I read things!

How To by Randall Munroe: Like xkcd, very funny, interesting, and occasionally poignant. Typographically, it could be hard to tell exponents from numbers indicating footnotes.

What If? by Randall Munroe: says it's more than 50% new material than the blog, did not feel that way. Slightly easier to tell exponents from footnotes, but 1 looked like capital I and that got very very confusing in a couple places. In places it also suffered from converting the illustrations to black and white and being a smaller size than on the screen, an issue not present in How To, since that one was a book from the start.

Thing Explainer by Randall Munroe: did not finish. Did not even get very far. This was impossible to decipher, I kept having to check the table of contents to find out what the thing is that is being explained, which only helped for the header and not the actual aspects of what was being explained. There is utility in using more than 1,000 words, but even just using those thousand words, I don’t see how it is helpful to label a diagram and say that something is named after a country named after the rising sun, or that this was done by a organization of multiple countries working together (ESA, I assume?) It was just impenetrable. Would perhaps have been useful next to a diagram of what he is translating into 1,000 words, but as a stand-alone 1,000 word vocabulary-only guide, it was awful. It was like he started out with a complicated guide and then translated it, rather than setting out to explain these concepts using only a limited vocabulary. (for comparison, the Elephant and Piggie books use a very constrained vocabulary but feels like they don't. That is someone working well within self-imposed constraints.) This was less a book and more an overly-clever crossword puzzle that was aware of how clever it was. It's a shame because I truly love not going to space today.

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia: via rec from skygiants. I started this a couple years ago, didn't get very far into the second chapter before putting it down again. Got it out from the library again and hit a problem of it hitting two different triggers on me. Like, there is no way in hell I could have read this book even a couple months ago, and even now, uh. There is one bit that kept hitting on my trauma over and over again and I reached a point where I said to myself, if this is not resolved and instead it's just left hanging, I will throw this book across the room. So I reached out to skygiants for a spoiler and was told that, in fact, it's not resolved. And then I got to a point in the book where it GOT WORSE. So.

So this book is due back at the library and so it's probably a DNF unless I get it back out from the library again. Anyone want to tell me how it ends/how it's all resolved? Because yes, sure, "it's like the Westing Game" and it, in fact, is like the Westing Game. If The Westing Game was obsessed with death and if the missing person it contained in its conceit was never resolved in the book and then had an ouija board conversation with the ghost.

Uh. So, yeah. I'd probably be happy to read fic of this book? But I'm not sure I can finish it. But it's a good book and so I'd recommend it, as far as I've gotten in it, to those to whom it is not tapdancing on trauma.

But for those read it: please confirm or deny if Vincent Pryce is also Archie's missing dad? Because that seems to be signaled to me and I am curious as to how that's resolved.

Up next from the library, real quote from my notes document: "Library either machinery of empires or memory called empire, whichever is which." (the one I was thinking of is memory called empire, but they have fully merged in my head due to the similarities in names)

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sakldfjsd; okay I am so extremely sorry but I have to admit I. Do not actually remember if Vincent Pryce is the missing dad or not. It's been years! I remember the vibes and the bits of Boston that made me laugh and specific important Friendship Moments between Tuesday and Dex and the big costume party they all go to at the end!

So I did manage to finish the book before the library due date and Vincent Pryce is not the dad and in fact all the stuff I thought was going to happen would have made for a much more exciting mystery book than did happen. The missing dad was an abusive shithole who was killed by his abusive son who wanted his money and company? BORING, DONE, CLICHE. The missing dad reinvented himself as the next door neighbor and they staged a massive feud to prevent suspicion and everyone is poly with both wives knowing about each other and ~~comforting each other in their "grief"~~? MUCH BETTER.

I did call that Archie wasn't actually Nathaniel, though. But, again, Accidentally Impersonating Your Abusive Murderous Brother Because You Had The Unexpected Opportunity? Why not just roll with SECRET IDENTITIES and also CON ARTISTS and maybe some PURPOSEFUL MISDIRECTION FOR THE MYSTERY.

Like, I was very disappointed in the mystery. Especially since they went to all that trouble to have a body hidden in the floor a la Poe, sorry, I mean a well, and ... it ended with no one knowing about it? You go to this trouble to stage a mystery challenge inside a house with a murdered man in the basement and then nothing happens with it, except potentially you add another murder victim to the collection in the basement.

And she never commits to the bit on if ghosts are real or not, or if Tuesday's having hallucinations that are somehow shared with Dorry.

The book in my head was better than the book I read. This could have been much more fun shenanigans and mysteries and challenges.

~~the westing game committed by blowing up the house and having it be blown up!!!!~~

I read things!

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