eor | Entries tagged with reading

13. Bill Raney "Letters to Zerky"

I ended up with "Letters to Zerky" pretty much by chance. One of the vendors I use for van parts is located in Colorado, but the parts portion of the business was acquired from a guy from southern California. When I was buying some parts I looked in the sale section and saw a book about a couple who travelled the world with their young son in a VW van. So somewhat van related. My suspicion is that the prior owner of the parts business was a friend of Bill Raney and had bought a significant number of copies and kept them as inventory. Then years later the subsequent owners found all these copies in their inventory of "parts" and just wanted them out of their inventory. I got the book for less than $2 new.

The bulk of the book is a combination of letters Bill Raney wrote to later give to his infant son and journal entries from his wife. The former start out stilted and sporadic. Later in the journey we start getting the journal entries, which are much more spontaneous, but have reference to things which can't be deciphered. In it's base this story is inherently interesting. But the way the author decided to compile it makes a rocky road. I feel like with changes to what non-Letter/Journal narrative material was included and where could have smoothed out the whole thing. And honestly, I would have like to have seen the journal entries all the way through because they had the frequency and spontaneity which the letters lacked.

14.Jasper Fforde "The Eye of Zoltar"

I re-read Jasper Fforde's "The Eye of Zoltar" to remind myself where we left off before starting on the final book in the Dragonslayer series. Like the other books in the series, I think I enjoyed it more on the re-read than I did the first time around.

15. Jasper Fforde "The Great Troll War"

So after re-reading all the previous books I finally got to "The Great Troll War". I don't think there will be many people who anticipate the ending of this book. It wasn't my favorite, but it's fitting for the series. My absolute favorite part of the book was the nod to Alfred Bester's seminal work, I howled with laughter when I hit that bit. Good things I was home alone at the time. There were some other cultural references slipped in as well.

Now I see that there is a 2nd Shades of Grey book due out in the UK in early '23. I can't wait!

16. Frank Herbert "Dune"

This was my first read of "Dune". I think I'd avoided it before just because I'm contrary, it's one of the science fiction books that everyone reads. I avoid whatever everyone else is doing. But I had picked up a copy at a library booksale years ago and it was lingering on my bedside table.

I was surprised by how progressive this 1965 classic actually is. Admitted, despite Herbert's best attempt he can't seem to help falling into the stereotypes of male and female roles, it seems like he was really trying to get there. The primary themes are probably more relevant today than they were when it was written. I mean you can pretty much translate spice to oil and sit back with your feet up. The struggles among the different groups mirror many of the struggles our different countries and generations face today. We've got the old feudal lords hanging on to power by any means they can no matter what the cost to other people or the planet(s). Herbert's narrative spends a lot of time in the viewpoint of people who are less than nice and loving. It makes them and their motivations more real, but it's somewhat like if Tolkien spent significant time in the mind of Saruman, makes for a much darker milieu. I think I'll wait a while before reading George R. R. Martin's series.

12. The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny Vol. 4

I've been working my way through this book in between other books and just finished it up. This volume covers the first period where Zelazny was primarily writing novels and the volume of his short work had dropped off somewhat. At this point he was a successful full time writer and basically everything he wrote sold somewhere. It was a sweet place to be and Roger knew and acknowledged it. There was a lot of good stuff in this volume. I liked the stand alone stories best. Even after he achieved success Roger was still pushing himself to try new techniques and approaches, it made for an interesting variety.

There is a fascinating aside in this volume of how the screenplay of Lord Of Light was used in the CIA plot to rescue embassy staffers from Iran during the hostage crisis (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_Light#Film_version for brief summary). I never knew that was the screenplay they were using as cover.

Only two more volumes to go, but I haven't purchased them yet, so it will be a while before I can get to them.

7. Asimov's May/June 2022

I wasn't thrilled with this issue. It featured another Commander Amanda story by R. Garcia y Robertson. I read all the stories in every issue, but I really have to wonder if that's a good policy for someone with a limited lifespan. I was waiting for the story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch to stop the fill in and start the story. Still waiting. I wasn't all that thrilled with the latest of Robert Reed's greatship stories. But the remainder of the long works were more interesting to me. I really like the way Zack Be concluded "Meryl's Cocoon", he got a different perspective there, which I wasn't expecting. On average I enjoyed the shorter works more than the longer ones.

