Reading ALL the Sci-Fi | Reading Update 3.12.21

Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog! 

I am completely and utterly exhausted. I've had Mochi for two weeks and it feels like it's been two months. I really need to get my internal clock back on the world's schedule if I'm going to survive the puppy months, because right now I'm still falling asleep at 4 in the morning and waking up at 1 in the afternoon. Obviously, Mochi is not on that schedule. I feel bad because I'm pushing her care on my parents during the morning and we agreed that she's my responsibility. Oops. But hey, I'm working on it. And my parents also understand that I've got a plethora of mental and physical health problems that keep me from matching her puppy energy, so they are willing to pick up my slack, but it's my insecurity talking that they're just gonna stop one day. We knew that getting a pet for me wouldn't automatically make me better, but we hope that it'll help in the long run. 

I'm just saying, it was a lot easier when I had hamsters. At least they were nocturnal, like me. 

Anyway, reading updates! I'm making my way through the Saga comics by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples. Currently I'm on volume 7, since I've been taking them in sections of three. We have no idea when volume 10 is going to come out, however, so that kind of sucks, but I own all nine of them now so I can read them whenever I want, at least. 

I'm actually pretty surprised at how much sci-fi I've read this month. I would say that sci-fi is my second least favorite genre (the first being romance) and yet, I've read 8 sci-fi books (yes, I'm including each Saga volume in that). I read The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold, which is more of a dystopia that came out last month I believe, and then last night I finished my reread of The Martian by Andy Weir. I've said it a lot, but Andy Weir is probably my favorite science-fiction author, because he gets the math right. 

Some backstory in case you who are reading don't know: my first few years of college my major was astrophysics. My dream was to work at NASA, doing whatever I could. And then I failed my physics class. Like, failed astronomically (pun intended). So, I had to switch majors. But it's not that I didn't understand the physics, I've just always been terrible at math. It's been my worst subject since freaking kindergarten, okay? I don't know what possessed me to pursue a STEM major, but there you go. 

However, even though I failed, I still recognize when physics is applied wrong in fiction. Hence, why I tend not to like sci-fi books or movies. If I didn't grow up on Star Wars and Star Trek, I probably would hate them. That being said, I still complain when I watch the movies. A lot of the physics is wrong in those series, let me tell you. 

Back to Andy Weir. Before he was a novelist, he was (dun-dun-dun) an astrophysicist! So, he knows the math! He checks his work! His books are scientifically accurate!! It makes me so happy. He would never put something like light-speed in his books, it's fantastic. 

That was a long tangent, I'm sorry. The point is, I like his writing. I gave The Martian five out of five stars. 

I am willing to try out more sci-fi, but it's such a catch-22 for me. I really only like space fiction, but I won't like it if the physics is inaccurate. Find me some good math space fiction and I'll dig in. But I just feel like it's so rare. I understand the whole "suspension of disbelief" concept but it's so hard for me to do that. If I see wrong math applied and it works, it yanks me out of the story faster than you can imagine. At this point, I prefer nonfiction about space and physics. At least then I know it'll be accurate. 

Okay, I have to go feed Mochi now. 

Until next time!