Thursday, September 11, 2008

Books on Sharks and Scanners

As mentioned previously I'm on a Georgette Heyer kick. I'm not sure why they're so fun to read but I do have a few ideas. One theory I have is that it's so hard to find good, fun female-centric literature. This I believe, is partly what made me like Tanya Huff, Robin McKinley, Sherri Tepper and Alison Bechdel so much when I first encountered them in college. Even though Iwas pursuing a degree in French Literature (and so half the classes were cross listed as women's studies) it was really hard to find something *fun* to read with strong female characters.

Then there's the fact that all of the characters are ladies (and gentlemen) of leisure. They don't deal with the drudgery of work, and since all novels are set a couple of hundred years ago, none of them ever has to apply windows patches, reinsall a printer driver or attend a staff meeting.

As I devour Georgette Heyer novels my boyfriend reads Philip K Dick novels (and looks down his nose at me*.) He recommends them to me, and I read every 4th one or so. The last one I read was A Scanner Darkly and I enjoyed it immensely. Perhaps it's just that I enjoy absurdism, perhaps it's that I've been hanging around too many guys, but reading about poor Bob Arctor, forced to take his housemates out on a roadtrip so that the poliece could install expensive, sophisticated equipment to allow him to spy on himself made me laugh out loud on the T.

Then I picked up Devil's Teeth, which is a nice non-fiction book about great white sharks. It's okay, although it could have had a better editor.

hmmm And I have another Georgette Heyer book on order at the Harvard Bookstore.
*I may read old historical fiction all the time, but I don't read old, dated science fiction, if you please