Category: Books

I Propelled an interview with Neal Stephenson this morning. The whole thing is an awesome read, but one thing in particular jumped out at me:

“If you choose to read a book today, it’s not like a hundred years ago, when that was your only option. Today, when you read a book, you’re making a conscious decision not to play a video game, not to surf the web, not to watch a movie, not to turn on the TV. It does require a certain discipline to make that decision.…”

It’s true, isn’t it? There are so many different ways for us to be entertained these days, but opening and falling into a book is still my favorite.

I don’t do memes, because once I start, I doubt I’d be able to stop. That wouldn’t end well for anyone, especially my cat who is bacon-averse.

This morning, though, while I was Propelling, I stopped at SF Signal and saw Quick Meme: What are You Reading?

Q: What book are you currently reading? Is it good so far?

Oh! Good question. I’m so glad you asked. I love to read, and I love to talk about books, so I’m going to go ahead and hop onto this one. Don’t worry, I won’t be tagging anyone, because that’s just silly.

Until last year, I’d limit myself and only read one book at a time, but as the pile of things I wanted to read grew ever larger, I decided that it made more sense to go ahead and read a few books in parallel, sort of like watching different channels on different nights. So far, this has worked out pretty well for me, and allowed me to read more books than I normally would without making me feel like I’m sacrificing anything in each individual book.

Does anyone else do this? Is this the normal way people read books, and I’m just figuring it out now? I wonder about these things. Enlighten me.

So, to the meme! Right now, I’m reading The Living Dead anthology, edited by John Joseph Adams. I just love it, but it’s huge. Also, as John at SF Signal observed, because it’s an anthology, it takes longer to read than a book of equal length, because you have to adjust to a new author’s style and find the groove of each new story. I never thought about that very much, but it explains why I don’t read anthologies with the same enthusiasm that I read novels.

I’ve read a few stories in The Living Dead, and I especially liked Kelly Link’s Some Zombie Contingency Plans, Dan Simmons’ This Year’s Class Picture, David Barr Kirtley’s The Skull-Faced Boy, and Dale Bailey’s Death and Suffrage.

I’ve wanted to write a zombie story for years. The last one I wrote was the 7th grade tale of turgid terror “The Land of the Zombies” and I’m anxious to revisit the genre. The Living Dead has inspired me, and I have an idea that I’m outlining right now.

Is it good so far? Oh, you betcha, my friends. It’s fantastic.

I’m also re-reading, for the first time in over fifteen years, Ender’s Game. Nolan has a Sci-Fi class at school, and when he told me that he’d picked Ender’s Game from the reading list, I thought it would be fun to grab my copy out of storage and read it with him.

Nolan isn’t a voracious reader like Ryan is, but when he finds a book that he likes, he pretty much drops everything else in the world until the book is finished. After two days, he had read over 100 pages of Ender, while I was still in the third chapter. He’s agreed to give me a day to catch up, though.

Is it good so far? Yes. Ender’s Game is as fast-paced and accessible as I remember it, and I’m picking up on all sorts of stuff I missed when I was a kid. I loved this book when I was a teenager – I think I first read it when I was 14 or 15 – but I never got into any of the sequels. I find Orson Scott Card’s recent raging homophobia and associated ignorant ranting pretty reprehensible, and I have no interest in giving him any of my money or spending any time reading his current work, but I didn’t know about any of that when I was a kid, and none of that changes how great Ender’s Game is.

Soon I Will Be Invincible. (I’m updating because I forgot to add this one. I’m kind of stupid today.) I still love this. I’m taking my time, though, because I don’t want it to end.

I keep finding myself picking up and skimming through The Pirate’s Guide to Freeport, the 4th Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, The World of Darkness, and a bunch of old GURPS books: Cyberpunk, Horror, Autoduel and Space. I really want to teach Nolan Car Wars, but I don’t think he has the patience. Goddamn video games.

Are they good so far? Um. Duh.

I’m taking this one step beyond (with the rockingest, rocksteady beat of MADNESS!!) and adding the books I can’t want to start:

Zoe’s Tale. This one is at the top of the pile, because I love the Old Man’s War universe, and Scalzi is my friend. I think it’s another one I can read with Nolan, too.

Pattern Recognition. I was trying to decide if it was going to be this or Spook Country, and everyone I know who has read them both says Pattern Recognition is the way to go.

The Terror. I’ve had this one on the nightstand for months, and I’ve gotten about 2 chapters into it. It’s nearing that point of no return where I know I won’t be able to put it down. I can’t risk losing even more productivity than I already have, though, so it’ll have to keep waiting.

Carter Beats the Devil. My friend Yuri says that I shouldn’t even open this book unless I can clear my life of everything else until I finish it, because it’s that good.

The Graveyard Book. I bought this the day it came out, and it’s going to be my reward when I finish . . . something. I haven’t decided what it is, yet.

House of Leaves. A friend of mine knows the author, and gave me a copy a million years ago. I was intimidated by its size, but I understand that it’s worth it.

Spin. Recommended by a friend, as well. I made it about 100 pages into the book and got distracted by a red balloon. I was intrigued enough to finish it, though. Maybe I’ll get to move it up to the Stuff I’m Reading list.

I’ve been acting more than usual lately. (I know, I know, it’s weird for me, too.) It uses the same creative energy and inspiration sources in my brain as writing, so I just haven’t had anything left at the end of the day to work on the stories I have in various stages of creation. This is frustrating and a little demoralizing to me, but Stephen King says that writers have to read, though, so I’m going to go ahead and give myself permission to . . . uh . . . draw some inspiration . . . from some other writers.

Okay, let’s throw it open in comments: What book are you currently reading? Is it good so far?