So there I was, enjoying the sunshine, that it is still summer, and I went to Carl's page and saw this post by him, and read the stunner of a story he links us to, Mrs Henderson's Cemetery Dance by Carrie Cuinn. It has a delightful humorous touch, a gothic feel, a melancholic dead skeleton story, for lack of a better description. Not ghosts. Skeletons. It is very good. And it put me right into the frame of mind for Carl's upcoming Readers Imbibing Peril VIII challenge coming up in the fall.
So, even though I have a shelf already full of books ready for RIP, and it's still sunny and very warm outside, I ended up going to one of my favourite sites for finding what's new and good in the world of horror and science fiction and fantasy: Locus Magazine, online. Carl, by the way, also has a post up about Locusmag, because he has the July edition featuring NEIL GAIMAN on the cover, and darn it, I let my subscription lapse in April. Boo me! I have just resubscribed, and am hoping I'm in time for the July edition. Anyway, it looks a really good interview by Neil in it, so if you're a Neil Gaiman fan, go and take a look.
In the meantime, when I wandered to Locus Magazine to see what was happening, I discovered that they have a listing of all the current nominees and winners of the various awards given out for science fiction, fantasy, and horror, the world over. This is an excellent way to find out what's good in any of these areas of literature.
I have promptly added (and drooled over) the following books I didn't know existed:
All nominated under 2013 British Fantasy Award Nominees, Anthologies:
- Magic, An Anthology of the Esoteric and the Arcane, ed Jonathan Oliver.
- The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women, ed Marie O'Regan
- Terror Tales of the Cotswalds - ed Alison Littlewood
Nominated for Best Horror (the August Deleth Award), under the same British Fantasy Awards:
- The Kind Folk -Ramsey Campbell
- The Last Days - Adam Nevill
Neither of which I knew was out, and I will be seeking at the library.
Here is the entire list of 2013 British Award nominees. I am happy to see Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan nominated, as is Railsea by China Mieville. I am delighted to see Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce, nominated in both categories, as I have it on my pile to read asap.....
The 2012 Bram Stoker Awards were also announced in New Orleans in June, winning list is here. There are some very good books on this list too. Caitlin Kiernan (Drowning Girl, which I have to read), Maggie Stiefvater, Bentley Little (I just found one of his books to try), and The Diviners by Libba Bray, which I am so hoping to read for RIP!! when a list includes these names, there are going to be some really good horror/dark fantasy/ghost stories to read somewhere on it. Even more awesome, a list of poetry books!!! And when Joyce Carol Oates wins in a tie for best collection, well, there is something for everyone for RIP.
Have fun planning! Enjoy the summer daylight while it lasts, and soon autumn will be here, with cooling days and darker nights....., and thank Carl for this, today!
Showing posts with label Locus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Locus. Show all posts
Saturday, 27 July 2013
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Castle Waiting by Linda Medley and catch-up
So I have been home for a day now - I put my back out on Monday taking my asthma medication of all things! - and yesterday I stayed home to heal my back, and watched tv. Today is a bit better, but I still don't trust sitting in my chair at work - there are no comfortable seats right now anywhere in the house!! - so I'm home again. The good news I can finally catch up on some overdue book reviews, the bad news is, it's not too comfortable in this chair either.
Castle Waiting by Linda Medley - a library book for my challenge! And Nymeth already has the Bad Blogger point awarded for it, since it was her review that brought it to my attention. And please, since she does such a good job describing all the characters, go read her first. I'm going to talk about the storyline, and the art, since it was my first experience of a graphic novel. At least, I think it qualifies as a graphic novel. None of the art is in colour, it is all black-and-white ink drawings. Before you think eeewww, how boring, let me say, it is riveting. The characters are so well drawn, with changes of expression in each box, that the story doesn't need colour. It's hard to describe why Linda Medley can get away with not having colour, whereas Watchmen does need to be colourful. I think it has to do with the kind of story being told. Watchmen is set here and now - 1985, New York City - and it is telling the kind of story that is enhanced by colour and shading, which adds nuances without words. Castle Waiting is a fairy tale, and the ink drawings remind me of what fairy tales were like before Disney came along and colorized them. There is so much action, so much that is said by the characters, that colour would risk distracting from the story. That's how good Castle Waiting is. It doesn't need it.
