Steve gets away from being overwhelmed by the world of Biblio-Ennui by...yes, you guessed it, buying books and sorting shelves... #booktube #fictionbooks #bookcollecting #books #sciencefictionbooks
PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING: THANKS for all the feedback on your reading, I'll be 'responding to your current choices in a video toward the end of next week and hope to include my copies of the books you're enjoying. No choices made after 15.35 UK GMT 15th June will be responded too as there are tons already- unless they're so interesting I have to comment!
Nobody can riff like you and keep your audience absolutely riveted throughout. You are inimitable. And you're damned right; "I could put Sci-Fi in a lot of my titles and get more views, but I'm perverse, I'm not going to go down that road, you know that and that's why you love this channel". Says it all, Stephen! Your knowledge is astounding and moreso, it's a gift, and one that we all enjoy receiving. I know I speak for all of your viewers, I'm sure of it. Loved the tour of your living room bookcases, a proper array fit for a king. Your work ethic is beyond the pale, and an inspiration. I've just finished two books: Changeling Earth (Saberhagen), and Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. I find Thompson dark but compelling and couldn't put it down. First read since back in the day. Totally different feel. I've also just watched on BBC America by coincidence (I saw your copy of Moonage Daydream in the living room bookcase and it jogged my memory) this past week, the documentary of the same name. Talk about a walk down memory lane, revisiting the youthful interests many of us had whilst coming of age! Great episode, highlight of my week, OB. Cheers!
I avoid book burnout by having a second time-eating hobby. Namely painting table top wargame figures. Currently reading Halcyon Drift by Brian Stableford. Really enjoying it. It's only short so I'm rationing it out by reading The Hard SF Renaissance collection edited by David G. Hartwell & Kathryn at the same time by turns.
Literary ennui is a concept I can understand. Earlier this year, I cleared out a lot of books I didn't want anymore. Where appropriate, I gave them away to the free little library in the park by my house. I re-organized the shelves for the rest of the books and converted a closet to store books. This helped to clear out some of the cobwebs of ennui. Currently reading: Children of Dune. Thanks, Steve.
I’m reading short stories this month. Mirrorshades, Dangerous Visions, some Ellison, Silverberg, Shepard and non-SF stuff by Borges. Barthelme, Cortazar and Mariana Enriquez.
I'm reading Tobias Churton's 'Aleister Crowley in England', a JB Priestly weird short stories collection, and an old book (1904) of historical mysteries by Andrew Lang, which has chapters on things like the disappearances of the Canning Wonder (to borrow Machen's title from his book on that mystery) and the Camden Wonder, as well as the Comte de Saint-Germain, and Jeanne de Valois and the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, etc. In addition, I'm dipping into a Hugh Lamb (ed) anthology of Victorian ghost stories, 'Terror by Gaslight', and slowly re-reading Eco's 'Foucault's Pendulum' for the umpteenth time. These are, variously, bed books, bus books and pub books.
Perdido St Station Mieville The Big Sleep Chandler Knight of Swords Moorcock Moderan David R Bunch Monday starts on Saturday. Strugatsky Brothers. I always have a few on the go. Some are audiobooks I listen to when commuting. Im enjoying them all immensely. Cheers
All you talk about here makes sense. In order to get back, you first need to get away. Not that you really got away from books and bookish things this week. I'm amazed and impressed by the amount of time and energy you put into this (and your other) channel. So, yes, I fully understand the need to step back for a while. It's so important, too, to retain that sense of wonder. You manage to do this magnificently. Keep up the excellent work, my friend.
After feeling too crap to watch your video yesterday it has cheered my Saturday morning up greatly, I also loved your mini bookcase tour. I'm currently on the last book by Peter Laws in his series about an ex-minister turned professor who helps out the police.
Harry Martinson - Aniara (Finnish translation) James Blish - The Seedling Stars & Galactic Cluster Usually I only read one book at a time, but Aniara being epic poetry I felt I wanted to read prose at the same time.
