In a span of a week, I have bought four new books to add to my collection -- three brand new ones (yes, it's a wonder what a little money in the pockets and a trip to the bookstore can do) and one from Booksale just across the office building.
The Booksale one is another volume of L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future series, this one is Volume XXII.
For the uninitiated, the Writers of the Future collects 12 of the best tales of science fiction and fantasy from the entrants to the Writers of the Future Contest which is held quarterly. Aside from the top 12 stories, illustrations from the top 12 designers who submit to the illustrators of the Future Contest.
The stories are from up and coming writers who have not had the benefit of having had a story published (sounds familiar, hmmm) so the range of stories are a mix of good ones and really mediocre ones. Out of the possible 12, you get a handful of stories that leave a mark while other leave a bad taste in your mouth. With this collection, it's a hit or miss but will be generally be helpful for someone like me, one yet to be published, to avoid the crapiness that some of the stories in the Writers of the Future will surely have.
And yet another anthology, albeit a sci-fi one, recently purchased is The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction Volume 2 published in March this year. This promises to be a more interesting read because it features established authors of the genre such as Chris Roberson, Robert Reed, Peter Watts and Michael Moorcock. The anthology is edited by George Mann.
The Solaris series also collects an anthology for sci-fi and I have yet to hunt a copy in a bookstore as the last time I saw one, I was penniless and as such, unable to purchase the sole copy I saw at NBS. Hopefully, another book prowl in the near future will net me the said collection. I also will have to be on the lookout to score Volume 1 of this sci-fi anthology.
The third book in the list is a book by two of my favorite fantasy authors - David and Leigh Eddings.
This one though is a stand-alone (as compared to their earlier series types such as The Belgariad and The Mallorean). It's entitled The Redemption of Althalus, a book I first saw some three years back but never got to buy for one reason or another.
Last weekend, while innocently scanning the rather scant sci-fi and fantasy section of PowerBooks - ATC, I chanced upon a copy and reasoning it's Christmas, gifted myself with it.
The last book on my four-book spending spree is some sort of an experiment, not by an established sci-fi or fantasy author but by celebrated Japanese author Haruki Murakami. It's a book he wrote way back in the mid-1980s entitled Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
I say it's an experiment because Murakami, award-winning as he is, is not really a strictly fantasy author but like Neil Gaiman, he writes using an intermixed genre.This particular book of his that I bought is still fantasy, in a sense, as it deals with fantastic elements albeit in a contemporary setting (or from the looks of earlier pages, it's set in the present in another reality that intertwines with our own reality).
Of the four, I am now reading Murakami's book as a break from the periodic and toxic drone of the corporate life. Since I am usually alone during lunch time, I bring the book with me and read a few pages over a steaming bowl of noodle soup, or two chunks of chicken roll.
With December still a week away, I forecast several books to add to my already burgeoning unread list including Lahaye and Jenkins, Pratchett, and Gaiman.Good thing the Fully Booked branch in Bonifacio High Street is not an easy destination. Otherwise, I will be bringing camping gear to camp inside.
Hmm, better call the carpenter to get my bookshelf made somewhere inside the apartment.
