Yesterday I started reading a book and finished it. There is something magical about starting and finishing a book in the span of a single day. It is a bit more manageable for me than reading books in a single sitting since it tends to take up a large chunk of the day. The experience is different than say reading a book over the span of the week. There is less time to mull over particular passages, to let the scenes and sentences roll about in your mind and perhaps knock loose interesting ideas. If I had my way, I'd probably read a book a day. There are a number of good reasons why that is unlikely to happen (unless I read very short books of course) but perhaps I will one day be able to do that for at least a year.
That book puts me at about 49 for the year without really trying. My goal is to at least match last year's total of approximately 60. I wanted to read at least 50 books in 2008, but that was the first year I actually kept track of what books I read during the year. It averages to a bit over a book per week. I did that with the massive Wheel of Time books when I (re)read the series over the summer of 2008. I probably could have cut that down to maybe 2-3 days per book if I really wanted to. It is basically what I did anyways, mostly reading the books on the weekend.
Anyways, the book I read yesterday (also the first day of classes) was The Lost Fleet Dauntless by Jack Campbell. I found it to be a rather interesting piece of military science fiction. Also, I want to read the other books now. I suppose technically I got the book for free as it was a gift when I purchased some other books from my favorite independent bookstore that I've visited all of like once (perhaps I exaggerate, but it has been a while since I visited the store itself.) That bookstore is Mysterious Galaxy and mostly I interact with them when they come to UCLA for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. I got the book when I purchased most of John Scalzi's books.
I've only read a few military science fiction books, I suppose. I was introduced to the genre in general (science fiction, or I suppose speculative fiction as a whole) some time in Elementary school. Probably around 4th grade or so or around 10 years old I guess. This is the stuff marketed for adults. Really the first adult SF book I remember getting and reading was Shield of Lies which is actually the second book in a Star Wars series. (I'm sure I purchased it because it said Star Wars on the cover.) The first reading of it bored me to tears. Lots of politics in that book, as I remember. Or it seemed rather like a lot when I first read it, and boring to boot. That really started my Star Wars phase of novel reading. I don't keep up as much with the new books as I once did, but they are still fun to read. Certain books in my collection have been read maybe a dozen or two times and all of them have probably been read at least two to three times.
I read The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit (again) when I was in 6th grade or so, probably around the year 2000 if I have the time line correct. That paved the way for my real love of fantasy which would really start in Middle School with the discovery of The Wheel of Time series. I read The Eye of the World in a single day. Over 800 pages. I started at lunch (at school) and finished some time that night. To this day that is the longest book I've read in a day. Still waiting for a conclusion to that series, but the 12th book comes out October 27th. Unfortunately Robert Jordan passed on before he could finish his epic series and Brandon Sanderson is working with his notes and Editor-Wife and assistants to publish the last three books (originally slated to be a single volume but keeping with the established tradition of
Jordan's promises, originally the series was to be much smaller, that number has turned to three.) I will be (re)reading the 11th book in the series prior to the release of The Gathering Storm in addition to everything else I'm doing.
Back to military science fiction, it is a subgenre that I haven't explored in depth before. In keeping with my goal of trying to expand my reading horizons, I will probably read more of it in the future. It is interesting to visualize the battles as they happen and particularly with space battles you get to play with many different dimensions. I think Jack Campbell does a good job of depicting those battles and the type of tactics that can be utilized in such an environment. I have heard people complain about too much detail from certain military SF writers where they have been confused by all the battle descriptions. We'll see what I think when I delve deeper into that particular subgenre.
For now though, perhaps I have rambled on enough.
Stay Awesome,
Chris Hall
