Nothing much has changed in my life since last writing. So in order to post some sort of content, no matter how boring, I’m going to discuss my current reading tastes.
I’m currently in a bit of a slump when it comes to reading material. It’s kind of ironic that I, the former Reference Librarian, am having trouble finding something to read. Don’t get me wrong, I still bring at least five books home a week. It’s just been too long since I found a book that really caught me. I don’t know if it’s just a phase I’m in or if there really aren’t enough books out there to catch my attention.
I think one problem is I generally only like books with a female protagonist. Jaeger’s and my “favorites” bookshelf clearly illustrate this. Of the books on the favorites bookshelf, 100 (exactly, oddly enough) are books that either I bought or would have bought without Jaeger’s intervention. 73% of these books have a female as the main character and a good share of the remaining precentage contain strong secondary female characters.
I’m a re-reader. I almost never buy a book unless I’ve read the book several times or the book belongs to a series I own. On my favorites shelf, 83% of the books could be classified as either Science Fiction or Fantasy.
Favorite Series:
- Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series (the ones he actually wrote)
- The Kushiel series by Jaqueline Carey
- The Mageworlds by Debra Boyle and James D. MacDonald
- The Belgariad by David Eddings
- The Heralds of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey
- Robin McKinley’s retold fairy tales
- The Liaden novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
- The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon
- The Heris Serrano and Esmay books by Elizabeth Moon
- The Emily of New Moon books by L. M. Montgomery
- The Stardoc Novels by S.L. Viehl
- The Honor Harrington novels by David Weber
What do most of these books have in common?
- Mostly female protagonists
- Mostly SF or Fantasy
- Strong themes of adventure and quests
- Often are Space Operas
- Romantic elements (though sometimes only obliquely hinted)
- Individual books (if part of a series) can usually be finished in a day or two (300-600 pages or so)
- Decent character exporation
Hmmm . . . I’m not sure if this list helps me at all.
I find it amusing that Honor Harrington has series id 18 and The Belgariad has series id 5. If these ids increase like normal ids, it explains the strong sci-fi bent of the website in question.(That, and the strong tendency of those who create websites to read sci-fi.)