8. Neil Gaiman "Coraline"

Gaiman wrote this book for his daughters and although it is a scary book intended for kids it's also a fun read for the rest of us. It's a fairytale with modern sensibilities and a coherent plot. Should probably be required reading for every daughter, but let them find it, don't force it.

9. Jonathan Swift "Gulliver's Travels" (alas a bowdlerized edition)

It had been many many years since I'd read any of Gulliver's travels. I read this version because it's what I had on my Kobo from Project Gutenberg, but I'd rather have read the original. It is amazing how sharp this is even today. Three hundred years on and the satire and political commentary still holds. The titles of the offices have changed, but not much else. I plan on reading the full version at some point.

10. Jasper Fforde "The Song of the Quarkbeast"

I re-read "The Song of the Quarkbeast" in preparation for reading the last book in the series. This book grows on you with more readings. I think I enjoyed it more this time than I did the last.

11. Asimov's July/Aug 2022

Overall I felt that this issue was stronger than the last. Alas, Rick Wilber's "The Goose" didn't do it for me. I like alternate history, but it feels like this was just an exercise or indulgence. In several critical ways the characters didn't stay in character because it would have prevented the plot from clunking along. The second story in the Bridesicle world mixed bleak and hopeful and came out with an interesting flavor. Screaming Fire mixed familiar and alien in a complex world. It seems like there could be a lot more stories there. Perhaps the strongest of the novelettes was Robert R. Chase's "Goblin Market" which crammed a lot of world and story lines into a tight package.

4. Don Marquis "Archyology: The Long Lost Tales of Archy and Mehitabel"

"The Long Lost Tales of Archy and Mehitabel" was a random find on the shelves of our local library. This is a posthumous compilation and really doesn't have the same punch as the other works of Don Marquis which I have read. There are some funny bits, but in general these pieces run longer and aren't as well put together as the other Archy books. Still a fairly fun short read.

5. Clayton Hall, ed "Chimney Pond Tales: Yarns Told by Leroy Dudley"

Also picked this book up randomly at the library. I enjoyed the yarns, which are a mix between Maine humour and Coyote stories. The stories also provide an insight into Roy Dudley's place in the history of Katahdin and Baxter Start Park. It seems like he came along as a package deal with the forest when the park was formed. It is a very fun collection and provides insight into the character of the park and of that period in Maine. While I was reading the stories I was able to picture the bits of the mountain where they take place. I'll be headed back there next month.

6. Nathan Ausubel, ed. "A Treasury of Jewish Folklore"

I don't remember how long ago I started this book, but I've been working my way through it between other things. The stories in this book range from dad jokes to things resembling brothers Grimm or the Epic of Gilgamesh. Much of it is humorous. I did end up skipping chunks of the section on the Ten Lost Tribes because it was just too dry, taking large sections of source text without any cutting or thinning. Overall interesting, but perhaps not as insight into the Jewish people as insight into people in general up to 1948.

3. Timothy Cotton "Got Warrants?"

Picked up Timothy Cotton's "Got Warrants" when we were at the local library last Saturday. It was an easy read, but not as fun as I was expecting. Cotton made fun entries for the Bangor Police Department's facebook page, but those are inherently short form. In this book he tried to stretch out scenes which tended to make them thin. He also used a very limited repertoire of techniques. I'm a fan of alliteration, but like rosemary, if you use to much it just ruins the flavor. Alliteration should never span paragraphs. Also, it is clever to disguise certain basic words by using other word which are less common or more syllabically endowed. But when you do it too much you just sound like a kid who is trying to be clever and has just made it to the level of irritating.

So, like the farmer's almanac, this book might go well by the toilet where you can read a page or two while taking care of essentials. But make sure you've also got an almanac handy because you'll want to wait a few days before you go back to it.

