My 2020 Readalongs
Merry Christmas and I hope you all have some good books to read? If not fear not I am always here to tempt… ahem… help!
I’ve had a great reading year and next week you’ll get my traditional look back and look forward including my favourite reads of 2019/ But something has been percolating in my head for quite a few weeks now and I want to give you a heads up so you can decide if you want to take part with me in 2020. I’ve got some readalongs in mind….
The 2020 Discworld Readalong
Back in 2018 I tried a twitter based readalong where I would try and read on a daily basis part of a Terry Pratchett Discworld novel. Reader I failed…its really hard to read 17 pages on a train with commentary and then the house moves and postponements of joy continually derailed my mood and it’s been nagging me for a long time that I have unfinished business.
Terry Pratchett I think I can safely say is my favourite author who I’ve been reading since my teenage years. As I grew up the books evolved, and I find his blend of fantasy tropes; love of science; angry social commentary and oh my goodness ability to make me laugh an annual joy. I was often a keen re-reader of the books but then I started reading more so re-reads became rarer and since Terry died, I’ve found myself reluctant to get back into them because I realised there were no more to come. I really enjoyed the 2018 experiment because I realised, I was seeing a writer develop and start to recognise themes that would evolve and be revisited (and often refined). So, taking lessons from my last attempt and knowing I’m a fast reader this experiment involves reading all the Discworlds I have – about 45 in a year. I will exclude the science books and somehow find room for Good Omens. The idea here is a weekly recap at the weekend - a review with added looking at the themes; best lines and thoughts on how a writer changes over time. Feel free to join in and comment with me on the site underneath the review or in twitter where as @runalongwomble I will do a weekend thread of my favourite Pratchett lines.
We start with The Colour of Magic starting 6th January and spoilers I’m not a fan!!
Monthly Readalongs
As you probably know I like to work hard to avoid just reading books by white men and if I am going to read all the Discworlds I really should be trying to find a series in my collection by a woman but there doesn’t seem to be an easy equivalent that matches up to 45 books. Partly that’s because Pratchett wrote an awful lot, but you also have to wonder sometimes if it is harder for women to be allowed to write a long running series. I did briefly consider Anne McCaffrey but I hated Dragon Riders of Pern so that fell by the wayside. And over 2019 several little coincidences took place that made me think of some authors I’d love to read again or in one case for the very first time. The idea here is I start three series and one author I’ve been meaning to read for ages. The aim here is I read four books each month in those series and comment on them. I’m not tying myself to dates here and I know not everyone reads as much as me (not all of you have my two hours of train each day) so feel free to join in one or as many as you like.
Something Old – The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
Looks like I started this around 1999 following an impulse buy. This is a SF series that on the one hand seems initially just lightweight space adventures but as I looked harder has some interesting things to day about technology, representation and social commentary. Its main character is the disabled hyperactive and fiercely intelligence Miles Vorkosigan heir to an aristocrat who also as we will see has the coolest mother of all. It has some flaws too which will be interesting to see how the books handle and come back to as we go along.
This will start with Shards of Honour in January where I will introduce you to the amazing Cordelia Naismith
Something New – Octavia E. Butler
I often mention that I have weird gaps in my reading as I didn’t read many of the classics growing up nor did I really get stuck into many of the big fantasy series like Wheel of Time (and that series ain’t coming near me) but one author I’ve been meaning to try for years now and never got round to is Octavia E. Butler. One of the most famous African American SF writers who has won a host of awards and yet often hard to track down their entire works. This year I want to find out what I’ve been missing so lets watch a writer develop over many years again and I’ve no idea what I will be finding.
This will start with their Seed to Harvest series starting with the 1980 novel Wild Seed in January (if you like Kindle there is a relatively cheap four book collection of this for a reasonable price)
Something Borrowed – The Deverry series by Katherine Kerr
A couple of years ago my friend Zoe introduced me to the Deverry series (just the first four). It is a tale of a magical land where people can get reincarnated and an old sorcerer is trying to put things right for his mistakes many years ago. Starting in 1987 it was actually unusually empowering on female characters and has some really interesting takes on the fantasy stories. Harper Voyager has been re-publishing the series in some lovely new editions and well how could I resist finding out what happened next?
This will start with Daggerspell in January
Something Blue – Robin Hobb’s Six Duchies series.
The author who got me back into fantasy is Robin Hobb. I had tried to read Lord of the Rings many times and when I finally finished it had appreciated it more for the effort gone into it but not found it a hugely emotional tale. But spurred on by a glowing review in SFX and also finding a paper back edition in my local newsagent I decided to read Assassin’s Apprentice and got captured by the tale of FitzChivalry Farseer and later on the people on the seas and rivers who lived in the same world. Be warned while I think Hobb is a fantastic writer there will be emotional trauma conducted upon your heart but it’s a journey I’m willing to tread again! For epic fantasy Hobb is my standard of great stuff and got me back into a genre in my twenties I had pretty much given up on. What a long way I’ve come since but I’m interested how a reread will make me feel (and cry)
This will start in January with 1995’s Assassin’s Apprentice (but I will be using a lovely new illustrated anniversary edition before getting back to my originals!)
So fancy a journey into space, the future; legend and where there will be dragons? If so…
