Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Fantasy and Science Fiction/Theory Reading Group

Earlier this year I started attending a local book group for Science Fiction and Fantasy that focus on theory and literary aspects and whatnot. I've found that it's a good way to give my reading some direction and I really enjoy the discussions that we have once a month.

Last night was the annual book selection meeting, where we chose the books we'll be reading for the coming year. Basically everyone brings suggestions and then we discuss and fight it out until something resembling a consensus is reached and 10 selections have been made.

Most of my suggestions didn't make it to the end, but the one that did was that we do a double-bill of two recent Grant Morrison GNs: Seaguy and We3. (The group tends more often than not to pick one GN each year--this past year we did The Dark Knight Returns). Most of the group are not heavy comics readers, so it'll be interesting to see what discussions develop.

The other books chosen by the group are:

Neil Gaiman, American Gods
Charles Stross, Accelerando
Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog
Cornelia Funke, Inkheart
Max Barry, Jennifer Government
Robert McKinley, Sunshine
Midori Snyder, Innamorati
Clifford Simack, Way Station
George R. Stuart, Earth Abides


Of which I've already read American Gods and Jennifer Government.

2 comments:

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez said...

I thought American Gods was a tad bit overrated. Great concept, flawed execution. Meh.

How was Jennifer Government? I played that NationStates online game the writer had going for a bit and was always curious about the book, but never enough to seek it out. What say you?

Dave Carter said...

I enjoyed Jennifer Government quite a bit. It was a humorous look at a libertarian dystopia. I think it's the sort of thing that, if it sounds like a book you'd like, you'll like it.