A few things

[regshoe]

It's been feeling distinctly early-autumnal this week—the nights beginning to draw in, the mornings getting chillier. I still managed to sit out in the garden for a bit this afternoon, but it was definitely not as warm as it has been. Fortunately, the huge woolly jumper I've been working on for most of the year is almost finished, just in time! I am happily looking forward to trying it on properly.

I haven't been following the intricacies of the legal situation, but I'm glad to see that archive.org have reinstated their 'borrow for 14 days' option for some books, and am currently taking advantage of it to read another collection of Stephen Jay Gould's essays (excellent as usual). However, these borrowed PDFs really don't agree with my ereader, for some reason—it takes several seconds to turn the page even when otherwise behaving itself, and then it'll sometimes randomly skip ahead several pages, go back instead of forwards, go into 300% zoom... grateful as I am for the availability of ebooks over recent months, I really can't wait to be able to borrow physical books from a real-world library again.

Also at this time of year, I am speculatively turning over ideas for Yuletide nominations—trying to get a good balance of the inevitable D. K. Broster-related stuff (do I want Flight of the Heron? Sir Isumbras???) and other stuff, and picking up fandoms from earlier in the year (Frontier Wolf! Malory Towers! Heh, they'll make a good combination) while also thinking over things I've read recently. Tough decisions...

Comments

[theseatheseatheopensea]

Aww, it's nice to know that you're already getting some pre-autumn days, and having a new cosy jumper just in time for the season change makes it even better! (Autumn is my favourite season, can you tell? ;)

I feel you about the need for physical books--ebooks are so convenient, and definitely widen my reading access/possibilities, but nothing beats physical books ♥

And oh, good luck with the Yuletide fandom choices! I always find it fun to see what people nominate! And narrowing it down to three definitely sounds tough. The good thing is that, if you run out of spots, you can try to coordinate with someone else--so I hope your fandom friends sign up too, then you can all team up to nominate all the Broster stuff! :D

[regshoe]

Autumn is my favourite season, can you tell? ;)

I had no idea :P Yeah, I'm enjoying the cooler weather—I hope it's not too hot yet where you are!

Oh, I'm sure there'll be plenty of interest in Broster fandoms :D And yes, I always like looking through the tagset and seeing the things other people nominated that I would never have thought of.

[luzula]

It's been many years since I read one, but I have also enjoyed Stephen Jay Gould's essay collections--I remember his writing style was lovely, besides the content being interesting.

Do post a photo of your woolly jumper when it's done!

And Yuletide, hmm. I feel like I've been so immersed in FotH as it is that I might not need to request/offer it for Yuletide for my own sake, but OTOH getting it into Yuletide might be a way of increasing interest for the fandom? One could post about it in the fandom promotion posts etc.

[regshoe]

His writing style is certainly lovely—so intelligent and incisive, just the right word to make the right point. And I pick up so many fascinating little bits of biology and history reading the essays—really great.

Do post a photo of your woolly jumper when it's done!

I certainly will :D

Yeah, I think I feel the same way about FotH! Well, we'll see...

[pretty_plant]

I just checked the internet and it seems like internet archive's situation seems to be pretty complicated. But the site has so many old, interesting books that cannot be found anywhere else.

Maybe you can use your computer for internet archive? I always use my computer when I use the site because the screen is bigger.

[regshoe]

I know—it's such a great resource for those obscure old books! Whatever happens, I hope those stay up.

Unfortunately trying to read on the computer screen for too long tends to give me a headache—but it is a good solution for very short ebooks.