2. Asimov's Mar/Apr 2022

The cover story, Rick Wilber's "Blimpies" made me want to read more set in that universe, which is possible because he's got more coming out. I did think there were a couple of places where the story could have had so much more kick with just a few edits. There was one chapter which started with the end and flashed back, which I thought just killed the suspense. Another chapter ended with a paragraph which if had been moved to the next chapter about that character would have preserved more suspense. I mean, really, as a reader you know how the story arc will probably work, but there still can be suspense in the details, in the how they get there. But overall the would was interesting and the story was a fun read.

This issue contained quite a few good stories with some nice variety. The punchy short "Offloaders" by Leah Cypess is a fun spin on a story told through what's not written. I liked Ray Nayler's question of what it is to be human, "Mender of Sparrows". I agree with the motivation behind "Jack McDevitt & Larry Wasserman's "The Gold Signal", but the story didn't really get there for me. Steve Rasnic Tem's "Do You Remmeber?" gives another perspective on uploading. It didn't go where I expected it to and that's a good thing.

Some in general it was a pretty good issue.

I'm noticing a fair number of stories which have same sex marriage as a background point, not pivotal to the story. Generally, I think this is a good indication of social progress (at least within the tiny slice of society which is science fiction writers and readers). It's one thing to have a same sex couple because it required for the plot or to make a point in the story. But I think having them just appear in stories because, "hello, they exist", is a step toward greater overall acceptance. However, I do feel obligated to point out, the majority of those same sex couples are female. So we may still have a ways to on the path to enlightenment.

1. Asimov's Jan/Feb 2022

I finished the most recent Asimov's quite a while ago, but I haven't gotten around to posting about it or finished any other books since.

Of the novellas, I preferred Nick Wolven's "Snowflake". I liked the world in Sean Monaghan's "Goldie", but it seemed like the powers that be came in to play or failed to inconsistently. I felt like with some further editing in the 2nd half the internal logic of the story could have worked better.

Of the novelettes, I like "River of Stars, Bridge of Shadows" by A.A. Attansio best. I thought sometimes it was unnecessarily obscure, but it did have the classic short story last line twist. Ian Creasey's "Fasterpiece" was a good example of an "what if there was this tech", but I thought it took too long to get across the ground it covered.

Stephanie Feldman's "The Boyfriend Trap" is a twisty little short story, chilling in setting and plot. My favorite of the shorts was Jendayi Brooks-Flemister's "Welcome Home". It is one of those stories that might not really be fiction it is such an easy extension from our current reality.

40. William Gibson "Neuromancer"

I finished my re-read of "Neuromancer". I first read it in the early 90's I think. I can't remember if I read it in during the intervening years. This time I read it on ebook, with an introduction by Gibson written in 2004. Gibson focuses on how much he got wrong, but what I'm amazed by is how much he got right. I mean, a lot of it hasn't happened yet, but still could. His central world premise with the increased importance of tech, the decline of the USA as a political entity, the rise of Asia as the base of power, the rise of corporate power to rival nation states, that is all pretty much in line with where things have gone since the book was written in 1983. I had forgotten a lot of the details and twists and turns, so when I got to the mid-point of the book I thought it must be just about over, then there were all these other parts which came into play.

I think Gibson achieved more than he gives himself credit for in this book. It's still a compelling thriller with a thoroughly fleshed out world. There is limited character development, but to a certain extent that's kind of baked into the world. These people are all broken, broken in their own unique ways, but all broken. The world isn't a dystopia, dystopias are generally more organized and coherent. No, the society is a basket case, which makes it much more realistic and believable than a dystopia. In a basket case society you end up with a lot of broken people. You can take that sentence to be about the book or about current events, choose your own adventure. In the end, the broken people didn't magically become whole and an all powerful being didn't suddenly pop up and decide to run everything as a benevolent overlord. Bummer, but life is like that.

I have been on vacation, so I haven't posted my books recently and I've had a lot of time to read. So here we go:

32. Roger Zelazny "The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny Volume Three"

This volume covers the period when Zelazny first became a full time through the early Amber books. This is the period in which his themes mostly turned away from the mythological and become more consumable by ordinary people. The stories have a lot of variety with some being fun (My Lady of the Diodes, Here There Be Dragons), others dark (The Hounds of Sorrow), and others dark fun (A Hand Across the Galaxy). The short "Window Washer" read and felt like a Bradbury story. The Stowaway has a similar feel in a very short form. There is so much in each one of these volumes, I can't do them justice in a short review.

