The Best Non-Required Reading finally wore me out last night. I got home from work about 10:00, fixed dinner, watched some bad S/F television (I have to give it to Kevin Sorbo for sticking with this weird little career of his). After trying to slug through yet another oh-woe-is-me story, I threw the poor book across the room.
I don't mean that metaphorically. I mean I actually held the book in my hand, whipped my arm out and tossed the book at the wall across from my bed. The damn book even broke a lightbulb on my polelamp.
So I grabbed the next thing on my to-read pile, the most recent issue of Cemetery Dance. I picked it up a little while ago when writing a horror/dark fantasy piece and never got around to reading it.
I have to say, it is a different world from the mags I usually read. The mag opens with an interview with Nancy Holder, who I take has won a couple Stoker Awards and wrote a number of short novels tied into Buffy, Angel, and Smallville. It was moderately interesting, being an area of publishing I've never really thought of much. The way she describes it, though, they don't get paid very much and the studio retains all rights to the work.
Very strangely, there's a whole column devoted to Stephen King news. It talks about the Darktower series, that hospital tv show that came and went in about a week, and other odd tidbits about what King is up to. If I'm reading right, this is a feature in every issue. Imagine the outcry from the literati if the New Yorker or Atlantic Monthly did a feature every issue on the same writer.
So far the fiction is soso. I'll post later if any are particularly good, or just downright awful.
Excelsior.
3 comments:
Wow, I'm glad I didn't pick up The Best Non-Required Reading, because I saw it in Borders yesterday on my little compulsive shopping excursion. That's always not a good sign when a book gets thrown across the room!
The only book I ever threw across the room was Jude the Obscure, when I was in college. I was upset about what happened to Little Father Time, not angry because I was disgusted with the book, however.
I'm looking forward to hearing about Cemetary Dance -- I noticed an issue of it in Borders too. I am really surprised about the Stephen King column thing. That's weird and yes, that type of thing would cause vast outcry in other lit venues.
I think I nearly threw Plato's Republic across the room during Geometry class in high school. Don't remember exactly why.
Saw Cemetery Dance at a bookstore and thought of you. However, flipped through it and thought it was a little cheesy.
-L
My strong reaction to Non-Required is probably a little extreme. I think if I read it in pieces, I'll probably enjoy it. There is some good stuff in it. There's a brilliant piece about Laika, the dog the russian space program shot up in Sputnik. A fun comic strip. Probably 1/2-2/3 is taken up by New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly stories, and although well written they all start to blur together for me. I'm probably a rarity, though. Most readers would probably really like it.
Post a Comment