Day 4-Books

Oh books books books. I love them, especially the smell of old ones. I read a lot. Not always selectively. But almost exclusively Science Fiction. The occasional post-apocalyptic/survival novel catches my fancy one in a while and sometimes a bit of historical fiction, especially if it is disease based (i.e .The Ghost Map or The Dress Lodger.)

I also have a tendency to find an author that I like and devour everything they have ever written. I did that with Octavia Butler and I cried when she died a few years back because her cannon was so limited (in my opinion.)  Ursula K. Leguin is another writer I can't get enough of. Although I am having a tough time getting through Always Coming Home and I completely gave up on Orsinian Tales because it was like Chekhov, but more depressing. I have also plowed my way through everything of Kafka's I could find in English. Ooh and also James Morrow (when is he going to write something new? And more importantly when is the library going to catch up on his stuff?) Oh oh oh! Also Kage Baker.

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When we found out Juniper had died, but before he was born, I sent my friend's husband to the store to get me a copy of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (which I used to have a subscription to, but switched to Analog because it has fact and fiction and therefore felt more educational ;-)

He couldn't find my $5.00 magazine and instead came back with a hardcover copy of The Windup Girl, some huge SF tome that I couldn't focus on and have since forgotten what it was called, and a SF/Fantasy anthology that happened to be one I hadn't read. I devoured the first and last of these and never did get the middle one back.

At some point during that hazy time I read Tear Soup (which was so wonderful and touching) and Life Touches Life (which made me feel so much worse.) The best book I read on the subject of the eternal soul-suck that is baby death was A Broken Heart Still Beats. It's a book of literary excerpts by authors who have suffered and/or written about their children's death.

On my first trip to Seattle I bought The Hotel Under the Sand by Kage Baker. It is a lovely book about a little girl who awakens in a strange place to find she has lost everything and everyone. She never gets them back, but that is not the point. I think you should go read it RIGHT NOW!

But, on the subject of my "Favorite Book" well, that's a hard one. I might say The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy if pressed, which is the first "grown-up" book I remember reading. I think when I was about 10 year-old. It's one of the few books I have EVER re-read and a guaranteed source of laughs every single time. I also love to listen to it on audio book because it sounds even better with an English accent. And really its the only book in all the world that really ever gives a definitive "answer".