But, I'd like an Ending Please...

I spent a lot of time today with The Paris Review.  You don't need me to tell you they publish quality stuff. There seems to be a trend in high-end, fancy literary fiction; more so than general 'post-modern' make what you will of future events, stories today just seem to end abruptly.

I'm not saying I need definitive closure, but bring me to a point where I can see an end or multiple plausible endings.  In the three stories I read today (some are printed on line, in full and for free; the rest are so good you should go to your library and read them) all of them felt like they finished well before the halfway point.

Perhaps this is more a reflection on me as a reader, that said I'm a reader.  I am the author's and editor's endgame.

So when you write a story and it's fabulous and you develop themes and characters with great cunning and subtly, remember me: I can appreciate the aforementioned things, but I'd like an ending please.  

An Interruption to your Regularly Scheduled Life.

I have friends in from out of town. I have family in from out of town. I have friends in from out of country. I can't wait to see them all, and I'd also like to think that there is time for the standard minutiae of stuff going on that I call my life.

I have had plans the last few day; nothing has come of them. From reading to blogging to cleaning to planning the most fabulous party ever nothing has gotten done, my life has been put on 'hold.'

It would seem the holidays are upon us, and as always, I enjoy them while they're here, but can't wait for them to be over.

The Month In Review and of Things to Come

This has not been a happy, nor productive, month. Second job? Check. Eight to twelve hour days? Check. Forty one days straight? Check. Less pay, time off, and benefits than before? Check. End rant.

I read and reviewed Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed this month (which as a hopeful sociology Ph.D. candidate I couldn't help but love) and in a catastrophic computer FAIL, I have nothing to show for it. (I will never trust those work computers again!) I was really happy with that review. I will recreate it as best I can soon.

Fail filled as the month may be, I'm happy with my new book review series, I scored the mother-load from Subterranean Press, (FINALLY!!!) and Franklin Press ( stay tuned...).

In the immediate future I see a beach, and glassware filled with rum and small umbrellas. Past that there is work, Edward Whittemore and Michael Swanwick. If I can persevere through the bad, I think there are better days ahead.

Let the brevity--and heavy overuse of parenthesis--be a sign of my overwhelming exhaustion.

Novels, Short Stories, and Interruptions

These thoughts were inspired by an entry at Stomping on Yeti.

Much as I love them, short stories really slow down my reading. There is, for me, an acclimation period in starting to read a book, or short story. When I sit down to read a novel I've never read before, I go through fifty pages before I put it down. After that many pages, I have a feel for the writer's style and can tell if the book is holding anything of interest for me.

It's very difficult to find a similar arbitrary page count for short stories. Ideally, I'll read a short story in one sitting (anything around 100 pages or so.) That's a combination of my reading preference and finding the time to knock it out. That acclimation period for short stories in anthologies or collections from multiple authors makes getting through the collection that much longer than it should for me; even if the stories are great.

I don't mind interruptions in reading a novel, past that first fifty pages, and while I try to stop at the end of a chapter it doesn't always workout that way. Short stories, seem to take more time; add in any of lifes interruptions and it can be really jarring.

This is especially troubling as the list of short stories of interest to me coming out this year alone is staggering: Stories ed. by Neil Gamin and Al Sarrantonio, Leviathan Wept by Daniel Abraham (if it ever gets here!), The Secret History of Fantasy ed. Peter S. Beagle, Wings of Fire ed. by Jonathan Strahan and Marrianne Jablon, Rachel Swirsky's Through the Drowsy Dark, Swords and Dark Magic, ed. by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders, The Ammonite Violin and Other Stories by Caitlin R. Kiernan (the latter two pending if Subterraean Press can ship Leviathan Wept before, Kiernan's ship date...) The Way of the Wizard, by John Joseph Adams, and Occultation by Laird Barron.

And those are only the collections I'm aware of; with my short story reading difficulty, it could take me the rest of the year to only read short stories; not even mentioning the novels I already have/want. Much as Patrick asked in the above post, anyone else have this problem?

The Month in review and of Things to Come

I'm posting a few days earlier as I'm anticipating taking a temporary leave of absence from my senses this long holiday weekend.

Not the most productive month, I'll admit; nor am I happy about it. I've already complained enough about The Count of Monte Cristo cramping my style, and now that I've learned how to handle it, I'm hoping for a better June: a return to regularity with reviews, and a new monthly feature (which will be awesome and perhaps unprecedented) in place of the rum reviews.

I wrote the first draft of my statement of purpose in hopes for Ph.D admissions. The deadlines aren't even in sight but I like to be ahead. It's way too long but I find it easier to edit when you have something on the page.

My near insolvency is yet again hindering my new book acquisitions. I used credit card rewards points to pick up Daniel Abraham's Leviathan Wept, because he is awesome. (Should you be unaware of his awesomeness read this.) I quite literary can't hardly wait for that to get here. Also I picked up The Dragon Book as edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. I read Wizards by the same editors last year and greatly enjoyed it and have similar high hopes for this original collection. Both of these books can be had for great prices right now. Wizards for five bucks at the Barnes and Noble bargain bin and The Dragon Book for the same price at Books-a-Million. If you like to read--even if you don't--I highly recommend both, one on the strength of the other. Speaking of dragons…

The homogenous landscape of speculative fiction book blogging seems to have collectively overlooked Wings of Fire from Nightshade Books in March. (Or perhaps I'm being premature? Due to that homogenous landscape I don't read many fantasy book blogs. Or perhaps the collection is completely unremarkable, which I doubt.) Rest assured, I'll be picking that up shortly. Briefly scrolling through Nightshade's catalogue is mind-blowing in how much awesome stuff the publish. (I must have those Kage Baker short story collections.) I could easily read exclusively from Nightshade and Taychon for a three to five years and be happy.

What's in store for June? Other than the previously mentioned new monthly feature, which I hope to kick off with Subterranean Press (Who needs the Six Sisters!?!) June doesn't hold anything new that I can foresee. I'll choke down three hundred more pages of The Count because I'm too stubborn to put it down, The Dispossessed by Ursalua le Guin, and the previously mentioned Abraham collection are up for reading. Also I hope to do one of my, "Not a commentaries" for Greg Keyes The Kingdom of Thorn and Bone.

As boring and inactive as May has been, I'm planning on creating work for myself in June.

This Book is Killing Me.

It's fun. I'm enjoying it; it is massive. At the beginning of the month I said I'd finish The Count of Monte Cristo... well that ain't happening. The Oxford press trade paper back edition comes in at 1082 pages and while I have nothing against substantial length, I don't feel like I'm making any progress reading this behemoth. Added to which, I'm not certain that this book is a novel.

It moves at a fast pace, has perhaps the most sympathetic hero ever, and plot with infinite layers; it only doesn't seem to end. I feel this book, as much as I'm enjoying it, has the power to kill my interest in reading if I were told to finish it before reading anything else.

Given its history as a serialized publication I think the abridgment given to most high-schoolers makes great sense. If I were reading a fifty page chunk in a magazine once every month, it would be a breeze and my anticipation would probably be really high. Given the full the work at once changes things a bit.

In short, I don't feel bad reading this in three-hundred page chunks. There is a certain something that stymies my interest that I haven't encountered in similarly huge books from this time period. However, I'm not gonna get into the writing as to not break my, 'don't talk about dead authors of the classics' rule.

I've recently finished The Briar King by Greg Keyes and started The King's Gold by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. They have proven a nice escape from the protracted monotony of The Count. I'm amending my reading regimen to 'August,' concerning completion of The Count. The break in reading The Count will mark a return to the enjoyment of picking up a book and finishing it in a reasonable amount of time.