Required reading.
Oct. 9th, 2009 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
che_gilsonI went to the library yesterday and a huge stack of books were waiting for me. Ambriel- the working title of the Russian Fucking Novel (RFN for short) has reached a point where research has become necessary. I was looking at my huge stack of books and said to the librarian "I may have been a little over ambitious" She told me I didn't have to take all of them home at once so I was able to check out 3 of them instead of all six or so. And to be fair one of those books is a 'for fun' read.
So my current stack of library books are:
Conquest: How Societies Overcome Others by David Day
The Decline and Fall of the British Empire 1781-1997 by Peirs Brendon
Terrorism and Homeland Security by Jonathan White.
I'm trying to plow through all three. Although the British Empire is 600+ pages long. Conquest is shorter thank heavens and the last book on terrorism is a textbook which means I can skip anything I don't need to read. Although I have to say so far all of them are pretty compelling. The Decline and Fall of the British Empire 1781-1997 is particularly well written. It begins with the American Revolution and the opening couple of paragraphs paint an amazing scene of the British surrendering at York Town. I'm not a big reader of non-fiction, I like my history in TV documentary form, but I will say I'm always surprised by how well written non-fiction often is. I know this some wierd reverse snobbism but it's true! I always expect crappy highschool textbook like writting and of course I'm always wrong!
So perhaps if you are reading this you are wondering what the RFN is about? Well, think of it as a politcal thriller without the thrills. It's also a vampire novel devoid of romance and a YA book that has nothing to do with sex. 600 handwritten pages in and NOTHING has exploded. The prose is borderline old fashioned and the entire thing is first person told in the form of diary entries. It pretty much IS a Russian novel, which was once humorously described as people with unpronouncable names talking for 500 pages, and then someone's aunt dies. In my case I think it's going to be closer to 600 (typed) pages of people with funny names talking and then something explodes. And get this- if I live long enough there may be a sequel.
For fun reading list:
His Majesty"s Dragon by Naomi Novik. Yeah, yeah, these books have been out forever and I'm late to the party. Well I picked up the forst three Temeraire books at the used book store. They were cheap and WTH. Anyway HMD makes me think that my book MAY (emphasis on the MAY) be publishable. It's a longish book, and not until page 231 is there anything resembling action. That sounds harsh. It's a good book but not quite the mind-blower that it's hyped up to be.
The Coven: Sweep #2. I borrowed the first Sweep book from a friend's bookshelf and liked it well enough to check out the second book in the series from the library. It's a fast read with short chapters, teen angsting, and a pretty fair representaion/introduction to Wicca that could easily send the curious to the bookshop for some more acurate material. They are old books but that shouldn't be held against them. This series is sort of my own template for another book I want to write and I want it shorter than the RFN.
I think I've actually become really serious about wanting to be an author. Not just a comic book writer, although I love comics still and would write them in a heartbeat if given the chance. But I'm tired of depending on artists who are perhaps the LEAST dependable people on the planet- I defy to name a flakier group. And I MAY be decent enough at prose to have a go at it myself.
So my current stack of library books are:
Conquest: How Societies Overcome Others by David Day
The Decline and Fall of the British Empire 1781-1997 by Peirs Brendon
Terrorism and Homeland Security by Jonathan White.
I'm trying to plow through all three. Although the British Empire is 600+ pages long. Conquest is shorter thank heavens and the last book on terrorism is a textbook which means I can skip anything I don't need to read. Although I have to say so far all of them are pretty compelling. The Decline and Fall of the British Empire 1781-1997 is particularly well written. It begins with the American Revolution and the opening couple of paragraphs paint an amazing scene of the British surrendering at York Town. I'm not a big reader of non-fiction, I like my history in TV documentary form, but I will say I'm always surprised by how well written non-fiction often is. I know this some wierd reverse snobbism but it's true! I always expect crappy highschool textbook like writting and of course I'm always wrong!
So perhaps if you are reading this you are wondering what the RFN is about? Well, think of it as a politcal thriller without the thrills. It's also a vampire novel devoid of romance and a YA book that has nothing to do with sex. 600 handwritten pages in and NOTHING has exploded. The prose is borderline old fashioned and the entire thing is first person told in the form of diary entries. It pretty much IS a Russian novel, which was once humorously described as people with unpronouncable names talking for 500 pages, and then someone's aunt dies. In my case I think it's going to be closer to 600 (typed) pages of people with funny names talking and then something explodes. And get this- if I live long enough there may be a sequel.
For fun reading list:
His Majesty"s Dragon by Naomi Novik. Yeah, yeah, these books have been out forever and I'm late to the party. Well I picked up the forst three Temeraire books at the used book store. They were cheap and WTH. Anyway HMD makes me think that my book MAY (emphasis on the MAY) be publishable. It's a longish book, and not until page 231 is there anything resembling action. That sounds harsh. It's a good book but not quite the mind-blower that it's hyped up to be.
The Coven: Sweep #2. I borrowed the first Sweep book from a friend's bookshelf and liked it well enough to check out the second book in the series from the library. It's a fast read with short chapters, teen angsting, and a pretty fair representaion/introduction to Wicca that could easily send the curious to the bookshop for some more acurate material. They are old books but that shouldn't be held against them. This series is sort of my own template for another book I want to write and I want it shorter than the RFN.
I think I've actually become really serious about wanting to be an author. Not just a comic book writer, although I love comics still and would write them in a heartbeat if given the chance. But I'm tired of depending on artists who are perhaps the LEAST dependable people on the planet- I defy to name a flakier group. And I MAY be decent enough at prose to have a go at it myself.
