Reading

[cimorene]

After I finished Gene Wolfe's Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Arete, I wanted to read something else in between reading the third book.

I tried a mystery set in ancient Rome with a female protagonist, but although the writing wasn't bad, it just wasn't holding my interest after a few chapters and I ended up trying to find fanfiction to read instead. I went poking back through my own old bookmarks and reread some Garak/Bashir, which was able to hold my interest, only I had fewer bookmarks than I thought, so I tried searching AO3's most bookmarked works to find more of the stuff I remembered, only to find the landscape had changed a lot. I DID find some more things I remembered, but I'm pretty sure I still haven't found the ones I was vaguely thinking of but I gave up after opening a bunch of bad ones in a row. Then I started going back through my own Good Omens bookmarks. And unusually for me in recent years, the Good Omens bookmarks are almost entirely annotated, so I'm fully confident in my conclusion that past me found a much wider variety of ideas and executions interesting and enjoyable than I presently do. I also just tried some random old bookmarks out, but I haven't really hit on anything inspiring yet.

Then I read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. I can't believe it's been out two years... time has really melted the last few years, huh? Obviously, it was great. Unfortunately, then I finished it and had to go back to reading other stuff. It was gripping and wonderful while in the midst of it, but I think from the outside - in retrospect - it doesn't connect to the rest of my interests as much as Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

I guess I need to dig out the notebook with the list of books to read.

Comments

[stranger]

A line here jumped out at me, "Unfortunately, then I finished it..." Yeah. The really immersive fiction that grabs you while you're reading... comes to an end. You can't stay there, in that world, with that author's voice. I hate to leave something that's that much fun to read, and kind of dread picking up a book or fic that promises to pull me in and then send me out again. (This doesn't stop me, but I hesitate more often than I used to.)

[cimorene]

Hah! Maybe that's why I put it off so long.

But I also just hate running out of something I like in general, so I put off the last season or the last episode or the last book in a series. I'm trying to just read the Murderbot books slowly in general because I know there are only a few of them left that I haven't read and I want her to write more before I run out.

[which_chick]

Finding new things to read that are... workable is always a struggle. It really depends on what I'm in the mood for. I recently added my friend's (big city) library card to my phone, with her permission, for expanded library use beyond my own (small town) local library. That helps a bit -- the (big city) library has more money and a deeper catalog and such. She's a very dear friend of some forty years and will not judge me based on my reading. I also have Kindle Unlimited but it's a bit of a crap shoot and I have to be in the right mood to wade through the vaguely-exploitative slush pile of offerings there.

Recently I've enjoyed Gilded Cage & Tarnished City by Vic James (first two of what feels like a trilogy). World building sort of worked for me, but it's also somewhat dystopian, so...

[cimorene]

That's a good idea! All the libraries in our area are networked into a little umbrella organization, so their ebooks and audiobooks are shared, I think. But understandably, the vast majority of the books are in Finnish and Swedish! Granted, I should read more Finnish and Swedish, but for the most part it's not very relaxing for me because it's more work. Although it's not really obtaining the books that's the biggest issue for me, it's finding them in the first place. I have a long list of things I've thought looked interesting at one time or another, but very few sources of recommendations really work for me in a trustworthy manner. I mostly end up combing carefully through reviews and comparing the good and bad ones to try to figure out whether it's worth a try, but there are still a lot of false starts.