![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
like to climb inside
Jan. 5th, 2011 10:02 pmI got to see ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
1crowdedhour today, which is always a pleasure. We met at the library; I hadn't been there yet this break. Figuring that too many books to read before I go back is always better than too few, I checked out a whole pile of them, maybe a pile and a half.
When I got home, I set down my bag of books. "Okay," said I to myself, "now you are going to sit down and work on your applications to summer physics research programs, and then you can read." Which actually worked! I mean, I took a break for dinner, and I ended up reading the rest of an anthology that I'd started reading on the bus home, but I managed to get a lot done.
(Listening to "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" gives you special physics-application-working powers, did you know? It's because it's on the soundtrack to Real Genius.)
I've compiled a list of all the various essays, personal statements, et cetera, that I have to write; I've also gone through the lists of projects and tried to pick out which ones I most want to work on. (This is difficult in some cases, because I know so little about some fields that I am left staring and wondering if those are actually sentences. Application of a dictionary will help, I think; materials science in general sounds interesting, it's just the specifics that I'm having trouble with. In other cases, I seem to be eminently qualified for nearly all the projects they're running, so at least there's a good mix.) In addition, I wrote my first statement of interest! Admittedly, it's only one paragraph, but started on physics applications is started on physics applications. Nine or so left to go!
Book read:
Troll's Eye View, Datlow/Windling ed.: This was a very odd collection to read. It's all fairy tales retold from a villain's point of view; generally I can read a few of those and then have to go off somewhere and read a nice restorative SF book or something. They managed to get a good spread of which fairy tales they were, though, so that was nice. And it did not hurt that at least eleven of the writers represented here are some of the writers I think are really, really cool.
The part that made reading it an odd experience was that it's all these people who I know for writing complicated fiction, fiction that can cut you if you slip on it, fiction with flourishes and bouquets of words: Valente, Kushner, Beagle, Link. But all these things were dimmed, possibly because it's technically a Middle Grade anthology, possibly because it is after all a themed anthology, possibly...? Who knows. Link's story sounded the most like the rest of her work, to me, but it still felt a little bit muffled. Sherman did (I think) the best job of working the fairy tale in so you hardly noticed it was a retelling of anything, and Farmer made her retelling(s) obvious but surprised me the most. Not that it was a bad anthology; it just was populated with very, very good writers, and in my opinion these were mostly only very good works.
1crowdedhour today, which is always a pleasure. We met at the library; I hadn't been there yet this break. Figuring that too many books to read before I go back is always better than too few, I checked out a whole pile of them, maybe a pile and a half.When I got home, I set down my bag of books. "Okay," said I to myself, "now you are going to sit down and work on your applications to summer physics research programs, and then you can read." Which actually worked! I mean, I took a break for dinner, and I ended up reading the rest of an anthology that I'd started reading on the bus home, but I managed to get a lot done.
(Listening to "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" gives you special physics-application-working powers, did you know? It's because it's on the soundtrack to Real Genius.)
I've compiled a list of all the various essays, personal statements, et cetera, that I have to write; I've also gone through the lists of projects and tried to pick out which ones I most want to work on. (This is difficult in some cases, because I know so little about some fields that I am left staring and wondering if those are actually sentences. Application of a dictionary will help, I think; materials science in general sounds interesting, it's just the specifics that I'm having trouble with. In other cases, I seem to be eminently qualified for nearly all the projects they're running, so at least there's a good mix.) In addition, I wrote my first statement of interest! Admittedly, it's only one paragraph, but started on physics applications is started on physics applications. Nine or so left to go!
Book read:
Troll's Eye View, Datlow/Windling ed.: This was a very odd collection to read. It's all fairy tales retold from a villain's point of view; generally I can read a few of those and then have to go off somewhere and read a nice restorative SF book or something. They managed to get a good spread of which fairy tales they were, though, so that was nice. And it did not hurt that at least eleven of the writers represented here are some of the writers I think are really, really cool.
The part that made reading it an odd experience was that it's all these people who I know for writing complicated fiction, fiction that can cut you if you slip on it, fiction with flourishes and bouquets of words: Valente, Kushner, Beagle, Link. But all these things were dimmed, possibly because it's technically a Middle Grade anthology, possibly because it is after all a themed anthology, possibly...? Who knows. Link's story sounded the most like the rest of her work, to me, but it still felt a little bit muffled. Sherman did (I think) the best job of working the fairy tale in so you hardly noticed it was a retelling of anything, and Farmer made her retelling(s) obvious but surprised me the most. Not that it was a bad anthology; it just was populated with very, very good writers, and in my opinion these were mostly only very good works.
