To continue with the reading theme, I'll offer a quote from Robert Heinlein's Glory Road: "The truth is, I've got a monkey on my back, a habit worse than marijuana though not as expensive as heroin...The fact is I am a compulsive reader."
In that scene the narrator, Oscar Gordon, can’t get to sleep without reading something—anything—to help him doze off. I don't have that problem. I can go to sleep without reading. But I must always have a book going. I don't spend too much time reading at home because if I'm reading I'm not writing. But I still always have a book that I'm reading...or re-reading.
I have one at work and one at home. I try to arrive at least twenty minutes early at work and read for that time before I must clock in. Because this routine takes a long time to finish a big book I am limited to books I own. I'm thinking of going to the library and explaining the situation. Maybe they will allow me to renew and renew and renew the checkout of a book as needed to finish it.
By the way, the PDC public library has a copy of each of my published novels. So, if you'd like to read one but don't want to buy it, there is that option.
I also have a book at home that keeps me occupied when I'm in, as Archie Bunker called it, "the reading room."
Currently the book at work is All One Universe, a collection of stories and essays by Poul Anderson, an outstanding author of "hard" science fiction and very good at descriptions.
The book at home is Bran Mak Morn by Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian. This book as an oddity. It is not a novel, exactly. It is a collection of stand-alone stories that involve the title character. Bran Mak Morn is a king of the Picts, an ancient people of the British Isles. These stories take place during the Roman occupation of Britain and the decades afterward. Obviously, it is very different from the science fiction I'm reading at work.
It does offer, sometimes, an odd feeling of disorientation to pick up one after allowing myself to get involved with the other.
That's another of the joys of reading.
On the writing front, during this week away from the novel I've finished the first draft of a very short fantasy story and a polite polemic about modern Christianity. Plus, I have a science fiction story that does not quite work and I've been contemplating improvements. There is a market for just this kind of story, but I need to come up with a solution to how it doesn't work.
But I have also begun the re-examination and revisions of the novel. So, yeah, I'm busy.
In that scene the narrator, Oscar Gordon, can’t get to sleep without reading something—anything—to help him doze off. I don't have that problem. I can go to sleep without reading. But I must always have a book going. I don't spend too much time reading at home because if I'm reading I'm not writing. But I still always have a book that I'm reading...or re-reading.
I have one at work and one at home. I try to arrive at least twenty minutes early at work and read for that time before I must clock in. Because this routine takes a long time to finish a big book I am limited to books I own. I'm thinking of going to the library and explaining the situation. Maybe they will allow me to renew and renew and renew the checkout of a book as needed to finish it.
By the way, the PDC public library has a copy of each of my published novels. So, if you'd like to read one but don't want to buy it, there is that option.
I also have a book at home that keeps me occupied when I'm in, as Archie Bunker called it, "the reading room."
Currently the book at work is All One Universe, a collection of stories and essays by Poul Anderson, an outstanding author of "hard" science fiction and very good at descriptions.
The book at home is Bran Mak Morn by Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian. This book as an oddity. It is not a novel, exactly. It is a collection of stand-alone stories that involve the title character. Bran Mak Morn is a king of the Picts, an ancient people of the British Isles. These stories take place during the Roman occupation of Britain and the decades afterward. Obviously, it is very different from the science fiction I'm reading at work.
It does offer, sometimes, an odd feeling of disorientation to pick up one after allowing myself to get involved with the other.
That's another of the joys of reading.
On the writing front, during this week away from the novel I've finished the first draft of a very short fantasy story and a polite polemic about modern Christianity. Plus, I have a science fiction story that does not quite work and I've been contemplating improvements. There is a market for just this kind of story, but I need to come up with a solution to how it doesn't work.
But I have also begun the re-examination and revisions of the novel. So, yeah, I'm busy.
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