EIGHT

One major reason for my lack of posts the last few weeks is that I've been reading. Now, it's not unusual that I've been reading in the least. I love to do it and most days, I'd rather do it than write about doing it. But as I logged in the book I finished a short while ago, I realized just how much I've been reading - I've read 8 books since April 20. That's 8 books in 42 days. And those 8 books have brought my total on the year to 23, well ahead of pace for my goal of 48. In fact, I could only read 1 book in June and still be on pace. Naturally, I won't do that. I have 2 books checked out from the library and another 7 on reserve. It also looks like I'll be working more than I thought I would be during the first summer session too but I'll still have time to read.

Anyway, I thought I'd tell you what I've been reading...

The View from the Seventh Layer by Kevin Brockmeier - Highly recommended!
Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser - Good short story collection
So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger - Highly recommended!
Devil's Cape by Rob Rogers - Solid super-hero fiction
The Martian General's Daughter by Theodore Judson - Solid SF and another winner from Pyr
Wit's End by Karen Joy Fowler - It was decent but I almost stopped reading
The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon - Depressing and good
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith - A thriller set in Stalinist Russia that kept me turning pages

SHORTS

It was actually warm enough for me to wear shorts on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week. I didn't but I could have. After the long winter we've had, that felt very good.

Earlier this week I finished reading Maps and Legends, the new non-fiction collection from Michael Chabon. The essays collected discuss comics, genre fiction, Sherlock Holmes, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, his personal history, his own work, and more. I loved it. He reminds me why I want to be a writer and why I should start being one now. It also has an amazing triple-fold cover by Jordan Crane; McSweeney's knows how to produce beautiful books, don't they?

I've finally managed to finish the March 2008 issues of Asimov's and F&SF. Asimov's was solid with no stories standing out or the opposite (though I didn't quite follow the Steven Utley). I liked F&SF a lot more - a bunch of good stories, my favorite of which is probably Nancy Springer's "Rumple What?," which is a fresh take on that old story.

I'm going to stay on my short story kick for the forseeable future too; my next 2 books are new collections from Kevin Brockmeier and Steven Millhauser. Can't wait.