(Cover for Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, image by Michael Whelan)

I first experienced the concept of the ‘group read’ as it exists in the blogging community earlier this summer when a group reading of Frank Herbert’s Dune was just the spark I needed to finally read this excellent novel for myself. Outside of required school readings I had never participated in this kind of question-directed, structured discussion of a novel. I enjoyed it a great deal and it made a nice contrast to the also enjoyable free-form discussions of books that takes place on the Classic Science Fiction Book Club site as well as across the blogosphere. I promptly hosted and/or participated in several more during the autumn months.

After a two-month hiatus, I am happy to be returning to the group read format by hosting a group read of Isaac Asimov’s seminal work, Foundation.

If you are interested, please make the leap.

Continue reading A Firm Foundation →

2011 is coming to a close and as part of the wind down we recently discussed the authors that we have not yet read, but would like to if all the stars were to align correctly in 2012. In the comments section of that post, Jeff suggested that we look at the other side of that coin.

Who are the authors that you would like to revisit in 2012? It may be that there are books by said author(s) that you have not read, or perhaps you long for the familiar embrace of one of their works that you have visited before.

There is a particular excitement about reading new (to you) work by an author you’ve connected with. And there is a comfort that comes from revisiting cherished books that can only be truly understood by those who have experienced it for themselves.

What follows is my far-from-exhaustive list.

Continue reading “Why don’t you come up sometime ‘n see me?” →

(Photo Credit)

Though two-thirds of the month of December remain, I have found myself contemplating and structuring some of the year end posts that I so love to write and to read: best books, favorite films, best SFF cover images, the announcement for the annual SF Experience non-challenge, resolutions for the new year. And while contemplating those largely book-based discussions I have started thinking about authors that I haven’t read but for one reason or another are on my list of authors I would like to read.

And that got me to thinking about who it is that you may not have read but would like to.

I imagine we all have authors whom we’ve had every intention of reading but time and other book and non-book demands have worked against that happening. With the recent death of Anne McCaffrey, an author whose work I have talked about reading for years, this once again came home to me.

In these heady days of the closing of one year and with the optimism of a new year on the horizon, I thought it might be fun to discuss the authors we want to try to read in the next year. With the approach of two science fiction related reading experiences my list is probably going to be SF-heavy, but please don’t think this post is just about SFF authors. I would love to know which authors have been hovering over your shoulders for years just waiting for you to discover their work and if there are any recent ones that have caught your eye but have yet to catch you opening one of their books.

Continue reading Ignorance Lost: authors you would like to read for the first time →

Several years back one of the many wonderful things about blogging came into fruition: The Blogger Secret Santa. The process has become honed to perfection over the years, with a system in place to match you up according to where you are willing to ship, a couple of different price points, a required package tracking system and a sign up process that allows you the opportunity to get good gift ideas for the person you are assigned as well as to help them with gift ideas for you. I look forward to it every year. My blogger secret Santa gift arrived a couple of days ago which meant a little early Christmas for me!

And would it surprise you at all that my gift included books? 😉

Continue reading An Early Christmas →