MEME | Finish the Thought With a Title

I spotted this at The World in a Satin Bag who nabbed it from WrittenWyrdd.

The challenge:

Complete the following sentences with book titles that you have read this year. Put the author of the book in parenthesis.

I am: The Bookman (Lavie Tidhar) alternatively The Man Who Read Books Too Much (Allison Hoover)
I will never be: Changeless (Gail Carriger)
I fear: Child of Fire (Harry Connolly)
My best friend is: Julian Comstock (Robert Charles Wilson)
What’s the weather like? The Mirrored Heavens (David J. Williams)
Best Advice: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (Charles Yu)
I’ve never been to: Ringworld (Larry Niven)
Favorite form of transport: The Passage (Justin Cronin)
I’ll never fit in at: Terminal World (Alastair Reynolds)
How I’d like to die: The Last Page (Anthony Huso)
You and your friends are: The Loving Dead (Amelia Beamer)
Thought for the day: Retribution Falls (Chris Wooding)
Your soul’s present condition: The Black Prism (Brent Weeks)

I'm surprised how well those fit together. What does your list look like? Be sure to leave a comment so I can check it out.


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MEME | Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks

We're still hard at work on the SF and Fantasy Materworks Reading Project and still showing how we stack up in the scheme of things. We did this with the Sci-Fi list of Masterworks first and not it is time to turn to the Fantasy set, which I was hoping to have done better at. What I've bolded are books read and italics means I own it, but it has been gathering dust. Hopefully in a year's time this list will look a lot more bolded.

1 - The Book of the New Sun, Volume 1: Shadow and Claw - Gene Wolfe
2 - Time and the Gods - Lord Dunsany
3 - The Worm Ouroboros - E.R. Eddison
4 - Tales of the Dying Earth - Jack Vance
5 - Little, Big - John Crowley
6 - The Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelazny
7 - Viriconium - M. John Harrison
8 - The Conan Chronicles, Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle - Robert E. Howard
9 - The Land of Laughs - Jonathan Carroll
10 - The Compleat Enchanter: The Magical Misadventures of Harold Shea - L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
11 - Lud-in-the-Mist - Hope Mirrlees
12 - The Book of the New Sun, Volume 2: Sword and Citadel - Gene Wolfe
13 - Fevre Dream - George R. R. Martin
14 - Beauty - Sheri S. Tepper
15 - The King of Elfland's Daughter - Lord Dunsany
16 - The Conan Chronicles, Volume 2: The Hour of the Dragon - Robert E. Howard
17 - Elric - Michael Moorcock
18 - The First Book of Lankhmar - Fritz Leiber
19 - Riddle-Master - Patricia A. McKillip
20 - Time and Again - Jack Finney
21 - Mistress of Mistresses - E.R. Eddison
22 - Gloriana or the Unfulfill'd Queen - Michael Moorcock
23 - The Well of the Unicorn - Fletcher Pratt
24 - The Second Book of Lankhmar - Fritz Leiber
25 - Voice of Our Shadow - Jonathan Carroll
26 - The Emperor of Dreams - Clark Ashton Smith
27 - Lyonesse I: Suldrun's Garden - Jack Vance
28 - Peace - Gene Wolfe
29 - The Dragon Waiting - John M. Ford
30 - Corum: The Prince in the Scarlet Robe - Michael Moorcock
31 - Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams - C.L. Moore
32 - The Broken Sword - Poul Anderson
33 - The House on the Borderland and Other Novels - William Hope Hodgson
34 - The Drawing of the Dark - Tim Powers
35 - Lyonesse II and III: The Green Pearl and Madouc - Jack Vance
36 - The History of Runestaff - Michael Moorcock
37 - A Voyage to Arcturus - David Lindsay
38 - Darker Than You Think - Jack Williamson
39 - The Mabinogion - Evangeline Walton
40 - Three Hearts & Three Lions - Poul Anderson
41 - Grendel - John Gardner
42 - The Iron Dragon's Daughter - Michael Swanwick
43 - WAS - Geoff Ryman
44 - Song of Kali - Dan Simmons
45 - Replay - Ken Grimwood
46 - Sea Kings of Mars and Other Worldly Stories - Leigh Brackett
47 - The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers
48 - The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - Patricia A. McKillip
49 - Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
50 - The Mark of the Beast and Other Fantastical Tales - Rudyard Kipling

Only 6 read out of 50 with 5 others owned but not read. Pitiful. That'll be changing as my next read for Masterworks will be Lud-in-the-Mist. So what does your list look like?

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MEME | Gollancz SF Masterworks

A few of my fellow SF and Fantasy Materworks Reading cohorts have been posting what they have read in the SF Masterworks series and I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring.  What I've bolded are books read and italics means I own it, but it has been gathering dust.  Hopefully in a year's time this list will look a lot more bolded.  This list also includes new Masterwork releases coming out later this year and the first section of roman numerals of the list are a special run of hardcovers in the series, which are also in the numbered series.

