Sunday, March 29, 2009

Another five writers

I had been going on along grand thinking about 25 writers, until that big job I'm doing got in the way. Now that I've got a spare Sunday morning (what are they..?), I'll turn back to thinking about the books and writers of my early twenties.

I met one boyfriend through books. At the time, I was doing a Draughting course - it's what people did in the late 80s in Ireland, when there were no job opportunities (sound familiar?). Anyway, once we had most of the course done, you either sat there doodling on the great white sheets clipped to your green swivel-desk, or you positioned your desk so that you could read, undetected. I did the first and then the second, and the boyfriend, or at least, boyfriend-to-be supplied all the books, from his extensive collection. I read most of his books, and then I went out with him ;)

Behind that desk I began to discover fantasy and science-fiction, like Julian May's The Many Coloured Land, 'the saga of the exiles,' and all the other books in this series.

Behind this desk, I also read Isaac Asimov's I Robot, Robots and Empire, The Naked Sun... oh dear, I am a bit of a serial reader. What else, oh yes, Suldrun's Garden, and The Green Pearl and Madouc, by Jack Vance - the Lyonesse series.

I also remember spending a very cold winter in my bed-sit reading Brian Aldiss' Helliconia saga. It seemed to match the weather very well. This is a tough read: both my hub and eldest son have given up reading them once they got to the second book; the mind-numbing cold portrayed in the trilogy is often cited as the reason - realistic writing, eh?

Lastly, from this period of my life, I'd have to pick Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry trilogy as an must-read. I've even re-purchased and re-read this one lately and it's still one of his best offerings, although I have a special place in my heart for A Song for Arbonne and Tigana. The Fionavar Tapestry was his first venture into writing, and someone once told me that he worked under Christopher Tolkien, researching the famous J.R.R's writing. Having said that, I wasn't as impressed by Kay's last book, Ysabel, which saw him revisit some of the characters from the Fionavar tapestry... maybe it's because I'm not the person I used to be.

So, I have only ten writers/books left to mention - what will they be?

3 comments:

Rachel Fox said...

Enjoying your selections and the stories that come with them. Those cold bedsits were character-building, weren't they..?
x
Notice how I have avoided the terrible joke about staying under Tolkien to keep warm. Well, almost...s

Totalfeckineejit said...

Barbara,heavens above! Don't let real life get in the way of your blog.

Unknown said...

Oh yes, Rachel. I think bed-sits should be compulsory for all young twenty-somethings. Gives you a bit of backbone, wot, wot... ;)

TFE - Oh, I know! My fans (all two of ye) have been missing me... ;)))