More year’s best lists are being published every day now, it seems. Romantic Times has published its list, with many categories that deal with tastes that range farther than you would expect.
Amazon has a list of the best books for Kindle this year.
Sparknotes suggest that there may be great fantasies you’ve missed.
L. Timmel Duchamp has a fascinating piece up on her blog about the interaction between theory and science fiction. It’s heavy reading, but it repays the time and effort you put into understanding it, and it will make your reading in the genres we love all the brighter and more interesting.
And yes, science fiction is definitely worth examination through literary criticism. This article lists 17 of the most literary science fiction novels, so start there if you’re skeptical. I can certainly recommend Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, which made a huge impact on me when I was in college. And Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale will make you think when you next go to the ballot box.
On the other hand, if steampunk is your thing, this list should help.
Science fiction writers talk about how science fiction has changed and is changing. Kim Stanley Robinson’s answer makes the most sense to me: when you’re in the middle of it, it’s hard to see the changes.
I’ve yet to read At Swim-Two-Birds, though it’s been on my shelf for years. But if these books were inspired by Flann O’Brien, I seriously need to grab that one sometime soon. I also note that House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski is popping up a lot lately, so I probably need to read that one, too. And I loved If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino very much when I first read it, and feel like it needs rereading. Can someone please slow the turning of the earth to give me an extra hour or two of reading time every day? I’d sure appreciate it.
Justin Kramon has a fascinating article about reading and writing thrillers at The Millions. Why do we love books that stare into the abyss of human nature? It’s a good question, and applies even more, I would think, to those of us who read horror. Why do we subject ourselves to looking hard at unpleasantness? I don’t think Kramon really answers the question, but the mere posing of it is useful. Kramon’s essay is sufficiently well-written that I’ve added his second novel, The Preservationist, to my wish list.
If the multiplicity of books, and the shortage of time, causes you to want to speed up your reading, these eight apps might be appealing to you. I’ve never wanted to increase my reading speed, as I don’t read for content, but for enjoyment. It would be like making love at top speed — not at all enticing. But not everyone shares my point of view on that.
Young adult fiction is very hot right now. I don’t know why; perhaps it’s just because we’re suddenly categorizing every single novel with a teenage protagonist as YA. At any rate, Mashable has some suggestions about young adult books every adult should read. I started Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, but sort of lost interest halfway through. Anyone else had more luck with any of these?
Melville’s Moby-Dick got terrible reviews when it first came out, but now we know that it was because of technical glitches. Imagine not understanding that Ishmael was a survivor of the final great hunt for Ahab’s bête noire; you’d kind of lose the thread, wouldn’t you?
Other books seem to have been blessed, especially children’s books. These tales of how favorite books came to be are delightful.
David Menaker recounts his career in the publishing industry, which tends to make me less regretful that I never followed that course. I’m becoming quite the cynic these days, as it doesn’t seem to me that there’s any profession or job that’s actually enjoyable in the long run (by which I mean in excess of 30 years). Maybe I’m just easily bored and/or offended!
No matter how much you love your Kindle (and I do love mine), read real books to your kids. They need the physicality of the object, the pictures, the print, the smells in order to really get it.
Have you ever returned an e-book? The only reason I can imagine doing that is if I inadvertently bought the same book twice, say in two formats (that’s happened more than once, but I still haven’t returned the e-book). But relaxed rules have given rise to the e-book jerk, who buys an e-book, reads it, and returns it within the seven day return period. Pity the poor author!
What, exactly, does it mean to write under a pseudonym? Why do authors do it? How do readers judge it? J.K. Rowling gave it a go, and her mystery novel published under the name Robert Galbraith was a modest success — until it became known that it was actually written by J.K. Rowling, after which it became a bestseller. Women have for many years written using their initials, or a pseudonym, especially in the (still incredibly sexist) world of science fiction. It’s a fascinating subject, and Francine Prose and Daniel Mendehlson have interesting things to say about it.
Looking for a literary way to tell your sweetheart of your devotion? Buzzfeed offers up the lines of famous literary characters upon first meeting their love. “She doth teach the torches to burn bright!” Romeo said of Juliet. Ah, love.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have the lamest boyfriends in fiction. Edward Cullen just gives me the creeps; there’s nothing desirable about him at all, and how Kristen Stewart could find him irresistible is beyond me. (Wait, am I mixing my movies and books there? Hmm.)
If you’re like me, lots of the holiday gifts you buy are going to be books. My nieces and nephews are used to getting books from me (indeed, I’m not sure I’ve gotten them any other sort of gift for any holiday or birthday for at least a couple of decades now). Think about supporting independent bookstores this year; there are many of them, and they offer hours and even days of wonderful browsing, but we need to support them if they’re going to continue to exist.
If you need something extra to tuck inside someone’s stocking this Christmas, the new Harry Potter stamps should do the trick nicely. Though I fear that the youngest among us no longer have any actual use for postage stamps, perhaps it would encourage an interest in collecting. Stamp collecting is a hobby that’s still going strong so far as I can tell (though I’m not a collector myself).
Google just won an important courtroom victory regarding its alleged “fair use” of the contents of books to augment search results.
Cherie Priest’s steampunk Pinterest board is a joy to behold.
Do you have a special place to read, a little nook in your home specially built and lit for books, cats, a glass of wine? Book Riot has photos of some lovely book nooks. I want the book turret, myself. Though the first nook, the one overlooking the water, would be lovely, too — I just suspect I’d spend more time staring at the water than reading.