What's so good about Castle Waiting, you ask? Well, other than the many salient points Nymeth brings up about the various characters, and the setting - mostly the castle in Sleeping Beauty after the prince awakens the princess with the kiss - the prince and princess don't stay there. It uses fairy tales we all know, as its starting point, and it's fun to pick out references to different ones that Medley introduces. But the castle exists, and it's the story of who stays, and who comes to the castle. It's an interesting premise, kind of like the castle at the end of the world. Like Nymeth, I ended up loving Lady Jain, and her odd-looking child, then there's the stork butler, the nuns - the 'sisters' - who help keep the castle going, and especially, Sister Peace. She becomes the star of the book, along with Lady Jain. They are both strong-willed, independent characters, who are attempting to escape their fate their parents have chosen for them. Sister Peace ends up in a circus because she has a beard, and eventually finds a place where she is accepted for herself. To say any more would spoil the delightful funny haven she finds. I can say I completely relate, as do most women who own a pair of tweezers and aren't teenagers anymore. Castle Waiting is mostly about friendship, kindness to strangers, and bonds that are deeper than blood. It's about looking past the oddness of the outward person to the inner beauty, so it's about Beauty and the Beast, too. It's about finding the place you belong, when the place you are born into doesn't fit. Castle Waiting is a collection of the first issues in the series, so I was very happy to read that the second volume of Castle Waiting is due out soon. I plan to read it - I must know what happens to the castle and its inhabitants! Surely Lady Jain's husband will find her eventually.... I really want to know all the other stories not told yet, like the stork butler's.....more about the Castle itself, which is haunted and has a library!! I think Castle Waiting is the castle we all go to in our minds when we want to hide out from life for a while. It's well thought out, funny, amazing artwork, clever, and I highly recommend it. Plus, it's in book form, so if you don't want anyone to know it's really a very long comic book, you can pretend it's a new retelling of Sleeping Beauty. As an introduction to the graphic novel, I can't think of a better one.
Castle Waiting Other Book Reviews:
Nymeth
Eva
Kailana
Library Loot: I missed Monday's Library Loot posting, so here's an update of what I have out from the library over the past week:
-Muletrain to Maggody - Joan Hess - one of my favourite mystery series, starring Arly Hanks, sherriff of a dying town in Arkansas, filled with inbreeding and stupidity. Brother Verber, is a hoot, as is Hizzoner the mayor who keeps threatening to remove Arly from her post.
- Damels in Distress - Joan Hess - her other mystery series starring Claire, the owner of a bookstore, her soon to be husband police lieutenant Peter, and moody teenager daughter Caron. Hometown spun, not gory mysteries, and also funny.
-Adventures in Time and Space with Maxwell Merriwell - Pat Murphy. I just read her first book, The Falling Woman, which won a Fantasy award when it was published quite some time ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it (it takes in Mayan curses on an archealogical dig and is haunting and bittersweet). Besides, who could resist that title?
-Newton's Wake - Ken MacLeod - on Locus's recommended reading list for 2008.
- Little Red riding Hood in the Big Bad City - ed Martin Greenberg - who can resist a fantasy collection retelling fairy tales set in New York City? With authors like Tanya Huff, Alan Dean Foster, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Jody Lynn Nye?
-Book of a Thousand Days - Shannon Hale. Finally!!! Only reviewed glowingly so many times by bloggers over the past year! I think I'm the only one who hasn't read this yet!
-The Coffin Trail - Martin Edwards.
- The New Space Opera - ed Garner Dozois - thanks, Carl! and Sci Fi Experience!
- Tender Morsels - Margo Lanagan - I blame Nymeth and Locus's best books of 2008!
Now to find time to read them all!
