Non-comfort reading

[girlyswot]

In preparation for the journey, I made a brief visit to Barnes and Noble this afternoon. While there, I took the courageous decision to read things I don't normally read. All my purchases thus came from the various genre aisles that I normally eschew in favour of 'fiction/literature'.

My first stop was Romance where I found 'The Spymaster's Lady' by Joanna Bourne. I've read bits of this on Absolute Write and liked it, and I think moonette1 also enjoyed it, so I have quite high hopes for that one.

Next, I took a deep breath, thought of rhetoretician and turned into the SF/F aisle. Scary! I know there are people who find bookshops in general to be scary and panic-inducing places and I suddenly found myself having a lot of sympathy for them. The only book I recognised was 'The Princess Bride'. Most of the books had covers so awful that I couldn't even bring myself to read the blurb. I kept imagining what these publishers might do to 'Anat'. Finally I saw a familiar name - Lois McMaster Bujold - and clung to it in relief. I know some of my flist read and enjoy her books and, if nothing else, I'll be able to read more of ankaret's stories. I wanted 'A Civil Campaign' because of the Heyer links but they didn't have it, so I got 'Young Miles' which I think is a compendium of three novels.

Breathing a deep sigh of relief, I went to more familiar territory - the Crime section. I found an Amelia Peabody I haven't read and I was very pleased to also find 'Die for Love' which girlspell had recommended. I shall enjoy imagining stmargarets among all the romance writers.

I'll probably slip in a couple of ankaret's M&B's too. So now I'm all set. Well, I still have to pack...

Comments

[alkari.livejournal.com]

Glad you survived bookstore experience *hands over large box of chocolates for recovery*

Personally, I can deal with the various covers in the SF/F sections - it is the Romance aisle which I find truly terrifying and which I avoid like the plague. On the rare occasion I have had to venture there, it is all I can do to steel myself for the experience! Bullets and bloodstains in the Crime aisle are far less frightening than the heaving bosoms and supposedly handsome hunks of M&B ...

[girlspell.livejournal.com]

Yay...sound like some good ones. Which Peabody? You will LOVE Die for Love. That book has been around for a long time. I was afraid it would go out of print.

I would feel the same in the Romance section. Totaly lost. I would see hundreds of authors I've seen in the library..but never read. In fact, somethings went over my head in Die For Love. I didn't get the joke.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Seeing a Large Cat. I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to Die for Love too.

[girlspell.livejournal.com]

Seeing A Large Cat was the prologue to a mini trilogy in the Peabody series that centered arund Ramese and Nefret. The trilogy was The Ape Who Guards the Balance, The Falcon at the Porthole, and He Shall Thunder in the Sky (my favorite) They all came out one after the other and boy was I hooked!
,
Enjoy!

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Ooh, fabulous. I'll look out for those. I really enjoyed the beginnings of the Ramses/Nefret relationship - I don't really read detective fiction for the plot, just the fun bits on the side!

[girlspell.livejournal.com]

It's important you read them in order. The middle one (Falcon) is a bridge novel, with He Shall Thurnder the climax. In fact, the resolution is not revealed until the very last line. A friend of mind was so hooked by the time Thunder was published (we had to wait 2 years!) she pulled up to the post office, opened the book to the end and sat there in her car burst into tears and ended up crying for almost an hour. All three novel titles have special meanings to each book. These are not stand alone novels.

[owl]

The Sf/F is my comfort aisle :)

Ooooh, a possibly Bujold convert! I really think you'll like them. _Young Miles_ is laugh-out-loud hilarious, and touching and sad. If you don't like teenage Miles, go back ad try _Cordelia's Honour_, which is about his mother. Save ACC till the end, the payoff will be better.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

They did have Cordelia's Honour, but I was panicking so I just picked the nearest one. I haven't started it yet, but I'll let you know how I get on.

[moonette1.livejournal.com]

Yes, I did enjoy The Spymaster's Lady. And it takes place in the Regency period, so maybe you'll see some good, historical stuff you'll find useful for your own story, or get some wheels turning.