33. Trevor Noah "Born A Crime"

Trevor Noah's book "Born A Crime" was a fun quick read. He manages to stuff humor into some serious, serious shit. The layout is simple with many short chapters and straightforward structure. I think this would be a good book for teens and pre-teens to fill in some history and broaden perspectives.

34. Various Authors "A Future History of the United States"

This collection of near future science fictions stories is intended to highlight the experience minority groups of all types. There were some really good stories in the collection, but it was uneven. A fair number of the stories didn't jell for me. Some felt like they tried too hard, others felt they should have spent a little more time in the oven (or at the editors). I'm sad I can't really recommend the collection because I wanted to be able to cheer for it. Great idea, if you can pick it up cheap you might want to give it a go.

35. Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol"

I re-read "A Christmas Carol" while travelling. The word choices and the rhythm of the sentences is so very delightful, most notably in the first part. Yes, I know the story by heart and even know many of the lines by heart. It doesn't matter, it is still a fun read.

36. Jasper Fforde "The Last Dragonslayer"

I am re-reading Jasper Fforde's Dragonslayer series in preparation for the first read on the latest and last book in the series: The Great Troll War. It had been quite a while since I read "The Last Dragonslayer" so many of the details were new to me again. And Fforde makes a complicated world which I can never quite catch of the pieces of because I read the book too quickly once I get started.

37. Agatha Christie "The Murder at the Vicarage"

Agatha Christie's "The Murder at the Vicarage" is a classic setting (a small English village) with body and a varied selection of suspects. There is plenty of herring, all of it red. There is misdirection. This is the first novel in which Miss Marple appears and although she solves the mystery, she is not the main character. I think Christie found Miss Marple was a much better character to work with than the one which plays the lead in this book.

38. Ben Aaronovitch "Midnight Riot"

Ben Aaronovitch's "Midnight Riot" feels like a wind up. Despite the fact that it barrels along at quite a pace, it feels like it is just starting to get going at the end. Like the beginning of a series, which it is. The world and the characters are interesting. For Londonphiles it is an all you can eat curry buffet. I thought he tried to get too far in this book, having to cover too much ground to get to the end point. There seemed to be a lot of exposition (Captain's log star date...) and though some of it is probably necessary to fill in the history on which the plot depends, at times it felt burdensome. That said, I still really liked the world and characters and can't wait to read more. I'm hoping book two smooths out a bit and tackles a bite of the story arc which it can chew.

39. Terry Pratchett "The Wee Free Men"

I whipped right through the re-read of "The Wee Free Men". I think the Tiffany Aching books are my favorite sub-series within the Discworld series. When I first read the books, I did it out of order, starting with Wintersmith then coming back to The Wee Free Men. On that read, Wee Free Men didn't sit as well, the trait of Pratchett books ending, then ending, and ending, and then finally ending seemed really heavy handed. But this time I was able to sit back a little more and see it as a meaningful part of the plot, like matryoshka, dreams nested within dreams, worlds nested within worlds.

It is obvious at this point that I won't get to the book a week mark this year, but I have read a fair number.

31. Asimov's Science Fiction Nov/Dec 2021

I liked the feature story for this month's issue of Asimov's. "La Terrieene" takes place in a complicated world with multiple alien races and draws on familiar literary ground of Agatha Christie and E. M. Forster. All the various elements and plots make for a wonderful curry or gumbo.

My favorite of the novelettes was Sandra McDonald's "The Gem of Newfoundland" which could be set in Maine but isn't. It painted the mood and life of the characters well and gave the reader a ringside seat. It might not be the seat you want, but it's the seat you got.

This month we got another of the dream VR princess stories from R. Garcia y Robertson, "Daydream Believer". I considered the first in the series a farcical homage to space opera. But as The Smiths might say "that joke isn't funny anymore." Someday I might be found blind lying on the floor next to a spork. You will know why.

