sleepyI've seen a variety of memes going around lately. I took a look. I haven't read more than a smidegeon of the sci-fi books on the sci-fi meme, and I probably never will. The genre just doesn't grab me the way it once did, even though my own writing includes the occasional cat god or talking tiki drink. Go figure. Yes, I've read Dune, and the LOTR trilogy, Terry Pratchett, and some of the other big names. I am partial to a few of them. I think Kim Stanley Robinson is quite good. I just can't care about the rest - they don't move me anymore. There are writers who do move me, but they don't have memes.
So below, in no particular order, is a list of books I'm reading now / have read recently / *will read in the next month or two:
Middle Passages: African American Journeys To Africa, James T, Campbell
All Aunt Hagars Children, Edward P. Jones
The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor
Tsotsi, Athol Fugard
*Paperbark: A Collection of Black Australian Writings
Pastoralia, George Saunders
Female Trouble, Antonya Nelson
Some Fun, Antonya Nelson
Welcome to the Monkey House, Kurt Vonnegut
Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, Jeff Chang
*CivilWar Land in Decline, George Saunders
Never Let Me Go, Kazui Ishiguro
The Plot Against America, Philip Roth
Torture the Artist, Joey Goebel (unfinished, on the backburner)
*Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpra Lampri
McSweeney's
The Paris Review
Bat City Review
Bad Dirt: Wyomng Stories 2, Annie Proulx
Someone smarter, quicker, and more awake than I can probably see a pattern in that list.