Have a safe trip.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I did start writing the next section of the Regency on the plane, though I haven't yet typed it up.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I do hope you like Bujold. I think you're right to start with the SF ones rather than the fantasies, which can be a bit of an acquired taste.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

I've been somewhat alarmed (hollow laughs from my writing group who've seen the outright panic) at discovering that I am, apparently, writing a fantasy novel. Since I never read them, I didn't know that was what I was doing! Anyway, we'll see how we get on. I'm looking forward to Bujold.

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

Of course you read fantasy books. Harry Potter is fantasy and to suggest anything else is just pure ignorance on the part of the reader (i.e. ME - or so I've been told.)

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

LOL! I remember that debate. And actually, it's true, I do read fantasy books when I'm seduced into thinking they're something else, such as children's boarding school books.

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

You weren't around the first time it came up. That time I was told, in a very patronising fashion, by a nineteen year old, that if only I had read as much as she had and had her superior understanding of genre and the obligations it lay on the author . . . blah, blah, blah. The same wretched child had earlier told me (in similar patronising fashion) that if only I listened to classical music (like wot she did!) I would realise the true genius of the score of the Harry Potter film music . . . blah, blah, blah. I was so pleased to see her announcement that she was leaving the fandom wing to the appalling drivel that was Deathly Hallows (or some such grand statement).

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, if we were only all as wise as 19 year olds, the world would be a much better place. I knew everything back then. ;)

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

I knew everything back then

And, of course, forty-something women knew absolutely nothing, had never studied anything, didn't read anything and just listend to Richard Clayderman.

[grandma-kate.livejournal.com]

Safe Journey! You will be a great comfort to your Mum and Gran.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Kate.

[stmargarets.livejournal.com]

Safe travels and happy reading! *hugs*

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Mary.

[crumplehornedki.livejournal.com]

If I'd known you were scared by the Sci Fi section I would have recommended you get The Eight by Katherine Neville which is a nice way to ease in as it isn't really out there. Plus it has two links to harry Potter, it's written by a Neville and is about chess (kinda)

Have as nice a trip as you can.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

I'll put that on the list.

[rhetoretician.livejournal.com]

Regrettably, most SFF publishers have hideous taste in book covers. I have read wonderful novels whose dust jackets make me think of bad comic strips.

...On the other hand, most of the covers of Romance novels make me want to laugh out loud. What's to be done?

(...I do love that "edit comment" function...)

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Yes, quite right about romance novel covers, too. I had to grit my teeth in that aisle as well, though I had a bit more of an idea about what I was looking for. I do think that SF/F publishers really could do more to appeal to a wider audience in terms of marketing and design.

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

*TDU scratches head, trying to remember whether she has ever wandered down a sci-fi aisle, even by accident. Thinks, probably not!* I must have really limited reading habits because I hardly ever read crime or romance (other than Georgette Heyer) either.

I hope you enjoy your reading and that you have as good a trip home as possible under the circumstances.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Georgette Heyer =/= Romance with a capital R. Heyer = fluff; Romance = smuff. Heyer is usually shelved under general fiction/literature. People in the romance aisle expect sex in their books.

I have limited reading habits too. And a tendency to sneer at genre fiction which I am trying to overcome.

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

Heyer is filed into the romance section at our local bookshop (Borders). The aisle is quite scary because of the awful bookcovers. I hope Mary gets a nice picture on her book when she gets published. I don't actually buy Heyer - just borrow fromn the library when I feel the need. (Assuming someone else hasn't got them out first. *Fumes at the audacity of other library users!*) But sometimes I go and have a look at them!

Are you back in England yet?

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Yes, I arrived yesterday amid galeforce winds - not the most pleasant landing. Our journey home was very nice and quiet because the M6 was closed just to the north where 3 lorries had overturned.

[dogstar101.livejournal.com]

I did a similar thing recently i.e. bought a crime novel. First one since I burned through Agatha Christie' entire oeuvre as a kid. Ruth Rendell's first novel, if you're interested. Sci Fi doesn't frighten me. Romance aisle though? *ph4r*

Best wishes and hugs for a safe journey.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

I haven't read much Ruth Rendell though I liked what I have read. The cover on the Romance novel I bought is quite frightening (see comment to Ken above).