Of the shorter works, my favorites were Ray Nayler's "Muallim" which provides the classic short story end twist and Misha Lenau's "Bread and Circuits" the plot of which is close enough to reality to make it bite a little.

29. Asimov's Science Fiction Sep/Oct 2021

The Sep/Oct issue of Asimov's featured a couple of stories from series which don't do much for me. Rick Wilber's "Billie the Kid" takes place in the baseball playing spies universe and for the most part was the extremely detached, we'll never make you feel part of the action, viewpoint. James Gunn's "Singular Days" could be part of the evil AI from space series, but could be considered a stand alone. Despite being a short, it felt more fleshed and real feeling than the evil AI from space series.

I liked Elizabeth Bear's "A Blessing Of Unicorns". Greg Egan's "Sleep and the Soul" had an interesting alternate history concept, but the writing didn't quite click for me. My favorites among the shorts were "An Arch of Electric Skin" and "The Apocalypse and the Lake Mattamuskeet Gnat".

30. Arthur Ransome "The Picts & the Martyrs"

I really enjoyed the penultimate book in the Swallows & Amazons series. This book centers on Dick and Dorothea, who we were introduced to in Winter Holiday (The Picts) and Nancy and Peggy (The Amazons turned Martyrs). My favorite part of this book is the characterization of Nancy. Ransome never comes out and says it, but he shows Nancy walking that line of adulthood. She's always been the leader of the kids, but now she's responsible, responsible for her mother's peace of mind, responsible to make sure her friends have a good vacation, responsible for making sure things go well despite the pear shaped way they develop. She still loves to play and can be childish when she forgets, but she's making the transition from leading exploits to looking out for everyone's interests.

The plotting of the book is interesting because it plays with reader expectations and teases incidents which never happen. But in the meantime there are lots of interesting side bits.

There were passages in this book where the characterization was just perfect without ever being explicit. It's written like Maine humor, not telling the punch line, just expecting the audience to be smart enough to catch the bits which aren't said.

It is sad that I only have one book left in the series.

27. Asimov's Science Fiction July/August 2021

L.X. Becket's take on living through a post social collapse world in "The Hazmat Sisters" was interesting. The central conceit was surprising, but how the characters act and interact rang true for me. Michael Swanwick's "Huggin and Muninn - And What Came After" comes with well deserved trigger warnings. An unblinking frank story wrapped in an parallel universe box. Taimur Ahmad's "Tweak" was a dark warning about what people will do to make themselves feel good about themselves. "Philly Killed His Car" by Will McIntosh gives us a very realistic look at a near future. I really liked how he wrote his way out of the dead end the character got himself into.

Rudy Rucker & Bruce Sterling's "Fibonacci's Humors" didn't do much for me.

28. Helen Simonson "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand"

Helen Simonson's "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" was a pleasant surprise. For me "New York Times bestseller" usually translates to unreadable book with no redeeming qualities. This one was actually a good read. It is a diatribe against prejudice and intolerance disguised as a romantic comedy. The characters are pretty much all flawed humans with varying degrees on the flawed bits. Quite often they walk on stage as stereotypes, then get progressively more complex and human. Most of them are just trying to get on in life, which when it comes down to it is what most humans are doing. Not all the story arcs end as you might expect them to. In some places the characters had to go through some unnatural contortions to get the plot resolved the way the author wanted, so it loses some marks for that.

26. The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny Volume Two

In this volume of the collected stories we see Zelazny really hit his stride. He's still exploring mystic and mythic themes, but they get toned down somewhat by more concrete and practical plotting. It makes a good combination because he still manages to squeeze in references and allusions without leaving us mere mortals lost.

This volume finishes up with "... And Call Me Conrad." Which was later expanded into the novel length "This Immortal". I read the novel version back in high school, but really didn't remember that much of it. I was blown away by the novella. Zelazny mixes in a lot of different things to make a very rich flavorful story. There are hints of murder mystery like Death on the Nile. There are the obligator references to Greek myth. There are throw away references that turn out to be critical later. The writing and plotting is just stunning.

