Work has taken over my life and I have not really had much time for reading. I have a reason for this as only two things in my life ever trump reading, and one of those loses out to reading often enough that I'm not sure it counts. I'm not telling anyone what those two things are in case it gets me into even more trouble.
Not that anyone cares, except for other readers who probably don't believe me anyway because books are the best. And they are. Most of the time.
So, even though I probably shouldn't have, for two evenings I plowed through My Ishmael and Prelude to Foundation. I was quite disappointed in the first. Mostly because I loved The Story of B and I was hoping that there would be a lot more action and a lot less preaching. Unfortunately, I was disappointed as it was the first book with a different ending and it required me to suspend my disbelief in several places. I wonder what it's like to be eleven and have an adult really listen to you. I don't know and I don't think any eleven year old does either, because no one listens to eleven year olds as a matter of course. (Then again, I could be a bit biased as not many people listen to me now or have ever really listened to me, though they usually remember what I've said when what I've told them actually comes to pass. I'm not clairvoyant, just observant.) Anyway, so when she stares down the African leader I couldn't help but snort and mutter, "Yeah, right."
But I've already said that could be my own prejudice, and you could have a different view on the whole situation because everyone has always listened to you, or you know exceptionally thoughtful and well spoken kids or very empathetic and patient adults.
I do like all three books a lot, though Daniel Quinn definitely plays the same tune over and over. Each of the people he speaks with needs it spelled out. To the letter. In great detail. When I'm already bored with it. I almost wish I had read My Ishmael first to see how it stands up on its own, and whether I would feel that way about it had I not come into it with a background from the other two books. I'm sure a lot of the plot wouldn't make sense, but that was so little of the book, and I really only care about his lecture for that little experiment. If anyone has read neither book and (wants to start with the last one, let me know how it goes. I'm curious.
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And I'm finally getting around to reading some scifi that I should have read years and years ago. Considering my background in physics and astrophysics I'm actually shocked at how little science fiction I've actually read. What makes this more confusing is that I actually own most of these books and I have for a very long time.
I guess I should explain that I have a giant library and I buy so many books I probably couldn't read the ones I haven't read in the span of five years at my current rate of reading. (If I did nothing else I might be able to get through all of them in five years, but I do read fast) So I currently own a lot of books that I've not read, though I've read over half of the books I do own. This should give an idea of just how large my library is.
Anyway, I went through a phase where most of what I bought was science fiction, but I was mostly reading pop science or non-fiction work. I wasn't even reading hard science fiction. But now I'm getting around to it, though most of my books are still at home in Louisiana and I'm up here in Philadelphia. I'm working around that though, and making my way through the Foundation series.
I decided to read the books chronologically based on the story, and so far it's working out for me. I've only read one, though, so I can't say much on it.
Actually, I don't want to say much on the book because I want to read the others and deal with them all as a whole. I will say that I really enjoyed the book, and I'm sad I hadn't read it sooner. I think younger me would have liked this.
My own story is coming along well, and it was nice to read the book when I'm busy thinking through the history of the world I've created. Most of this history is in no way going into the actual writing, but I always like to go through it to figure out exactly how the characters think and act, and what their framework has been ever sense they were little. Reading this book actually made me consider a few more things, and I think it's really going to help what I'm doing. I'm glad I read it before I did much writing, it is causing a couple of changes to my characters.
Anyway, I'll talk more about the actual book when I read more of the others in the series. I don't know why, I just prefer to do that!
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