I - Dune - Frank Herbert
II - The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
III - The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick
IV - The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
V - A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr.
VI - Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
VII - The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
VIII - Ringworld - Larry Niven
IX - The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
X - The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

1 - The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
2 - I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
3 - Cities in Flight - James Blish
4 - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
5 - The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
6 - Babel-17 - Samuel R. Delany
7 - Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
8 - The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Gene Wolfe
9 - Gateway - Frederik Pohl
10 - The Rediscovery of Man - Cordwainer Smith

11 - Last and First Men - Olaf Stapledon
12 - Earth Abides - George R. Stewart
13 - Martian Time-Slip - Philip K. Dick
14 - The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
15 - Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
16 - The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin
17 - The Drowned World - J. G. Ballard
18 - The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
19 - Emphyrio - Jack Vance
20 - A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick

21 - Star Maker - Olaf Stapledon
22 - Behold the Man - Michael Moorcock
23 - The Book of Skulls - Robert Silverberg
24 - The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells
25 - Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
26 - Ubik - Philip K. Dick
27 - Timescape - Gregory Benford
28 - More Than Human - Theodore Sturgeon
29 - Man Plus - Frederik Pohl
30 - A Case of Conscience - James Blish

31 - The Centauri Device - M. John Harrison
32 - Dr. Bloodmoney - Philip K. Dick
33 - Non-Stop - Brian Aldiss
34 - The Fountains of Paradise - Arthur C. Clarke
35 - Pavane - Keith Roberts
36 - Now Wait for Last Year - Philip K. Dick
37 - Nova - Samuel R. Delany
38 - The First Men in the Moon - H. G. Wells
39 - The City and the Stars - Arthur C. Clarke
40 - Blood Music - Greg Bear

41 - Jem - Frederik Pohl
42 - Bring the Jubilee - Ward Moore
43 - VALIS - Philip K. Dick
44 - The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin
45 - The Complete Roderick - John Sladek
46 - Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick
47 - The Invisible Man - H. G. Wells
48 - Grass - Sheri S. Tepper
49 - A Fall of Moondust - Arthur C. Clarke
50 - Eon - Greg Bear

51 - The Shrinking Man - Richard Matheson
52 - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K. Dick
53 - The Dancers at the End of Time - Michael Moorcock
54 - The Space Merchants - Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth
55 - Time Out of Joint - Philip K. Dick
56 - Downward to the Earth - Robert Silverberg
57 - The Simulacra - Philip K. Dick
58 - The Penultimate Truth - Philip K. Dick
59 - Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg
60 - Ringworld - Larry Niven

61 - The Child Garden - Geoff Ryman
62 - Mission of Gravity - Hal Clement
63 - A Maze of Death - Philip K. Dick
64 - Tau Zero - Poul Anderson
65 - Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
66 - Life During Wartime - Lucius Shepard
67 - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm
68 - Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
69 - Dark Benediction - Walter M. Miller, Jr.
70 - Mockingbird - Walter Tevis

71 - Dune - Frank Herbert
72 - The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
73 - The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick
74 - Inverted World - Christopher Priest
75 - Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle
76 - H.G. Wells - The Island of Dr. Moreau
77 - Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End
78 - H.G. Wells - The Time Machine
79 - Samuel R. Delany - Dhalgren (July 2010)
80 - Brian Aldiss - Helliconia (August 2010)

81 - H.G. Wells - Food of the Gods (Sept. 2010)
82 - Jack Finney - The Body Snatchers (Oct. 2010)
83 - Joanna Russ - The Female Man (Nov. 2010)
84 - M.J. Engh - Arslan (Dec. 2010

So what's my count? 13 read, which illustrates exactly why I wanted to get involved in the Masterwork Reading Project.  The two lonely italic books owned but not read is Ringworld, which is also my next scheduled pick for review after Time and Again from the Fantasy Masterwork list and The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard.  Look for my review of Time and Again early next week over at the SF and Fantasy Materworks Reading Blog.


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MEME | Book Habits Meme, Summer 2010 Edition

This meme has come back around again so I figure I'd do an update.

What is your favorite drink while reading?

Cool water or sometimes a diet Cherry Dr. Pepper.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

Horrifies me to no end. I hate marring books in any manner.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?

Generally one of the many bookmarks I have. If it is a book I've been looking forward to I'll try to use a green leather bookmark I picked up in Ireland 8 years back.  It is sort of like my lucky sock when playing football only for books.

Fiction, nonfiction, or both?

