One of the many, many things I love about the Christmas Break is that I’m normally able to string 2+ weeks of vacation together. It’s my one real chance every year to truly step away from work and put some time into the things I love. As you can imagine, one of the things on my to do list every year is catch up on my reading. I buy so many books over the course of a year and I’m never able to finish them all. They tend to pile up in the library – on the shelves – on the floor – anywhere I can find them a temporary home. While I don’t ever clear the que over the Christmas Break, I always make some real progress.
This year is no different – I have stacks and stacks waiting for me and I can’t wait to dig into as many of these potential treasures as possible. I thought I’d post a short list of those books that are at the top of my stacks going into the Break.
House Of Chains: I’ve already mentioned that this one is on the nightstand and I’m making progress. Having said that, it’s not a quick read. I’m about a third of the way through and I don’t expect to finish this one until sometime next week. Once I do, I have a huge decision to make. I can either move on to the next book in the Malazan series – “Midnight Tides” – an equally weighty read but well worth it – or I can step away for a book or two and do something completely different.
It would be very easy to go back and read the next installment of the Sandman Slim series – “Kill City Blues” – which Amazon with an impeccable sense of timing – just dropped off on my doorstep today. These are really fun reads and you can finish them in a day. These books also bring with them a lot of great laughs – which is not a bad option after gritty, deadly atmosphere that permeates all of the Malazan novels.
I also have a couple of options that will take me out of the Fantasy genre. I love history and it was one of the topics that made reading such a huge part of my life. The two biggest components of my personal library are Science Fiction & Fantasy and History. I’ve spent the last 3 – 4 months reading through a Fantasy backlog that I’ve built up so I’m probably due to get back to a History title.
I recently bought Dan Jones’ new book about the Templars – not surprisingly titled “The Templars”. I’ve always been intrigued by this organization but have never taken the time to explore their history in detail. The book has been very positively reviewed and it looks like a great entry point to a period in history that I’m not all that familiar with.
Another good option in this area would be a book I just purchased and am expecting to arrive any day now – The Landmark Julius Caesar: The Complete Works. Any fan of classical history and literature really should check out this series of publications. The Landmark Julius Caesar is the fifth in a collection of definitive editions including The Landmark Herodotus, The Landmark Thucydides, The Landmark Arrian – The Campaigns Of Alexander and The Landmark Xenophon’s Hellenica. Not only are these beautiful volumes but they include an incredible amount of background information, asides, footnotes and accompanying material – making them really smooth reads. This is one I’d like to read through over the Break if time allows.
I also have a science fiction option in the que – the second book in Neal Asher’s Polity universe. Neal’s most recent additions to this universe – a trilogy called Transformation consisting of “Dark Intelligence”, “War Factory” and “infinity Engine” – have been well reviewed and are very popular. I want to read them but I tend to get a little meticulous about how I enter a new universe. He has a whole host of novels set in the Polity that precede this trilogy and I’m determined to read them in order. Before my return to the Malazan series and before reading the first 5 Sandman Slim novels, I started down this road by reading his first Polity novel – “Prador Moon”. It was a little rough – an early work – but the concept was really intriguing – a society characterized by peaceful cooperation between humans and artificial intelligences. I have the second book in the progression – Shadow Of The Scorpion – which I’d like to get through over the Break.
One last weird but fun option for the Holiday is a new author I just found named Jonathan L. Howard. I’ve always really loved H.P. Lovecraft’s novels and short stories – devoured them in High School and own a couple of very nice hardcover “Complete Works” editions. Howard has done something really fun with the mythos – writing a series of stories about the modern day descendants of H.P. and Randolph Carter – a recurring character in many of his stories. I’ve read his first novel – “Carter & Lovecraft” – and enjoyed it. I recently bought his second – “After The End Of The World” – and I’m eager to give it a try.
There’s a lot more but that’s what’s currently on the top of my piles. It looks to me like its going to be a very Merry Christmas!!
Cheers