Reading Project, 16

Book 52: Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas, published in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing

Book 53, Crown of Midnight, by Sarah J Maas, published in 2013 by Bloomsbury Publishing

Book 54: Heir of Fire, by Sarah J Maas, Published in 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing DNF

This post is about my attempt at becoming a regular iPad/Kindle reader. And let me tell you, that’s not happening. Well, you could see that from the way my reading project seems to have ground to a stuttering halt.

One of my reading buddies requested that I read Sarah J Maas’s fantasy series Throne of Glass so she would have someone to discuss it with. I looked at the series online and read a few pages here and there. I didn’t think it would be worth my while to buy the books in print since I didn’t know yet whether I would like them enough to read them again.

Charged up my second-hand refurbished iPad, found the Libby Library and went through its hoops to sign up. The first of the series happened to be on a seven-day borrowing shelf, so ‘signed that out’ and went for it.   I am a fairly fast reader so despite the beginner problems I had with volatile formatting–at least I told myself they were beginner problems–it took me about five hours to read. Not comparable to N K Jemesin’s Broken Earth series … but an okay read. I was told the series would improve as I went along.

Couple of days later started to look for Part Two. I did not have a list of the series beside me, and I found it next to impossible to find a sequential list in the online library catalogue. The Libby Library catalogue apparently runs on an advertisement-type schedule where they were pushing all kinds of texts somewhat but not directly related to the sequential series I was intending to read. Like they said, read me! Read me next!

If I’d been at the paper-and-print library, I would’ve looked for a completely different topic to read while waiting, so as not to confuse the story line. Nor could I check the titles in sequential order in the online version of Part One, the way I would’ve gone to the back or front of a print book to read a list of the complete series. I would’ve had to go out of the Libby app to a site like Goodreads or something. And sign in. And. And.

A moment’s work to a native of the internet. And I’ll always be a migrant. Some of the newer skills appear to be beyond me. I now have two conflicting aspects working against me. I am getting older and so slowing down. Nothing I can do about that. A fact of life. Technology is speeding up. More new ways of doing things being invented as well as well as everything going faster—more efficiently, they call that.

So yes, it took me probably three quarters of an hour to find the title of part two and put a hold on it. I don’t understand why online libraries need to have a three week borrowing limit. Not that it takes me three weeks to read most novels. Then I had to wait a week before a copy could become available to me. I chose to wait, and I chose to not cave in to the extraneous novels being offered. Lol, I realized recently that I am a dyed in the wool resistance fighter—about anything, not just digital indignities—stupid software is just the present thing.

In the meantime I tried to re-familiarize myself with the iPad software by reading a newspaper on it, and playing various games etc. They are all fine, but while I have my mobile I can’t be bothered to keep them both going. My mobile I can keep in my pocket. The iPad I need a bag for. The time rolled round for me to read part two of the series. It would’ve been just as gripping as the first, if the iPad or the app hadn’t started to muck up. Or, let me be plain, continue to muck up.

There apparently is no way in that iPad/software where I can fix the page size. So, every couple of paragraphs, the page would resize and I’d lose my place. Usually this happened half a minute or less after I’d so-called turned the page. Teeth-grindingly irritating. I probably touched it the wrong way. I looked for every way, control key, touch thingie, whatever, to try and fix, as in set the parameters, of the page format but no go. Could not find it!

After reading two and a half installments of the Throne of Glass series, I abandoned the online part of the reading project, despite having placed a hold on Tim Winton’s Juice. I just checked and hallelujah it’s now available in paperback so probably I will send for it. Tim Winton’s output I can always re read.

Anglified Dutch versus English …

This is a screenshot, possibly from a photo by Paul Smith of an amazing-looking unnatural-looking sky. Correct me if I’m wrong. Anyone?

