Trip Queries

[summercomfort]

Hi all!

Trip starts on Friday! Queries:

1) Suggested reading material? I'm going to be on a train for a week! And on planes for 8-12 hours at a time! And maybe also some downtime in Japan while Jono's working. Any suggested reading? I like stories with strong plot and character development and minimal infodump. I just acquired a Kindle (the recent price drop finally made it within my "impulse purchase" range), and have on it: A Game of Thrones, The Name of the Wind, and Guns, Germs, and Steel.

2) Postcards? Feel free to comment or email with your address.

3) Tokyo suggestions? So we're spending 1 weekend in Nagasaki and 1 weekend in Tohoku, but during the week, Jono will be working, so it's going to be me exploring Tokyo by myself during that time. Any suggestions of places to go, things to do?

Comments

[satyreyes.livejournal.com]

"Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" fits pretty nicely into the fantasy genre you're describing. It's set in England circa 1800, so the setting is already understood -- no infodump -- but magic, while socially disagreeable to conservative Londoners, is prolific, captivating, dangerous, and illuminating of the main characters. (And what characters!) It's darker than The Name of the Wind, but not darker than A Game of Thrones, based on what I've heard of the latter. Like Name, it is its author's first novel.

If you get bored of fantasy, you might try "Classic Feynman," a set of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman's autobiographical sketches. The man was hilarious, brilliant, and playful. Sometimes I wonder if he isn't making half of his stories up -- come on, you picked the lock on the safe with all the secrets of the atomic bomb inside? -- so maybe it's fantasy after all. You'll have to decide for yourself!

[summercomfort]

Thanks for the suggestions! I read Jonathan Strange when it first came out, and remember enjoying it, but not enough for a re-read. I've bought "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman", but haven't read it, so maybe I'll bring the actual book along.

Hm... I didn't really like Ender's Game, but maybe I should give Speaker for the Dead a shot?

[satyreyes.livejournal.com]

Definitely bring the Feynman! :D

For me -- and this is purely subjective -- Ender's Game is to the Speaker for the Dead trilogy as The Hobbit is to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Ender's Game and The Hobbit both serve to introduce a couple main characters of their trilogies, while being fun, original, silly books in their own rights -- while their trilogies attempt to be VERY SERIOUS and succeed only in being impenetrable. I did eventually manage to read Speaker for the Dead after several false starts, and I thought it was okay but I don't remember a damn thing about it except that it reminded me of the premise to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. I never did manage to get through Fellowship of the Ring. (Or Dune, for that matter. And I'm someone who will usually see a book through to the end.)

Instead, maybe... Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities." It's a fictionalized Marco Polo's stories of his adventures, as told to Kublai Khan. I keep trying to write a paragraph about why this is a great book, but ... the book itself is so much about interpretation that I think it's better to let you do your own :) It's very short and won't keep you busy for long, but it ties in rather beautifully with your fiction -- and also, perhaps, with Guns, Germs, and Steel.

[summercomfort]

Ooo... Invisible Cities sound cool. I'll definitely give that one a shot. Hm... the Kindle doesn't have it. :( Maybe I'll have to read it when I get back. :D

Yeah, I guess the reason I was thinking about Speaker for the Dead was because I was thinking about which fiction books have I enjoyed enough to read twice, and top on that list is Pastwatch: the Redemption of Christopher Columbus, which is an Orson Scott Card book about Christopher Columbus' life and 3 alternate futures that hinges on his actions.

I managed to slog my way through LotR back in middle school, but when I tried to read it again after the first movie came out, I found the books much easier when you basically skip all of the Frodo/Sam stuff. It falls under what I call the "Boring Protagonist" genre of books, where the protagonist is just an excuse for either an intellectual exercise (Ender's Game), or to link together awesome side characters (Water's Margin, LotR). It's something that I can tolerate enough to figure out what's awesome in the book, and then just read those parts.

[kitsuchan.livejournal.com]

I thought Speaker for the Dead was a lot worse than Ender's Game. But I'm biased against Orson Scott Card.

For YA, you might enjoy Ash, which is vaguely a retelling of Cinderella, except with bisexuality and the king's huntress taking the place of the prince, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, which is funny (if sad) and has cute cartoon illustrations.

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

I recommend The Orphan's Tales (http://www.orphanstales.com/) to everyone. It takes the story-within-a-story logic of 1001 Nights and also flips up fairytales and myths in really fascinating ways. There's only 2 books period, and it's ama-zing.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was a great read as far as fantasy goes. You have an empire built on having enslaved a couple of gods... (http://www.amazon.com/Hundred-Thousand-Kingdoms-Inheritance-Trilogy/dp/0316043915).

I've also really enjoyed Joel Shepherds's Sasha & it's sequel Petrodor and recommend them both- they're actiony, but comparatively fluffy in terms of plot.

[summercomfort]

Thanks for the suggestions! Even if I don't get to them this trip, they sound like fun reads for later, too. :D

[armen.livejournal.com]

omg, where in Tohoku? I can totally suggest stuff for Tohoku.

[summercomfort]

I'm not too sure. Jono's in charge of the Japan part of our trip. I'm sure he'll want to stop by Sendai to take reference photos for his comic, and he's promised to show me the 五百羅漢 statues somewhere, and take me to Elvis Sushi. Depending on if he's done with mountain climbing after Fujisan, we might go to Aozoresan?

[summercomfort]

Oh wait, we're gonna be in Tohoku to try to hit the 3 summer festivals of Tohoku in the same weekend. So... I dunno.

[armen.livejournal.com]

You gonna be in Sendai for Tanabata?

[summercomfort]

Yes.

[armen.livejournal.com]

Lucky you; they say that's the best Tanabata celebration anywhere in Japan.

[summercomfort]

:D

[armen.livejournal.com]

Aozoresan? You mean Osorezan, the mountain up in Aomori?

As far as Sendai and that area, I suggest: Sendai Castle, Aoba Shrine, Zuihoden, Matsushima and its temples, and if nothing else, the Tohoku Museum, in Tagajo.

[summercomfort]

Um.. yes, Osorezan. (I've only heard it spoken)

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll pass them along to Jono! :D

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

I've enjoyed the Old Man's War series by John Scalzi lately. Also, "Metropolitan" and "City on Fire" by Walter John Williams.

[summercomfort]

Ooo, those do sound fun. ::put on list::