Who needs tomes and volumes of history? Children are dying. The injustices of the world hide in those three words. Steven Erikson, Deadhouse Gates
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How I keep my reading journal
I am amazed at how many books I’ve read so far this year. Looking just at my resolution to read all of the Hugo and Nebula winning novels, I started with only 32 out of 110 read, and now I’m nearly at 100. Granted, for a lot of those I only read the first and… Continue reading How I keep my reading journal
Reading Resolution Update: May
My 2022 reading resolution: Read or DNF every novel that has won a Hugo or a Nebula award, and acquire all the good ones. When I first got the idea for this new year’s resolution six months ago, I was reading maybe 30-60 pages every other day, with no real goal or direction. My wife… Continue reading Reading Resolution Update: May
“A land needs people to nurse its flesh…”
How lonely were those silent hills! How reaching out for the sounds of men, for I believe a land needs people to nurse its flesh and bring from it the goodness of crops.” Louis L’Amour, The Warrior’s Path.
“Belief in the lie…”
Belief in the lie is the life of the lie. Ursula K. Le Guin, Powers.
Spring Shorts Story #3: Christopher Columbus, Wildcatter
Wow, has it really been almost three weeks since I finished another short story? I really need to get back into the game. Still, this was a fun one, and I’m really looking forward to turning it into something great. As with the two previous stories, I used the Mythulu cards to come up with… Continue reading Spring Shorts Story #3: Christopher Columbus, Wildcatter
“The god Luck is deaf in one ear…”
The god Luck is deaf in one ear, they say, the ear we pray to; he can’t hear our prayers. What he hears, what he listens to, nobody knows. Denios the poet said he hears the wheels of the stars’ great chariots turning on the roads of heaven. Ursula K. Le Guin, Powers
Do all books deserve to be read?
From TV Tropes: Half an hour after the show is over, a random viewer is staring into their refrigerator, vaguely bemused by the fact that their six-pack of beer has somehow become a two-pack of beer. Rather than work out how this might have happened, it occurs to them to wonder how in the hell… Continue reading Do all books deserve to be read?
An interesting personal discovery
I just made a very interesting personal discovery, gleaned from the data on my reading of the Hugo and Nebula winning books. Of the 110 novels that have won either award, I have now read all but 16 of them, which is enough data to get some reprentative results. One of the best predictors that… Continue reading An interesting personal discovery
“It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
So I DNFed Timescape by Gregory Benford today. I didn’t like any of the characters, and the retro-future view of the 90s as a dystopian post-climate catastrophe wasteland was predictably bad. But this quote from the afterword got me to thinking: Habitual readers of science fiction will feel right at home with some features of… Continue reading “It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”