Books
I've been trying to read more novels than non-fiction (articles) lately. It's harder than one might think to get back in the rhythm of reading.
The last two books I read were Red Planet and The Puppet Masters, both Heinlein works. After Starship Troopers, those two are the most enjoyable I've read of his; I have a few others, such as Stranger in a Strange Land and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, but I actually failed to finish either as I lost interest. Odd, considering their popularity, but I suspect that they just click with a certain type of reader and I'm not one of those.
I'm torn between reading one of my new books, trying to tackle some Neal Stephenson (I have Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon sitting unread after about five years and two months since I bought them, respectively), and digging out my separate copies of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.
The new books of which I speak are Asimov's Foundation and two novels by Robert Silverberg: Roma Eterna and The Man in the Maze. I don't really know anything about them; I went to Barnes and Noble a few days ago--thursday perhaps--and just wandered around the Scifi section.
Silverberg caught my eye, and as I enjoyed a collection of science fiction shorts narrated by him a year or two ago I decided to give him a shot; The Man in the Maze seemed kind of iffy from the blurb, but I bought it anyway. Roma Eterna had the most striking blurb of the remaining Silverberg novels on the shelf, so into my library it went. Kudos to Silverberg for picking good titles, by the way; it's more important than most people think, and I think the provocative title of TMitM was what made me buy it despite reservations. I know it drew my eye to Roma Eterna.
Not much to say about Asimov; I think it's a 50/50 shot that I'll like his work, considering the nature of science fiction and fantasy readers. This genre in particular is prone to cult followings and the worst members of such expelling the virtues of their paper god all out of proportion to its worth.
I'll report back on those novels when I'm done with them, which will probably be in a few days now that I've got myself all worked up about them. Sooner if they don't pan out; I usually give an author 25 pages at the minimum to get my attention, and a good one will have it inside two (if that). We shall see.