My Sci Fi Experience Wrap-up:
Carl's Sci Fi Experience was not a reading challenge, it was a reading opportunity. I sadly did not fill my personal expected quota of science fiction books to read! I did read:
-Horizons by Mary Rosenblum,
- Doomsday Book by Connie Willis - review here
and am half-way through Ursula K. Leg Guin's collection of Essays, The Language of the Night, which I've been reviewing on my blog during the experience.
What did I think of this experience? That I used to read a lot more science fiction in my younger years, and I would like to read more now again.
Here is my quick review of Horizons (I told you this was my catch-up post!):
I really enjoyed this book. Mary Rosenblum has been author I've enjoyed since her book Drylands came out 15 years ago.
Horizons is set on a platform above earth; the space around earth has been colonized by the continents below: thus, New York Up is the colony for North America, the world is run by the World Council (kind of like an expanded and much more powerful UN, which Rosenblum says faded away, powerless), there are earthside families and clans, and most of the world population still lives on the planet, but on the different platforms are a growing population of people who have been there for several generations of people now. Part of the plot revolves around what happens to people when they live their entire lives in micro G gravity away in the centre of the platform, - people who don't live in the 80% gravity forcefield that most of the station creates and uses.
As always, I am fascinated by what our writers forsee happening in our future. This novel is set in Earth's near future. Could we have platforms above us in space? why not? Would they be run by the countries making them? Of course. Rosenblum takes it further, by having the earthers not really understanding what those who live on the platforms want : freedom. In the midst of political tension, Ahni comes in, looking for her brother's murderer. She's a Class 9 Empath, which means she can read people's body language and intentions almost as quickly as the person thinks them. She also has a chip implanted in her when she was in her mother's womb, that lets her connect to schematics and download information like a computer. Her brother is a clone of their father. There are no robots, there are ID chips that everyone is supposed to have implanted also. It's a very interesting future, and once I got past the new terminology of the space station, I was intensely involved in the story. The idea of the space station breaking away is not a new science fiction plot, but the future as presented here is, about how Earth could evolve, and what would happen to us if exposed to micro g long enough.
There is also a love story that develops, and family connections, that ground the book into concerns we can relate too. This is something I think science fiction has begun to recognize, and that the best science fiction writers follow: science without people, is not an interesting story. Science with people and emotions, can be fascinating and intelligent.
Horizons is a fun read, and I'm very glad I read it for this reading experience.
I also read two short stories for the mini challenge Carl hosted, and of course I have now gotten a library book out because Carl brought it to our attention!
For anyone looking for new science fiction and fantasy titles or authors to try, or for author interviews, Locus magazine (this is the link to their online site) has been the best information put out monthly in magazine format for over 20 years
now. You can order back issues of your favourite authors - Charles de Lint, Robert Jordan, Ors
on Scott Card..... - and the reviews are excellent. Here is a link to their 2008 Recommended Reading list. And here is an excerpt Locus has online from a recent interview with Ursula k. LeGuin. They link to author interview on other sites, cover what's new and selling in book stores, and generally are one of my touchstones for the field of science fiction and fantasy.
This is the cover of the latest magazine, which just arrived in my mailbox. I am busy circling all the books I want by Christmas!
Titles like:
-A Dance With Dragons - George RR Martin, expected Oct 09;
-Boneshaker - Cherie Priest, expected Nov 09;
- A Time to Cast Away Stones - Tim Powers, May 2009;
- Muse and Reverie - Dec 09, and
- Mystery of Grace- March 2009 - both by Charles de Lint;
- Dragon Keeper - Robin Hobb (Oct 09); and
- Hunting Ground - Patricia Brigg, Aug 09.
So, that's my catch-up for today. It's pouring rain outside, and I'm going to try sitting on the sofa now. Watchmen calls, as does Polysyllabic Spree (which I'm almost done now).
Happy reading, Gentle Readers!