How did you find it? My personal impression was "puerile". It felt like it was written by a 16 year old virgin who couldn't wait to have sex for the first time, and was imagining all the different scenarios in which it could happen one day!
Currently I'm reading "Ilium" by Dan Simmons. I've never heard you mention him so I'm feeling a guilty pleasure as he may be outside your canon 😏......I'm quite enjoying it as it comes on the heels of just finishing a re-reading of "The Illiad". I'm finding it an entertaining read.
I'm reading Northwest Smith by C.L. Moore - pure pulp escapism. First of her books I've read, reminds me a bit of Robert E. Howard, stylistically. Ray guns instead of swords, Mars & Venus instead of Stygia and Aquilonia ... p.s. I'm a bit envious of the 'Hawkwind, a Visual Biography' book I spotted on your bookcase tour & the 'Warrior on the Edge of Time' cup that's prominently displayed on the shelf beside you!
I’m really loving the Northwest Smith stories as well. The descriptions of the alien light and darkness creatures in Dust Of Gods was something special. Only read four stories so far, but I haven’t been disappointed yet.
@VintageSF Thought of you b/c of recent reading; working on "Black Like Who?" by Rinaldo Walcott. Why you? It is a Canadian book about Canadian matters of race, a solid academic piece (that has really been slowing me down.) Subsequently, I must put it aside & in my guilt thought " what Canadians do I know? I should recommend it to them because I don't have the RAM to finish it."
@VintageSF - I was not clear: It's really good, but it refers to Canadian laws, events, history, and places in a way I cannot absorb without secondary resources.
@@waltera13 Thank you for the recommendation! Just took a look online to get an idea what the book is about. It appears to be a series of essays, if I'm reading it correctly, looking at the black Canadian identity culturally and politically. Have I got that right?
@@vintagesf Yes, that is correct. Well it appears to be a solid text broken down into sections by theme, which may *be* like a series of essays. . . I've not gotten far enough into it to know. Or, for that matter to know if it has a political direction other than education about the African Canadian experience. So perhaps I shouldn't be recommending books to people I don't know that well. I know you're really focused on the SF right now, but now is the time to remember to recommend. 😁 It has a number of introductory essays before it moves into the text, and after the second one I believe I skipped a few to move into the main body of the text. I didn't mind the academic rigor, but it really required Canadian cultural signposts. . . And I have enough reading that requires supplemental information. So I pass the baton to you, if it's not your thing . . . no pressure. 😉
Steve i am overwhelmed by " my lack of space " i " lose" book i re discover book , i knock over books . I say i will buy no more until i get more space , i feel down and to cure that i go out and book hunt . And i am lifted . The " cure " for too much books is buy more ? Making sense ? . On an upbeat note i manage to get a copy of 100 must read SF . And i dug in and is dugging in , great read . Alas its not mine but a library book . I dont think a 21 + days is enough . Thanks for the video .
"Sylvan Young, I am with you in book-buying, In the dust covered shops, with overstock in isles, I am with you at the yard sales, and little libraries - becoming destinations and reasons to travel, I am with you at the crowded library sales, competing for bargains, shoulder to shoulder with the soulless scanning shoggoths. . . "
Currently reading Chris Beckett The holy machine, very good . Then a first time read of Ballards crash as I’ve been finishing off my Ballard collection but unbelievably never read crash.
Aldiss - Bury my heart at WH Smiths Foulk - Stealing Dylan from Woodstock The Lady Antrobus - A Sentimental and Practical Guide to Amesbury and Stonehenge Shelton - Fat Freddy's Cat Omnibus
Reading Tad Williams'-The Dragonbone Chair, Listening to Jim Butcher's Turn Coat (Dresden Files #11), Reading/Gazing at a graphic novel by Odunze Oguguo called Apple Black Vol. 2
Just finished Daughter of Eden by Chris Beckett. It was wonderful. My favorite of the trilogy. And I decided to reread Dune after 50+ years. One third of the way through and enjoying it. However it’s not as great as my adolescent self thought.
