January 2023 Reading Thread

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While away from the computer, I continued my way through the two-volume Library of America collection of Shirley Jackson by rereading her darkly comic novel The Sundial (1958), in which a bunch of unpleasant people await the end of the world inside a mansion. Next I will turn to the collection The Lottery; or, The Adventures of James Harris (1949). It includes the famous title story, of course, and many others. The rather mysterious subtitle refers to a character who appears, more or less, in a number of the stories (sometimes just as "Harris" or "Jim" or some such) and who seems to represent a sort of demonic symbol. Given the ambiguity of the subtitle, it's no wonder that the collection was later just known as The Lottery and Other Stories.
 
I finished JRR Tolkien: Master of Middle Earth by Tom Shippey. I don't know if it was just too in-depth for my level of interest or if it needed a hard edit, but it felt about twice as long as I wanted.

Having exhausted my interest in Tolkien for the moment, I'm re-reading Corbenic by Catherine Fisher, a modern-set YA retelling of the Arthurian Fisher King story.
 
I couldn't get into Mary Gentle's Grunts! either. It's not like her other books, which tend to be slow burners.

I had uninvited visitors this weekend, who just didn't know when to leave.:rolleyes: So got very little reading done. Still busy with The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, Don Quixote (needs to be read in small batched due to the silliness factor), and a bunch of short story collections.
I started Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen (I was in the mood for fluffy, no brains required stuff). Other Birds is missing the spark that Allens other novels had - not sure why - there is an invisible bird, ghosts and decent writing, but there is just something missing.
 
To my surprise, after finishing the Koval, mentioned above, I Looked at my TBR pile and it wasn't there. Between some that were dnf and a dearth of new stuff, mainly occasioned by spending a couple of weeks out of town, I had nothing new waiting. I'm still enjoying the Pratchett bio, but for me that's not bedtime reading.
So I went to my dusty back room shelf and took down,
The Arbor House Treasury of Great Short Science Fiction Novels. ed by Robert Silverberg & Martin Greenburg.
I probably bought it about when it came out (1980) so it was no surprise that although all fifteen authors in the anthology were familiar, several of the stories, by title anyway, were unfamiliar. A few were so fondly remembered that they would be difficult rereads. To my pleasure, several possibles were not. Anyway. So far I have re-read Heinlein's By His Bootstraps, The Dead Past (Asimov), Equinoctial (Niven), and A Case of Conscience (Blish).
Also read the unfamiliar The Miracle Workers (Jack Vance)
Still to go Born with the Dead (Silverber), Beyond Bedlam (Wyman Guin), The Golden Helix (Sturgeon), Second Game (Charles de Vet & Katherine McLean), The Road To The Sea, (Clarke), The Star Pit, (Delaney), Giant Killer, (A Bertram Chandler), Dio (Damon Knight) & On The Storm Planet, (Cordwainer Smith). Also Houston, Houston Do you Read (Tiptree).

Based on the enjoyment that I have had thus far (although the Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke were a lot wordier than I remembered) I wondered if anyone would be interested in a thread on classic anthologies and old Best of the Year collections?
 
Reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' Princess of Mars. I can see the impact they'd have had for exotic adventure back in the day, but didn't really find anything going on myself.
 
The Big Peat said:
I have heard nothing but gloriously bad about the film for sure.
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It was late last year that I was laid on the sofa eating my way through a packet of chocolate biscuits and watching that film.
I kind of enjoyed it, proper cheesy hokum with no concentration required.
 
I thought the film was great fun. It did not deserve to fail as hard as it did.
 
If one can make allowances for the now somewhat awkward racial and gender stereotyping, the Barsoom books, especially the first 3, are vivid breakneck fun. Wonderful imagery This is proper Saturday morning serial stuff in the vein of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.
I really loved these books as a kid. Interesting to note that as cynical a writer as Michael Moorcock did too.
 
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Earlier in the month, I read What Abigail Did Last Summer, a novella in the Peter Grant series that I had missed out. I still haven't read any of the graphic novels in that series.

Then I picked up a Ian Banks book The Business in a second-hand store. I started reading it and quickly realised that I've read it before. Only, I can't remember what happens, so I may re-read it. I can't decide. I think there is one Ian Banks book that I haven't read, but now I can't work out which it is.
 
Dave said:
Earlier in the month, I read What Abigail Did Last Summer, a novella in the Peter Grant series that I had missed out. I still haven't read any of the graphic novels in that series.

Then I picked up a Ian Banks book The Business in a second-hand store. I started reading it and quickly realised that I've read it before. Only, I can't remember what happens, so I may re-read it. I can't decide. I think there is one Ian Banks book that I haven't read, but now I can't work out which it is.
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What a dilemma; you'll have to read them all again! :ROFLMAO:
 
Well, a few years after everybody else, I've finally started reading Gideon the Ninth.
I've had it as an ebook in my TBR file for almost two years but there's been too many other tales to enjoy.
 
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