I put together a quick list for a facebook post of stuff I’ve finished recently. My reading has been gangbusters for a long while now. Happily. Though I’ve sorta lost track of what’s on netflix and such. Have also grown odd buckets of curiosity around book collecting – actually I seem to have spent so much time looking for nice books to buy that I’ve lost track of whisky and suddenly realised I was running out :-) Another thing I’ve noticed is that as my reading has increased I am rediscovering the joy of the short story and there’s a few collections below.

Here’s a list of a bunch of things I’ve finished in recent months:

• The Absolute Sandman Volume 2 by Neil Gaiman – I’m doing a full read/reread through at the moment, dipping in and out. So so good and the stories hold up. I have recently purchased the Absolute Overture Volume which has new stories from Gaiman. Then I realised I had the hardcover edition of it as well. However the new one matches the rest of my Absolute editions and I may have to donate the other edition to charity or friends
• The Magic of Recluce by LE Modesitt Jr – I have been seeing this author on the shelves in increasing quantities for many years. He writes a lot of fantasy, usually trilogies and series and I’ve tended to avoid him. I figured I needed to give him a go. This is book 1 of a bigger series and I didn’t mind it, though a little dull at times. Happy to have read it but don’t need to read more.
• Speculative Horizons edited by Patrick St-Denis – this is a short story collection published by Subterranean Press and I bought it because it included a story by an author I loved long ago, CS Friedman and her ColdFire Trilogy. I was curious about other stuff she’d done and this didn’t disappoint. It also included a Modesitt story set in Recluce that I liked and led me reading a full novel. A nice little collection.
• Subterranean Press Tales of Dark Fantasy 3, Edited by William Schafer – I haven’t read dark fantasy in a long time and one of my favourites had been the aforementioned ColdFire trilogy. This came nicely bound in a slipcase full of fabulous tales, most of which I enjoyed. I think I need to seek out the previous 2 volumes.
• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemison – never read Jemison’s works before though she’s been picking up awards all over the place. This is book 1 of a trilogy I’m getting via Subterranean Press (they published the previous trilogy which sold out and is now way expensive on the secondary market) and I loved it. A fresh voice doing different things.
• First King of Shannara by Terry Brooks – I’ve been getting these nice slipcased editions from Grim Oak and by book 3 I was starting to think I was over it and the writing was dull for the current me. First King reminded me of everything I loved about Shannara, well written, engaging with a solid story. Glad I continued.
• Daughter of the Empire by Janny Wurts & Raymond Feist – I’m also getting the full Riftwar saga via Grim Oak though I feel the writing is stronger and still sucks me in. I tend to feel that the Janny Wurts contributions are the strongest parts and to my regret I’ve read nothing else by her. This might be the year to rectify that omission.
• A Case of Conscience by James Blish – Centipede Press have recently republished a lovely edition of this old classic that won the 1959 Hugo award. It’s still so good. Part 1 is the original novella and Part 2 is a new novella that bookends it nicely.

I was browsing elsewhere and remembered long ago that I used to post occasional lists of interesting links, sometimes commented. I thought I’d try that again.

Saw a mention of Cory Doctorow recently and realised I hadn’t seen a post of his on Boing Boing in a while. So it turns out he’s doing other stuff.

Greg Bear is a hard SF author I’ve read lots of but haven’t read anything in ages. Happily he’s still writing and posts occasional news. Interestingly, I don’t think he’s gone down the special edition path, though I wouldn’t mind having his stuff in nicer editions than my old paperbacks.

Bear posted a link to “10 Exciting Cyberpunk Books Filled with High Tech and Low Life” on Portalist as it included a link to his “Slant“. An interesting list that reminded me that I should read The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi one of these days [hmmm SubPress did a nice edition of it too – though long sold out]. That review notes that Girl shared the Hugo with The City and the City by China Mieville and I do have the SubPress edition of that. That was the 2010 Hugo awards and they were held down south in Melbourne as AussieCon.

