Thursday, April 14, 2016

Can't Read

Ever go through one of those periods when you just can't read? I'm in one right now. I don't have the patience to stay focused. My mind starts to wander to anything other than the words in front of me. I don't know why it's happening now or at any other time. There's not great doom hanging overhead or stress inducing situation make my brain itch. It's just one of those things, but it really ticks me off.

In the past, I've found the easiest way to jump start my ability to read is to reread something I love. Something that won't tax my brain much because it's already familiar. 

I'm going back to Lovecraft. Or at least one of the Chaosium books. Sparked by a FB conversation with Charles Rutledge last week, I think I might return to my failed Mythos project from last year, but with a little more discretion. 

It was the collection of Lin Carter stories, The Xothic Legend that did me in.  Having come to appreciate Carter's super-enthusiastic fannishness, I went into the book hoping to enjoy it. It was not to be. Most of the stories are dull, amounting to little more than lists of names of books and deities. Suspense and atmosphere are things alien to the Xothic Legend. The California and Pacific settings are underutilized, and there's never a real sense of place. All in all, a disappointing undertaking on my part and enough to put me off all Mythos stories for the last year.

I did manage to stagger on and review The Mysteries of the Worm, the collection of Robert Bloch's Mythos stories. The stories range from good to great, and it provides an insight into Bloch's evolution as a writer. The earliest stories were written when he was still in his teens and the latest when he was in his early forties and has transitioned from pasticheur to an artist possessed of his own voice. But it wasn't enough to make me keep going. So I put away the Deep Ones and Dark Young of Shub Niggurath.


Now I'm bringing 'em back. Or at least occasionally, as the mood suits me and if the stories don't stink. It's just going to be a "from time to time" thing. Heck, I might not even read more than a single volume of the series. Right now, though, I've dived into the book centered around everybody's favorite town of inbred Massachusetts hill folks, The Dunwich Cycle. At the very least it should be enough to get me reading again. 



10 comments:

  1. I hate those periods where I can't seem to focus on anything to read. I hope this passes quickly for you.

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  2. Thanks. The Dunwich book opens with Machen's The Great God Pan and The White People so that's pretty great and should get me moving.

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  3. Sometimes it's books + mood. I'm reading stuff by authors who will be appearing at this year's NECON. I'm surprised what is grabbing me and what isn't. I don't think it's the work, I think it's my mood.

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    1. Sounds reasonable. By the way, which authors are standing out?

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    2. Right now I'm just tackling the guests of honor. Mark Morris is a British writer. I picked up his WOLVES OF LONDON cheap. It starts as a Brit crime tale, but it's entering into the dark-fantasy now. Not sure if it will go into "urban fantasy" mode or something else. It turns out I've heard Morris's writing - he wrote a Doctor Who audio-play for Big Finish.

      The biggie is Joe Hill. I've wanted to read NOS4A2 for a long time. Odd thing is - it's not grabbing me. Well, I finally reached a point where it might grab me.

      On the other hand, there is also Hill's comic Locke & Key, and that *is* grabbing me. Wildly inventive and creative. I am enjoying that the most of the three.

      Laura Anne Gillman is also g.o.h. Her stuff seems to be urban fantasy, though. Not really my thing, so I haven't gotten to her.

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    3. I remember liking NOS4A2, but it was a little longer than it should have been. I hadn't heard of Locke & Key, but it looks pretty fun.

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  4. Any chance you will get back to reviewing sword & sorcery books. lol

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    1. Hah - yeah. I'm reviewing Cirsova and Pulp Literature next week at Black Gate and I'm pretty sure I'll have more to say about them here.

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  5. I hear ya. Same thing happens to me periodically. I usually read something by H. Beam Piper to shake me out of it. Something comfortably familiar from when I was a teen.

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    1. Ah, Piper. I've been meaning to reread Space Viking for a while now.

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