Recently not-yet-read

[viktor_haag]

I notice that the last post I made about my reading pile was almost a month and a half ago. What have I read since then?

Well, not all that much, really. I did finish "Critical Practice" by Catherine Belsey and this prompted me to stick my toe back into the literary theory pool. We'll see how far I manage to get there before I leap out, shivering...

On the fiction front, I have once again fallen into the proliferated-reading-pile habit. My current books on the go list is:

"The Stand" by Stephen King; urged by a friend of mine who really likes King, and my own urge to give him another turn at-bat I decided to start with the monster. About half-way through now, and it's pretty good (well, readable, anyway). The jury's still out on how I'll feel about it when done, but I get the feeling that (a) he's a meat and potatoes writer, and (b) he's very very good at being a meat and potatoes writer, and (c) there's not much wrong with that.

"Shadow & Claw" by Gene Wolfe: yeah, I've turned back to this once again. My long term plan here is to get through the Old Sun, New Sun, Long Sun, and Short Sun series. Since I suspect my need for diversity wouldn't let me do that to the exclusion of all other reading, I'm trying to make this my "backup reading"; I don't put the book in my pack, I keep it on my night-table.

"Two For The Lions" by Lindsey Davis, because the other stuff active on the pile is not exactly "light hearted". When I want to read, but I can't face anything heavy, then Davis is typically what I turn to. Very readable, light, funny, and diverting.

Books that are looking to get on the list:

"The Black Company" by Glen Cook: I think Cook would really like to be in Wolfe's position for my reading attention. The thought of trading off between Wolfe and Cook has occurred to me, but I'm not sure I want to lock myself into reading essentially the same genre/mode for the years it would take to get through both catalogs of stuff.

Various SF: Dan Simmons' Hyperion cycle, Jack McDevitt's "Seeker" and "Polaris", the Robert Charles Wilson books I haven't got to yet ("Spin" and "Blind Lake").

Various mysteries: all the Donna Leon, Davis, Sayers, Mankell books I have on my shelf I haven't got to yet.

At some point I'm going to have to grimly stop buying books. I have a strong suspicion I already have many more books than I can manage to read in the rest of my remaining life...

Comments

[sixteenbynine.livejournal.com]

Speaking as a confirmed compulsive reader: No, you never stop. :D

[thebitterguy]

Vis a Vis The Stand: I wrote a post about it once, but I'm looking forward to your reaction when you're done and have seen the ending.

Is it the original version, or the unexpurgated monster?

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

The unexpurgated monster. I just picked up what was on the shelf at the bookstore. Reading King's instructional preface convinced me that I didn't need to bother about editorial purity or poring through libraries or used bookstores for the original version.

Digression: I really should use libraries more often, but I don't, for a variety of reasons: my tastes often run counter to a library's stock; I really prefer most often to read an author "from start to finish" and this can be difficult with libraries ("what! where's the fourth book! I don't care if it's not a "series"!); and, while I don't read slowly, I do read more than one thing at once, so rarely can I finish a book in time before a due date because I have other books on the go at the same time.

When I was back at University, term loan was my friend; but they don't give that out to alumni, and I also wasn't fond of the "someone needs that book now, so you must return it immediately" phenomenon that is the inevitable price you pay for a term loan system.

Back on topic: I will try to remember to make a post about "The Stand" when I finish it. I've been trying to read it with a somewhat critical eye, and I have several musings about it but I'm waiting until finishing before trying to write them down. This is probably not a great idea (given its size); maybe I have to turn into the sort of person that keeps a reading journal...

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

My own experience with King's fiction is limited and old (Firestarter, Dead Zone and Eyes of the Dragon) but I have read his book "On Writing" and his is indeed a very skilled, talented meat and potatoes writer. And there is indeed nothing wrong with that.

Wolfe, on the other hand, is my favorite author. I try to reread the whole New Sun sequence every few years and always tease out more. There are some major stylistic shifts between New Sun and Long Sun (which is the Whorl series), and noticeable ones between Log Sun and Short Sun (which takes places after Whorl)- the narrator's voices are quite different. In other words, there is considerable diversity in the series, though each series is long and dense on its own.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Long Sun == Whorl

Yep; thanks for the correction -- I've edited my post accordingly.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

As to Wolfe and his position in my favourites list, I'd have to say that Wolfe, Jack Vance, and Borges are jostling around within my top five, but I'd be hesitant to name anyone as a favourite.

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

That's quite the pile!

I enjoy Stephen King for being a 'meat and potatoes' writer, but I do note that he's better when he has an editor. His non-fiction 'Danse Macabre' is a fun survey of his horror influences growing up.

Dot Sayers is terrific; have you read any of her Lord Peter material earlier?

Nod abut about good Gene Wolfe's Old Sun is; I must have re-read those four books half a dozen times. And I've only read the first two books in Dan Simmon's Hyperion cycle.

::B::

P.S. And like you, I'm worried about finding time both now and the future for my reading habit. I've tracked only about 50 fiction books this year I've read, (with reading stuff on the Web and stuff for work putting a severe dent on my available reading time). Even if I keep slogging on at about 100 fiction books a year, that implies there's not enough time for reading that many more books over my potential lifespan...

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

I really haven't done the math. I'm scared to do the math. But the knot in my stomach feels like certainty... 8p

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Sayers is terrific

I started buying the new editions from New English Library, because I thought they were handsome. I have read three or four of them so far. I got introduced to Sayers through the various BBC adaptations, which I now own on DVD. I quite like the books, but I haven't been as compulsively reading them as I have the Lindsay Davis mysteries, or Henning Mankell's Wallendar mysteries (probably those two, and van Gulik's Judge Dee books are my favourite mysteries).

Simmon's Hyperion cycle

Personally, I liked "Endymion" better than "Fall of Hyperion". However, I never got to "Rise of Endymion" so now, of course, I have a compulsion to read all the books from the start, and do that before I even get to his Olympos/Illium books. Gah.

King's books

I have and have read both "Danse Macabre" and "On Writing". I have read one (two?) of his short work collections (I think "Skeleton Crew" and "Night Shift"). I have also read "Salem's Lot" which I quite liked. I tried reading "It" and bounced, hard, after a couple hundred pages. I bounced hard enough that I haven't really gone back to reading more of his work for almost a couple decades.

In my recent re-try phase, I have purchased "The Stand" and "Gunslinger"; based on comments from others, I have a feeling that I'll like "The Stand" and the Dark Tower stuff better than his other work.

In the past, I always made the remark that I liked his short fiction much better than his novels, but now I'm not so sure.