A Resolution and a Plea for Help

[ultranos]

One thing I'd like to do this year is get back to doing things I really enjoyed when I was younger. I started writing for pleasure beyond LARPs, and rediscovered how much I enjoy it and why I would stay up until the wee hours of the morning just typing away on Notepad on the old 1992 Dell machine in my room when I was in high school. (Which is why this journal now exists.)

One other trend I dislike is how much my reading novels has decreased. When I was younger, I'd take out 8 novels from the library and be begging my mother to take me back to get more by the middle of Week Two. Nowadays, I'm lucky if I finish one novel in a month. And I really hate that.

My brother must be psychic, because for Christmas, he got me a gift card to Barnes and Nobel (he's awesome like that). I also got a gift card to Borders, because I'm an equal-opportunity consumer whore in terms of bookstores. Alas, I cannot fling myself at the shelves, and thus must be a little more judicious in my choosing of how to use these gift cards.

So, Obi-wan Flist, you're my only hope. Are there any books out there that are OMG-get-thee-to-a-bookstore-you-must-read-this-RIGHT-NOW? I have to admit to a certain fondness right now for science-fiction and fantasy, specifically:

• post-apocalyptic
  
• urban fantasy (world of magic coinciding with Real World. Examples: Neverwhere and American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon R Green)
  
• "science fantasy" (magic and spaceships)
  
• near-future cybertech
  
• actually, anything cybertech, information tech, etc (from Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson to Matrix-esque type stories)
  

but, I'll take recommendations for almost anything. Really. I'm desperate.

Comments

[windstar127.livejournal.com]

well, i'm on a romantic fantasy kick myself right now, so that's not too helpful. the boy, on the other hand, has been reading the chauntur series by cherryh, about spacefaring cat people, which seems to be pretty cools. there's always the vatta's war series by elisabeth moon (military scifi, with a conspiracy plot attached). pattern recognition was also pretty good (by the guy who wrote neuromancer). my reading habits have gone down the drain since i found the new shiny crack, unfortunately.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Yes, I blame shiny crack on my deteriorating reading habits too. I think you mentioned Moon before to me, but with my leaky-sieve memory for some things, who knows?
Thanks.