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09/17/2001 Archived Entry: "Stories"

In the last few days I've been engaged in what seems to me to be a rather pathetic attempt to try and read non-SF novels. I first eased myself in with Douglas Coupland's new All Families are Psychotic, which was a good read, and am now progressing with Thinks... by David Lodge. I've read both authors before, so I knew what to expect, but I'll probably have to venture into unknown territory sooner or later.

I think there are probably two reasons for this recent change of reading preferences:

a) As much as I know in my heart that science fiction is just as respectable a genre as any other, there is and will continue to be an unfortunate bias against SF (even good SF!) from, well, pretty much anyone who doesn't read SF. Which turns out to be a lot of people. I should be disgusted at myself for caring about what other people think of my reading habits but I'm going to have to be a bit pragmatic here - most people don't know what the hell I'm talking about when I refer to the latest political SF book by Ken MacLeod. Maybe they've heard of Iain Banks, but that's invariably because of The Crow Road or Walking on Glass. So, to sum up - in one sense I'm reading books other than SF for some of the shallowest of reasons. And yet -

b) while SF does have some great novels, so do other genres (of course). It would be a bit of a shame to miss out on them, and I am enjoying expanding my... (horizons? tastes? mind? How trite)... expanding whatever I need to expand.

Books that I want to read in the future, based on recommendations from friends: Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami and Possession by A. S. Byatt.