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Making Conversation
A collection of essays drawn from the online world on subjects as varied as moderation and trolling, cooking, hamster-rearing, fanfic, narcolepsy, the engineering marvels of the IBM Selectric, and more.
222 pages, Paperback
First published August 17, 2016
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47 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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March 14, 2017Pygmy mammoths!
Lost fandoms!
How to do engaging narrative voice . . . gross recipes for food you wouldn't want to eat . . . transnistrian infundibulators. Narcolepsy.
The thing about this collection of essays is that you can open the book to any page and fall into a witty, sharply observed, delightful bit of arcana, or wisdom. "Chaos is Not Your Friend" is disturbingly current, though it first appeared in 2004. Then there are glimpses of the fannish past--and that includes Lost Fandoms.
The essays on publishing are worth the price all alone. Cliches--a glimpse behind the production of a book--scam publishers--fan fiction.
Every one of these essays could start a great conversation at any gathering. The other set of essays that I enjoy as much--and that range so widely and so wittily--are Virginia Woolf's.
Lost fandoms!
How to do engaging narrative voice . . . gross recipes for food you wouldn't want to eat . . . transnistrian infundibulators. Narcolepsy.
The thing about this collection of essays is that you can open the book to any page and fall into a witty, sharply observed, delightful bit of arcana, or wisdom. "Chaos is Not Your Friend" is disturbingly current, though it first appeared in 2004. Then there are glimpses of the fannish past--and that includes Lost Fandoms.
The essays on publishing are worth the price all alone. Cliches--a glimpse behind the production of a book--scam publishers--fan fiction.
Every one of these essays could start a great conversation at any gathering. The other set of essays that I enjoy as much--and that range so widely and so wittily--are Virginia Woolf's.
February 12, 2022
I've been a fan of Teresa Nielsen Hayden's writing for many decades. I devoured Making Book when it was published and I'm embarrassed that I didn't know about this one for so many years, until my partner and I were given a copy as a holiday present, and I picked it up almost immediately.
This volume is mostly things she wrote for her blog with her husband, MAKING LIGHT, pulled together into one place, so it is neither especially coherent nor especially focused: it's just piece after piece of awesome writing, on any topic that arose in TNH's brain. You never know when you're going to get a think piece, an observation, something funny, something hyper-professional about editing.
This makes it perfect to read in snippets, except that each snippet is good enough to make you want to read the next. A few weeks later, the ones that stand out to me are the piece on pygmy mammoths (with bonus hover-text footnotes), the piece on Joanna Russ, some of the detailed digressions into word use and copy-editing (dear to my heart), an elegy to a beloved car, and much more.
Any reader of the contemporary essay needs this book, as does anyone who is or was active in science fiction fandom in the last 40 years.
This volume is mostly things she wrote for her blog with her husband, MAKING LIGHT, pulled together into one place, so it is neither especially coherent nor especially focused: it's just piece after piece of awesome writing, on any topic that arose in TNH's brain. You never know when you're going to get a think piece, an observation, something funny, something hyper-professional about editing.
This makes it perfect to read in snippets, except that each snippet is good enough to make you want to read the next. A few weeks later, the ones that stand out to me are the piece on pygmy mammoths (with bonus hover-text footnotes), the piece on Joanna Russ, some of the detailed digressions into word use and copy-editing (dear to my heart), an elegy to a beloved car, and much more.
Any reader of the contemporary essay needs this book, as does anyone who is or was active in science fiction fandom in the last 40 years.
March 31, 2024
A wide-ranging essay collection. Most of these essays were first published at the Nielsen Haydens' long-running weblog, http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/ See headnote above for an idea of the wide-ranging contents. Just as you would expect, some are of more interest than others. My particular favorites included the perils of cover letters, La Cuisine de Nouvelle Zion, varieties of writerly insanity, Pygmy Mammoths, Cool Stuff in your fiction (don't be stingy with it), spelling tests, and the True Cure for scurvy. I've included quotes of some of my favorites as Kindle highlights at https://www.goodreads.com/notes/49936...
Overall, this was a strong 3-star collection for me. I've never been a part of organized SF/F fandom, but I like to read about it. If you are a long-time SF reader, you will almost certainly find some stuff you'll like a lot. And other stuff to skim right over. Mixed bag but some real gems. Recommended reading.
Overall, this was a strong 3-star collection for me. I've never been a part of organized SF/F fandom, but I like to read about it. If you are a long-time SF reader, you will almost certainly find some stuff you'll like a lot. And other stuff to skim right over. Mixed bag but some real gems. Recommended reading.
October 8, 2016
Hit or miss as with so many essay collections but when she hits it is out of the park. Definitely a keeper for those ten minute reading opportunities when you want to be able to read something and finish it is short amount of time.
January 15, 2018
This is the second collection of post and responses from author’s blog, “Making Light.”
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January 9, 2023Rec. by: Debbie N.; Making Light
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews