To our American readers: Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays here at Fanlit. A time we set aside for family, close friends, and (of course) good food. A time to consider how grateful we are for those and other aspects of our lives. A chance to reflect on the larger perspective than perhaps our daily lives don’t leave us much time for.
Reading in general — reading science fiction and fantasy, and reading specific individual books, are obviously some of those things we’re thankful for. But besides being the thing itself, the books we read can also show us a way toward thankfulness.
So at this holiday time, as usual, we thought we’d check in with all of you with a few questions:
- What reading experiences have you been thankful for in the past?
- What books this past year have you been especially thankful for?
- Or, more broadly, what have you found in your reading, either across several works or in one specific title, that gave you something to be grateful for, or offered up a shift in perspective, a blossoming of thought or meditation?
Answer as many of our questions as you like. One random commenter will win a book from our stacks.
When I was a child, I was thankful for books like Harry Potter and His Dark Materials that I could read and immerse myself in day and night.
I’m so grateful that we got a reboot of the adaptation of “His Dark Materials”!!!
Yeah, it was so disappointing when there was no second movie.
In the past year, I’ve been communicating more with other readers, fans and authors of stories I’ve read and will be reading (soon). I’ve learned more about the genre(s) of science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction. I’ve been able to experience how this genre can be so many things at the same time, which allows readers to experience numerous things (i.e. emotions, narratives, worlds, characters, etc.) within one book, or a series of books. I can say that I know what this genre can present to the audience now that the spectrum has become more broaden.
I’ve been thankful for the following books in 2019: “Realm of Ash” by Tasha Suri, “War Girls” by Tochi Onyebuchi, “Velocity Weapon” by Megan O’Keefe, “The Priory of the Orange Tree” by Samantha Shannon, “The Gutter Prayer” by Gareth Hanrahan, and “Gods of Jade and Shadow” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Not to say that the other books I’ve read didn’t make any impact, but these books stand out to me the most (so far). I’ve been reading many indie books (SPFBO) as well; read “Smoke and Stone” by Michael R. Fletcher and “The Sword of Kaigen” by M.L. Wang!
As an inspiring writer, I wonder, “who is going to read my book (once it’s written),” and I realized that no matter what my story is about, someone will read it and find it enjoyable because it’s the type of story THEY WANT to read! All of the books I’ve read (so far) in 2019 presents my interests in the genre, yet has been and continues to influence what I read and what I write.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I’m thankful for the excellent prose of historical fiction writers like Kate Quinn, whether she’s writing about WWII or the Vatican, and Amor Towles of “A Gentleman in Moscow” and “Rules of Civility”.
And the hilarious footnotes in Jonathan Stroud’s “Bartimaeus” trilogy.
I’m thankful for One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, and specifically the English translation by Gregory Rabassa. When I started it, I was studying in Chile and wanted to become an editor. Now, I’m teaching English in Colombia and want to be a translator. I credit both to that book.
I’m thankful that there are fully twelve books in Winston Graham’s ever-engrossing Novels of Cornwall, in other words the Poldark series. And that Rachel Maddow brought incredible real-life details to print in “Drift” and “Blowout”.
I’m thankful that we have a really good county library system that keeps me supplied with books.
I am thankful full for authors who work tirelessly to bring us wisdom and new stories!
Just checking the notifications box
I have recently been thankful for discovering the books of Jonathan Stroud, since their plots are so exciting!
And I wish our local library had the photo/design books about “She Sheds,” since those would certainly put me into a state of meditative reverie about such wonderful spaces, but the local library has wickedly failed to get these!
EJ Jones, if you live in the USA, you win a book of your choice from our stacks.
Please contact me (Marion) with your choice and a US address. Happy reading!