It’s time for another episode of “What I’m Reading“ – this time, with a RANT added for extra flavor!
Let’s get the rant out of the way first. It’s a mild one, but important.
If you’re on my email list, you know I’m taking a break from my customary self-publishing regime this year and attempting the traditional publishing route. That means searching for an agent and trying to learn as much as I can about “publishing today” – which, oddly enough, means spending an inordinate amount of time on Twitter.
One of the first things I learned was the importance of updating my reading catalogue.
It makes sense: if one is trying to establish a career in an industry, one should acquaint oneself with the current market. Hence, I started researching the favorite books of agents I like (and would like to be represented by), and am slowly forming a healthier relationship with contemporary literature. It’s a win-win-win situation: I learn how better to represent myself in this marketplace; I am reading some fantastic new books; I have become more familiar with my excellent local library.
No complaints so far.
Every so often, though, as I’m scrolling through Twitter, I encounter an exaggerated form of this practical scheme. A (very) few folks in the publishing industry seem to think that one should ONLY read current books. “The classics” – or any book written longer than five years ago, with a few critically acclaimed exceptions – have served their purpose (or just weren’t that great to begin with), and now we’re done with them. The end.
THAT was when the rant started to build in me.
See, I believe so fervently in the power of the past – the necessity of preserving and building upon anything good and true and worthy in the foundations laid for us – that I wrote a whole book about it. The image of standing on giant’s shoulders wove itself through the entirety of The Ancient; this passage is just one example:
We don’t have to chase the giants. They’re already here – they always have been, and they always will be. We can ignore them and be crushed by them; or, we can try to cut them off at the knees to make them more “manageable”, and continue our heedless trudging into oblivion; or, we can embrace them – climb onto their shoulders – behold the echoing vastness – and LEAP.
Is everything in “classic” books good and true and worthy of being built upon?
Absolutely not.
Does one need to read the work of contemporary authors, particularly if one is hoping to join their ranks?
HECK YES.
I just can’t see the wisdom in dismissing centuries of literature, especially in a Sisyphean effort to keep pace with a market that shifts and reshuffles itself with bewildering rapidity.
So, I will continue conversing with the giants – even as I delight in making new friends who are also trying to climb upon their shoulders.
Speaking of . . . here’s what I’m reading! (Thanks for sticking with me.) 🙂
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell – Susanna Clarke
I’m a bit late to this party, but this book has been the talk of the fantasy genre ever since its release. It’s a tome (see the photo), but I’m loving every inch of it. Imagine if Jane Austen and Neil Gaiman had a baby and then hired Charles Dickens to raise him. That’s about as close as I can get, and even such a whimsical description does poor justice to this book’s muchness. You’ll have to read it yourself.
A Torch Against the Night – Sabaa Tahir
This is one of the current hot tickets in YA fantasy right now, and with good reason. I read the first book, An Ember in the Ashes, last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then I took a break to read a bunch of other things – but, since book #4 is coming out soon-ish, I decided I’d better read books 2 and 3 in preparation. Jinns and wraiths and efrits (oh my!) and a Star Wars-esque battle of rebels-against-evil-empire, in the desert. With desperately hormonal teenagers. Fun for days.
The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
How did I miss this growing up? HOW??? I see C. S. Lewis and Brian Jacques in every line. Whimsical and surprisingly moving.
The Early Christian Fathers – Henry Bettenson (editor)
Yup, I’m still reading this. I took a long break to read an Advent/Christmas devotional; plus, it’s best to go through this in bite-sized portions. I’m almost at the end, though! I reached Athanasius and am finding him profound and precise.
The Shaping of Middle Earth – J. R. R. Tolkien
I’ve been reading this for a while, too. Part of my lifelong quest to read everything this man every wrote. Along with The Hobbit on audiobook in my car, it’s my way of sticking close to Tolkien; very important for my writer’s (and human’s) soul.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J. K. Rowling
I started a reread of the series last summer (for my explanation of why it’s important to reread favorite books, see this post), and I’ve been reveling in it; but, I told myself I could NOT start #7 until I finish A Wind in the Willows. And possibly A Torch Against the Night. I’ve gotta make some progress elsewhere first, ’cause once I start talking to Harry . . . it’s basically all over everywhere else.
I do dip into the John Donne occasionally; I just finished Billy Collins’ poetry book Nine Horses, which was both earthy and ethereal.
My quest to read more current books recently led me to John Connolly’s The Book of Lost Things (FIVE STARS) and David Mitchell’s Slade House (an incredible book, though not for the faint of heart/stomach. A haunted house tale for the ages. Creep-tastic and deeply unsettling.) I also reread The Old Man and the Sea, because . . . Hemingway.
That’s all from me (so far).
What about you, my friends? What are you reading?
(Also, if you’re not on my mailing list and would like to stay up-to-date with all R. A. Nelson news, fill out this form! I promise only to send you that which might bring you joy.) 🙂
What interesting books you have, my dear!! I am currently reading the C. S. Lewis biography and a delightful volume about the origin of some oft used phrases. Wonder where such lovely books came from? Guess!!!