I feel like this is the kind of thing I shouldn’t admit, but honestly, I’m in kind of a reading slump where science fiction is concerned.
You know those moments where you’re casting about for something to read? It used to be that my first impulse in those moments was always towards the science fiction or fantasy reading, and that isn’t true anymore. When I’m in a bookstore, I give the SF section a cursory once-over, but the history and mystery and general non-fiction sections are where I’m spending most of my time.
As far as the bookstore side of things goes, it’s really a feeling of mental exhaustion. There’s one moment that stands out very clearly for me: I was on a trip last winter, and burning through my reading material a little faster than expected, so I stopped at a Barnes and Noble to pick up another book or two. I stood there, looking at the SF/F New Releases bay, and just became tired of the whole thing. I remember just staring at the cover of some anthology from Baen, the cover of which prominently featured a big cat holding a machine gun, and trying to figure out why I’ve spent so much time and energy being interested in this industry. Ever since then, whenever I look at the science fiction section in a bookstore, I’m practically not even seeing individual books. The shelves just look like a blur of fantasy forests and space armor and leather-clad women’s butts.
The worst part of this is, I know that I’m being unfair! I’m being totally unfair. When I do manage to rummage up the interest in sf/f books, I still love them. I read Alaya Dawn Johnson’s Racing the Dark recently and adored it. The first three chapters of Greg van Eekhout’s Norse Code were awesome and have me absolutely wanting to read the rest. (Soon! I’ll buy it soon, Greg!) And Shelter! Oh, my god, Susan Palwick’s Shelter was hands-down one of the best books I’ve read in years. So it’s not that I’m not capable of enjoying the genre. I just don’t have the level of interest that I used to.
Which brings me to another symptom: my stack of unread digest magazines. I’ve had a subscription to Asimov’s since I was in high school, and a subscription to F&SF for almost as long. I used to read them cover-to-cover, usually within days of when they arrived. This is no longer true. The magazines still show up every month at my house (well, almost every month–the mail delivery is a little dicey in Brooklyn sometimes), but I haven’t read one in well over a year. Probably closer to two. (See, this is absolutely the kind of thing I think I’m not supposed to admit.) It’s really not that I have any problem with short fiction. I’m still finding plenty of things in the Strange Horizons incoming submissions that I enjoy reading. (That’s half of what’s so weird about this bored-with-SF situation, for me. I work for a science fiction magazine! And I love what we’re publishing! So how does it even make sense that I’m bored with the genre?) I’ve just developed this weird mental block about reading the digests–it feels like the same mental exhaustion from the bookstore. I look at this stack of magazines and think, eh, why bother. (See previous statement re: unfair! I’m being totally unfair.)
The magazines problem has gotten to the point where I’m not sure I’ll renew my subscriptions. Just saying that feels a little bit like crazy talk–I have such a history with reading these magazines! I have shelf after shelf of archived issues in my office! How on earth could I not renew? But if I’m not -reading- them, what’s the point? So here’s the plan: I’m going to work through my backlog, starting with the January 2008 issues, and see how I feel about them.
In the meantime, does anyone have any good SF/F book recommendations for me? It’s maybe a tough question, in light of all the discussion about how I’m finding the genre boring, but y’all like a challenge, right? (You also gave me excellent suggestions on the mystery novels a few months ago–I’ve burned through most of Linda Barnes and Donna Andrews’s series, and loved them.) What should I read to get me un-bored?
Posted Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 12:28 pm. Filed under: personal > science fiction.
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Hey, please read my book only when and if you feel like it. Leisure reading isn’t supposed to be work. With very few exceptions (including workshop novels), all my reading the past year has been magazine articles. Maybe I’m finding myself to be the kind of person who can’t read a novel while I’m writing one. Could be I’m just bit burned-out on fiction. In any case, life’s too short to read stuff you don’t really want to be reading.
That said, NATION by Terry Pratchett is awesome.
Honestly? For enthusiasm’s sake, I’d suggest checking out some YA fantasy. Maybe The Hunger Games, Graceling, The Reformed Vampire Support Group, the Mortal Instruments trilogy, The Demon’s Lexicon–all highly enjoyable. Also, Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me–middle grade SF–comes out mid-month and by all accounting is brilliant.
But, that said, if you’re digging mysteries, China Mieville’s City and the City is interesting and some of the leather-clad babes books are really excellent procedurals. Oh and John Green’s Paper Towns is a mystery too. (As is the Reformed Vampire Support Group.)
Kit Whitfield, In Great Waters.
Ditto Gwenda on YA. I really liked Graceling, have heard mostly good reports on The Hunger Games. Enjoyed Catherine Jinks’s Evil Genius, which had a good twist on a conventional opening. Um, apparently I have no memory past what’s on my shelf, but I’ve been doing pretty well with YA. I can try to check back in.
I love movies, and I love poetry, but I reached similar saturation points with both. I wouldn’t say I love them any less, but there came a time when I had kind of circumnavigated the world and wondered whether anything would excite me again or whether I had seen what there wass to see. As a result I was less able to overlook things that irritated me in favor of whatever merits there might have been, because nine times out of ten the merits weren’t new to me, and iif I couldn’t think of an example that executed them better, I could think of an example that had the merits without the irritation. I could no longer feel professionally obligated to be on top of everything that might come my way as part of my education. Now it’s just panning for gold, and it’s tedious. But if I gave up completely, I might miss the next new great thing.
Me too (re: exhaustion). I’m re-reading some old books now and then, but in general… yeah.
I don’t like buying things at bookstores anymore either, because I feel like I’m feeding the machine that’s producing the stuff that’s boring me, too.
All I can say is… if you’re bored with SF/F, read the other things you mentioned at the beginning. :)
I’m glad it’s not just me.
(Sorry, that’s not very helpful, is it? — I’ve been reading a lot of Alastair Reynolds because his stuff is easy to find over here, but it’s… well, it’s not junk food, but it’s idea-driven fiction and characters come second. Read some Richard Morgan last year, enough that I’m curious to read The Steel Remains, but while Black Man / Thirteen was interesting, and Altered Carbon was interesting in a “Mike Hammer in the 25th century” sort of way, I wouldn’t recommend any of AC’s sequels. Mostly this year I’ve been eating my vegetables, reading nonfiction and li-fi, and then feeling guilty about not blogging about it.)
I am boggled at the notion that you would be going into bookstores and looking for random books: at this point in my life I am so overwhelmed by books a) written by friends or at least b) recommended by friends, all of which tend to be in general of such high quality, that the idea of going and looking for other books on top of that seems perverse and quixotic. In fact it’s beginning to get to the point where my kids’ reading lists are full of things written by my friends (I am reading Justine’s How To Ditch Your Fairy with Aviva).
I am actually in a totally-excited-about-reading-SF phase and have finding myself staying up until 3am when I have to be in the office at 9:30am the next day to finish. The last four books I did this with were Matt Ruff’s Bad Monkeys, Delia Sherman’s Changeling, (old non-SF book) Robert Cormier’s I am the Cheese, and Austin Grossman’s Soon I Will Be Invincible. That’s just, like, in the last two weeks.
Also, I will say, being a pro SF editor and wanting to read mysteries and historicals for your pleasure reading seems eminently natural to me. I don’t think most professional sushi chefs go out for sushi in their off-hours much.