Nice video. Funnily enough, it was Ian Fleming's Moonraker that got me reading again recently, after a couple of years hiatus - really enjoyed it - more so than the movie. I've suffered from "book burnout" the last couple of years, and have just done other things such as casual cycling. I'm far from "cured" of the burnout, but am dipping the occasional toe back into books again...
Repost 1- Embarrassed: Lately it's all been juggling audiobooks from the library by setting and mood, so, "eclectic." That said: -Shakespeare's library, - Has Populism Won? - London Incognita ; Intriguing! Immersive! Just started, but pulls you in. -Tom Baker at 80; excellent anecdotes and reminiscences, much more than Doctor Who, so charming and engaging. Recommended! -Here Goes Nothing by Eamon McGrath; short, memoir / reminiscence of punk rock guitarist on tour. -"Shakespeare Was a Woman, and Other Heresies"; reasonable, and surprisingly solid so far - recommended to keep the brain going during house chores.
I had a similar experience with the new Harlan Ellison collection. I read the first three stories at light speed, then I stopped because I just couldn't get into it, so Im thinking that the trigger warnings and disclaimer left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I still revere HE, but that edition just blindsided me in a bad way. I'm in a Easter European mode, returning to thie mimoid manifestations.
Just finished Kubrick: An Odyssey, nice breezy bio of the master. Lord, if only SK lived long enough to read Priest's The Separation, it would have been a match made in heaven. Next up might be Let it Come Down by Paul Bowles, who is not sf but somehow always feels that way to me...has the sense of estrangement down for sure. And yes, do a livestream.
I am working my way through Classic Fiction Stories edited by Adam Robert's, suggested by you I think, (l've read some of them before), and Black Spirits and White Spirits, a book of ghost stories edited by Ralph Adams Cram; and a western called The Pursuit by Nathan Wright I also noticed on your bookshelves a book about locomotives. Is that an old interest or a new interest?
I've been reading two main things lately: Trilogy by Jon Fosse (quite remarkable so far -- i.e. living up to the hype) and The Zanzibar Cat by Joanna Russ (also wonderful so far) I've also been reading some Kenneth Patchen poems and dipping in and out of Tristram Shandy from time to time
Just finishing Kraken - By China Mieville, got Vicodin Nights next and then I’m reading Winterwood by Keith Roberts followed by Jeff Noon Needle In The Groove. TBR pile is slightly out of hand ! Where/who next ?
The Guardians - so that's what it's called! We read that in English in school in 1990/91 (I think). We followed it up wit Brother in the Land. Grim. Remember not being keen on The Guardians at the time, but now who knows?
Indeed, we sometimes need a break, even from things we love... I also love reorganising my books, it's almost therapeutic... Coming Up For Air is a wonderful novel! Such an interesting book (there are many things to say about it). Those Penguin black covers (with photographs on the front) are nice; I have all the Orwell books in that "collection". I've just started reading The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat.
The sight of a properly ordered bookshelf safe in the knowledge that no customer will come in and mix things up. Recent/current reading DG Compton Nomansland thanks for the recommendation John Prebbles The Lion in the North.
Currently reading Dionysos Speed by Rainer J. Hanshe ('As the digitization of every aspect of existence grows more pervasive and absolute, from the monitoring of thought to the tracking even of genitals, the central nervous system of the human body has been completely rewired.').
My current reads are: Hard to be a God - Strugatski's The Incal - Jodorowsky/Moebius Cat Chaser - Elmore Leonard Swan Song - Robert R. McCammon I'm enjoying them all in their many differences.
I have always loved reading. When I discover this Channel few years ago. It has ignited a passion of reading and collecting. Down side is more I buy behind I am reading Mount Everest of books. I just finished the best of R A Lafferty. Now I’m starting on Moderan by Daniel R Ranch. Look after yourself Steve.