23. Asimov's Nov/Dec 2020

The Nov/Dec issue of Asimov's got lost in my "to read" pile. Finally managed to find it again halfway through the year. Kind of weird reading Christmas stories in mid-summer.

24. Kurt Vonnegut "Slaughterhouse Five"

I had never read this "Slaughterhouse Five" before. It seems to show up on all the top 100 novels of the 20th century list. It didn't do all that much for me. I'd rather re-read Catch-22, it's more fun and sharper satire in my opinion.

25. Derick Lugo "The Unlikely Thru-Hiker"

Lugo has a different approach to the thru hiker story, focusing more on the people he met than on the trail, although he does relate different incidents along the way and some of the locations that stood out to him. The writing isn't award winning, but it's nice to see a trail book with a different emphasis than most. It's not a how to, or a inspirational, just one persons story.

22 P. G. Wodehouse "The Old Reliable"

I finished "The Old Reliable" this morning. It is the final novel in the volume of 5 Wodehouse novels I've been reading. I really have to wonder why the editor compiled these books the way they did. Reliable was original published in 1950, two years after Spring Fever. Significant portions of the middle of the book take from the plot of "Spring Fever" wholesale. The characters are all different, but the central action is dead on the same. To put these two novels in the same volume is just cruel to the memory of Wodehouse and the reader. There were lots of other novels from the same era, swap out one for "The Old Reliable"!

This book didn't come together as well as "Spring Fever", but there were some novel bits which I did enjoy. The movers and the shakers in this book were mostly female. There were twists in the plot right to the very last page. This was Wodehouse poking fun at Hollywood, so he had lots to poke at.

20. David Brin "Kiln People"

I finished David Brin's "Kiln People" a while ago. This was another one of those books which showed up in the house at random, I have no idea where it came from. It's a complicated future mystery/thriller and I enjoyed a lot of the world building. I'm not sure I buy all the assumptions about how certain changes would have led to the social conditions in the society, but it was fun to see how some of the implications played out. The book is long and I feel like the build up to the climax could have been trimmed. There are certain scenes that get very repetitive. I know it was probably the intention to give the reader a feel for the perspective of one of the characters, but I still think it was over done (a la Sam and Frodo walking through the approach to Mordor). We could have lost 100 pages of 560 and not felt the loss. I wasn't really satisfied with the ending, it didn't really do it for me, but overall the book still had plenty going on to make it worthwhile. So an interesting bit near future science fiction, published in 2002, so it does have the occasional quaint reference at this point.

21. Asimov's May/June 2021

This issue of Asimov's didn't really do it for me. Most of the longer pieces did little or nothing for me. The exception was Ray Nayler's "Ano Neuvo" which was probably longer than it needed to be, but I liked where it went and the drunkard's walk it took to get there. Honorable mention to Rick Wilber & Brad Aiken for their treatment of their character Stephanie. The "Tin Man" story didn't wow me as far as plot or pacing goes, but the way they played the interaction between the two main characters shined a little bit of light in the world. I know I'm being vague, but I don't want to spoil it. Among the shorts, we had a good mix of somewhat bleak futures. Mary Anne Mohanraj's "Among the Marithei" had an ending twist that was startling and thoughtful. TJ Berry's "My Heart Is At Capacity" extracts a depth of flavor out of a shallow social sea.

19. P.G. Wodehouse "The Butler Did It"

I finished "The Butler Did It" (published as Something Fishy in the UK) last this week. The book is classic Wodehouse with many chunks of lovely language, plot twists and turns, and zany characters. Solidly fun book and probably just as fun on the re-read as the first time around. Alas, it's not available public domain yet, so we have to wait. But if you do find it in some compilation at a library sale pick it up, that's what I did.

20. "Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917-1961"

I finished the selected letters of Ernest Hemingway edited by Carlos Baker this weekend while recovering from my 2nd dose of vaccine. I had been slowly working my way through this sizable tome for many months. It runs to over 900 pages. Parts were interesting, but since you're reading letters sent to different people you get a lot of repetition of some bits. His letters vary considerably depending on the audience going from dry and stilted to extremely informal and thick with in-jokes, nicknames, and the argot of his group of friends. There are lots of spats with other writers and running verbal battles with reviewers and critics. It was funny to see the editor of this volume referred to in a not exactly complementary manner in one of the letters.

