March Reading Thread

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Matteo said:
I also have Foundation's Edge - which is almost as long as the original trilogy combined - but it was written thirty years later so I'm in two minds about reading it.
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I splurged and bought the hardback when it came out rather than waiting for the paperback and remember enjoying it though can’t recall anything about it.
 
From Sixteen Short Novels:

"The Ghost Writer" by Philip Roth (1979)

The narrator is Nathan Zuckerman, a character who would later appear in many of Roth's works, and who is something of a self portrait. He looks back on his experience in the year 1956, when he was a fledgling writer in his early twenties. He visits an older writer he idolizes. Also present is a student of the older writer, a mysterious young woman.

The heart of the book is the possibility that the young woman is actually Anne Frank, who has survived the Holocaust. It's up to the reader to decide if this is true, if she is delusional, or if this is a fiction/fantasy created by Zuckerman. I'm leaning to the third possibility.

Related subplots are the fact that Zuckerman's family objects to a story he wrote based on a family scandal, and the relationships among the older writer, his wife, and the young woman.
 
Matteo said:
Well... two days of March, and most of February. A scifi trilogy that has been sitting on my shelf unread :eek: for almost thirty years. A trilogy in three paperbacks, inside a nice thick card slipcase with Chris Foss covers that form a triptych.

Yes, I'm talking about Foundation by Asimov. No idea why it's taken me so long to read the things, but there you are. I thought they were excellent - very enjoyable. I think if I'd read them as a kid or teenager (though I didn't have them then) I would have read them several times since (they're that type of book).

I also have Foundation's Edge - which is almost as long as the original trilogy combined - but it was written thirty years later so I'm in two minds about reading it.
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Coincidentally, I bought The Adventures of Alyx by Joanna Russ when it was published in mass market pb back in 1983. I've only just finished it. Sort of. I read the slightly expanded version in Joanna Russ: Novels and Stories from The Library of America.

Really good, by the way. The short stories are fine, enjoyable reads that maybe I do, or maybe I don't entirely understand, and the included short novel, Picnic on Paradise is even better. I should have read that '83 edition years ago.
 
The Library at Night Alberto Manguel. A meditation by the Argentinian writer on his personal library, and libraries in general. Impressive and thought-provoking.

Manguel is an interesting and eclectic author. I first came across him when I was given Black Water, a large anthology of fantastic writing curated by Manguel, in which none of the stories are really conventional fantasy.
 
Reread of Skallagrigg by William Norwood (1988)

I never really noticed when I first read this, back in the day, that's it fictional narrator is telling his tale from a "future" of 1999/2000.
It was hard to tell with the episodic way it's written and the overlapping tales taking place in various times.

I'm finding it charming with some of the assumptions being made about the usage of 'mini computers' and 'micro computers' by the millennium
 
Just started Lonely Vigils a collection of stories by Manly Wade Wellman featuring various supernatural detectives he wrote for the pulps. My intention is to dip into this now and again for the rest of the year.
 
Just finished David Gemmell's The Hawk Eternal. Feels underfleshed in places but otherwise fine, magical work.

AE35Unit said:
Not got that one. And I must admit I struggle with many of his books. Yes they're very funny but sometimes I'm like, where's the plot? Which is how I'm feeling with The Last Continent. Its very funny but I find myself forgetting what the plot was. I find that with a lot of humorous books.
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I think Pratchett was more slipshod with his plots and more reliant on his humour with the Rincewind books than he was with any other character. Which is a shame as while I love him, I love him more when he's leaning on plot as much as anything else.
 
From Sixteen Short Novels:

"The Ebony Tower" by John Fowles (1974)

A young, married painter/art critic visits an elderly painter at his isolated home in France. In residence are two young women. While discussing art with the alternately affable and insulting old man, he learns more about the relationships among the three other characters. To some extent, an argument for passion over abstraction. The main suspense, I suppose, is whether the young artist is going to have an affair with one (or both?) of the two women.
 
Victoria Silverwolf said:
A young, married painter/art critic visits an elderly painter at his isolated home in France. In residence are two young women. While discussing art with the alternately affable and insulting old man, he learns more about the relationships among the three other characters. To some extent, an argument for passion over abstraction. The main suspense, I suppose, is whether the young artist is going to have an affair with one (or both?) of the two women.
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That makes it sound very similar to his The Magus.
 
Elentarri said:
Which one?
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This one
IMG20240305144306-01_copy_768x1191.jpg
 
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