, or A Year in Japan by Kate T. Williamson.

This week’s musing asks…

Do you listen to audiobooks? If not, why not? And, if so, what has been one of your favorites, so far?

I’ve tried listening to a fiction audiobook exactly once. That was for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I like to read slowly, though, and really get into the language of a book when I read, going over passages sometimes two or three times either to enjoy the turn of phrase or make sure I understand. The narrator of OotP read too quickly and I couldn’t enjoy it the same way as when I read it. Fortunately, it would’ve been my second time through so my experience wasn’t ruined.

I don’t know for sure that most narrators read more quickly than I would like, but I have a suspicion they do, so I don’t intend to listen to another unless I have to.

I have listened to a non-fiction audiobook before (How to Write Historical Fiction by Roberta Gellis), but that was really more like a lecture. I enjoyed it.

What are you currently reading? And, is it better, as good as, or worse than your last read?

I’m reading a number of things, as usual. I always tell myself I’ll just read one at a time, but that never happens. Right now, I’ll just talk about one.

Fortune Like the Moon by Alys Clare.
In the first Hawkenlye Mystery, Josse d’Acquin, knight in the service of King Richard the Lionhearted, is sent to investigate the murder of a young nun at Hawkenlye Abbey; it is suspected that the killer may have been one of the many prisoners Richard pardoned at the time of his coronation, and the political consequences may be dire. With the help of Abbess Helewise, Josse learns that this murder is more puzzling than he or Richard thought.

It might be best to compare this with a previous similar novel I’ve read, rather than what I read last. So far, this novel’s plot is as interesting as that of the Brother Cadfael mystery I read last year, A Morbid Taste for Bones, but Cadfael is a more compelling character than either of the main characters in this book. However, I like that in Fortune Like the Moon there are two leads who appear to be equally sharp in their deductive abilities, which is somewhat unusual in a detective novel (from what I gather; I’m not the most experienced reader of the genre). Josse and Helewise are both strong and likeable characters. The Brother Cadfael mystery felt more truly medieval to me, for some reason, which is odd since I think these characters may be more true in their attitudes to how medieval people really were. I think it was the tone and descriptive detail in Cadfael that contributed to the medieval feeling; the descriptions of the abbey, the forest, and the Welsh village the monks visit came together to give a sense of real place and time in a way that I find more recent medieval-set novels rarely do.

I’m only about 50 or so pages into Fortune Like the Moon, so I’ll know better how it compares later on. I’m enjoying it, and the pacing and characterization so far are both very good.

Wordless Wednesday

This week’s musing asks…

Have you ever found a book out of the blue, read it, and then had it be surprisingly good — one that stuck with you for years? If so, what book was it?

“Sorrow and trouble and bitterness will hound you and yours and the children of yours…

Some said the dying words of Nial Lynn, murdered by his own son, were a wicked curse. To others, it was a winter’s tale spun by firelight on cold, dark nights. But when Corbet Lynn came to rebuild his family estate, memories of his grandfather’s curse were rekindled by young and old–and rumors filled the heavy air of summer. In the woods that border Lynn Hall, free-spirited Rois Melior roams wild and barefooted. And as autumn gold fades, she is consumed with Corbet Lynn, obsessed with his secret past…”

I happened upon A Winter Rose at a Chapters in Langley, BC, during the few months that I lived there, and not only did it stick with me, it was my introduction to the author who is probably my all-time favorite and the one I most admire for writing ability, Patricia A. McKillip.

It’s no longer my favorite of her books (that would be A Song for the Basilisk), but it had a beautiful cover, was a good length for trying out a new author, and there was a dreaminess and lushness to the writing which still haunts me when I think of it — the main draw to McKillip’s books for me. It’s also a simple, fairy-tale like story.

I think The Book of Atrix Wolfe might actually be a better introduction for readers new to McKillip, but this was mine and I’m so glad I discovered it.

A BOOK IS BORN

I remember when I was a child hiding in a corner of the rarely-used living room, curling up with an old copy of Britannica Junior Encyclopedia, my mind expanding with every page-turn. The red buckram covers invited perusal, the illustrations piqued my imagination. Somehow I don’t think the online version of Britannica will encourage the same kind of absorbed escape into learning, no matter how quickly its information can be accessed. People can laugh at the “sentimentality” of readers who still long for printed books, but beyond the sensual pleasures of a beautifully bound volume, the printed page pulls you away from everything else and into the mental and physical quiet needed to really learn. Something that it’s growing more apparent ebooks are not as able to do, what with the close proximity of your Facebook timeline and cat videos on YouTube.

Sentiment aside, I think it’s always best to use the best tool for any task. While ebooks have their purposes, print still provides that quiet place and time without distractions that makes reading not only enjoyable but most effective for learning. The supposedly dry, dusty encyclopedia, in the hands of a child, becomes a magical journey into the atom, a trek across Siberia, or a trip to the deepest fathoms of the sea.