It has been a long time since I’ve ignored what I “ought” to be doing and dive into a book. I would occasionally treat myself to gulping down a new release by a favorite author on the day it was released. We’re talking once every other year at best if a book is released when I don’t have too much I really must get done that day. (And dammit, I am tired of the October Daye novels being released the day after Labor Day when I almost always have to be working. Looking at you, DAW. You did it again this year with The Unkindest Tide…)
Audiobooks, you see, mean that I usually don’t have to in order to enjoy a story. I can listen to a story and clean the house or cook a meal or knit a sweater. For the most part, that has been a blessing.
Except… I’m finding myself needing to read in a way I haven’t for quite literally decades. Reading like I did when I was a child and a teenager — walking around with a book, resenting mealtimes, because I was reading, dammit, reading in the bath and then getting far too hot and sprawling on my bed in a towel to cool off while I read some more. Guzzling a book in a day or less.
I’m not fighting it, because I’m pretty sure this is going to circle back to my writing eventually. And maybe I’ll have to corral it a bit because I am a grownup with Responsibilities.
So…
I’m looking for new material.
Generally, a book that sucks me in presents the reader with a Different World with New Customs. That doesn’t necessarily mean science fiction or fantasy (I loved The Chosen, after all) but that’s definitely where I find it most.
Any suggestions? The lusher and richer the worldbuilding – especially the social structure, the better.
Naomi Novik’s Uprooted is a good one. As is her other novel set in the same universe (though not a sequel), Spinning Silver.
Spinning Silver was my favorite of 2018. I have Uprooted on my list!
You’ve read the lyonesse series by Jack Vance?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyonesse_Trilogy
The Liaden Universe by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee. Start with Conflict of Honors which is my favorite and stands alone fairly well, you can read the Agent of Change series, there’s about 21 at this point.
https://korval.com/publication-list/correct-reading-order/
Exquisite world/universe building and social structures. If you appreciate Southern culture, you will probably really like the Liadens, who are brutally polite because they’re all terribly lethal and their culture has evolved into a complex social system of good manners, The Code, and “melanti” so that they don’t all wind up dueling each other to the death. It’s deliciously good reading. Space! Pilots! Manners!