August in Review
August has been a mixed bag. I finished reading 12 novels and two novellas, and DNFd a further five novels and one novella. Of the books that I actually finished there weren't a huge number that I absolutely loved (though there were plenty that I liked).
Part of what's making this month feel like a bit of a wash is that a lot of my reading was spent trying to get through the Ignyte Awards shortlists before the end of the month. Even though this was something I chose to do, and something I wanted to do, the fact that I felt (self imposed) pressure to read them suddenly made it feel like a bit of an obligation. I'm very much an impulsive reader, jumping from one thing to the next, and the second I feel like I have to read something I find that I enjoy the whole process less. Given that I've also committed myself to reading the Ursula K Le Guin Prize shortlist and the Booker Longlist, I'm going to have to reassess whether this is actually viable for me or whether it's going to risk pushing myself back into a reading slump by sucking the joy out of the whole thing.
As part of trying to break the sense of obligation I felt about reading shortlists I decided to finally look into "litRPGs" and figure out what the hell they're all about, since I keep hearing about them. I picked up Dungeon Crawler Carl, which is both highly acclaimed and sounded like the sort of thing I've been craving (i.e. good dungeon crawl novels) only to discover that it's one of the worst things I've ever read. I genuinely don't know who these books are for, but any curiosity I had about litRPGs has now disappeared entirely. And I'm still hunting for good dungeon crawl novels. (I keep talking about writing exactyl the sort of book I'm desperate to read, and one day when I'm not snowed under with RPG-writing deadlines I really should put my money where my mouth is and do it).
That said, my favourites from this month were:
- The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (the only book I really loved from the past few weeks)
- Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
- The Flesh Inherent by Perry Meester
- The Secret History by Donna Tarrt
Speaking of lists of books - which is what shortlists are, of course - I found this article to be a very interesting read. I don't agree with all of it but it's genuinely refreshing to see someone have a strongly-held opinion on the internet these days, and I think there's a lot of good stuff in there.
One thing that's been good this month is that I've succeeded in my quest to get back into short fiction again. Magazine of the month is already bringing me great pleasure, and the short fiction sections of the Ignyte lists contained some of my favourite writing highlighted by those awards. I've also begun reading anthologies at night, ticking off one story each evening before bed. Right now I'm reading It Was All a Dream 2: Another Anthology of Bad Horror Tropes Done Right from Hungry Shadow Press and really enjoying it. My favourite short fiction picks this month are:
- Wonders Of A Plastic Ocean by James Cato (Hexagon #17)
- The Quest for Blank Claveringi by Patricia Highsmith (reprinted in The Snail-Watcher and Other Stories)
- On The Fox Roads by Nghi Vo (Reactor)
I'm also currently reading George Saunders' A Swim In A Pond In The Rain, which is a book explicitly about writing better short stories by breaking down and analysing some of the classics of Russian short fiction. I haven't read a huge amount of Russian fiction, so most of the material in here is new to me, but I'm really enjoying it. I can also feel Saunders' commentary fundamentally changing the way I think about writing short fiction, too, which is great and exactly what I hoped I'd get from the book.
As always, here's this month's playlist.
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