Like a biography, you kind of know the ending when you start. I think I understand why he chose the exit he did. I don't think it was CTE. With what was happening with Cuba at the time, the number of people he'd lost in the past few years, the number of weeks of the prior few years he'd lost to health struggles, how depression was treated in the early '60's, and a host of other contributing factors, I think he was just overwhelmed. I'd have to do a lot more research to prove out some of my suspicions based on hints in the letters, but I think he knew his health was really headed downhill, not that it wasn't pretty far downhill already.

After reading the book on Orwell, the letters of Doyle to his mother, and the letters of Hemingway it is easy to see the patterns transcend many if not all authors. The big pattern is: if you want to make a living writing, good luck with that. Even successful writers aren't financially successful for the majority of their lives, if ever. Usually their estates and the vultures have more of a chance at wealth.

18. Philip Pullman "The Subtle Knife"

I finished Philip Pullman's "The Subtle Knife" last night. It has been a while since I read "The Golden Compass", but it wasn't too hard to pick the plot back up in this volume. It might just be the vagaries of memory, but I think "The Golden Compass" was better. I felt like the author was dragging the characters through plot just to get to the right setup at the end of the book. So yeah, almost 300 pages on an escalator passing by dioramas. It would make a stunningly pretty movie. In this book, the series is explicitly revealed as the anti-Narnia. Everyone is headed to the anti-Lion's land now and the third book will no doubt deliver the last, errr, the big battle.

So, not thrilled. Maybe I should go back and read "The Golden Compass" again and see if I just missed the clunkiness in that one because I was dazed by shiny things.

17. Robert D. Hale "The Elm at the Edge of the Earth"

Robert D. Hale's book "The Elm at the Edge of the Earth" is the book that all the E. L. Doctorow books try to be. It is labelled as a novel, but I'm pretty sure it's a memoir. It follows the adventures of a young boy through a year staying with his aunt and uncle who are employed at a County Home. He basically wanders around like a young kid will do and visits with all the workers and inmates of the home. The story takes place in the '30's so he isn't nearly as sheltered and hovered over as a kid of today. That makes for a much more interesting book and you get to meet much more interesting characters.

Hale weaves the historical part of the historical novel in smoothly. Not making it obviously he's explaining to you ignorant folk what it used to be like. The mix of history, character, wandering interests of the average child, and selection of incidents to make a plot and character development is well done. If what I found on the Internet is right, this was Hale's first (and perhaps only) novel. If so, bravo, it's a lot better than the many of the people who churn them out regularly.

16. Bernard Crick "George Orwell: A Life"

I finished Bernard Crick's biography of Orwell this week. It is quite an undertaking at 580 pages of small, sometimes tiny, print. Before reading this book I only knew Orwell from his two famous works Nineteen Eighty Four and Animal Farm. I had no idea how much non-fiction he wrote, how much he wrote before those famous books, or how young he died.

It might be tempting to label his life as a tragedy, but many of the tragic bits were at least in part based on choices. He was wounded it the Spanish Civil war because he believed so strongly in socialism that he volunteered to go to Spain and refused to take a job anywhere but the front lines. He died of TB after spending his life sleeping rough, avoiding medical help, and smoking heavily (despite the lung problems since infancy). He chose not to do any work while in college, despite entering on a scholarship he graduated pretty much at the bottom of his class, ending any further chance in education. He was poor most of his life because he chucked the steady job he didn't like to become a writer, even though he hadn't written anything for years and basically had to learn by failing and starving.

He was a brilliant man and a bit nuts.

I think he and his wife Eileen were probably well suited. It took someone like her to put up with him and she was probably well suited for his unconventional life. They were two peas in a pod as far as selfcare because they wouldn't take care of themselves and both died prematurely. I also think his marriage to his 2nd wife was probably a good match as well, though on a completely different level. I think both parties knew it was a business arrangement.

I wonder if he would have continued to get better as a writer or if he had really hit his peak. Just before his death he was planning another novel.