Words, Words, Words

It is late. I am feeling sick–writing on a boat turned out to be not nearly as romantic as all of that. Boats rock. Rocking while manipulating text = seasickness. Plus other fun but minor bodily complaints. Brain is refusing to write. But it was certainly inspirational, and the water was so blue, aquamarine, almost unbelievably so, like the Carribbean. After the pervasive green of the Mississippi, it seemed to burn my eyes, but I couldn’t stop staring at it. In my memory, the lakes of my childhood are all grey and black. Stormwater.

So I’m emailing those I owe emails to and staring dully and reading. I’m trying to read much more this year, since as the writing career has taken off, my free time to read for pleasure has shrunk horribly. Like food, you gotta remember to keep putting in the good stuff, and I’ve been carefully keeping myself with one book open most of the year. I’m sure this isn’t a problem for most of you but I was horrified last year when I made my list for Fantastic Metropolis how little I had really been reading, when I used to put away half a library and barely notice. But I’m doing better and I want to keep track, so I thought I’d LJ it like everybody else. Thus, I note my intake for the year to date, in no particular order, and including only whole books, not short fiction unless collected:

1. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
2. The Last Samurai, Helen DeWitt
3. Bee Season, Myla Goldberg
4. Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
5. Into the Forest, Jean Hegland
6. Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson
7. Gut Symmetries, Jeanette Winterson
8. Lighthousekeeping, Jeanette Winterson
9. Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees
10. The Color of Magic, Terry Pratchett
11. Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett
12. Moving Pictures, Terry Pratchett
13. Magic for Beginners, Kelly Link
14. The Difference Engine, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
15. In the Forest of Forgetting, Theodora Goss
16. In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
17. Lord Byron’s Novel, Jon Crowley
18. Tonguecat, Paul Verhelst
19. Descent Into Cleveland, Russell Salamon
20. Seaward, Susan Cooper (beloved re-read)
21. Shriek: An Afterword, Jeff Vandermeer
22. The Prestige, Christopher Priest
23. Men at Arms, Terry Pratchett
24. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
25. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
26. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
27. Pattern Recognition, William Gibson
28. The Motion of Light on Water, Samuel R. Delany
29. Spaceman Blues, Brian Slattery
30. Averno, Louise Gluck

Will add to it as I go. At the moment I am in the middle of reading both Vellum and Master and Margarita, but putting both aside to read the ARC of Shriek: An Afterword that 2muchexposition just sent me, as I’ve been waiting ages to read this book and can’t wait anymore. I suppose I should aim for the 50 books a year thing, and if I pick up the pace a little–not a problem as I’ve finally gotten around to acquiring all but one of my friends’ books at recent conventions (still missing wicked_wish‘s opus, but I’m heading to Borders soon with my birthday money–also hoping to pick up The Prestige and Louise Gluck’s new book of poetry, Averno) I’m not doing too badly towards that. I suppose it’s cheating to count your own books that you’ve read over and over in proofs.

I need some nonfiction to feed my academic brain–any suggestions?