Castle Waiting by Linda Medley - a library book for my challenge! And Nymeth already has the Bad Blogger point awarded for it, since it was her review that brought it to my attention. And please, since she does such a good job describing all the characters, go read her first. I'm going to talk about the storyline, and the art, since it was my first experience of a graphic novel. At least, I think it qualifies as a graphic novel. None of the art is in colour, it is all black-and-white ink drawings. Before you think eeewww, how boring, let me say, it is riveting. The characters are so well drawn, with changes of expression in each box, that the story doesn't need colour. It's hard to describe why Linda Medley can get away with not having colour, whereas Watchmen does need to be colourful. I think it has to do with the kind of story being told. Watchmen is set here and now - 1985, New York City - and it is telling the kind of story that is enhanced by colour and shading, which adds nuances without words. Castle Waiting is a fairy tale, and the ink drawings remind me of what fairy tales were like before Disney came along and colorized them. There is so much action, so much that is said by the characters, that colour would risk distracting from the story. That's how good Castle Waiting is. It doesn't need it.
What's so good about Castle Waiting, you ask? Well, other than the many salient points Nymeth brings up about the various characters, and the setting - mostly the castle in Sleeping Beauty after the prince awakens the princess with the kiss - the prince and princess don't stay there. It uses fairy tales we all know, as its starting point, and it's fun to pick out references to different ones that Medley introduces. But the castle exists, and it's the story of who stays, and who comes to the castle. It's an interesting premise, kind of like the castle at the end of the world. Like Nymeth, I ended up loving Lady Jain, and her odd-looking child, then there's the stork butler, the nuns - the 'sisters' - who help keep the castle going, and especially, Sister Peace. She becomes the star of the book, along with Lady Jain. They are both strong-willed, independent characters, who are attempting to escape their fate their parents have chosen for them. Sister Peace ends up in a circus because she has a beard, and eventually finds a place where she is accepted for herself. To say any more would spoil the delightful funny haven she finds. I can say I completely relate, as do most women who own a pair of tweezers and aren't teenagers anymore. Castle Waiting is mostly about friendship, kindness to strangers, and bonds that are deeper than blood. It's about looking past the oddness of the outward person to the inner beauty, so it's about Beauty and the Beast, too. It's about finding the place you belong, when the place you are born into doesn't fit. Castle Waiting is a collection of the first issues in the series, so I was very happy to read that the second volume of Castle Waiting is due out soon. I plan to read it - I must know what happens to the castle and its inhabitants! Surely Lady Jain's husband will find her eventually.... I really want to know all the other stories not told yet, like the stork butler's.....more about the Castle itself, which is haunted and has a library!! I think Castle Waiting is the castle we all go to in our minds when we want to hide out from life for a while. It's well thought out, funny, amazing artwork, clever, and I highly recommend it. Plus, it's in book form, so if you don't want anyone to know it's really a very long comic book, you can pretend it's a new retelling of Sleeping Beauty. As an introduction to the graphic novel, I can't think of a better one.
Castle Waiting Other Book Reviews:
Nymeth
Eva
Kailana
Library Loot: I missed Monday's Library Loot posting, so here's an update of what I have out from the library over the past week:-Muletrain to Maggody - Joan Hess - one of my favourite mystery series, starring Arly Hanks, sherriff of a dying town in Arkansas, filled with inbreeding and stupidity. Brother Verber, is a hoot, as is Hizzoner the mayor who keeps threatening to remove Arly from her post.
- Damels in Distress - Joan Hess - her other mystery series starring Claire, the owner of a bookstore, her soon to be husband police lieutenant Peter, and moody teenager daughter Caron. Hometown spun, not gory mysteries, and also funny.
-Adventures in Time and Space with Maxwell Merriwell - Pat Murphy. I just read her first book, The Falling Woman, which won a Fantasy award when it was published quite some time ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it (it takes in Mayan curses on an archealogical dig and is haunting and bittersweet). Besides, who could resist that title?
-Newton's Wake - Ken MacLeod - on Locus's recommended reading list for 2008.
