As a young adult I read a lot of fantasy. There was some Ramboesque writing that I read too, like the Black Berets. Man, those guys never had a problem getting out of a bind! Heh heh. But, for the most part it was all about the fantasy worlds, the cool characters, the dragons and honestly it was the evil characters that I liked the most. I had a running argument with a friend from high school that basically revolved around me saying I thought it sucked that the good guys always won and damnit the bad guy should win every now and then! He rightly pointed out that not too many people would buy a book where the evil character won.
High school was a bit of a turning point too, cause I discovered a love of Shakespeare and serious love of early twentieth century novels. I took that to a whole new level in University with the novel classes I took all focused on that era. Now, don’t get excited here cause I sure don’t mean Jane Austen and her ilk, I mean Joseph Conrad, Hemmingway and those folks. Brilliant stuff. Grapes of Wrath is a personal favourite because of the incredible detail he packing into that book.
I came out of university a much more rounded reader and so when I got back into the Fantasy I discovered I had a bit of a filter. Again, don’t get me wrong, I’m not a book snob by any stretch (I don’t think?) but I like to think I can sniff out the crap books from the roses. This is a very long winded way to get my point of this post. There are so many good books out there I have yet to re-read my favourites! Part of me keeps saying, don’t worry, you can reread your favourites when you retire and have tons of time…but the problem with that logic is that I will have read so many by then I might not be able to reread them all!
Anyway, it’s a damn good problem to have I reckon. I’ll keep reading and buying books for as long as I can read.
No comments:
Post a Comment