Yet Unread

papersky  has been posting on Tor.com for these past several months about the Hugo Awards; winners, losers, bits of history and so on. I didn't start reading them until fairly recently but I've become rather fascinated by them. The comments in particular are good. There are a lot of old hands who comment from time to time, sharing inside bits of information.

Reading these posts, I'm constantly reminded of how much I haven't read of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Over the last several years I've managed to read a lot of the older short stories that have received rewards and recognition but that's only dipping my toes into deep waters. There is so much more that I've only heard about. Novels, novellas and short stories too. Whenever I read one of those Hugo posts my reading list gets a little larger. I kind of wish I could just go to the library and spend a couple of months there, picking up old novels and searching for old magazines so I can get at those stories.

There is simply never enough time. I've almost completely abandoned re-reading books unless a sequel to a long spanning series is published (like the soon to appear A Dance With Dragons which I've been eagerly awaiting for the past several years) and even then I try to accomplish the re-read by listening to the book on my ipod. There are a few authors I follow with religious devotion: Stephen King, Phil Rickman, Daniel Abraham to name just a few but I never seem to have time to devour their books. I've been reading the latest Abraham novel for weeks now and I'm still not even halfway through it.

Too many distractions. It's a poor excuse but it's also the truth. I do a terrible job of managing my time and too often it's simply easier to surf the web or check out something new or old on Netflix. Not to mention accomplishing tasks about the house.

The stories call to me, however, and I'd like to do a better job of answering.