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Reading Chronology Some people highlight the years of their life with depressing incidents involving drugs and disasters. Others chronicle different phases with their numerous evanescent relationships. I use books. 1985 | I saw other picture books before, but I most vividly remember a story which had a bear in painting overalls teaching the different colors. Unfortunately, I tried emulating him by melting crayons on the radiator. There was another story about a girl trapped in a washing machine. As facinatingly macabre that it was, I was scared off from laundromats. 1986-1987 | Richard Scarry, Mercer Mayer, Tomie De Paola, Dr. Seuss, William Steig, Ludwig Bemelmans, Jan & Stan Berenstain, and various adaptations to fairy tales. I got them mainly for the pictures, but sometimes I also paid attention to the stories. 1988 | My prolific reading streak began when my Mom enrolled me in the local library's summer reading program. I begged my parents to take me to the library every weekend (and sometimes more often). I checked out the maximum amount of books, mainly science books written for kids. No, my parents did not pick them out for me. I just like reading about how the world works. Must have been around this time that the notion of being a scientist displaced my dream of becoming a teacher. 1989-1990 | I was following the in-crowd by sampling Judy Blume, Betsy Byars, Ann M. Martin (The Babysitter's Club), Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew), and various horse books. But after four or five books of each series, I got fed up with the repetition. Gary Paulsen was another story--I devoured all his stuff. I guess at the time survival books were interesting. Also to my surprise discovered science fiction: Isaac Asimov (Norby the Mixed-Up Robot series) and fantasy: George McDonald and C.S. Lewis. 1991 | Science fiction and fantasy seriously began to take over my reading fare. Robin McKinley, Isaac Asimov (his other stuff), Piers Anthony, Tamora Pierce, Lloyd Alexander. 1992 | Began tackling more adult oriented SF/F that was light-years ahead of what my peers were reading at the time: J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert J. Sawyer, Michael Crichton, Guy Gavriel Kay. This was the only and last time Dad recommended any reading for me--Star Trek: Next Generation spin-off novels. I read three or four of them and stopped because they were all formulaic. And no, I am never going to touch those Star Wars novels. 1993 | I was fed up with the inane "novels" I had to read for the standard English class. So I started reading the classics that were being assigned to the advanced reading class. No one noticed. 1994 | Back on the SF/F streak: Terry Brooks, Terry Pratchett, Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey 1995-1996 | I began subscribing to Asimov's Science Fiction and became an avid reader of short stories. It wasn't just science fiction either. I also read short story anthologies that included fantasy, horror, and some mainstream stuff. After reading T.H. White, I was very unsatisfied with his treatment of the Arthurian legend. But after I tried Mary Stewart, I swore off the entire genre--all treatment of the myth is hackneyed. 1997 | Discovered Tanith Lee. Her writing is like a drug. After finishing one of her novels, I was paranoid for two weeks (but it hasn't turned me off the rest of her work). I tried Ann Rice, but her writing style is too bland. 1998 | Aside from my usual forays, which by this time consisted of science fiction, fantasy, or short story anthologies, my sister introduced me to Amanda Quick (a.k.a. Jayne Ann Krentz). I soon discovered that even though not all of the romance genre is trash, a majority is. Started reading science non-fiction out of my own volition. 1999 | People were saying all the time how great Douglas Adams was. Finally tried him, but after the first book, his jokes got really old. Philip Pullman and Garth Nix came to my attention and quickly became two of my favorite authors. J.K. Rowling completely failed to impress me with Harry Potter. My roommate, however, became an instant Harry Potter fanatic. 2000 | I dabbled in some mainstream mysteries but I didn't see the point. During the previous summer I had wandered into the local library's used book sale and randomly bought Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum for fifty cents. I finally decided to read it and became an instant Eco fan. A Cthulhu role-playing geek recommended I try H.P. Lovecraft. He's overwrought, yet intriguing--I decided to buy some of his stuff. 2001 | Tried some cross-genre authors: Sharon Shinn, Catherine Asaro, Angela Carter. 2002 | I finished Iain Pears' neverending book. Isn't that enough of an accomplishment? Other authors of note: Neil Gaiman, Katherine Neville, Arturo Perez-Reverte. 2003 | It's no surprise that so far this year, the only books that have stood out to me have dealt with science. It's the first time I've tried William Gibson. I'm not sure if I really like his writing style, but the concepts are interesting. To be continued... Still curious about my reading habits? Check my bookrolling page. |