I haven't been reading much lately, either fanfic or novels.
In the end, I gave in and ordered
Kushiel's Scion from Amazon. I got tired of skipping all the posts on
kushiel_trilogy because I hadn't read the book. And right now, with work so pressing on the brain, I want to be awed and amazed by Carey. I'd like to think that my own work might someday awe and amaze readers, but that presupposes that I ever get it out there. (Cue
pandora_576 to prod me.)
I also have another trilogy on order - out-of-print now: Barry Hughart's
Master Li trilogy:
The Bridge of Birds,
The Story Of The Stone, and
The Eight Skilled Gentlemen. I've read them all before, and they're brilliant. 'A Story Of China That Never Was' - fantasy, fantastic, magical, mystical, and extremely well-written with wonderful humour. Each story holds a strong element from Chinese fairytales, twisted and threaded into a whole new conceptualisation.
For anecdotal, I've purchased up on Robert Fulghum. The man looks at things in charming, entertaining ways, and usually leaves me with a billion shortfic plotbunnies. He only writes a few words to each chapter, but they say so
much! Makes me wish I was half as good at picking my words.
And then there are the trashy romance novels I got into reading during my 2005 RTW trip. I blame
havocthecat for having a collection of trashy novels to hand while I stayed at her place. Liz Carlisle, if you're into regency-with-a-bit-of-plot/mystery (her endings tend to be a bit of a letdown though - huge build up but not enough satisfaction). Susan Sizemore's
Crave The Night series, if you're into modern-supernatural-with-great-worldbuilding-but-sucky-plot (the concepts are great, the execution not so much).
Presently, I'm reading one of Tom Clancy's
Net Force series. Since I have a slightly-more-than-passing-acquaintance with technical stuff, it's not a biggie. Some interesting and inventive ideas, all taken with a military bent. That's the stepdad's fault - he borrowed it from the library (the man goes through books faster than I do, and that's pretty fast - I think he's a fair chunk of the way through
my bookshelf already!) and I picked it up and went, "Hmm. Techno-military action book with explosions. Why not?"
Tomorrow, I start a train commute; about 30mins to and from work during the day. I imagine it'll be pretty busy, but hopefully I'll find a seat on the train and be able to do some writing while I'm commuting. I also get to 'sleep in' - 7:30 rise tomorrow! Heaven!