Saturday, January 07, 2006

Forthcoming in 2006

I lift my head above the parapet built of Tolkien books and my notes to apologise for my absence and to say that I've so far written (and typed up) just over 5500 of the 9000 words of my biographical analysis of Tolkien's time in Oxford. I hope to write the remainder tomorrow (barring further migraine activity !), and then to finish typing it on Tuesday. Then I will have to print it off and proof-read/edit it. Whilst it's been an absolutely fascinating project, it's also been a bit of a killer in that I've never had to produce so lengthy a work in such a short space of time (I had six months for my dissertation, which was the same length). Three and a half months is a short period in which to research, study and understand the adult life of anyone, let alone someone like Tolkien, for whom Oxford meant so much !

In the meantime, I've begun re-reading (purely for pleasure) Robin Hobb's three trilogies: the Farseer trilogy, the Liveships trilogy and the Tawny Man trilogy. I will review them by trilogy once I've read them. I also have an outstanding review for Kim Wilkin's excellent Giants of the Frost, which I borrowed from the library before Christmas and read last week. I've just discovered it's the second volume in the non-traditional "Europa Suite" trilogy. (It's non-traditional insofar as each volume can be read alone.) I will have to see if the library has the first volume, The Autumn Castle.

Also forthcoming in the next few weeks, will be reviews of Anthony Horowitz's Eagle Strike and Scorpia both of which feature further adventures of teen spy, Alex Rider, after I managed to pick up used copies of both this morning for less than the cost of either one of them new.

I've also got a large pile of Ursula Le Guin novels for which I hijacked the library just before the New Year. I've read all of Le Guin's Earthsea novels, but none of her SF books, and I've decided to redress the balance in the coming months.

In addition to all of the above, this week I finally received the copies of Dragonology, Wizardology and Egyptology which I won in the Guardian competition late last year.

When I'm not reading, post-Deadline Day, I shall be unashamedly re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the first time in over a year.

Of course, in addition to all of the above reading, I shall also be starting to research and read for my paper on western wizards (for which I will be re-reading the novels of Lynn Flewelling and Juliet E McKenna). Since the deadline for that is mid-October, I have 9 months in which to research and read, so I feel no qualms about taking a break after my Tolkien paper is done. My brain undoubtedly needs the rest !

Addendum: I forgot that today I picked up from the library the third and final part of Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy: Ptolemy's Gate (I've been waiting for this to turn up since before the book was published several months ago !) The front cover proudly announces "Over one million copies sold worldwide1" which is good news. Unfortunately I've only a dim recollection of what took place in the second book (The Golem's Eye, so I will have to get hold of a copy, and read the entire trilogy again (fortunately I have The Amulet of Samarkand on my shelves already). So look out for a review of the entire trilogy in a few weeks time also.

6 comments:

Liz B said...

I'm rewatching the last season of Buffy. It's very sad not to get a new Whedon episode every week -- but the DVDs do help.

Michele said...

I confess I've never actually watched "Buffy" on TV. I came to the show late (in the summer of 2002) and started watching it on tape (I didn't even have a DVD player then !), and although the seventh season hadn't aired, I just went on watching it on tape... But I do know what you mean about there never being another episode of "Buffy" (or "Angel" or "Firefly").

Martin LaBar said...

Wow! Do you ever sleep? Don't take on too much.

Michele said...

Actually I do - 7 hours a night (usually) - but you're not the first person to ask that question ! Bear in mind, though, this is a projected reading list for about the next 3 months ! I'm not proposing to read all these books in the space of 2 weeks !

Camille said...

Stroud is coming to Houston the same day and time I have to pick up my daughter at the airport as she returns from Scotland. Arrrgghhh... I can't wait to read the last book of the Bartimeus trilogy.

Michele said...

Clearly your daughter has no sense of timing !! She should be arriving earlier, then you could go and see/hear Stroud together ! :-D

I can hardly wait to read it myself, but I need to re-read the first two before I read Ptolemy's Gate.