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Book backlog
Having a bit more free time now, I'm actually getting to do more reading - and also making more progress on cataloguing books onto Library Thing. This process is revealing just how large my 'unread' pile is, but also how many books I'm able to discard in order to create space on my bookshelves.
The backlog is a mixture of book I've bought becasue I really wanted them (eg. Elizabeth Moon), books that have a really good reputation (Use of Weapons), books by writers whom I used to like a lot (Gordon Dickson), books I've been given at conventions (Acacia), books I've had as presents (Red Robe), books were probably bought by Richard originally, but I think I might like (Hornblower) and books I've acquired becasue I felt vaguely guilty about never having read them (I Claudius).
Some of these are being processed quite quickly - Gordon Dickson hasn't lived up to re-reading. I have higher demands on quality of character and background than I did as a teenager. Philip K Dick turned out not to be my cup of tea either ('Weird' isn't really my genre). Iain Banks falls into a particularly annoying category. He's an excellent writer, but I rarely get hooked by his books. I struggled to finish 'Use of Weapons' ; I acknowledge it to be well-written, well-plotted (though I dislike the jumping about in time), well-characterised with a good twist at the end, but ultimately, it simply isn't for me.
It's hard to say exactly what hooks me in a novel, but the story is all important. Moon, Bujold, Heinlein, they really work for me.
I'm planning on working through all the convention books soon. I'm expecting those to be a hit and miss bunch, but hopefully, some of them will introduce me to new writers that I'll really like (I first read Jon Courtney Grimwood as a con giveaway and have read many of his books since then). But today, I'm reading HG Wells. So far, 'The Time Machine' is holding up very well.
It strikes me, that when I was younger, there were less SF books around. What I viewed as the world's total supply of SF and Fantasy was at the Wythenshawe library (I'd already exhausted the library in Heald Green and was cycling further afield to get more books). I read everything, almost regardless of quality, because there wasn't going to be any more when I'd finished it. I didn't have a lot of disposable income, so I didn't buy many books.
Nowadays, the problem is the opposite one. The mountain of writers whom I still have to read seems endless, exacerbated by the fact that there was a period of 10-15 years when reading was physically painful for me and I read very little in that time. I'm catching up on a chunk of the past while still seeing new, good writers coming forward. It's making me far more ruthless. A book that I might once have read cover to cover (it's a bit like eating all the food on your plate, you feel guilty if you start a book and don't finish it), now gets abandoned after the first chapter if it isn't up to scratch. Some won't even make it past the first few pages. But if I get past the first chapter, then I'll read it right to the end.
It's ruthless, but it's also helping create space on the shelves.
The backlog is a mixture of book I've bought becasue I really wanted them (eg. Elizabeth Moon), books that have a really good reputation (Use of Weapons), books by writers whom I used to like a lot (Gordon Dickson), books I've been given at conventions (Acacia), books I've had as presents (Red Robe), books were probably bought by Richard originally, but I think I might like (Hornblower) and books I've acquired becasue I felt vaguely guilty about never having read them (I Claudius).
Some of these are being processed quite quickly - Gordon Dickson hasn't lived up to re-reading. I have higher demands on quality of character and background than I did as a teenager. Philip K Dick turned out not to be my cup of tea either ('Weird' isn't really my genre). Iain Banks falls into a particularly annoying category. He's an excellent writer, but I rarely get hooked by his books. I struggled to finish 'Use of Weapons' ; I acknowledge it to be well-written, well-plotted (though I dislike the jumping about in time), well-characterised with a good twist at the end, but ultimately, it simply isn't for me.
It's hard to say exactly what hooks me in a novel, but the story is all important. Moon, Bujold, Heinlein, they really work for me.
I'm planning on working through all the convention books soon. I'm expecting those to be a hit and miss bunch, but hopefully, some of them will introduce me to new writers that I'll really like (I first read Jon Courtney Grimwood as a con giveaway and have read many of his books since then). But today, I'm reading HG Wells. So far, 'The Time Machine' is holding up very well.
It strikes me, that when I was younger, there were less SF books around. What I viewed as the world's total supply of SF and Fantasy was at the Wythenshawe library (I'd already exhausted the library in Heald Green and was cycling further afield to get more books). I read everything, almost regardless of quality, because there wasn't going to be any more when I'd finished it. I didn't have a lot of disposable income, so I didn't buy many books.
Nowadays, the problem is the opposite one. The mountain of writers whom I still have to read seems endless, exacerbated by the fact that there was a period of 10-15 years when reading was physically painful for me and I read very little in that time. I'm catching up on a chunk of the past while still seeing new, good writers coming forward. It's making me far more ruthless. A book that I might once have read cover to cover (it's a bit like eating all the food on your plate, you feel guilty if you start a book and don't finish it), now gets abandoned after the first chapter if it isn't up to scratch. Some won't even make it past the first few pages. But if I get past the first chapter, then I'll read it right to the end.
It's ruthless, but it's also helping create space on the shelves.