I Believe in Magic
In reponse to Tommy's question below, no, I have not yet read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. But I really want to. It sits and stares at me from the top shelf of what was once my "books to read" bookcase. But that bookcase became overloaded, and I moved nearly all those books and now it's just sitting there between Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket.
I'm reading five books right now... Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett, R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton, A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson and Witch Hunt by Ian Rankin. (Actually, I don't know where Witch Hunt is, so maybe I don't have to count it... It's not an Inspector Rebus novel and I'm not sure I like it.)
Quicksilver is awfully long, and though size usually doesn't matter (when it comes to books), in this case, the length is a bit off-putting. The text is dense. I'm in the middle of the middle section, which most reviewers said they liked best, but I found the first part about Daniel Waterhouse and Isaac Newton far more interesting. I love the goings-on of the Royal Society and may just skim the middle part of the book to get quickly back to Daniel.
I will be done with Truth and Beauty soon. Ditto for R Is for Ricochet. Then I will start Jonathan Strange.
I hope Tommy will give us a post about it.
I'm delighted to know that Tommy loves the Lord of the Rings. When I was a teenager, I read the trilogy each summer. (Oddly enough, I also read Little Women each summer.) I like to think that I'm one of the few people in the world who has also read The Silmarillion. I casted the Lord of the Rings movie several times in my head and I always got to play Eowyn. (But Mirando Otto would have been my next choice.)
I spent most of the teenage-hood reading fantasy novels (but not playing Dungeons and Dragons). Mostly I read the titles Del Rey put out. Terry Brooks. David Eddings. Anything that retold the Arthurian saga. Among my favorite books is The Mists of Avalon. I even read most of Piers Anthony... until I realized how sexist his Xanth world is. Teenage boys fantasies, I guess.
I've read much of Heinlein. And I started -- and loved -- the Wheel of Time Robert Jordan series. But after awhile, not much was happening, so I haven't read at least the last two. Maybe the last three. I lost track.
So, Tommy. There it is. I'm very much looking forward to Jonathan Strange, not in the least part because it supposedly has a lot of footnotes, and I believe in magic.
posted by Marie Drucker @ 7:08 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Here is a glimpse of certain shallow tendencies that I possess - I like the Harry Potter films better than the books. There - I said it. To compound the absurdity, I have only read half of the first book and put it down thinking it was too childish. As for Lemony Snicket, I listened to the hype stating it to be a poor-person's version of Harry Potter. Am I wrong in assuming this? Perhaps. As for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, that was a breath of fresh air. It is an intelligent, well-written treatise of sarcastic mysticism, intellectual greed and the darkness of revenge with the hope of redemption. I look forward to the inevitable sequel, so captivated by the antiquarian stylings of Susanna Clarke's superb writing. It is the first novel in a long while that I actually limited my reading time devoted to it as not to hasten its dreaded conclusion. The day i finished it, I started re-reading it from the start as to clarify a few sections that I may not have comprehended to my satisfaction.
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson - there is a book I so wanted to love but have experienced the overwhelming density that you mentioned! I read about half of it and have yet to return to it. As for two other of his works, Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, absolute enthralling brilliance! There are two other titles the succeed Quicksilver that look interesting, and I plan to finish this book before my hair is completely grey.
I read many of the Xanth books (especially Ogre Ogre in my teen years and liked them enough then but found it hard to return to recently.
As far as Fantasy / Sci Fi - my Top 3 list of revered authors (today's rankings - subject to change without written notice) is as follows:
H.P. Lovecraft - All and everything he has ever written. I am extremely critical of all imitators and adaptors of the Mythos. His modus operandi was cosmic horror shrouded in ambiguous gloom - to put too many details to his unutterable and nameless terror was to destroy the very fabric that rendered his tales majestic and leaving the reader always craving more. I could devote an entire blog to his writings, as I am sure that some exist already.
Robert Silverberg His Majipoor series of books are all masterworks of fantastic fiction, and his earlier existential novellas are an interesting take on phantasmagorical themes. Dark and light, whimsical and scientific, his body of work also requires a blog post of its own, when I sort it all out in my head.
George R.R. Martin His Song Of Ice And Fire series is stunningly epic. To date, there are three cinder-block-sized volumes;
A Game Of Thrones, A Clash Of Kings, A Storm Of Swords and the forthcoming A Feast For Crows
It contains all the swords and sorcery of LOTR with mind-blowing character detail that never becomes boring. I can't really say much other than how I picked up the first book, which was given to me as a gift, perused a few pages, and was sucked into this world without ever realizing what had happened.
More to come...
Oh, I haven't read the Lemony Snicket books -- those are my sons'. They're not about "magic" -- though they have some "magic realism." I read a few pages of the first book and didn't really like it.
(Listening to Guided by Voices right now on my iPod at work ... I really like Bulldog Skin, though I definitely don't have Bulldog Skin.)
I thought HP Lovecraft was scary. I gave Jim an article on Lovecraft from the May issue of The Believer. You can only access part of the article online (see link on the side of this page)... but maybe Jim still has it.
I'm delighted by the other two authors you mentioned. Thanks.
(I already have grey hair, but I too will finish Quicksilver some day.)
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