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Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.
~Helen Keller
I have no idea what has happened thus far this year, but I’ve been a reading fool. I’ve read almost my annual average already. I have not done anything consciously to increase my reading time, it just seems to be happening. The month of May was the most prolific month I’ve had. Granted, I read a number of very short books, and listened to one on audio, but the length of the books overall has not varied widely from the mix of what I normally read.
May saw me complete 14 books in several categories–
Short story collections:
Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser
Curios: some strange adventures of two bachelors by Richard Marsh
Strange Light by Larry Niven
Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie
Nonfiction:
More About Boy by Roald Dahl
My Year by Roald Dahl
Going Solo by Roald Dahl
Bean Blossom Dreams by Sallyann J. Murphey
At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman
Mystery:
The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie
Graphic Novel:
Super Spy: The Lost Dossiers by Matt Kindt
General Fiction:
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safron Foer
Young Adult/Teen Fiction:
Slam by Nick Hornby
Science Fiction:
Han Solo at Star’s End by Brian Daley
and those are just the books I finished. I did a lot more reading this month if you include books I’ve started (and intend to finish):
The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler
Andy Catlett: Early Travels by Wendell Berry
The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larson
Luna Park by Kevin Baker, Danijel Zezelj
Someplace to Be Flying by Charles de Lint
Crown of Infinity by John M. Faucette
Han Solo’s Revenge by Brian Daley
Yes indeed, there has been quite a lot of the written word consumed this month. I guess vacation, a four day holiday weekend, sickness, and the season finales of the few television shows I watched certainly helped.
In addition to reading I played quite a bit of Fallout 3 add-ons, watched Series Two and part of Series Three of All Creatures Great and Small, finished Season 5 and started Season 6 of Northern Exposure, watched some fun old Bob Hope movies I hadn’t seen before (College Swing and The Big Broadcast of 1938, watched a delightful Jean Arthur movie we hadn’t seen before, Easy Living, caught the newest three Foyle’s War movies and the newest Ms. Marple movie on PBS, and made it out to the theater to see Iron Man 2 and Robin Hood, just to name a few of the things we watched.
I spent a lovely week with my wife in our favorite vacation spot, celebrated my daughter’s graduation from high school, and ended the month celebrating the 30th Anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back. I also spent a very fun day with Jeff at the 41st annual Conquest. We got to hear George R.R. Martin read a chapter from his yet-to-be released 5th book in the Song of Ice and Fire saga, a first for me and a real pleasure. He answered several audience questions and was funny and engaging. We also got to attend a panel on Science and Science Fiction which included Guest of Honor Michael Swanwick, and Toni Weisskopf, publisher/editor for Baen Books, among others. It was very entertaining, except for the guy who sat right in front of me and proceeded to spend the entire panel falling asleep, head slumped over, only to wake up for a few seconds before listing to the side again.
All said it feels like I crammed an awful lot of fun into what seemed like a very long month. I certainly cannot complain. What about you? How did your reading and viewing look over the month of May?
If I didn’t know you better, I’d be convinced you were lying…it just doesn’t seem possible to fit all that into one month! 🙂 But I’m glad you did, because it sounds like quite a satisfying and enjoyable month indeed.
Debi: It certainly helps that there were several of those that were less than 200 pages. And the Roald Dahl books had HUGE font sizes, so those went by pretty quickly. And I realize just now that I did lie, though not intentionally. I actually listened to TWO on audio. Not one. Need to fix that.
You read a lot more than I did, that’s for sure. I read ten books: 2 fantasy, 2 mystery, 3 biographies, 1 adventure (ss), 1 SF (ss), and a reference work (read straight through, so I count it) on pulp collecting. I saw three films, none in the theater, and spent a goodly amount of time with blogs – mine and reading others. I also spent some considerable time researching and shopping on the internet.
I’m interested in the interview with Swanwick. I have his THE DOG SAID BOW-WOW [16 short stories] but haven’t gotten to it yet, and have read nothing else by him. What did he have to say? Have you read anything by him?
I’m amazed you still haven’t finished the Chandler, when I read it, I couldn’t put it down.
Richard: The problem with the Chandler is that I never really got started. I was going through the essay and really enjoying it and then he started talking, in detail, about this mystery story by A.A. Milne and I determined right then that I wanted to read that story before continuing on with the rest of Chandler’s book. I just picked the Milne story up from the library last week and will hopefully get to it soon. Trying to get through a few more fantasy titles while the challenge is still going on.
