Reading

I finally finished Humphry Clinker a couple weeks ago, and enjoyed it quite a lot, despite the preachiness. (I haven’t made much progress on my father’s book about it, though.)

I then read and really enjoyed The Great Time Machine Hoax by Keith Laumer. Somebody on my Friends list, or perhaps on OKCupid, recommended it, so I tracked down a copy. (It was published in 1964 and is long out of print.) Quite funny, in an early-60s-satire sort of way.

I am now reading Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave, a True History, published in 1688. So far, it’s more interesting as a document of its era than as literature, but it’s interesting and short. I haven’t gotten to the title character’s enslavement and sale to Europeans yet.

I’m also reading some short stories out of a collection called Oceans of Space, whose theme is the connection between seafaring and space travel (or other science-fiction themes). The couple I’ve read so far have been entertaining, but not particularly well written.

[EDIT: Oh, and I also read Witches Abroad recently.]

Camping

Last weekend I went camping with cathijosephine, darxus, and faerieschylde in southern New Hampshire. For some of the weekend I wasn’t in the best headspace, due to a confluence of stresses and a not-very-productive day at work on Friday. But I still had a very good time. We ate well. cathijosephine’s idea of camping involves sleeping, cooking on the campfire, and eating, and I am proud to be a part of that plan. Bacon, fried yams and potatoes with onions and garlic, bacon, sausages, bacon, pork, bacon, s’mores, and bacon. My kind of haute cuisine.

(I had an adventure with the car afterwards. When I was ready to leave, I discovered my battery was dead. I called faerieschylde, who came back to try to jump me, but unfortunately her car didn’t manage to start my Diesel engine. But the guy at the campsite next to mine successfully gave me a jump with her cables, so everything worked out, and faerieschylde and I ended up going out to get Mexican food together, which was a very nice air-conditioned coda to the weekend.)