Reading, Writing, Waxing philosophical.
For Christmas, I received a copy of Brave Men Run by Matthew Wayne Selznick. It was given to me late, and I started reading it earlier this week. Just finished it now. Interesting book, but a little slow and short by the standards I usually hold my reading to.
Reading the book was an odd experience for me. It was set in the 80s, an alternate 80s where super-humans (meta-humans, mutants, etc, fiction has a whole list of names for these sorts), called Sovereigns in this case, were outed in a big way and we get one kid's story for his involvement in this outing. The 80s cultural references left me mostly in the dark, given that I hardly remember a thing of the 80s, having been born in '83 and therefore wasn't old enough to remember much 'til the decade was all but over. Honestly, the first thing I distinctly remember from that time frame was the Loma Prieta earthquake.
What was odder about reading the book had nothing to do with the plot or characters, and had everything to do with the author's writing style. I have to admit that my reading tastes have been strongly influenced by the odd sorts of people I've taken to. I'm so used to people like Neal Stephenson who will seem like he's dicking around going nowhere for the first couple hundred pages, but given that his books are usually in the neighborhood of a thousand pages long, two-hundred in is only a fifth of the book and he still has lots of time to go there and back again, and usually does it in such a manner that once you're into the book, you're hard pressed to set it down again. So first of all, it was odd to me to actually read a book that was only a little over a couple hundred pages long.
Though what was weirder about reading this book was that it reminded me of all the things that drive me crazy in my own writing. I have this annoying tendency to put in all sorts of details. Things that don't actually do anything but add space and mundane fluff to my prose. And Selznick does this exact same thing, and doubly annoying was that it took me 'til I was two-thirds of the way through the book to realize just why this particular habit bothered me so.
All that said, it wasn't a bad read, and what's cooler about it is that Paul, my friend who gave it to me, kinda knows the guy who wrote it, so my copy has a note and author signature in it. The note says:
To Amy (last name)!
Because although the
80's were evil incarnate,
it was still a good time.
Paul also wants me to say that
this book was written because he was
such an inspiration to us all... but who are
we kidding??
Enjoy!