Reading SF

I grew up loving SF books. My mother is a reader, and so am I. The first important book in my life was Mrs. Frisby at the Rats of NIMH. I spent much of my adolescence reading. I devoured mysteries, SF, and the classics. By high school, I started to focus on just reading SF. It was what most of my friends were reading. I read the SF classics, horror, and any epic fantasy series that were recommended to me. I read Tolkien, Eddings, Feist, Lackey, Brooks, Williams, and King. I poured through their series.

Then I burned out.

It’s not that I stopped reading, but I moved on to different things. I read more of the literary “canon.” I read more mysteries, and I read a whole bunch of Doctor Who novels. I also read an awful lot of comics.

Thanks to Lynne’s job at NIU, I have recently been dragged to a bunch of SF conventions. Lynne did not grow up as an SF reader, so I was basically there to help her speak geek. The problem I had, though, was that I had been out of the SF literary game for quite a while. I didn’t feel nearly well read enough to be helpful. There were all of these new authors I hadn’t heard of and older authors that I never got around to reading.

After Odyssey Con last April, I made a decision to rectify this. I have started a quest to read as many SF books as possible while focusing both on the classics and on the books by all of these wonderful authors that we were meeting.

It has been a gas. I have missed so many good things. Since many other people use their blogs for their personal reading challenges, I’ve decided to start listing everything I’ve read since Odyssey Con (April 13-15).

1- Way of the Wolf- E. E. Knight
2- Choice of the Cat- E. E. Knight
3- Tale of the Thunderbolt- E. E. Knight
4- Valentine’s Rising- E. E. Knight
5- Polaris- Jack McDevitt
6- Seeker- Jack McDevitt
7- The Curse of Chalion- Lois McMaster Bujold
8- Paladin of Souls- Lois McMaster Bujold
9- Melusine- Sarah Monette
10- Gateway- Fred Pohl
11- Ringworld- Larry Niven
12- Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom- Cory Doctorow
13- American Gods- Neil Gaiman

I’m still deciding about what to read next.

Coming this September, Lynne and I will also start to read the selections for DeKalb Public Library’s SF reader’s group. Our good friend Steve runs it, and we’re pretty excited by his selections.

I’m glad to be back.