The Reading List

My daughter chauffeured me to and from the colonoscopy procedure I dealt with a week or so ago. On the way, or was it the return, I asked her what she had been reading lately.  We are both voracious readers, or at least she is; I have become somewhat of a slacker I guess. I read a lot, just not the bound fiction I used suck down like water.

Among her wide interests, Lis is into Fantasy/ SciFi, just not the same books I read as a younger man and kid. There is some overlap, but not much. We did agree that "The Lottery" may be the best short story either of us have ever read.

Every one of the authors or titles she mentioned were unknown to me. But with this opening, I shared some of the SciFi titles and authors I had known; Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Phillip K Dick, Harlan Ellison, and Harry Harrison to name a very few.

Later, while thinking of a our day together and what we discussed, I was struck by a feeling of guilt. I had not seriously cracked a book of fiction in quite awhile. I pondered this and decided it was because I am a lazy ass. It's easier to use a remote than turn a page. Besides, there are an infinite number of excuses to not read, not a one of them worth a shit. 

I came away from my reflection determined to show me who has control. Fuck the tube. I am going to put together a reading list which I had never done before. 

Books don't have commercials. Books will always wait patiently for you to pick them back up again, no matter how long you let them gather dust. They allow you to re-read if needed or just get right back into where you left off. Books are silent. Any noise you hear is what you find in your imagination.

Books allow us to be part of the stories we are reading. The written words only create a partial image. We fill in the gaps ourselves with our interpretations. While I have never been a Gamer sitting in front of a screen, I can think of no other medium more immersive than reading a book.

The reading list I have planned is "pick a book off my own shelf and read it". I have a lot of books and like so many collectors, I have more unread books than read ones. Inherited some, bought some. Regardless of how I obtained them, they are here and are found in every room of the house, including the basement and garage.

Collecting books is different than reading them. One helps satisfy that collecting itch, the other satisfies the urge to escape into worlds others have created. I am more comfortable surrounded by books than not.

I have decided to start by re-reading the first book of the "Eden" trilogy written by Harry Harrison. He is an English author who made his name with two SciFi pulp series, "Bill the Galactic Hero" and the "Stainless Steel Rat" series. Both of them, unapologetic spoofs on the popular schlocky science fiction of the time. I didn't read much of the "Galactic Hero Bill" books, maybe one or two, but I did read all of the "Stainless Steel Rat" series. 

When Harrison published this first installment of the Eden series, I had to slow down. This was not just pulp SciFi. This series was in the same vein as Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings". Like Tolkien, Harrison builds a complete alter world filled with language, philosophies and heroic battles between clashing cultures. 

The crashing asteroid did not happen in this alternate reality. The Dinosaurs continued to evolve until they became sentient and masters of the planet at the time. Intelligent mammalian bipeds began to infiltrate out of the frozen North when the latest Ice Age chased them south. Both species become each other's worst enemy. 

A good series and a worthy read if I remember right. I am 75 pages or so  in of the 500 page book and so far its everything I remembered.

Put down that remote- Pick up a book .................................

_________________________

While trying to come up with an appropriate song for this post, I followed a link to a page claiming to know the 10 best songs about science fiction. Much to my surprise, Led Zeppelin's "Ramble On" made their list. Apparently Robert Plant wrote the lyrics after reading the Tolkein Trilogy, "Lord of the Rings".

This song also falls into the obligatory category of "turn it up to WOW". If you don't turn it to WOW,  John Bonham has promised to come back from the dead and toss your TV out of the 10 story window from his hotel room in Heaven.

You have been warned.