Book Chain, weeks 39 & 40
Dec. 14th, 2025 09:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pedanther#36: If the previous book had an odd number of chapters, read a book with an even number of chapters, or vice versa.
I Am Not Spock by Leonard Nimoy (also the November random book pick). Nimoy's first memoir has a reputation in the fandom, which turns out to be an example of the fannish tendency to form and transmit opinions about things without waiting to read them first. It's actually a nuanced exploration of the experience of becoming famous for and identified with a particular role; the title plants a flag in the ground, but it's a landmark from which to venture forth ("Or am I? Who is Spock, if not me?"), not a statement of his final conclusion.
#37: Read a book that was added to your TBR more recently than the previous book.
I had the opportunity to do something funny here, because one of the prompts in another reading challenge is supposed to be the oldest book in the TBR, but the specific instruction is to read the book that's been on one's StoryGraph TBR list longest -- and when I joined StoryGraph I added books by shelf without regard for how long they'd been sitting around, so the "oldest" book on my StoryGraph TBR is a relatively recent acquisition, certainly more recent than I Am Not Spock. But it's also a memoir from a dark period in history, and I really wasn't in the mood.
So instead I read Watson Is Not an Idiot: An Opinionated Tour of the Sherlock Holmes Canon by Eddy Webb. This was apparently a series of blog posts originally, and it reads like it. Had it been written as a book, it might have had a more rigorous structure and, one hopes, better copy-editing. It's aimed as an introduction to the original Holmes stories for people who know Holmes and Watson only through the adaptations or cultural osmosis; though the blurb suggests that it also has something for the more dedicated Holmes fan, I didn't find much new in it. (To be fair, I might have done if I'd read it before I participated in Letters from Watson, which was a similar experience but with more than one person contributing their observations and viewpoints.)
#39: Read a book with a lower StoryGraph rating than the previous book.
A Bid for Fortune; or, Dr Nikola's Vendetta by Guy Boothby. Read for historical interest: the diabolical Dr Nikola is one of the earliest examples of a mad scientist criminal mastermind with a world-spanning organisation and a back-up plan for every occasion and a cat that sits on his lap while he ponders his evil schemes. Also, the author's an Aussie, and parts of it are set in Australia. Energetic nonsense, featuring noble heroes, identical imposters, many a slipped mickey, false messages, elaborate plots that don't bear too much thinking about, and all the now-familiar furniture of this sort of thing. (There were points where I was willing to bet good money that Herman Cyril McNeile had read this before he wrote Bulldog Drummond.) Dr Nikola makes a clean getaway with the macguffin at the end, and went on to star as a villain protagonist in several sequels. The heroes, having spent the entire novel trying to keep the macguffin out of his hands to prevent him using it for some ill-defined but significant evil purpose, decide to quit while they're still breathing and let his future victims fend for themselves, and live happily ever after with surprisingly clear consciences.
I Am Not Spock by Leonard Nimoy (also the November random book pick). Nimoy's first memoir has a reputation in the fandom, which turns out to be an example of the fannish tendency to form and transmit opinions about things without waiting to read them first. It's actually a nuanced exploration of the experience of becoming famous for and identified with a particular role; the title plants a flag in the ground, but it's a landmark from which to venture forth ("Or am I? Who is Spock, if not me?"), not a statement of his final conclusion.
#37: Read a book that was added to your TBR more recently than the previous book.
I had the opportunity to do something funny here, because one of the prompts in another reading challenge is supposed to be the oldest book in the TBR, but the specific instruction is to read the book that's been on one's StoryGraph TBR list longest -- and when I joined StoryGraph I added books by shelf without regard for how long they'd been sitting around, so the "oldest" book on my StoryGraph TBR is a relatively recent acquisition, certainly more recent than I Am Not Spock. But it's also a memoir from a dark period in history, and I really wasn't in the mood.
So instead I read Watson Is Not an Idiot: An Opinionated Tour of the Sherlock Holmes Canon by Eddy Webb. This was apparently a series of blog posts originally, and it reads like it. Had it been written as a book, it might have had a more rigorous structure and, one hopes, better copy-editing. It's aimed as an introduction to the original Holmes stories for people who know Holmes and Watson only through the adaptations or cultural osmosis; though the blurb suggests that it also has something for the more dedicated Holmes fan, I didn't find much new in it. (To be fair, I might have done if I'd read it before I participated in Letters from Watson, which was a similar experience but with more than one person contributing their observations and viewpoints.)
#39: Read a book with a lower StoryGraph rating than the previous book.
A Bid for Fortune; or, Dr Nikola's Vendetta by Guy Boothby. Read for historical interest: the diabolical Dr Nikola is one of the earliest examples of a mad scientist criminal mastermind with a world-spanning organisation and a back-up plan for every occasion and a cat that sits on his lap while he ponders his evil schemes. Also, the author's an Aussie, and parts of it are set in Australia. Energetic nonsense, featuring noble heroes, identical imposters, many a slipped mickey, false messages, elaborate plots that don't bear too much thinking about, and all the now-familiar furniture of this sort of thing. (There were points where I was willing to bet good money that Herman Cyril McNeile had read this before he wrote Bulldog Drummond.) Dr Nikola makes a clean getaway with the macguffin at the end, and went on to star as a villain protagonist in several sequels. The heroes, having spent the entire novel trying to keep the macguffin out of his hands to prevent him using it for some ill-defined but significant evil purpose, decide to quit while they're still breathing and let his future victims fend for themselves, and live happily ever after with surprisingly clear consciences.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-14 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-15 12:00 am (UTC)That said, I do suspect that the StoryGraph aggregate rating for Watson Is Not an Idiot is a bit on the high side; it's based on only 4 user ratings, and presumably those four people, having been interested enough to hunt up a copy, were predisposed to think well of it. If there are ever enough user ratings to form a reliable sample size, the overall rating may well settle somewhat lower.