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Gideon Burton

https://www.goodreads.com/gideon_burton

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Gideon is Currently Reading

Gideon Burton is currently reading

Klara and the Sun

by Kazuo Ishiguro (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading, audible-audiobooks, science-fiction, 365-sampled-in-2025

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Jan 03, 2025 04:39PM

Gideon Burton is currently reading

Among Others

by Jo Walton (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: audible-audiobooks, audiobooks, fantasy, young-adult, supernatural, science-fiction, books-about-books, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in April 2015

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Gideon Burton said: " I was absolutely delighted with Jo Walton's Among Others -- though I must say this was due in large part to experiencing the amazing narrative performance by Katherine Kellgren in the Audible audiobook edition. Wow! She brought the musicality and mag I was absolutely delighted with Jo Walton's Among Others -- though I must say this was due in large part to experiencing the amazing narrative performance by Katherine Kellgren in the Audible audiobook edition. Wow! She brought the musicality and magic of a Welsh accent to bear in all the best ways. An enchanting performance that really complemented the book's theme of magic.

Magic is a strong central theme in the book but is very rarely present. That restraint means that magic is not artificial spectacle, nor does its inclusion play to all the available cliches and lore. Magic is somehow very matter-of-fact, yet also mysterious. In the end, the book brings out the magical nature of the natural -- and of books, too, another powerful theme.

Walton's use of the first person point of view is pretty standard for a coming of age novel, which this is, but is used very artfully. Walton really takes us into the mind and character of this affable, quirky, and well-read teenage narrator, adjusting, as she is, to changes in family, living in a new place, and life without her recently killed twin sister. That death is so traumatic that she largely blocks it out, and the limited point of view makes you piece together the evidence and build sympathy for the personal loss.

"If you love books enough, books will love you back." This is a culminating observation at the climactic conclusion of Among Others -- and could not be more literal. It turns out that the true magic in this world is the magic of books -- not fairies and superpowers.

Over the course of the novel a spell is cast upon the reader, and that is the spell of reading itself and of someone who knows and sees her world in terms of the characters and ideas she draws from her constant companions, books. In this case, the protagonist's preference is science fiction, and she has clearly developed her world view in terms of Heinlein, LeGuin, Delany, Asimov, Zelazny, and others current or famous as of 1979-80 when the book is set. (This was nostalgic for me, as I grew up at the same time reading many of the same authors.)

This book about books so inspired me to read the books (or reread the books) that this teen narrator had read, that I created a Goodreads shelf cataloging books from this novel, and I've already begun reading Leguin's Lathe of Heaven and Delany's Babel-17, two that escaped me previously.

I love a book that excites me about other books, and that confirms to me what I've always known, that "if you love books enough, books will love you back." ...more "

Mar 08, 2017 12:08AM · see review

Gideon Burton is currently reading

A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet, #1)

by Madeleine L'Engle

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

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Jan 06, 2022 07:18PM

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Gideon’s Notes & Highlights

Digital Culture by Charlie Gere

1 note & 1 highlight

Digital refers not just to the effects and possibilities of a particular technology. It defines and encompasses the ways of thinking and doing that are embodied within that technology, and which make its development possible. These include ...more