"When I think I only have a short time to live, I'm horrified. Not because I want to go on living at all costs, but because I feel I've frittered away my time and should have lived very differently."
- Ernst Tugendhat, German Philosopher (when asked about his new philosophy dealing with the fear of death.)
I was reading an interview with professor Tugendhat and this short snippet caught my attention. I think this feeling might be quite common if we really take the time to reflect on where we are and what we've done to get there. Scary, in some cases.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
Random Quote...
"There's nothing as soft and dangerous as the curves of a woman."
- R. A. Fiallos
Perhaps I should add: addicting, wonderful, and powerful. God knew what he was doing Folks.
;-)
- R. A. Fiallos
Perhaps I should add: addicting, wonderful, and powerful. God knew what he was doing Folks.
;-)
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
What Ever Happened To Short Books?
I was visiting a relative in Concord, California, when I saw a guy on the sidewalk holding a huge "BOOK SALE" sign. I noted the place where the sale was being held (Bay Books on Willow Pass Rd.--had never been there) and made it a point to return when I was done with my visit.
I walked in with my two little kids, so I couldn't stay long (kids are sooo patient, after all.) I gravitated towards the Fantasy and Science fiction section to look for one of my favorite authors of all time, Fritz Leiber. Unfortunately, Fritz has been out of print for a while and you can't really find him at Borders or Barnes and Noble anymore. As I looked through the shelves, I asked myself why I had never thought to look in a used book store before, as opposed to Amazon.com, or eBay.
Voila! They had some Leiber paperbacks. I picked up a couple at $2.50 a pop and looked for some Michael Moorcock (another author that has been out of print). I ended up spending about $35 on used books that day.
I haven't been disappointed. I've been reading both Leiber and Moorcock simultaneously, and it has been a real joy. I hadn't read any "old style" fantasy since the 80s, so it has been a real treat reacquainting myself with a couple of masters.
The first thing that caught my attention when I bought these old books was their length. The longest was only around 250 pages. Most were in the 180-200 page range. If you go to a book store nowadays and pick up a book by any contemporary author, 300 pages is on the "short" end of the spectrum! Writers today are notorious for churning out long works, and it's not uncommon for someone like Stephen King to regularly come out with a 700-800 page tomes.
What's the deal?
Are there new editing standards, or have writers become more verbose? And let me tell you, a long book doesn't necessarily mean a good book. I think it takes skill to write a complete novel in 200 pages. That's not to say that I don't like long books, but in my honest opinion, a lot of new fiction books suffer from a lack of editing. I'll use Stephen King as an example, since he is a real heavyweight in contemporary fiction and has been for years. A book that comes to mind is Insomnia, which if I remember correctly was well over 800 pages (hardback edition). I loved the beginning--the pacing was great, and King hooked me right away. The middle, however, left a lot to be desired. I remember feeling that I was reading just to get it out of the way (since I had already read a couple of hundred pages) rather than for the enjoyment of it. King did redeem himself at the end of the book; the pacing picked up and the conclusion was a bit of a heart-wrencher, but it was still not as good as the beginning. I thought the integrity of the story could have been kept with some 300 less pages and I probably would have enjoyed the book a lot more.
Ok, I could see an editor being intimidated by the legend that is Stephen King. After all, most of his books are best-sellers and many get made into movies. I would not want to be the person telling King, hey Steve, I think cutting 200 pages of fluff from this draft would really make this book better. Any publishing house would love to have that guy--I wouldn't want to risk losing him! But it's not just King folks, fantasy books are usually well over 350 pages long. Are these guys getting paid by the number of words in the story? Or is it just an evolution of the genre where it is more acceptable to really fill out a story in order to justify a $6.99 price tag? If any of you have insight into the book publishing world, let me know.
- Qiuvo
I walked in with my two little kids, so I couldn't stay long (kids are sooo patient, after all.) I gravitated towards the Fantasy and Science fiction section to look for one of my favorite authors of all time, Fritz Leiber. Unfortunately, Fritz has been out of print for a while and you can't really find him at Borders or Barnes and Noble anymore. As I looked through the shelves, I asked myself why I had never thought to look in a used book store before, as opposed to Amazon.com, or eBay.
Voila! They had some Leiber paperbacks. I picked up a couple at $2.50 a pop and looked for some Michael Moorcock (another author that has been out of print). I ended up spending about $35 on used books that day.
I haven't been disappointed. I've been reading both Leiber and Moorcock simultaneously, and it has been a real joy. I hadn't read any "old style" fantasy since the 80s, so it has been a real treat reacquainting myself with a couple of masters.
The first thing that caught my attention when I bought these old books was their length. The longest was only around 250 pages. Most were in the 180-200 page range. If you go to a book store nowadays and pick up a book by any contemporary author, 300 pages is on the "short" end of the spectrum! Writers today are notorious for churning out long works, and it's not uncommon for someone like Stephen King to regularly come out with a 700-800 page tomes.
What's the deal?
Are there new editing standards, or have writers become more verbose? And let me tell you, a long book doesn't necessarily mean a good book. I think it takes skill to write a complete novel in 200 pages. That's not to say that I don't like long books, but in my honest opinion, a lot of new fiction books suffer from a lack of editing. I'll use Stephen King as an example, since he is a real heavyweight in contemporary fiction and has been for years. A book that comes to mind is Insomnia, which if I remember correctly was well over 800 pages (hardback edition). I loved the beginning--the pacing was great, and King hooked me right away. The middle, however, left a lot to be desired. I remember feeling that I was reading just to get it out of the way (since I had already read a couple of hundred pages) rather than for the enjoyment of it. King did redeem himself at the end of the book; the pacing picked up and the conclusion was a bit of a heart-wrencher, but it was still not as good as the beginning. I thought the integrity of the story could have been kept with some 300 less pages and I probably would have enjoyed the book a lot more.
Ok, I could see an editor being intimidated by the legend that is Stephen King. After all, most of his books are best-sellers and many get made into movies. I would not want to be the person telling King, hey Steve, I think cutting 200 pages of fluff from this draft would really make this book better. Any publishing house would love to have that guy--I wouldn't want to risk losing him! But it's not just King folks, fantasy books are usually well over 350 pages long. Are these guys getting paid by the number of words in the story? Or is it just an evolution of the genre where it is more acceptable to really fill out a story in order to justify a $6.99 price tag? If any of you have insight into the book publishing world, let me know.
- Qiuvo
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