My reading is going gangbusters. I am constantly reading and finishing books at a decent rate. A chunk of this is a certain mindfulness – ensuring that I make time to read rather than reading incidentally. The latter method tended to result in less novels and a tendency to casual dipping: twitter, facebook, newspapers, and various tech and gaming feeds. These days I check feeds occasionally, a few not a lot, less newspaper reading but still up to date with facebook and twitter.

Reading books. Lots. This week there was a Readers’ Advisory Seminar for librarians with a focus on SF, how could I say no. Actually I did originally but it was suggested I should attend at least for the first paper on ebook lending. I managed to get in at the last minute and that talk was good though more related to public library models for ebooks.

The second talk was for an Australian author I’d never heard of by the name of Daniel O’Malley. Turns out he won the Aurealis Award for his first novel, The Rook in 2012, and he’d since written a sequel, Stiletto. I thought I should have a look and try to read the first prior to his talk, was completely sucked in and had read both by last week. The first book has been turned into a TV series and I gather will screen on Stan later this year. He’s almost finished the third book in the series and I’m hoping that comes out this year too. He was also an excellent speaker: witty, friendly, self-deprecating, and engaging. Rather than being a talk about himself and his books, it was as much about the genre and genre generally, a liberal sprinkling of other interesting books to read; ideas aplenty.

I am slowly learning that I don’t need to finish books. This is harder than it sounds. It is a struggle. A book may not click for me, or I may find it dull, or it’s not quite to my taste. I can have several books on the go at once but if I hit a roadblock on one, they all come to a grinding halt; stuck in limbo. I will be stuck in that space for weeks and months. Finally I will either finish the problematic book or give it up; suddenly I am reading ferociously once more. I am increasingly mindful of the need to give up quickly and move on. So far it is working and I am reading so much more and the flow from book to book has less obstructions.

Malazan. Oh Malazan. The initial series written by Steven Erikson was a 10 book series: challenging: riveting, fantastic. Some of the best stuff I’ve read. I have read that series twice. The world on which it was built was a joint creation between Erikson and his mate, Ian Cameron Esslemont. Erikson published first with Esslemont crafting stories later. I have been collecting them all in nice editions from Subterranean Press in the US and PS Publishing in the UK: fancy printings, signed by the authors. I have read all the Erikson stuff but never quite got round to trying the Esslemont stuff so I’ve been buying nice editions of books by an author I was yet to read. I am unsure whether it’s due to a new author or trepidation about returning to Malazan which requires a lot of attention and careful, precise reading.

Esslement’s first Malazan novel is Night of Knives and at 280 odd pages is almost a novella by Malazan standards. I started it a couple of days ago and now, I’m two thirds through. Love being back in the world again. I am already looking forward to reading the next book, though Esslemont’s later titles are more substantial and some have been printed in double volume slipcases. I am looking forward to being lost once again, in Malazan.