Mostly Fiction for the last year.  Although I have a special place in my heart for travel narratives ala Bill Bryson and J. Maarten Troost (The Sex Lives of Cannibals). But I enjoy a good Science or History read for time to time as well. Such as 1491 by George Mann (no relation to the steampunk author) or the Edge.org books edited by John Brockman (What Do You Believe But Cannot Prove).

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of a chapter, or can you stop anywhere?

I can stop anywhere, but I usually will wait to the end of a chapter or section break. I rather wait until the end of the chapter because otherwise I'll end up re-reading a page.

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?

Not that I can't remember. I'm much more verbal than physical. I might curse it out, but that rarely happens.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?

Not usually. I'll usually have an idea of what it means given the context.

What are you currently reading?

I won't read two novels at the same time, but I'll certainly mix in some shorts and graphic novels. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem is the novel right now. So far it is quite amazing. On the graphic novel front I've been making my way through The Goon by Eric Powell. Really great series that I'll have to get more of soon.

What is the last book you bought?

Graphic Novels: Witchfinder by Mike Mignola, B.R.P.D.: 1946 by Mike Mignola, and The Mice Templar: Destiny.


Books: Plan B by Jonathan Tropper and Four and Twenty Black Birds by Cherie Priest.

Are you the type of person that reads one book at a time, or can you read more than one?

Answered above. No more than one novel at a time, but shorts and comics do get worked in.

Do you have a favorite time/place to read?

Any place, any time. But weekends are the best as I'll usually get through one book while it takes me 5 workdays to get through one.

Do you prefer series books or stand alones?

No real preference, but I guess series.  I like to see characters and worlds grow and change so they usually work best for me.

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?

Many. The names I've been saying for the past few years would be: Walter Moers, Jasper Fforde, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss, Joe Abercrombie, Matt Ruff, Jim Butcher, John Scalzi, & Robert J. Sawyer.  Some newer names would be Ken Scholes, Mark Teppo, Cherie Priest, & Mike Carey.

How do you organize your books? (by genre, title, author’s last name, etc.)

By size and level of interest, but not much else.  Check out this post for more.


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MEME | Reading Habits

I saw quite a few bloggers participating in this reading meme from Book Blogger Appreciation Week including Fantasy Cafe and Only the Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy.  I meant to do this a while ago, but vacation, work, and conducting interviews kept getting in the way.   So here is my take.  Please feel free to add your own answer to any of these questions.

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?

Sometimes.  Probably chocolate covered pretzels.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

No one should ever write-in or mark a book unless it is for a class.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears?

I usually have a bookmark of some kind or a postcard. For long awaited reads I pull out a green leather bookmark I picked up in Ireland.

Laying the book flat open?

Never on purpose. Some of my friends comment that when I lend them a book it looks like the spine isn’t even cracked.

Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?

Mostly Fiction, but I do like to mix it up from time to time.   A couple years ago I went through a long bout of Science and History books and no Fiction. 

Hard copy or audiobooks?

Hard copy. I’ve only tried audio shorts so far.  I read my first book on a borrowed Kindle over vacation.  It was an okay experience, but I still prefer hardcopy.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?

I can put a book down at any point, but if I can I’d rather read to the end of a chapter.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?

Not usually. Rarely do I run across a word that I can't intuit the meaning.

What are you currently reading?

Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks. I read the first two Night Angel books soon after they came out and liked them quite a bite, but for some reason never went back for the third. This has happened with C.C. Finlay’s Traitor to the Crown series as well. My goal is to finish up any trilogies I’ve started, but haven’t finished before the end of the year. That is if they are all available.

What is the last book you bought?

That’s tough just because I got a couple books recently, which I pre-ordered months back. So I guess it would be Metatropolis ed. by John Scazli or The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ed. by John Joseph Adams if you went by most recently received. The last books I purchased were Heart of Veridon by Tim Akers and The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.  Thank you Borders Bucks.

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?

I only read one book at a time. Although, I might break it up a little by reading a graphic novel at some point in between. Also, I have no compulsion about finishing a book and starting another within minutes.

Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?

Anywhere is fine, but in bed on a Sunday morning is bliss.

Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?

Yes, please! I am probably more of a series fan, but I like standalones as well. Big and fat preferred.

Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?

Not just one, but the same names do keep coming up. Zafon, Rothfuss, Abercrombie, Lynch, Fforde, and Moers are always at the tip of my tongue.  Usually I ask what authors someone likes and base a recommendation on that.  I've turned a lot of people on to Forever by Pete Hamill and The Shadow of the Wind.

How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)

No, but I keep saying I will. My favorite authors/books do occupy the waist levels of my shelves along with my limited and signed edition, but that is about it. Oh, my travel narratives are almost all together, but that was mostly because of a request from my wife. My dream is to have a library/reading room at some point, which is well organized by genre.