Finally signed up to a newspaper and even paying my way. The Guardian has Tim Winton writing on account of the ‘outrage’ of climate warming being done to us, and mincing no words at all. I’m happy to read the real story!

https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2026/aug/24/this-is-not-a-natural-calamity-it-is-being-done-to-us-knowingly?CMP=share_btn_url

So I’m glad that the Volkskrant, the Dutch outlet I was trying to subscribe to, just didn’t want to know me. Their site is run totally by machine. Without any human input, it feels like, and if the prospective subscriber asks something different to the usual, there is just no possibility to step off the beaten track.

And finally, there’s nowhere to put my Australian money since I don’t have an IBAN, don’t know what an IBAN is, and moreover my bank in Australia does not deal in IBANs. Up to now I have had no problem paying anywhere in the world by the usual international means. Must be, the Volkskrant wants only want sheeple.

From the few bits that I did read, I gather that Dutch–or should I say Nederlands–is being Anglified hand-over-fist. I saw a ton of words taken straight out of English that, where and if necessary, had Dutch pre and post fixes, and verb endings applied. Gescoort? Offeren. Privacy. Spark.

Other than that tendency, there is the Dutch practice of pasting long trains of words together to describe new concepts … onderhandelingstafel, for example, in an article to do with trade sanctions. Don’t ask, I have no idea. Vermogensbeheerder is another mysterious concept.

Is this merely a Dutch version of journalese is what I want to know? Do ordinary Dutch people speak this language?

The equivalent but opposite tendency in English seems to be to split up compound words and I admit to a tendency to put hyphens between words that read as though they are trying to belong together. Like hand-over-fist a few lines above.

Repairing Clothes …

… is what I’m doing this week. Or maybe call it Repurposing. Ten years ago I knitted a jumper for a different climate. Then decided I’d rather have had a cardigan… which resulted in the famous “steek” experiment. Link to follow later.

Then I moved to Brisbane. Didn’t wear it. Too warm. So this winter, six years down the track, took the sleeves off and made it into a vest.

Was already wearing it for a while when I thought a button about mid chest would be good for early mornings.

Crocheted tab and loop, sewed on the two buttons. The one on the tab purely for balance, I thought.

Looks pretty good. Then … the tab flapping about when I wear it loose … huh? Why not just button it back?

Very satisfactory! Pure serendipity.

Pacing …

Fish … watercolour … Rita de Heer

Pacing is what I’ve been doing. Not much else, than reading and a bit of painting. Because I’ve been going mad due to psoriasis in my ears, all over my scalp and now also on my face. Mad with itch. It’s another auto-immune disorder. Add it to the two or three I already have and you get why I need the pacing.

I’ve been trying to get out into the sun more because that used to fix the psoriasis. Though that means using extra energy, and that means more pacing. Letting stuff go. One Life Lived Well describes pacing beautifully. Give her a read and you’ll know all about it.

https://onelifelivedwell.substack.com

‘Condemned to Decide’

I loved reading this article right now when my cortex and lizard brain have been at odds with one another and I made the wrong decision about getting medical help for a cat scratch. And AI would’ve been no use whatever.

Am I mimetic or a stubborn fool? Anyway more on my adventures another time. There are such good ideas in here, I’ll be journalling them when I get home (from hospital).

Because the future is here already and when we have kids and grandkids we need to be able model these very important concepts.

An essay about agentic vs mimetic people, using your lizard brain, and why outsourcing your judgment to AI is a values problem before it’s a …
Condemned to Decide

Mongrel, 36

I’m pretty happy with this image, another cut from a ceramic puzzle I once made. The original 30 centimeter tile broke across during storage, a risk associated with green-ware. IE not yet kilned. I took the pieces home over the Christmas holidays to decide what I was going to do with it.

Ended up breaking them into 13 pieces to try a different experiment on each piece. In this photo are four of the pieces representing a creek. As well as incising them, and painting them with ceramic slips, I searched one of the local bottle dumps and found fragments of old blue and old white glass to crush. Kilning the glassy fragments made the foamy creek water featured on these pieces. Below them the pieces that were inscribed with creek bank vegetation and fungi.