Reader Recommendations

I've recently been deluged with a few well-meaning friends and acquaintances who seem exceedingly eager to get me to read The Liaden Universe series. The overwhelming consensus among these well-meaning folks is that "This series is a lot like The Journal Entries, so you should like it! You want to read more like this, don't you?"

Well, no, actually.

If I read stuff just like what I write, I'll never discover anything new and interesting to write about. I like my own stuff, have no doubt, but when it comes to reading other people's fiction my tastes don't run towards stuff "just like" the Journal Entries. I tend to get the Uncanny Effect when that happens, and the last thing I want is to feel like I'm cribbing off people who write "just like" I do. So I read radically different stuff: David Weber's Honor Harrington (and the originals, the Horatio Hornblower and Patrick O'Brian books) is high on my list right now, as is some heavy-duty philosophy texts (Deutsch's Fabric of Reality and Dennett's Consciousness Explained right now). Stuff that informs and educates me and my writing, rather than repeating what I already know.

I want to read voices different from my own optimistic workaday style, so I read Anne Rice for her lush, decaying voice, and Greg Egan for his violently rational approach. I read Bertrice Small for her outrageously sexy women and Susie Bright for her bright eroticism. At least I'm not Charlie "I'm not really a fan of the work of Charlie Stross" Stross.

This is not to say that I don't welcome reading recommendations. Just don't be too upset when I won't volunteer to read the recommendations. I'm not interested in working other people's stuff into the Journal Entries except where it amuses me. I'm not about to do doujinshi.

Fresh baked bread!

Is it the weather, or what? I've been baking bread at home twice a week now for months, and I've always had problems with the top rising too much before collapsing. I've tried reducing the amount of yeast, but now it doesn't rise at all, and I have one of those ovens that actually has a temperature setting for rising bread! I nice, constant 30C should be just about right, and that's what I'm using, according to every book and web site on the subject.

So, now, last night, I get this... lump. I let it rise for two hours with one punch down, and it seemed to be going okay, and then it just died. Is my yeast old? It might be, although I bought it back in November and I've kept it in the fridge since then. It's been a pretty reliable batch of Baker's Best-- at least, until last night.

Oh! And one thing you never knew you needed until you bought one: a baking stone. They're made out of some composite stone and binder and even if all you ever do is bake store-bought pizza, you want one of these things. Put it into a cold oven and pre-heat it, then put whatever it is you're baking on top of it. The thick and heavy stone slab distributes temperature much more evenly, especially if you have a 'tricky' oven. I'm tempted to try doing meatloaf on it, too, but I'm afraid of the grease dripping off the edge of the stone, since it is perfectly flat. It would be nice if it had a ring for catching liquids on the edge. Maybe if I tilt the stone just a little and let the grease run off into a pan underneath... Hmm...

Must buy some fresh yeast, though.