Book Memage

[kerravonsen]

Here's the much-delayed book meme, gacked from a few different people, such as vilakins and mistraltoes.

1. I'm currently reading:
"The Second Wexford Omnibus" by Ruth Rendell. People have been dumping cast-off books at me since Christmas, along the lines of "I've finished reading this, it was okay, worth reading once, would you like it?"; this one was from a friend, looks like an ex-library book, hardcover. Three novels in one book. Just some nice straightforward murder mystery, with some very English characters in it. Well, "straightfoward" isn't perhaps the word... but something that's intellectually engaging without being emotionally irritating. Just what I feel like reading at the moment, anyway. The middle book is a bit more emotionally complicated, as one of the detectives is making a mess of his family life, silly guy. That's the one I'm reading right now.

2. Next I'll read:
Dunno. Depends what I feel like. I certainly have a pile of new ones, some of which are glaring at me more accusingly than others. I could read "Zelerod's Doom", the third part of the Sime~Gen "Unity Trilogy" by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah, which is an omnibus of "House of Zeor", "Ambrov Keon" and "Zelerod's Doom". The irony of that is that I only recently (last year) spent a bit of trouble getting hold of a second-hand copy of "Ambrov Keon", which is probably my favourite Sime~Gen novel, and now I go and buy it again in this reprint. Oh well. I must say that this has the nicest rendition of a Sime on the cover that I've seen.
I could also read, if I felt like hard SF, "The Stone Canal" by Ken Macleod (which I did read a few pages of when it arrived, but wasn't in the mood for) or "The Golden Age" by John C. Wright. If I felt like a bodice-ripper I could read "Ravyn's Flight", which I've also read a few pages of, and I fear the book will end up being one long pointless chase scene... I could attempt to pick up a couple of books that I've actually gotten past the 50-page mark on, "Timeline" by Michael Chrichton, or the classic fantasy "Lud-in-the-Mist", whose synopsis sounds more interesting than the story has been so far.
I could read some sequels, like "Time Past" (if I felt like some gritty grimy SF) or "Devlin's Honor" (if I felt like some fantasy where the hero wants to die, and his doom forces him to live, and not only fight, but get involved in politics... hmmm, that sounds like "Curse of Chalion" doesn't it?). Or I could read the other stories in "Iresistable Forces". Or I could read "Blind Vision" by Merguerite Krause, though I'm not sure what level of fantasy writing it is.
And then there are several others which have actually been shelved and I still haven't read them, like "Otherland", and "Black Sun Rising" and "Dragonclaw" and "Moonwar" and "Restoration"... oh well.
But I think I might read "Uncommon Sense" by M. Margaret Neil, which sounds like fun; present-day heroine gets power of empathy and nobody believes her. I gather it's a romance also; this may or may not be good.
But I could change my mind by the time I've finished with Wexford.

3. The best book I read in the past year was:
I'm not sure that I can remember back a year. (writes some stuff, then deletes it). No, no, I've got it! I read it last year in May, when I was in the UK, and it was very strange to read a near-future SF book where I actually recognised some of the places being talked about, because this book was also set in the UK. The book is "Dangerous Notes" by Gillian Bradshaw, and manages to weave together neurology, music, and reflections of greek myth with some very interesting characters. And a hopeful ending! Really cool. Must read it again.

4. The book I'm most looking forward to reading is:
Oh, hard to say. I'm very curious to read the Savage Empire omnibus by Jean Lorrah which I've ordered from Amazon, because I've heard of this series ever since I first heard of Jean Lorrah, and I like stories with psi stuff in them, and I know she's a good writer, so have my hopes up for it.
I could also say the sequel to this, the sequel to that, but how can I really say that when I'm waiting for things to come out in paperback, like "The Paladin of Souls", or "1634" (goes over and looks at www.baen.com) and it gets even more confusing when they bring out all these omnibuses with new titles so you can't be sure if it's really a new book or a reprint of an old one (not that I mind them reprinting classics so that I can read them...)

5. My favourite author is:
Oh, c'mon, you expect me to have one favourite author?
Lewis and Tolkien go without saying. Then there's Chesterton and Austen. Of more recent vintage would be Gillian Bradshaw, Sharon Lee+Steve Miller,Lois McMaster Bujold, Joan D. Vinge -- and I'd better stop.

6. My favourite book from childhood is:
Hmmm. Richard Scarry's ABC Book. With all those cute pictures, and having fun spotting Lowly The Worm. Yes, I still have it. What're you looking at? I told you it was my favourite...

7. My favourite book from when I was a teenager is:
That's harder to figure, because when I was a teenager I devoured books like locusts devour fields. Well, my favourite author was probably Andre Norton, whom I discovered when I was 12, when some fine soul whose name I have forgotten, gave me "Exiles of the Stars" for my birthday. Mind you, it wasn't all that long after that that Norton's work started going downhill -- I don't think it was simply that I grew out of it, I still feel there is a distinct difference between her earlier and later works; my rule of thumb is that if it was written in the 1980s or later, forget it.
On the other hand, now that I remember it, I was blown away by Anne McCaffrey's first "Dragon" trilogy, because it was the first time I'd read a trilogy where the middle book didn't feel incomplete. Probably because it was never envisaged as a trilogy to start with, and ended up being a series. Though my favourite of the Dragon books has to be the first two books of the "Harper Hall" trilogy -- I really liked Menolly; an ugly-duckling story. Then again, an author who was really good at ugly duckling stories was Diana Wynne Jones, especially in books like "Power of Three" or "Charmed Life".
But then I have to remember the battered copy of Richard Adams' "Watership Down", which I liked so much I started recording it on cassette, following the footsteps of my father who had recorded the Narnia stories and The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings onto reel-to-reel tape for us when we were kids. (That's kind of why Lewis and Tolkien go without saying -- I had them read to me before I could read myself...)
So, I give up on this question.

