March 7, Friday evening -- Reading Alastair Reynolds

In a quiet Sutter Street bar/restaurant, away from the rush of 5pm.

(This is actually on Kearny Street, a couple blocks from the restaurant. I took the photo this evening for my dad...he's working on a painting and wants to include the text of the signs in the background. Are you reading my blog, Dad?)
answer: yes

Reading Revelation Space, by Alastair Reynolds. He got a gift certificate from Stacey's books for his fortieth birthday and has been coming into San Francisco, riding the trolley car to the bookstore and browsing around for about half an hour for a book, using the gift certificate a bit at a time. His brother recommended this one. He recommends books to his brother, too. The last one--Trading in Danger, by Elizabeth Moon. (My brother also recommended an Elizabeth Moon Book to me, once, two years ago. I began reading with good intentions, sticky noting the pages with cute notes about how I related to the text to create a brother/sister dialog, but couldn't finish the book. It was 1024 pages long. He was thirteen. I was twenty-nine. Arthur--if you see this, the book is sitting on my desk.)

If he were to write a book it would be about a city-sized sleeper ship en route to another planet where the passengers go into a deep sleep to pass the time of the voyage but something happens--they begin waking up with amnesia and no one knows what's going on, or if the ship is even moving.

His favorite books of all time--Player of Games and Use of Weapons, both by the Scottish writer Iain M. Banks. The books are super imaginative, gripping, not idiotic. They don't pander like mainstream movies.

When he was a kid he liked, when he was really young Gentle Ben, by Walt Morey and Stuart Little, by E.B. White. He also remembers a great book about a left handed baseball player who got made fun of for his "south paw" who went on to be a bad ass pitcher. It was about, he said, accepting diversity and it made an impact.

When he was older he liked Heinlein, Asimov, and Samuel R. Delaney, whose book, Dhalgren, he read when he was twelve. It was not an appropriate book, he said, for his age level. But, he enjoyed it.

7 Comments:

van der shraaf said...

Hi...
This is the first time I visit your blog, actually. I actually like reading, but since I have part-time work (while waiting my examination result) I feel that I don't have much time for it compared to the time when I'm still in school. I'm from Malaysia, and at the first glance in this blog, I'm surprised (honestly) with your country's attitude towards reading. What's the secret? My curious heart asks....

SpyderKenn said...

Hallo there, am tigerkenn writing from Nigeria. Nice blogsite you have here, the reading culture is fast fading away here in Nigeria.

Youngsters and adults alike just feel cool watching movies, visiting friends and doing other things not associated to learning.

Read more about Nigeria at tigerkenn@blogspot.com

Unknown said...

What a wonderful idea for a blog. I trained as a library technician and cling to the hope that people still read.

Darth Jader said...

I am IN LOVE with your blog idea.
*sigh*
you have so inspired me!
(excuse the dramatics, i'm travelling tomorrow, so i'm uber-excited about EVERYTHING)

Diane Dehler said...

Congrats on your blog of note thing and that's how I came to visit. I like what you are doing with your blog;original concept.

I used to walk home from the library with my nose in a book but have since learned the dangers of ambulatory bibliophilia. It can be a fatal affliction! :)

Mayumi said...

Love the blog!!

Cathy said...

Hi, I love your blog! its amazing. I never see people reading here (Australia). And you inspired me to go check out a book from the library!

keep up the good work