I recently gave a tour of my L. M. Montgomery collection, and today I thought I’d invite you to visit another shelf. I don’t discuss Star Trek as often, but I do have almost as many books! Check out the video below for some comments on my favorites. For my Trek fan readers, I’d love to hear about your favorite books too!
Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: If you could take the place of any fictional character, who would it be and why?
This is a rather intriguing question…I assume this would be for a brief visit, and I assume I’m still me but occupying the role of a fictional character, with the other characters not seeing anything strange. So! With those parameters in mind…
The first one to come to mind is Dr. Watson. I don’t think I could be Sherlock Holmes, and besides, I’d want to meet Holmes, so it would be better to have Watson’s role. As long as medical knowledge wasn’t called for to help solve the case, I think I could be a decent Watson–even though I’m more squeamish than he is!
I definitely couldn’t be Anne of Green Gables, but it would be nice to try being her friend Diana Barry for a bit. Or it might actually be more fun to be Ilse, friend of Emily of New Moon. I like Emily a lot, and Ilse can get away with wild statements and flights of passion that, while not really me, might be fun for a change!
Continue reading “Blog Hop: Walking in a Character’s Shoes…”
Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Do you read tie-in novels to movies or television series? If so, which ones?
I have been known to read books based upon the universes of TV shows or movies–I put it that way deliberately, because I only read ones that are novels in their own right. I’ve never been very interested in companion books that are only retelling or commenting upon the screen story.
I’ve read great swathes of books in the Star Trek universe (almost exclusively TOS) and the Star Wars Expanded Universe. To large extent, my mental conception of those worlds and their major characters are actually shaped more by the books than by the screen versions. Separated from the sometimes cheesy acting of the TV show, or the complete disruption of the recent movies, it’s the Captain Kirk of the books that I really love. And I’m deeply invested in the romance of Leia and Han as portrayed in the Expanded Universe (stable and supportive), and particularly in the later lives of Leia (Jedi, diplomat, leader of the New Republic, wife, mother of three) and Luke (founder of the New Jedi Order). The seeds are on the screen, but all this is so much more developed in the books.
This creates some complications, of course, when the powers that be go back to the screen and disregard the books. This happened rather famously recently with Star Wars, but has happened with Star Trek too, contradicting specific books (like Federation and Prime Directive, both disrupted at one go through First Contact). I’m very comfortable, however, keeping the book version in my head as the “proper” story (for me, at least) and the screen version as an alternate universe.
Outside of those two particularly vigorous book tie-in series, I’ve also read a few Doctor Who novels…but those tend to be a bit simpler than I want in books, so my preference here is very specific–audiobooks only, and only the ones about the 10th Doctor read by David Tennant. Because…David Tennant! Reading the Doctor! It’s kind of halfway to a TV episode right there.
I’ve also held onto two Smallville novels from my high school fondness for the show, and I have the complete Hercules: The Legendary Journeys novel series…which is only four books–but they’re good ones. I also read a lot of Sabrina: The Teenage Witch novels in high school. I can’t claim those are mostly high quality (not bad for the target age, but not great literature) but though I’ve culled that collection dramatically over the years, I still have several on my shelf for sentimental fondness.
I think that covers it. Star Trek and Star Wars are the big ones…but those are the big powerhouse fandoms, so it’s not too surprising!
Not too long ago I mentioned rereading my favorite Star Trek novel, First Frontier by Diane Carey and Dr. James I. Kirkland. I’ve mentioned it once or twice around here, but I’ve never done a proper review. So I think it’s time!
The book begins with the Enterprise taking an experimental flight into a blue giant, hitting a time warp and cosmic string in the process (just run with me on this). When they emerge, they find the universe inexplicably changed—the Federation has disappeared, the Klingon and Romulan Empires are pounding each other into mutual oblivion, and the Earth is a pristine wilderness where the dinosaurs never died and humanity never evolved. Kirk has to lead his crew into the deep past to stop alien saboteurs who disrupted the timeline.
The funny thing about this book is that the premise sounds preposterous. I tried to write it as reasonably as I could, but I know it probably sounds preposterous—except it works. When you actually read it, all the concepts are treated seriously and presented plausibly and none of it’s a joke. Not even when Kirk remarks that he’s going to restore the timeline if he has to kill the dinosaurs himself. Yeah, that’s kind of a joke, but it’s born out of frustration and tension and it’s real. Continue reading “Book Review – Star Trek: First Frontier”
This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Do you use bookmarks? If so, do you match them to the book you’re reading or do you use random scraps of paper?
I have a bookmark collection, and have been mostly using the same ones for ten years or so. They’re all home-made, and I remade some just a few months ago because they were getting rather tattered around the corners.
My bookmark collection, essentially, reflects some of my very favorite characters…
Mostly, it’s the characters I wrote stories about in my fanfiction days–and so they continue to live in my head (and the books I read) in a way that other much beloved characters do not. The exception to that rule is the Doctor Who bookmark, which I created new when I was refurbishing the others. That’s also my only two-sided bookmark…
When I’m thinking about it, I like to match characters to the book I’m reading (a couple of recent reads involving Rome were definite Kirk books, for instance, while Peter Pan usually lands in the kids books). But I don’t always think about it, and end up using the same one for weeks!
Do you have favorite bookmarks you like to use? Any particular habits around them?