I would have really liked to hear Swanwick talking on his own rather than with a panel, but couldn’t get to the con on the day that happened. He was funny but nothing he said was wildly profound. He did a bit of good-natured patting himself on the back about his Hugo wins. The whole group talked about where they get their inspiration for stories, primarily related to the topic of science, and at least one of the other speakers, cannot recall his name right now, was the most interesting of the speakers, in my opinion. I think I’ve read a Swanwick short story in some collection or other but do not know for sure. I have his novel, The Dragons of Babel, which I bought because of the amazing Martiniere cover, but have not read it.
Shopping, eh? What did you buy?
My reading has been up as well this year, must be something in the air.
Fence: Could be! Maybe it is the spirit of all of us who love to hold the printed word in our hands rising up against books in tech format! 😉
I don’t think the Milne (The Red House Mystery,/em>, right?) is that good. I guess you’ll find out now that you have it, but don’t judge the Chandler by it, just read the Chandler for what it is.
I think I’ve done all the fantasy I’m going to for the challenge (see my challenge page on the blog). I’ve started a 600+ page omnibus of Poul Anderson stuff that will take a while, and I have a bunch of pulp reprints I’m dying to read, and there’s all the other stuff.
What I’ve been buying was those pulp reprints, mostly from BLACK DOG PRESS and Adventure House. See the last two Mailbox Monday posts, plus the coming one.
Hmm, next time I’ll have to check the html code to make sure I close the italics… Heh!
You have read some great books! I look forward to you reading Someplace to be Flying. 🙂
I feel like I had a very productive reading month in May as well. I checked out from the library Vol. 1 of the new Fantagraphic’s Prince Valiant library editions. I only read these off and on in the Sunday paper as a kid when I visited my grandparents farm in Iowa so it’s great to now read this story from the beginning in a wonderful new reprint edition.
Being the opposite of Carl when it comes to reading it seems. I prefer long stories over short. I conquered ONE large fantasy novel these last two months. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It was wonderful. 5 out of 5 stars. It’s hard to pin down what made it so great for me. I guess it was just his way of approaching a familiar hero’s journey story from new angles. Anyhow I just loved the book and can’t wait for the sequel to come out next year. It was 662 pages. I had been working on it since the start of the challenge.
I also have read the first 100 pages of John Scalzi’s collected essay book, Your Hate Mail will be Graded. Very fun book. I just love Scalzi’s humor and style of writing.
As for movies we finally got around to renting Sherlock Holmes. We enjoyed it quite a bit. I loved RDJr and Jude Law in their roles and the character of the city itself was great. Not a fan of McAdams though in this role and the movie was about 20 minutes too long. Although length is the problem with many movies these days. Way too many movies could use some good editing.
Here’s to more excellent reading in June !!!
Jeff: I’m glad you enjoyed Name of the Wind as much as you did. It has moved up my list, though I have other fantasy to read before getting to that, of course. I too would love to read those Prince Valiant stories sometime. I’ve never really read any of them except the excerpts from the art book you got me a few years ago, which is great.
So glad you both enjoyed Holmes. It is indeed a bit too long and Rachel McAdams was sadly a disappointment in it. But RDJ and Jude Law made up for that.
Kailana: I’ll be getting back to it soon. 🙂
Richard: I had assumed some of the shopping was the excellent books you’ve purchased lately, but was curious if there was anything else you had gotten.
As for the Milne/Chandler, I certainly won’t judge one by the other. I like Milne’s Pooh books and was just curious as I hadn’t realized he had written anything else.
Will look forward to your eventual review of the Anderson book. I am assuming this is one from NESFA?
George Martin is good ole fashioned fun.
I highly recommend the Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Michael Swanwick. I couldn’t put it down so read it in 4 days. It’s grim, gripping, and makes me want to read more by him.
wow you’ve accomplished a LOT! meanwhile my reading has been so poor I am surprised it hasn’t *stopped* ! I’ve only read 21 books all year so far.. (about 1 a week) that is beyond pathetic! And yet I have enjoyed all I have read so I don’t know what my problem is…glad it’s only me and not everyone! my TBR will never go down this way! sheesh!
Deslily: 21 at this point in the year is about what my average usually is. I honestly don’t know what has happened this year, but I certainly am enjoying myself. I hope you reading increases for you soon. 🙂
Mish: I really enjoyed listening to him. The Swanwick book I have is a sequel of sorts to the book you mention, though I’ve read that it can be read as its own book. Thanks for the recommendation.
I’m glad I have Jeff here to keep me feeling somewhat normal.
I read one book. Trust Agents by Chris Brogan.
I hope us non-fiction readers are welcome around here! :p
Hey, I finished 5 nonfiction books, so you are definitely welcome. 😉 And read almost all of Linchpin by Seth Godin, which I will no doubt be finishing sometime this month.
No, the Anderson is one of the Baen collections, the Van Rijn stories and novel. I’ve read it all before but like them enough to have another go.