I’ve never been to a book convention and sometimes feel like this was something I should have done, particularly when the main annual SF con made it to Australia. I’ve rarely met authors of books I’ve liked, though Terry Pratchett was an exception. I recall in primary school, attending author and illustrator dinners which were fun and I was able to get books signed. For some reason I never went down the convention path. I love library conventions as a librarian but I seem to have shied from fan based conventions. Perhaps shyness was a factor, or an avoidance of fannish things.

I’ve been joining book groups on facebook of late, mostly independent publisher based. I suspect I’m as much interested in discussion of different editions and availability as I am in discussion of the works. I have always struggled to discuss books I like, perhaps there’s a level of detail required, that I find difficult to retain, so I end up listening rather than participating. I vaguely recall trying a book club once long ago, they met at UTS in the ugly tower. I have friends in book groups of long standing and I envy their longevity of engagement. Perhaps a sense of structured engagement combined with the flexibility of good company.

After around 9 years, I have finally managed to complete the 10 volume set of Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson in matching numbers. It was around 9-10 years ago that Subterranean Press started publishing limited editions and releasing them one a year. Book 10, The Crippled God, arrived on my doorstep on Tuesday morning.

I regard the Malazan series as some of my favourite writing and like to make the comparison that Lord of the Rings is what you get when an English professor creates worlds, while Malazan is what you get from two archaeologists, one of whom is also an anthropologist. It is a challenging read and I recall several attempts to get into Book 1 as they are densely written, with lots of characters and perspectives to keep track of, not to mention a massive timeline of history.

I commented on instagram that book 5 is set in the time before book 4 while book 6 follows on from book 4. The series requires full immersion and it is hard to keep it all in the head. Minor characters and vignettes in early books may actually be portentous of later events and play a larger part further along. I’ve read a couple of interesting reviews recently including Tor and Medium, each grappling with the task of summarising Malazan effectively.

Collecting was a bit of fun in the early days as I was determined to read them all first before deciding to get special editions; I don’t do that anymore as I’ve had too many close calls. The first two Malazan had sold out by the time I decided I wanted the Subterranean editions so I ended up paying around $400 for book 2, then had a bit of luck and paid US$650 for book 1 of the same number, while the remaining were initially US$150 early on, but as costs rose in the following years, the final book was US$175.

Over the years I have been fortunate to acquire just about every other special edition of related works including all the releases from PS Publishing and Ian Esslemont’s works. I think the only title I’m sort of missing is the PS deluxe slipcase edition (100 copies) of Erikson’s The Lees of Laughter’s End, though I do have the limited release which was one of 500. I’d meant to follow it up years ago but didn’t get round to it and may have left it too late.

There have been books published in addition to the special editions including recent continuations. I am not aware of any special editions of those and have been picking up the first editions. It took me a while (along with access to Global Books in Print via my local library) to work out that the first edition (and first UK edition) was via Bantam Books and they were then released in the US through Tor. Increasingly I think the Bantam and Tor editions are being released almost simultaneously. While working that out I have ended up with 2-3 editions of each of the later works :-) That I think is getting a bit excessive. I have also managed to get the Bantam and Tor releases of the first book, Gardens of the Moon. Interestingly the first editions haven’t significantly increased in value like the Subterranean releases.

Book collecting is an addictive space. I think I continue to tread carefully but occasionally disappear down rabbit holes. Depending on my mood I have, on occasion, bought unknown books in special editions, because I like reading special editions. This is a dangerous, and expensive, path. But it reflects somewhat the challenges of the special editions market.

I recall reading years ago, some advice about buying art as investments. The advice was simply “buy what you like.” The thinking being that if it gains in value then it’s worthwhile but if it doesn’t gain in value, then you still have something you like.

With books, I am an addict for owning and collecting. For me, the investment value is irrelevant; I like to read pretty books and I like to have pretty books on my shelves. At times the investment value can be bewildering. I have stock standard, albeit limited/special editions, that I’ve paid $50 or so for, which are now worth close to $1,000. This was not intentional and the vagaries of the market scare me a little.