8. The first western I read was:
I don't think I've actually read a western. Seen western movies, yes, but not actually read any.

9. The first romance I read was:
Oh, I'm not sure if it was Pride and Predjudice or one of my sister's Georgette Heyer novels. Austen and Heyer remain my primary sources for romance, though I do dabble a bit in mixed-genre things; i.e. it has romance in it but only as part of the historical/SF/Fantasy/Mystery story.

10. The first mystery I read was:
Probably one of my mother's Perry Mason novels -- there were a few shelves of them in the basement when I was a late teen.

11. The first coming-of-age story I read was:
I'm not sure -- what's a coming-of-age story? Maybe something by Madeline L'Engle or Judy Blume.

12. The first "ethnic" writer I read was:
Does Jewish count as ethnic? Chaim Potok wrote this book I read for school...

13. The first science-fiction/fantasy book I read was:
"The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" by C. S. Lewis, before I could read, as my father read them to us and I was the youngest. He also read us the Andrew Lang coloured Fairy Books, with those lovely illustrations. And then I found that the set belonged to my sister. (sigh). I have been gradually buying a set for my own, but the reprints don't have the colour pictures in colour (sigh)
Apart from those, the first SF/F I read on my own, might have been my brother's Heinleins or Asimovs.

14. I wish I spent more time reading:
Books are for fun. I'm not going to waste my energy wishing I read more of this that or the other genre.

15. The book I think was the greatest waste of my time to read was:
Hmmm. Bit of a toss up there. There was this fantasy novel with the most delicious cover, and I think it was called something like "The Fall of the Kings", and it had had all these nice reviews inside, and I started reading it and I was so dissappointed when it turned out that the two main protagonists, whom I had thought were going to be deep friends, turned into gay lovers. I was expecting one kind of book and got something I couldn't stand reading. So that was a waste of money.
The other chief contender would have to be "Shelters of Stone" by Jean Auel, the 5th book in the Earth's Children series. The first three books in the series were great; epics, yes, but they brought the landscape to life, and I liked the characters. The fourth book started dragging, but I put up with it. The fifth book was like dragging an anvil through a swamp -- it desperately needed editing, half of it was like a lecture on stone-age culture, and the characterisations were all over the place. Since I actually did force myself to read the entire thing, I would call that a bigger waste of time than the other. I'm not going to buy the 6th book, since I don't think they're going to give her an editor if they haven't already...

16. The person who most encouraged me to read was:
my parents I guess. I mean, there were always books everywhere and everyone read... We had to get permission to read at meals though! Yep, a house full of bookworms.

17. The book I'm embarrassed to admit I liked is:
I'm with Nico here; why should I be embarrassed? What's wrong with the "500 Hats of Bartholemew Cubbins"?

18. I think people could be encouraged to read through:
I agree with Nico on this too -- reading to kids (whether it be in primary school or with parents at home) gets them interested, I think. I remember my teacher reading us "James and the Giant Peach" and being rivetted.

19. My current favourite genre is: SF&F of course, and not likely to change.

20. The one book that I'd recommend to almost anyone is:
Now, that's hard. Because I really don't think there's going to be one book that will appeal to everyone. I mean, the first question I ask someone if they ask me for recommendations is "What kind of books do you like? What sort of book are you in the mood for?" Because even within one genre (especially SF&F) things vary so much one needs to narrow it a bit.
The best historical novel ever is "The Beacon At Alexandria" by Gillian Bradshaw; it has a little bit of everything -- the past is painted like an alien planet, you have an appealing protagonist, travel, medicine, learning, politics, intrigue, heroism and romance.
Best plain SF for a non-SF audience: "A Fall of Moondust" by Arthur C. Clarke; though the attitudes of the characters are a bit dated now, it's an SF thriller with everyman characters in it; like an "airport" book, only set on the moon. Either that, or "Trouble With Lichen" by John Wyndham, another classic (though less well known than his "Day of the Triffids") I like it because it has good thoughtful ideas and cunning twists, which don't seem to have dated that much, strangely enough.
Best lyrical SF: almost anything by Cordwainer Smith. And linguists might like "Babel 17" by Samuel R. Delany (must read that again too)
Best Fantasy for someone who thinks Lord of the Rings is too long: Hmm, tricky. If they like traditional fairy tales and the Arabian Nights, I'd suggest "A Wind in Cairo" by Judith Tarr, which is a full Arabian Nights tale, and the book by Judith Tarr which I reread most often.
For a taste of Tolkien without the length, I'd actually suggest, not "The Hobbit", but "Smith of Wooton Major", which isn't about Middle Earth at all, but the perilous and wondrous land of Faery. (must read that one again too)
Or one might just as well toss the coloured Fairy Books at them, if they want really short stories!
The problem is, the good fantasy I like isn't Tolkien-like, because imitators are never as good as the real thing.

Comments

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The best historical novel ever is "The Beacon At Alexandria" by Gillian Bradshaw

Oh, I loved that! I really liked the protagonist, a brilliant woman who posed as a male to pursue her love of medicine. I've just noted your recommendation of her 'Dangerous Notes', so I think my next visit to the library will be for something of hers.

Best lyrical SF: almost anything by Cordwainer Smith.

Oh, yes! I forgot to include him in my favourite authors, but he's one. So much so I recently bought his collected works (in two volumes) from Amazon.

Thank you for that, you've given me some authors to check out. In more ways than one--from the library too. :-)