predictable fantasy

is the most amazing thing. it's my go-to filler reading, okay?

(also, I can't wait for May! when I can start reading normal things again! and possibly writing! Yay!)

I've been saying this too much - but Mr. Eliot was right. April is the cruellest month, even if not for the reasons he gives.

Anyway, case in point - The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay.

It's like he wrote it because he wanted to write a Wheel of Time + Other Generic Swords and Sorcery Fantasy mashup. Without any real originality, either. And with high levels of predictability. It's not like he even has an excuse, okay? He wrote it in 2001, by which time Wheel of Time was pretty cult. He couldn't have been catering to those fantasy nerds with limited fantasy worlds without having read Wheel of Time. So what's with the good v. evil story with the tapestry weaving as the tapestry will? I mean, did you forget that you also wrote Tigana? Which is crazy awesome?

But because I'll take a (good) 14000 page series with a Dark One anyday, I think it was imperative for me to invest time and energy into a similar series by an author I love.

I'm basically saying that because he's awesome (yes he is) I just hadta read it alllllllll. So sue me.

this year thus far

1. um, without realizing it, i seem to have read almost everything guy gavriel kay has written. this is pretty cool, except i haven't made any notes about any of his books. i only have the fionavar tapestry left, i think. slow and steady?

2. books i started but haven't finished: the luminaries (it's long and difficult to carry around okay?)
moons of jupiter - alice munro and
insects are like you and me - kuzhali manickavel (short stories are difficult to do in one go)
vasudeva's family - vaidehi (i forgot it in a friend's house. too lazy to retrieve it)
once upon a time in scandinavistan - zac o yeah (it offended too many of my sensibilities to go forward with it).

3. books i read very slowly: we need new names - noviolet bulawayo (too much emotion, but beautiful)
hired man - aminatta forna (took me a while to get involved in it)

4. books i swallowed:
a tale for the time being, ruth ozeki (book of the year, yet)
god in every stone, kamila shamsie (need to read more by her to make up my mind)
the foreigner, arun joshi (a love letter to arun joshi is forthcoming)
everything by guy gavriel kay (sigh)

it's been a slow quarter-of-a-year fiction-wise, but only because i've been too busy to do any reading. any reading i have done has been largely guilt-inducing, and this is never good. come may, i promise to turn into a book monster. :)