2022 Hugo Awards Reading List: What Should I Have Read? Tell Me!
It’s been many years since I’ve done one of these. As I mentioned on my 2022 resolutions post/rant, I want to do a lot more reading and a lot more positive interactions in fandom. The first step: opening myself up to a public conversation about the Hugo Awards, the things I particularly loved, and more. But I don’t want to do that alone, which is where you come in. For several years, I asked folks to tell me what stories (fiction of all lengths and comics) they particularly enjoyed in the prior year. I then used those suggestions to together a longlist of works I consider worth checking out. This helped me narrow my focus for my nominating ballot and give other folks some insight into my process (and help narrowing their lists, too). So here we are. The comments are open, and I want to know:
“Finding Hope”: The History Reading List
Not too long ago, I announced a little project called “Finding Hope in the Histories of the United States.” I set as a goal to begin with a series of general histories of the United States to see if understanding the full line of this country’s history can change how I understand the concept of “hope.” And now that project can finally begin! For the past few weeks, I’ve been waiting on the books I selected for the project to arrive. More particularly, the first two books in the chronology (listed below and shown at the top of the image). All the others got here in record time, but for some reason, the books I needed to even begin took a little extra time. But now the wait is over. Here’s the magic reading list for the first phase of “Finding Hope”:
The A-Z Book Survey: Or, Now You’ll Know My Secrets
The blog adventure continues. Today, I’m taking on the A-Z Book Survey, which I found on The Perpetual Page-Turner blog (run by Jamie!). It’s an oldie, but since it appears on the Blog Challenge Project masterlist, I figured fun should override currency. Below, you shall find some vaguely amusing insights into my reading interests and habits. You may use this information for nefarious purposes if you so choose. Here goes:
Why I Generally Dislike Ebooks
Remember when ebooks were a strange Internet phenomenon that lacked the critical infrastructure to make them viable alternatives to paper books? I do. And I remember the great push to make them accepted in the halls of publishing, something which many publishers fought against. Today, ebooks are ubiquitous. Nearly every paper book is released alongside an ebook of some kind. While they haven’t taken over the industry as some predicted — and it is possible their invention helped increase the amount of piracy — many readers seem to love them. They have likewise become a staple of the independent (self) publishing market, supported by phone apps and dedicated eReaders. In short, ebooks have had a huge impact, and they’re not going anywhere. Despite their ubiquity, I don’t read ebooks all that often. In fact, I only do so when recording a podcast interview or when I am roped into something in which ebooks are the only option. In fact, I personally can’t stand reading ebooks, and here I’d like to talk about why.
Port and Books: Dow’s 2011 Late Bottled Vintage Porto
Recently, Camestros Felapton shared some beer/book pairings as part of the Blog Challenge Project. I’ve wanted to do something similar in the past for beer or tea, but given that we’re still in a pandemic of uncertain conclusion, my beer and tea access is relatively limited. Small town and all. And so I turn to another alcoholic beverage I rather enjoy and almost never talk about: port! What books go with port? Well, that depends on the port, I suppose! Today’s port is Dow’s 2011 Late Bottled Vintage Porto, which, like all ports, sounds fancier than it probably is. (I will preface all of this with the fact that I am not a fancy pants alcohol consumer or reviewer. I know maybe 3 or 4 fancy terms, but mostly I just care if something tastes good.) Here goes:
The Bookening: New (At Bay Press) Reads in the Region of Rumblings
Time for more books! This evening, I’m going to highlight some books from a lovely Canadian small press: At Bay Press. A lot of the work ABP releases crossing genre boundaries, as you’ll see from the books below, which wander through poetry, weird fiction, short fiction, graphic novels, and more. Also: these books are gorgeous and have a delightful feel to them (I like touching them). So what did I get?