Books I Read in April 2022

 “My interest in writing has been with me for as long as I can remember. My first work dates from when I was nine years old. A poem about my dog, if memory serves me. I grew up loving words and what they could do. I liked film too, and it has obviously influenced my work, but it was always the words that counted, and as I grow older, they count even more.” 

— Joe R. Lansdale from his introduction to Bestsellers Guaranteed. 

I read six books this month. 

A Study in Scarlet (1887) by Arthur Conan Doyle

Great introduction to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, 221B Baker Street, and an interesting mystery. I’d give this four stars but the long flashback to Utah towards the end really dragged and felt like a different book. 

I read this and some of the other volumes years ago so I know it gets better after this. 

The Sign of the Four (1890) by Arthur Conan Doyle

As in A Study in Scarlet, I enjoyed the interaction between Holmes and Dr. Watson as well as their investigation of the mystery. I also liked the introduction of Mary Morstan, the love interest for Dr. Watson. 

But just as in A Study in Scarlet, I enjoyed the first part much more than the last. The last chapter in which everything is explained dragged on. 

Storywise it’s an improvement over A Study in Scarlet, but I don’t think it reaches the greatness of the short stories that Arthur Conan Doyle would write after writing the first two novels. 

Piranesi (2000) by Susana Clarke

Piranesi lives in a labyrinth-like world composed of infinite halls and statues. The upper levels are filled with mists and birds. In the lower levels is an ocean which rises depending on the tide. 

We follow Piranesi as he keeps busy by investigating the halls and statues. He calls himself a scientist and takes meticulous notes in his journals. Then Piranesi starts discovering that not everything is as it seems. 

The story has a slow meditative pace but we learn something new in each chapter. 

In the beginning the world building drew me, afterwards the unfolding of the  mystery kept me reading. I also liked how Piranesi keeps a journal and how it turns out to be important to the story. 

Piranesi is a story of loneliness and solitude, but it’s also a hauntingly beautiful story of kindness and gratitude. 

The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (1961) by Ernest Hemingway 

This is my second time reading this collection. Hemingway is one of my favorite writers. I like his prose. It’s smooth and clear. I also like the themes he covers like travel, wilderness, war, love, and loss. 

I liked every story in this collection but especially “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “The Short Happy Life of Francis MaComber.”

The Starmen of Lyrdis (1952) by Leigh Brackett

Michael Treehearne discovers that he is actually a member of the Vardda, the only race that can withstand the rigors of intergalactic flight.

Leigh Brackett is one of my favorite authors but this was slow going. Even though the chapters are short and Brackett’s prose shines in some places, the story is dry, lackluster, and has some jarring plot contrivances. It has a few interesting ideas but it’s missing the wonder and excitement of much of her other work.

Bestsellers Guaranteed (1993) by Joe R. Lansdale

I’ve been wanting to read something by Joe R. Lansdale for a while. I figured I’d start with this collection of early short stories and a novella. While most of the stories are horror stories the last two are more crime noir. One story was too surreal for me (“Bob the Dinosaur Goes to Disneyland”) and one story was just too dark for me (“The Job”) but I enjoyed the heck out of all the others. The stories range from quiet horror to humorous to just plain dark. 

Favorite stories: 

“The Dump” 

“God of the Razor”

“Not From Detroit”

“The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance.” 

My favorite story in the collection is the novella, “The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance.”  A man down on his luck, his daughter, and the owner of a used bookstore investigate a possible murder. This East Texas gothic was a real page turner with great characters.

I liked the variety of stories, the author’s introduction, and the story introductions. In them he gives lots of interesting details about his influences and how the stories came about, without giving away any plot details.

I’ll finish with a passage from his introduction that really spoke to me. It’s about his reading interests and how they influenced his writing.

  “I read everything from fairy tales to books on lost civilizations to adventure to the classics to comics, especially “Batman” and “Detective Comics.” I had no idea that one type of fiction or non-fiction was supposedly better for me than another. I think this is one of the most fortuitous things about my career. Ignorance.

I read what appealed to me, not what was supposed to be good for me. That being the case, it was only natural that I would gradually mix genres, and eventually run them through the mental strainer of my East Texas experience to arrive at the sort of stories that appeared in By Bizarre Hands, and the sort of stories I write now. These are among the best of the stories I wrote on the way to that destination. I like to think it was a pretty good trip, and that I’ll be starting a new trip soon, branching out from what I do now, going yet another mile and finding new passions, new stories.”

I’m looking forward to reading more by Joe Lansdale.

Should Writers Read?

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”— Dr. Suess

I love reading. One of my earliest memories is of learning how to read. I have vivid memories of sitting in my kindergarten class and reading from the Dick and Jane books. As I looked at the pictures and learned to read the words it felt like another world was opening up to me. I soon started reading anything I could get my hands on, starting with comic books and storybooks. 

One day I started writing. The first thing I wrote was a story book. I must have been about eight years old. Using a storybook that I really liked as a basis, I wrote one sentence and drew one picture per page. For years I drew my own comic books. In high school I wrote Dr. Who fan fiction and a sword and sorcery short story. 

I eventually stopped writing, but I never completely lost interest. I got back into writing a few years ago. It’s one of the reasons that I started this blog. It helps me write regularly, not just these blog posts but also fiction.

I regularly read books about writing. I also read and post on Reddit in the writing subreddit. One question about writing that I see is, “Should writers read?” The answer seems obvious to me, but I see the question come up regularly. I think it’s essential. I admit that I’m biased when it comes to reading. I think everyone should read, but especially someone who wants to write. Novels, essays, folk tales, poetry, you name it. Even if it’s just for fun you can learn from it. But don’t just take my word for it. Here’s advice from two of my favorite authors. 

“You learn best by reading a lot and writing a lot, the most valuable lessons of all are the ones you teach yourself.” — Stephen King 

“Compulsive diligence is almost enough. But not quite. You have to have a taste for words. Gluttony. You have to want to roll in them. You have to read millions of them written by other people. — John D. MacDonald from his introduction to Stephen King’s Nightshift

The advice from the following writers goes into the how and why. 

“Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.

Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window.”

― William Faulkner

“First, read a lot, trying to find a balance between what you love and what you suspect you “should” be reading. The ratio of input (reading) to output (writing), especially early on, should probably be something along the lines of 10:1, maybe even 100:1. You just need to steep yourself in literary language and storytelling/literary techniques. And read reverse-engineering style: don’t just “like” and “dislike” things—try to figure out what exactly it is you're liking and how the writer is creating that effect (whether it be a character, a description, the structure of a scene, etc.). Read like a writer, in other words.”

― Todd Hasak-Lowy

“Read work outside your preferred genre. Whenever I teach an intro to creative writing course most of my students just want to stay in their lane. If they read science fiction or poetry or literary fiction or nonfiction or whatever they want to just read in that genre. That’s BS and it doesn’t help them become better writers. It can be helpful to read within the genre you’re writing to understand the conventions of the form, but ultimately it’s limiting. Reading widely will open you to influences and concepts you might not realize in such a narrow space.” 

— Matt Young 

While I stopped writing for a time, I never stopped reading. For years my preferred genres were science-fiction and fantasy with some historical adventure and crime. Now I read a much wider variety of genres. The change occurred gradually but it started around the time I got more serious about writing. Part of it was the advice I encountered from writers like Stephen King and Ray Bradbury, but part of it was something else. After years of reading the same genres, I was restless and curious about what else was out there.

I’d like to think I’m on the right track. All the advice given above makes sense to me, especially as I attempt to write my own fiction. Now I just need to write more.