- Little Red riding Hood in the Big Bad City - ed Martin Greenberg - who can resist a fantasy collection retelling fairy tales set in New York City? With authors like Tanya Huff, Alan Dean Foster, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Jody Lynn Nye?
-Book of a Thousand Days - Shannon Hale. Finally!!! Only reviewed glowingly so many times by bloggers over the past year! I think I'm the only one who hasn't read this yet!
-The Coffin Trail - Martin Edwards.
- The New Space Opera - ed Garner Dozois - thanks, Carl! and Sci Fi Experience!
- Tender Morsels - Margo Lanagan - I blame Nymeth and Locus's best books of 2008!
Now to find time to read them all!
My Sci Fi Experience Wrap-up:
Carl's Sci Fi Experience was not a reading challenge, it was a reading opportunity. I sadly did not fill my personal expected quota of science fiction books to read! I did read:
-Horizons by Mary Rosenblum,
- Doomsday Book by Connie Willis - review here
and am half-way through Ursula K. Leg Guin's collection of Essays, The Language of the Night, which I've been reviewing on my blog during the experience.
What did I think of this experience? That I used to read a lot more science fiction in my younger years, and I would like to read more now again.
Here is my quick review of Horizons (I told you this was my catch-up post!):
I really enjoyed this book. Mary Rosenblum has been author I've enjoyed since her book Drylands came out 15 years ago.
Horizons is set on a platform above earth; the space around earth has been colonized by the continents below: thus, New York Up is the colony for North America, the world is run by the World Council (kind of like an expanded and much more powerful UN, which Rosenblum says faded away, powerless), there are earthside families and clans, and most of the world population still lives on the planet, but on the different platforms are a growing population of people who have been there for several generations of people now. Part of the plot revolves around what happens to people when they live their entire lives in micro G gravity away in the centre of the platform, - people who don't live in the 80% gravity forcefield that most of the station creates and uses.
As always, I am fascinated by what our writers forsee happening in our future. This novel is set in Earth's near future. Could we have platforms above us in space? why not? Would they be run by the countries making them? Of course. Rosenblum takes it further, by having the earthers not really understanding what those who live on the platforms want : freedom. In the midst of political tension, Ahni comes in, looking for her brother's murderer. She's a Class 9 Empath, which means she can read people's body language and intentions almost as quickly as the person thinks them. She also has a chip implanted in her when she was in her mother's womb, that lets her connect to schematics and download information like a computer. Her brother is a clone of their father. There are no robots, there are ID chips that everyone is supposed to have implanted also. It's a very interesting future, and once I got past the new terminology of the space station, I was intensely involved in the story. The idea of the space station breaking away is not a new science fiction plot, but the future as presented here is, about how Earth could evolve, and what would happen to us if exposed to micro g long enough.
There is also a love story that develops, and family connections, that ground the book into concerns we can relate too. This is something I think science fiction has begun to recognize, and that the best science fiction writers follow: science without people, is not an interesting story. Science with people and emotions, can be fascinating and intelligent.
Horizons is a fun read, and I'm very glad I read it for this reading experience.
I also read two short stories for the mini challenge Carl hosted, and of course I have now gotten a library book out because Carl brought it to our attention!
For anyone looking for new science fiction and fantasy titles or authors to try, or for author interviews, Locus magazine (this is the link to their online site) has been the best information put out monthly in magazine format for over 20 years
now. You can order back issues of your favourite authors - Charles de Lint, Robert Jordan, Ors
on Scott Card..... - and the reviews are excellent. Here is a link to their 2008 Recommended Reading list. And here is an excerpt Locus has online from a recent interview with Ursula k. LeGuin. They link to author interview on other sites, cover what's new and selling in book stores, and generally are one of my touchstones for the field of science fiction and fantasy.This is the cover of the latest magazine, which just arrived in my mailbox. I am busy circling all the books I want by Christmas!
Titles like:
-A Dance With Dragons - George RR Martin, expected Oct 09;
-Boneshaker - Cherie Priest, expected Nov 09;
- A Time to Cast Away Stones - Tim Powers, May 2009;
- Muse and Reverie - Dec 09, and
- Mystery of Grace- March 2009 - both by Charles de Lint;
- Dragon Keeper - Robin Hobb (Oct 09); and
- Hunting Ground - Patricia Brigg, Aug 09.
