![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Books (and Delaney)
Sep. 28th, 2007 10:03 amI'm feeling homesick for books. There are two reasons for this: firstly, my commute to work has gone from an hour on trains and buses to a little over half an hour on a bike, and secondly, I've moved house.
In many ways, changing how I get to work is absolutely a Good Thing: I get more fresh air and exercise, I see more sky and birds and trees, I don't have to fight for a seat, and I don't have to spend over twelve hours out of the house unless I want to. However, what I don't get any more is that uninterrupted half an hour, twice a day, when it was just me and a paperback.
Even worse, when I get home, most of my books are still in boxes. I always thought they'd be one of the first things to be unpacked, but there are such a lot of them, and the boxes are mostly right in front of the other things necessary for unpacking books - like walls and bookshelves. The kitchen is mostly out of boxes and into cupboards somewhere, except for things I don't use very often, like the pressure cooker, and I've got bedding and towels and clothes (a lot of which is currently in the huge pile of Things To Be Washed) and things for the cats. I've got the things I needed help with, like the wardrobe and the TV. But the bit I've been too tired to tackle so far is the one bedroom that is still full of tents and a futon and spare curtains and half-assembled non-essential furniture ... and boxes of books.
Anyway, to change the subject slightly (or at least to make it more specific), I've discovered a shelfful of Samuel R. Delaney that I can apparently borrow. I read Nova a while ago, and can't really remember what I thought of it - I think I enjoyed it, but not enough to make me rush out and search diligently for more. Now that I have more novels available, though, where should I go next? Are there any I should avoid? Make a beeline for? Read only when feeling particularly awake and intelligent? Are any particularly unsuited to being read only at lunchtime?
In many ways, changing how I get to work is absolutely a Good Thing: I get more fresh air and exercise, I see more sky and birds and trees, I don't have to fight for a seat, and I don't have to spend over twelve hours out of the house unless I want to. However, what I don't get any more is that uninterrupted half an hour, twice a day, when it was just me and a paperback.
Even worse, when I get home, most of my books are still in boxes. I always thought they'd be one of the first things to be unpacked, but there are such a lot of them, and the boxes are mostly right in front of the other things necessary for unpacking books - like walls and bookshelves. The kitchen is mostly out of boxes and into cupboards somewhere, except for things I don't use very often, like the pressure cooker, and I've got bedding and towels and clothes (a lot of which is currently in the huge pile of Things To Be Washed) and things for the cats. I've got the things I needed help with, like the wardrobe and the TV. But the bit I've been too tired to tackle so far is the one bedroom that is still full of tents and a futon and spare curtains and half-assembled non-essential furniture ... and boxes of books.
Anyway, to change the subject slightly (or at least to make it more specific), I've discovered a shelfful of Samuel R. Delaney that I can apparently borrow. I read Nova a while ago, and can't really remember what I thought of it - I think I enjoyed it, but not enough to make me rush out and search diligently for more. Now that I have more novels available, though, where should I go next? Are there any I should avoid? Make a beeline for? Read only when feeling particularly awake and intelligent? Are any particularly unsuited to being read only at lunchtime?
