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complaints, mostly
Feb. 28th, 2012 11:32 pmSupposed to be on term break, but spending it on catching up rather than relaxing... Still, I read two whole books! House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz and Snuff by Prachett, and as always after reading Prachett, am amazed at how good he is. Assessment not based on Snuff in particular, I mean, for though Snuff had some really good parts, it also had some pedestrian parts, so overall it was not as memorable as some of his others, and I think it may even work better without context - but it's those good parts that remind me why it's a treat to read him.
House of Silk is... I'm erhh about it. Classmate recced it. I was expecting more scandal but got sordidness instead. Despite a reasonably good mimicry pastiche-wise, the whole plot smells very 21st century. There's not enough, erm, privilege? I dunno how to describe it. ACD's plots always seemed to be just that bit fantastic - but perhaps that's just my impression of his London, from the viewpoint of someone halfway across the world - and very ensconced within that world. I guess it's really hard to divorce yourself from 21st century (or late-20th century?) values.
Anyway.
I've been avoiding the internet so as to concentrate on doing my reading, and my kindle is excellent for letting me read all the stuff that's on soft copy without the temptation of the internet. Even though I think it's wincing when I load another twenty 60-page judgments on it, not to mention articles and other stuff. Did anyone know that the Companies Act is over 300* pages? I swear, my kindle cries** when I open this document.
3 midterms coming up. The consti's a take-home exam, which is... nice, I suppose, but it means I'll spend something like 3 hours writing it and another 3 editing it (and never mind the studying beforehand). I know my habits.
Our contract law class includes Sale of Goods blahblahbalh, and a couple of days back the TA kindly told us that the textbook we were told to get (at the beginning of the term) is no good and that the library has a better one. Y'know, why would you put it on the booklist if it's no good? Do $60 textbooks grow on trees?
*Which is funny, because I definitely have books that are way longer than 300 pages (eg, Great Expectations) and they open up fine, ie, without lagging. My theory is that a kindle instinctively*** knows that fiction is its normal function, not statutes or law reports.
**Possibly in its tiny little electrical innards, there's some moaning and groaning.
***Given the time I've spent with it, no wonder I'm anthropomorphizing my kindle.
House of Silk is... I'm erhh about it. Classmate recced it. I was expecting more scandal but got sordidness instead. Despite a reasonably good mimicry pastiche-wise, the whole plot smells very 21st century. There's not enough, erm, privilege? I dunno how to describe it. ACD's plots always seemed to be just that bit fantastic - but perhaps that's just my impression of his London, from the viewpoint of someone halfway across the world - and very ensconced within that world. I guess it's really hard to divorce yourself from 21st century (or late-20th century?) values.
Anyway.
I've been avoiding the internet so as to concentrate on doing my reading, and my kindle is excellent for letting me read all the stuff that's on soft copy without the temptation of the internet. Even though I think it's wincing when I load another twenty 60-page judgments on it, not to mention articles and other stuff. Did anyone know that the Companies Act is over 300* pages? I swear, my kindle cries** when I open this document.
3 midterms coming up. The consti's a take-home exam, which is... nice, I suppose, but it means I'll spend something like 3 hours writing it and another 3 editing it (and never mind the studying beforehand). I know my habits.
Our contract law class includes Sale of Goods blahblahbalh, and a couple of days back the TA kindly told us that the textbook we were told to get (at the beginning of the term) is no good and that the library has a better one. Y'know, why would you put it on the booklist if it's no good? Do $60 textbooks grow on trees?
*Which is funny, because I definitely have books that are way longer than 300 pages (eg, Great Expectations) and they open up fine, ie, without lagging. My theory is that a kindle instinctively*** knows that fiction is its normal function, not statutes or law reports.
**Possibly in its tiny little electrical innards, there's some moaning and groaning.
***Given the time I've spent with it, no wonder I'm anthropomorphizing my kindle.
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