So, that's my catch-up for today. It's pouring rain outside, and I'm going to try sitting on the sofa now. Watchmen calls, as does Polysyllabic Spree (which I'm almost done now).
Happy reading, Gentle Readers!
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
Catching up and no worries about running out of books to read.....
I've been sick the past two days with a version of the flu. Today I am home again because my daughter's babysitter and family caught the same bug and so I am spending the afternoon with Holly-Anne at home. If only this gave me time to read! Unfortunately I was so sick I couldn't read - Buffy tv watching and lots of sleep was all I could manage - so I haven't magically read anything, and missed Short Story Monday again. The good news is.......I went book buying today! I had to pick up the two books I had on order, and found 3 more.......
1. The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper #2 in The Dark is Rising Series
2. The Dead Hour - Denise MIna
3. The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter
4.Inkheart - Cornelia Funke
5. The Various Haunts of Men - Susan Hill
My excuse for picking up the extra books are - If I like the Dead Hour, I can give copies to my mother and other people through the year. Inkheart I wanted to read before the movie opens soon. The Dark is Rising, because I enjoyed book 1 and now I want to read the series this year! It will be fantastic if I can finally get the whole series read. For the books I'd ordered, I really want to read The Various Haunts of Men, which is book one in the Simon Serrailler series - again, if I like it, can get copies for other people. And the Bloody Chamber, which I have been meaning to read for at least 10 years, and thought was out of print and couldn't find a used copy anywhere. One of my favourite movies, A Company of Wolves, is based on a short story in The Bloody Chamber. And I had to put back two other books to get later, and promise myself I would come back for the Book Thief, and book two of Paul Park's Roumania series which is getting raves in the fantasy world, and promise myself that I would ration myself to buying a book a week! Obviously has not worked this month already. But I feel better!
I guess I shouldn't worry about running out of books to read!
My copy of Locus magazine arrived yesterday with the year 2007 in review, so of course I have been making a list of books from there to get next. Even the reviewers in Locus were saying that they didn't have enough time last year to read all the books that were published, in the science fiction and fantasy fields. So they had to choose what to read and review. I thought this was an interesting point they made, because it seems to me to be true of publishing in general now - there are so many books being published in a year, that it is impossible to read them all. So how do you choose, then? How do I choose? Do I read only reviews? Other people's lists of what it is good? Word of mouth? What is your selection criteria, Gentle Reader? How do you choose what books to read in a given year? My criteria has always been varied - I like a good story, and try to read as much as I can, in a given year. I check out newspaper reviews, magazine reviews, Book Magazine, Locus, Guardian Unlimited Books online regularly, Book Slut has good mystery and young adult fiction reviews online, and then the rest is by chance, by going into bookstores, and now blogs. Entertainment Weekly and Stephen King's column sometimes have interesting books to look out for. And always, there is everyone's Notable Book List of the year, plus award winners etc.
I can't say I am willing to read anything, and that is part of my problem. If so many books are being published in fantasy, and mystery, the genres I read most in, how can I read other areas too? How do I choose my books? Favourite authors, word of mouth, gifts, plus the areas mentioned above. And always, I want something good, something beautiful, meaningful, interesting, deep, thoughtful, moving, original. Exciting.
One of the things I have found, that I mentioned in an earlier blog, is that these book blogs help me find books I otherwise would overlook - books that were published years ago, books in other genres that I don't often read in, books that are good but have been overlooked in a time when so many books are being published. So I am most grateful to you, other book bloggers, for writing about what we all love so much - books.
