Book Report: Brothers in Arms

One similarity between being a knitter and being a parent of a newborn is that both pastimes require other activities to be done whilst both hands are engaged, and the parent/knitter has to watch the child/sock fairly closely. Television ought to work fairly well, although studies indicate that scarves and hats exposed to too much television early in their development suffer from short tension spans. There’s conversation, which is nice in theory, but really requires another person, and if there’s another person around, why can’t that person hold the needles while I go have a shower? No, the activity that leaves both hands and much of the visual field free is ... reading. No, I don’t understand it. But somehow, it works. And when your knitting wakes you up in the middle of the night, and you have to sit quite still (but awake) for twenty minutes or so tending to its needs, there’s nothing like a good book.

And Brothers in Arms is nothing like a good book. No, wait, the set-up was for a bad book, when in fact Brothers in Arms is quite a good book. I forget to reread it, when I am looking for a Vorkosigan book, and forget that with all its flaws, this one has (a) people shooting each other, and (2) er, people shooting each other. Not that I’m altogether against the books that don’t have people shooting each other, but this one has a lot of nice action, a moderately complicated plot that eventually involves four different combat teams, none of whom know exactly how many other combat teams there are or who they are working for. Good fun.

Just wondering, though... do any of you have experience reading off one of those new-fangled electronic devices while doing something that takes both hands and most of the visual attention? Do they come with foot treadles?

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.