Book list
In lieu of my usual "year's ten best fiction books post", I'll just refer y'all to my comments here: http://community.livejournal.com/fantasywithbite/199440.html?view=1907216#t1907216 .
That listed my favorite fantasy books read this year only, but I think this is the most single-minded my reading has been ever, and only a few books read wouldn't fall under that umbrella (see last year's list for proof this is not always so). I think I only read one non-fiction book, at least Alanna Mitchell's Seasick is all I remember now (I think I've previously commented on how important I think this book is?), and one science fiction book, William Gibson's Spook Country, and one non-speculative fiction book, Edward Abbey's mostly brilliant but incredibly problematic The Monkey Wrench Gang. See my review of it at the time for why. Add these three to the 14 listed there, and you've got my top 17 books read from last year.
Who needs symmetry or even #'s?
Best title: Vampire a Go Go, by Victor Gischler
Biggest Disappointment: Spook Country, William Gibson. I truly don’t understand how I could read a book by Gibson, think it was pretty good, and still not put it in my top 10 for the year. He’s one of my favorite authors ever. Neuromancer might be-probably is-my favorite science fiction novel ever. And Spook Country was fine. It just didn’t resonate for me on the level that his best work does, and it’s the second one in a row by him where a strong start didn’t really resolve in as satisfactory a way as possible (though Pattern Recognition had a vastly stronger start). It’s almost like he was trying to write a hi-tech version of Elmore Leonard with a dash of mysticism. Which is pretty much how the book worked for me. I like a Leonard a lot, usually, but I expect more from Gibson.
And already have an early contender for best book read in 2010 -- That would be Alice Sebold's memoir "Lucky", which I started just before New Year's and finished just after. A truly great book that is very likely to top my non-fiction and overall list still at the end of the year. Strongly recommended, with trigger warnings.
Also read thus far this year: Justine Robson's "Keeping It Real", a mix of science fiction and fantasy and full of colorful, well writen fun. Really looking forward to the next 3 books in Robson’s “Quantum Gravity” series. I think this is going in the group w/Caine’s Morganville Vampires and Weather Warden and Green’s Nightside and Kim Harrison’s Hollows series as things that usually aren’t what one thinks of as great literature, but are so engaging and colorful and so much fun that one doesn’t care, and all of these occasionally do resonate emotionally/spiritually/intellectually in a way that does elevate them beyond "just" fun and into something meaningful. Except the first book of this one is more like Caine's and less like the other two, i.e. the author is already fully loaded from the get-go.
And re-read The LIttle Prince, which almost counts as a new read since I hadn't read it previously since about first or second grade,. or something.
Things I most want to read next year:
Rainbow’s End, by Vernor Vinge. Sandman Slim. Isis. And um, a bunch of things I saw, didn’t pick up, and now am not sure I remember the title or the author. Hopefully one day I will remember one of them. And sisters of misery, which I meant to read a couple of years ago but never saw again and can’t remember the author of, either. Something by Dakota Banks that I started, put down to read Fade Out and Gathering Storm, and just plain forgot about, though over the first 20-30 pages it was quite good.
That listed my favorite fantasy books read this year only, but I think this is the most single-minded my reading has been ever, and only a few books read wouldn't fall under that umbrella (see last year's list for proof this is not always so). I think I only read one non-fiction book, at least Alanna Mitchell's Seasick is all I remember now (I think I've previously commented on how important I think this book is?), and one science fiction book, William Gibson's Spook Country, and one non-speculative fiction book, Edward Abbey's mostly brilliant but incredibly problematic The Monkey Wrench Gang. See my review of it at the time for why. Add these three to the 14 listed there, and you've got my top 17 books read from last year.
Who needs symmetry or even #'s?
Best title: Vampire a Go Go, by Victor Gischler
Biggest Disappointment: Spook Country, William Gibson. I truly don’t understand how I could read a book by Gibson, think it was pretty good, and still not put it in my top 10 for the year. He’s one of my favorite authors ever. Neuromancer might be-probably is-my favorite science fiction novel ever. And Spook Country was fine. It just didn’t resonate for me on the level that his best work does, and it’s the second one in a row by him where a strong start didn’t really resolve in as satisfactory a way as possible (though Pattern Recognition had a vastly stronger start). It’s almost like he was trying to write a hi-tech version of Elmore Leonard with a dash of mysticism. Which is pretty much how the book worked for me. I like a Leonard a lot, usually, but I expect more from Gibson.
And already have an early contender for best book read in 2010 -- That would be Alice Sebold's memoir "Lucky", which I started just before New Year's and finished just after. A truly great book that is very likely to top my non-fiction and overall list still at the end of the year. Strongly recommended, with trigger warnings.
Also read thus far this year: Justine Robson's "Keeping It Real", a mix of science fiction and fantasy and full of colorful, well writen fun. Really looking forward to the next 3 books in Robson’s “Quantum Gravity” series. I think this is going in the group w/Caine’s Morganville Vampires and Weather Warden and Green’s Nightside and Kim Harrison’s Hollows series as things that usually aren’t what one thinks of as great literature, but are so engaging and colorful and so much fun that one doesn’t care, and all of these occasionally do resonate emotionally/spiritually/intellectually in a way that does elevate them beyond "just" fun and into something meaningful. Except the first book of this one is more like Caine's and less like the other two, i.e. the author is already fully loaded from the get-go.
And re-read The LIttle Prince, which almost counts as a new read since I hadn't read it previously since about first or second grade,. or something.
Things I most want to read next year:
Rainbow’s End, by Vernor Vinge. Sandman Slim. Isis. And um, a bunch of things I saw, didn’t pick up, and now am not sure I remember the title or the author. Hopefully one day I will remember one of them. And sisters of misery, which I meant to read a couple of years ago but never saw again and can’t remember the author of, either. Something by Dakota Banks that I started, put down to read Fade Out and Gathering Storm, and just plain forgot about, though over the first 20-30 pages it was quite good.