And despite critical reviewers writing about book bloggers and our lack of credentials and/or books spoiling reviews, I can't help think that book blogs are more useful and fun than a disservice to the publishing industry. I got my sister to read Persuasion because of one of the blogs I wrote about the movie and how the book is better than any version made yet! So my hope is that our book blogs do just that - allow us to talk about books, and help each other find wonderful books to read. The best of our blogs allow us a peek into one another's lives as we live around our reading. Many of us have children, work, husbands, and we build reading in and around how we live. Or build our lives around our reading, I'm not sure which comes first!
Youngest child has just come home, my life calls - the last story in The Door in the Hedge will have to wait til after dinner, I'm afraid.... Happy reading, and happy finding new books to read this year!
1. The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper #2 in The Dark is Rising Series
2. The Dead Hour - Denise MIna
3. The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter
4.Inkheart - Cornelia Funke
5. The Various Haunts of Men - Susan Hill
My excuse for picking up the extra books are - If I like the Dead Hour, I can give copies to my mother and other people through the year. Inkheart I wanted to read before the movie opens soon. The Dark is Rising, because I enjoyed book 1 and now I want to read the series this year! It will be fantastic if I can finally get the whole series read. For the books I'd ordered, I really want to read The Various Haunts of Men, which is book one in the Simon Serrailler series - again, if I like it, can get copies for other people. And the Bloody Chamber, which I have been meaning to read for at least 10 years, and thought was out of print and couldn't find a used copy anywhere. One of my favourite movies, A Company of Wolves, is based on a short story in The Bloody Chamber. And I had to put back two other books to get later, and promise myself I would come back for the Book Thief, and book two of Paul Park's Roumania series which is getting raves in the fantasy world, and promise myself that I would ration myself to buying a book a week! Obviously has not worked this month already. But I feel better!
I guess I shouldn't worry about running out of books to read!
My copy of Locus magazine arrived yesterday with the year 2007 in review, so of course I have been making a list of books from there to get next. Even the reviewers in Locus were saying that they didn't have enough time last year to read all the books that were published, in the science fiction and fantasy fields. So they had to choose what to read and review. I thought this was an interesting point they made, because it seems to me to be true of publishing in general now - there are so many books being published in a year, that it is impossible to read them all. So how do you choose, then? How do I choose? Do I read only reviews? Other people's lists of what it is good? Word of mouth? What is your selection criteria, Gentle Reader? How do you choose what books to read in a given year? My criteria has always been varied - I like a good story, and try to read as much as I can, in a given year. I check out newspaper reviews, magazine reviews, Book Magazine, Locus, Guardian Unlimited Books online regularly, Book Slut has good mystery and young adult fiction reviews online, and then the rest is by chance, by going into bookstores, and now blogs. Entertainment Weekly and Stephen King's column sometimes have interesting books to look out for. And always, there is everyone's Notable Book List of the year, plus award winners etc.
I can't say I am willing to read anything, and that is part of my problem. If so many books are being published in fantasy, and mystery, the genres I read most in, how can I read other areas too? How do I choose my books? Favourite authors, word of mouth, gifts, plus the areas mentioned above. And always, I want something good, something beautiful, meaningful, interesting, deep, thoughtful, moving, original. Exciting.
One of the things I have found, that I mentioned in an earlier blog, is that these book blogs help me find books I otherwise would overlook - books that were published years ago, books in other genres that I don't often read in, books that are good but have been overlooked in a time when so many books are being published. So I am most grateful to you, other book bloggers, for writing about what we all love so much - books.
And despite critical reviewers writing about book bloggers and our lack of credentials and/or books spoiling reviews, I can't help think that book blogs are more useful and fun than a disservice to the publishing industry. I got my sister to read Persuasion because of one of the blogs I wrote about the movie and how the book is better than any version made yet! So my hope is that our book blogs do just that - allow us to talk about books, and help each other find wonderful books to read. The best of our blogs allow us a peek into one another's lives as we live around our reading. Many of us have children, work, husbands, and we build reading in and around how we live. Or build our lives around our reading, I'm not sure which comes first!
Youngest child has just come home, my life calls - the last story in The Door in the Hedge will have to wait til after dinner, I'm afraid.... Happy reading, and happy finding new books to read this year!
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