Steve I have recently picked up pipe smoking again. I found a lot at a local auction house of about 20 Tobacconist Books on types of pipes, general collecting, history of leaf and lastly song and poems. I pulled out a favorite churchwarden and have been smoking a nice English Blend. I am about to start up something new. Probably Hiero's Journey by Lanier. Don't know if I ever thanked you for the ipcress file recommendation it was super.
I read several books at once but relevant to your channel Im Reading Dreamsnake by Vonda Mcintyre and Bears Discover Fire by Terry Bisson which is pretty entertaining for a short story collection. Im also reding some Fantasy Robin Hobb and Brandon Sanderson currently
What am I reading? 🤔 Cutting between Vernor Vinge's 600pg novel _A Fire Upon the Deep_ (1991) and Algernon Blackwood's _The Wendigo and Other Stories,_ a 2023 compilation from Oxford World's Classics...
Off topic, but I'm diggin' the shirt. Currently reading: Setting Free the Bears, by John Irving, alongside Alone with the Horrors, by R. Campbell (short stories). Reading doesn't strike me as a "minority thing"--until someone mentions it. Is it an addiction? I dunno. Is brushing my teeth? Or showering? Or eating too much bacon? Just so long as don't end up like Don Quixote, I'm fine (I think).
Audiobook: Harlan Ellison's Greatest Hits; a mixed bag. *Great surprise* : many of the stories are read by Harlan himself, sometimes followed by anecdotes! Great to come at Ellison after all this time. As I expected, some stories don't hit the same way 30 or 40 years later. Some are dated, some are writers exercises of how to gild a basic pulp story or strange tale into appearing like something more, some pack such an emotional wallop, that it's hard to picture an adult reading it and "feeling it." Some are "of their time" , and by that I don't mean that they haven't aged well, I mean you would need to have researched the mindset of the time really well, or have lived through it to understand the layered nuances, or groundbreaking triumphs that they were then. Subtleties that are lost when looking backwards over the shoulders of so many achievements that followed. Which brings me to the arrogant, ignorant, myopia and undeserved privilege of Cassandra Khaw's introduction. But all of you will hear more about that in Steve's review.
Update: -Listened to "How's the Nightlife on Cissalda?" And it was great! It was a poor quality live recording of Harlan reading it to what sounded like a college audience back in the day. It *actually* manages to capture a lot of that "Harlan reading live" feel that you don't get when it's Harlan reading in the studio. It was so good I immediately plowed into another humor piece: -"I'm looking for Kadak" and I had to stop, because the reader was not up to the task, or at least not after listening to that other Harlan piece directly before it! It comes across like an overcooked noodle. The voice that is so deliberately written into this story is unmistakable: it's like a used car salesman standing up before friends at a party in the Poconos to spiel. Think Jackie Mason. So I've got to start another story. I'm jumping around because there's a waiting list for the book now, I won't be able to extend it & I haven't been having enough listening time lately.
I know I’m too late with my comment but I just had to chime in and say I’m reading my first Harlan Ellison, Deathbird Stories (in the Pan lozenge I happened to stumble upon in the wild). Very powerful stuff!
Yes, amazing book. Try and get 'The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World' next. Ellison was at his best mid 1960s to end of the 1970s, like Silverberg. He just BURNED then.
I have to admit, the one book that stood out for me on your bookshelf was the Fiona MacCarthy biography of Stanley Spencer. She's a brilliant biographer and that book's on my wishlist. I notice that you said it belonged to the Video Widow ... maybe she should start a RU-vid channel ! As for what i'm currently reading - Stephen King's Needful Things. The first book of his that i've read for 30 years. Btw, if you get bored of books you could always talk more about your record collection.