Science fiction and fantasy are my faves and it’s a curious market. Lots of folk on good incomes working in computer stuff who also like scifi and fantasy tends to be a large group. I’ve noticed increasingly over the last decade or so, a rise in interest in special books and figurines and so forth. The internet of course has vastly improved findability: if it’s not online, it cannot be purchased.

A print run of 500, nicely bound, editions of a book used to be sufficient. These days, such runs tend to sell out quickly. The audience are no longer local but global. COVID-19 lockdowns seems to have accelerated that process.

This means that if a nice edition of a book is announced and I’ve not read it, nor the author, I may well buy that special edition. Because if I do get round to reading it, often as an ebook, and love it, then the special edition will likely have sold out. I have been caught out a few times and it’s not always possible to recover, or at least attain the title somewhat affordably. Thus, on occasion, I have been buying books on spec, in nice editions, just in case. This does not sit right with me. Yet they are nice and I have no regrets. So far.

My reading has not been fab in recent months. I like working from home but I don’t think the restriction of lockdown is working well for me. It’s sort of curious that I can work from home easily when I know I can go anywhere at the drop of a hat – “have passport, will travel” was my catchphrase. Working from home when I can’t go anywhere far is a little challenging. I feel my world closing down to a few routines. Stepping outside those routines is increasingly uncomfortable.

I live in a city where new covid cases are in single figures per day. Realistically, life should be approaching normal.

My reading has dropped off completely. I struggle to read anything of substance. I have several books underway, some even predate lockdown. I lie in bed at night and play wordish games on my phone but struggle to pick up a book, print or digital. I switch off the light and go straight into a sound sleep.

I sleep well. Snore well. Snore too well for the rest of the house I suspect.

I seem to work well though my work day is changing. Up in time to start work at 10, an hour’s commute replaced by an extra, luxurious hour in bed. I’ve always had lunch closer to 2 than 1…but now it’s usually post 2. Of late, I’m finding around 4-5, my attention slows and disappears. I spend an hour or so on the playstation and my focus returns and I do a chunk more work. Playing a game seems to invigorate mentally in a way that watching a movie or tv does not.

My entire job can be done from home. I have been here before, when I was working vendor-side. It’s different now. I am amused by the idea, once again, of being able to do my job from wherever I am, independent of the building I work for. I work for the State. I support the State.

When I re-read that bit about the “State”, I need to say I am referring to the State of New South Wales, and not a state of mind and not the “state” as some sort of governmental control. I work for the benefit of NSW and to support the information needs of NSW folk. It’s not a creepy thing. No echoes of 1984…yet.

As is not uncommon, I have digressed somewhat from the post I started to write. This was supposed to be simply, a list of books I have on the go, so here is that list:

• Use of Weapons by Ian M Banks – this is a Subterranean Press edition that arrived prior to lockdown and was underway, yet I haven’t quite got back to it
• Embassytown by China Miéville – another Subterranean Press edition underway pre lockdown
• Walking Home by Simon Armitage – a poet describes his experiences walking the Pennine Way going in the opposite direction to everybody else. I want to walk the Pennine Way one day. This book is fab and I am halfway through, my partner loaned me the physical book though I later bought the e version so I could turn off the bedside light. I’m about halfway through.
• The Sandman Book II by Neil Gaiman – I am re-reading my beautiful deluxe compendium editions of the Sandman chronicles.
• Masters of Science Fiction: Kate Wilhelm – a double volume collection from Centipede Press of short stories by Kate Wilhelm. I am buying all in this series.
• The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu – this is the second book in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past series. The ideas are good, character development not so fab, Chinese perspective is outside my usual experience. Also a Subterranean Press edition.
• R is for Rocket/S is for Science by Ray Bradbury – a master of the short story. Possibly one of my favourite short story writers, though that I think may require another post.

Too many on the boil and another arrived today that I really want to read again. A book I read long ago. That will be a post for another day.