Leaving the Land of Fiction behind...
I appear to have lost the ability to read fiction - or at least I've unexpectedly lost the inclination to do so.
Having finished all of the Charles Williams books I own a couple of weeks ago, I've tried to get into book after book, ranging from the joys of easy reading TV tie-ins (Rags by Mick Lewis), through sf giants (White Mars by Brian Aldiss, which I'd been looking forward to since I bought it) all the way to 'proper' writing (Emma by Jane Austen).
Add in the latest Jasper Fforde, a smattering of Flashmans, Merens and, eh, Liraels and that's a fair pile of books now lying round my house with bits of paper sticking out of them in the region of their respective pages ten.
Fortunately, my final birthday present arrived yesterday - Dusted, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer programme Guide by Lawrence Miles (one half of the excellent About Time writing team) and Lars Pearson (publisher of the Faction Paradox range of novels). And I'm enjoying it so far - maybe I just needed a break from fiction after 30 years of reading constantly?
Also in the post recently were DVDs of School for Seduction, War of the Buttons and Greatest Store in the World - all of which will nicely feed my Dervla Kirwan obsession...
Having finished all of the Charles Williams books I own a couple of weeks ago, I've tried to get into book after book, ranging from the joys of easy reading TV tie-ins (Rags by Mick Lewis), through sf giants (White Mars by Brian Aldiss, which I'd been looking forward to since I bought it) all the way to 'proper' writing (Emma by Jane Austen).
Add in the latest Jasper Fforde, a smattering of Flashmans, Merens and, eh, Liraels and that's a fair pile of books now lying round my house with bits of paper sticking out of them in the region of their respective pages ten.
Fortunately, my final birthday present arrived yesterday - Dusted, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer programme Guide by Lawrence Miles (one half of the excellent About Time writing team) and Lars Pearson (publisher of the Faction Paradox range of novels). And I'm enjoying it so far - maybe I just needed a break from fiction after 30 years of reading constantly?
Also in the post recently were DVDs of School for Seduction, War of the Buttons and Greatest Store in the World - all of which will nicely feed my Dervla Kirwan obsession...
1 Comments:
I'm a great appreciator of Aldiss' work, but White Mars I found worthy-but-dull -- more like the Victorian utopias it's clearly imitating than the snappier and more ambiguated modern equivalent. The characters didn't engage me at all -- they just seemed like mouthpieces in a gigantic multi-player Socratic dialogue.
Which is a shame, because when Aldiss is on top of his game there are few career SF writers who can match him.
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