Hi Stephen, sorry for the late response. I saw the whole video. So I picked up Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon and started reading it. I am finishing an Edge novel by Gilman.
love all your content, steve. keep at it, mate. i am currently reading eight bears: mythic past and imperiled future by gloria dickie for a book club. it's about what you would expect but well done. i'm enjoying it no need for a livestream for me because i'm in las vegas, nevada and the time difference will probably work against me. but i would watch the replay cheers
just finished Tchaikovsky's Service Model (he's 2/2 for me this year and apparently has another book coming out next month, crazy!), currently reading Finna by Nino Cipri, a short but sweet alternate reality story, so far.
River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey....down an uncharted tributary of the Amazon... Recently visited the Zane Grey museum near Zanesville, Ohio........so you can guess what recent purchases were....
Starting to read and nearly finished Pavane. I can't seem to sleep after it my brains wired after reading it an amazing book thank you for the recommedation!
Just chiming in late because I’m reading Miami Blues as per your recommendation. It’s so good. I’ve got The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley also queued up next. Oh and because I enjoyed his entry in Dangerous Visions so much, I finally cracked open To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer.
The Hoke Mosley books get better as they go on- the second is better than the first, the third is brilliant, the fourth very good indeed. The Crumley is excellent too.
Just finished a most unusual and enjoyable book by Fredric Brown - Night of the Jabberwock. A mystery rather than SF (although I know Brown wrote a lot of the latter too).
Sorry I'm late for the what I have been reading but really enjoyed this video Steve - have been looking for the George Orwell paperbacks here in Australia and hard to find in good condition being mostly library copies. Most have seen 'alot of action'
I'm currently reading Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead, which is an Arthurian era fantasy novel set around Roman Britain and the fall of Atlantis. It's been surprisingly good and not what I was expecting. I was ill for a week so it has taken me longer than normal.
Reading John Banville's Eclipse. The first in the Cleave 'trilogy' I find his prose very poetic and very haunting at times. I do enjoy his writing. I'm planning to read Chris Beckett's Dark Eden next OR The Timeliner Trilogy R. C. Meredith. Will see how I feel.
My dear Rotwrang, I enjoyed the video immensely. Several thoughts.....the Bond paperbacks I first read were the Signet versions in the 60s. May have to pick those up again. If I remember Fleming and Christopher Lee were friends? ...Saw the diary of Pepys in your library. I want to read it one day. What was the red Book of Penguin Classics? I'm starting to collect the black paperback Penguins, especially Greek and Roman classic literature i.e. Suetonious' "Twelve Caesars" (Capri!) etc..... I spotted the SF mags publisher as Street and Smith which took me back to my boyhood salad days as they published annual (American) football reviews. Cheers!....stay away from blondes stirring up the rabble!
Just finished The Director Should Have Shot you by Alan Dean Foster. It's his account about doing movie novelizations. Now reading The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks, book one in The Fourth Realm trilogy.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal I did indeed. But would be love to see and recommend you some great unknown classic authors aswell as new. Maybe it'll help give you a break from all that SF 😉
A live stream is such a good idea. I wonder why you've not thought of it before...hehe. Struggling with errant tech can also be amusing. I'm not sure if it was PKD who coined the word KIPPLE, for objects that conjure emotions of tristful nostalgia. Books can do that to one.
Yes, 'kipple' is from 'Do Androids Dream...'. I have thought of a livestream many times, not sure if I'll do it. Only a few peol,e said 'yay' to the idea, but all of you who did are great guys, so we'll see....
I’m reading Jason Pargin’s Zoe Punches the Future in the Dick about a futuristic American western town with crime and high tech weaponry. I much prefer the John Dies at the End series which I’m caught up on. Fun video topic!
Looking at all the Penguins, each to their kind, made me think I was watching a Jules Burt video. The RU-vid filter seems to have gobbled up my original responses. (one "recent read" list was long) and I did not see till after the deadline. Still, I understand. Good luck to you and stay well. Errr, Get well.
