I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t read as much as I used to, and not nearly as much as I should; most of what I’ve read in recent months has been for work. Still, summer could be a good time to get back on track (or procrastinate more than ever, but I’ll try to be optimistic). If I was better about keeping up with my reading list, it’d look something like this:
1. Unseen Academicals, I Shall Wear Midnight, and Snuff, all part of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series (if it can still be called a series; once you go past thirty books, you should probably use a different name for the collection, like “agglomeration” or “hopeless jumble” [or in the case of anything inspired by Poe, “a murder”]). I still love Pratchett’s humor, although when he gets preachy about real-world issues I tend to skim, but thankfully it’s relatively rare. If you haven’t read anything in Discworld, then first of all, for shame, and secondly, pick up a book. Any book. The majority of them stand alone, so you can start about anywhere in the series (sorry, agglomeration), and get a taste of the writing and characters. From there, you can hurry out to pick up all the rest, carry them home in two duffle bags, and step out of your house again three months later to find that you’ve been declared legally dead.
2. White Night by Jim Butcher of The Dresden Files, followed by all the other books after it. I’m of mixed feelings about this series. The humor is often so corny that I’ve got to roll my eyes, and the plots so far have followed a pretty predictable line (see Harry stumble onto a case, see Harry run around for two hundred pages wondering what’s happening and who’s responsible, see Harry suddenly figure it all out in a House-style moment of clarity, see Harry save the day in the last three chapters, see Harry end up back home realizing that he’s still broke and now he has a few new enemies, which he’s collecting like little murderous action figures). But these nitpicks are balanced by some pretty nice character development (I’m a big fan of stories with complex moral dilemmas that force people to question the beliefs they’ve taken for granted and grow as humans; Harry has gotten into a lot of them in the past few novels) and compelling relationships. I’m pretty sure that Butcher could cut out most of the plot and just have Harry and his friends hanging out, and I’d still want to read the books. He also does have a nice pun here and there, largely by virtue of using so many that one is bound to be clever.
3. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. The whole thing. Like many people, I enjoyed the HBO series based on it, so presumably the books are worth checking out. The TV adaption hooked me with some great dark humor, genuinely unexpected twists, complex characters (if you aren’t a fan of Tyrion Lannister, then you have no soul), and best of all, a practice of leaving all judgment entirely in the hands of the audience. I mentioned in the second entry that I like ethical issues; you can just about drown in them in the HBO adaption. Is it better to be noble and inefficient, or ruthlessly practical and effective? Just how much murder can you commit to keep your children safe before you’re probably a bad person? Is incest ok so long as you really, really feel connected to your sibling? Ok, probably not so much on that last one. The point is that you are by no means led by the nose in these stories, told what to feel and what to believe. I will, however, warn all six of you who don’t already know that this isn’t a series for children, in book or film form. “Parental Advisory” in this case is written on stone tablets, carried down from Mount Gore and Nudity by a very disapproving Moses.
4. Romance of the Three Kingdoms, by (probably) Luo Guanzhong. Yes, I copied and pasted that; no, you don’t get the Chinese characters. This one may’ve come a bit out of left field compared to the last three, but I’ve wanted to get my hands on it for a while. It’s one of the four great Chinese novels, an enormous historical fiction piece that I’ll need to get airlifted to my house, along with the whiteboards to make notes and relationship charts about all the characters. I can describe it as Game of Thrones, but real (with an acceptable level of embellishment). Hopefully an actual historian won’t come bludgeon me to death for that; the point is, it’s an incredibly complicated arrangement of interconnected plots for political control in ancient China, full of heroes who’re still remembered and referenced today, with a motivational range from Ned-Stark-noble to Joffrey-jackassery (seriously, watch/read Game of Thrones). If I ever actually get around to reading this huge chunk of history (800,000 words, 120 chapters, and more characters than you can shake a dozen sticks at, if Wikipedia can be trusted), I’ll write up a blog bit about it on here, mostly to make sure my fingers and eyes still work.
5. I was supposed to come up with five entries, that being a nice number and all, but I’m now sitting back and having a look at the list I’ve already sort-of committed to, and I just have to say to hell with that. I’d like to still have time to eat and sleep between now and September.
Maybe this has given you an idea or two, even if the idea is just “I might go to Wikipedia and read the articles about some of those entries.” That’s how I usually start, anyway. If you’ve got more fully-formed plans, feel free to tell us about them, ideally in a convenient multiple-of-five list. Try to keep it under twenty items; my ego doesn’t need all your smugness.