Well, today was New Year's Day, and true to form for the last few years, I didn't make any New Year's Resolutions. Why not, you ask? Well, I feel they are fairly useless. I never really remember the ones I make, and I rarely really decide to change that much. Last year, I made a set of silly resolutions, and I can't even remember what they were anymore. In fact, I only really ever make one resolution: To enjoy myself as much as I can during the next year, to read more books and watch more movies and to just generally take big bites out of life.
The reading more books I have no trouble with, as I really enjoy reading to begin with and I read at a speed most people would consider super-fast. I have huge stacks of books around me all the time because a) I work in a library and spend large amounts of time around books, b) I have many favorite authors whose works I am committed to collecting, and c) I can't resist a good-looking book and I am rarely disappointed.
B and C, above, especially cause me to have more and more books lying around. Books are, dare I say it, my friends. When I am tired, sad or depressed, it's very easy for me to lose myself in a book and leave my own problems behind.
My stacks these days comprise mostly fantasy, science fiction and romance. Part of this is due to another site I am into called Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. I've always been a sucker for a good romantic subplot in my mystery, science fiction or fantasy story, and romances, to me, are brain candy. You stick them in, chew on them for a short while, and poof! They are gone! I can read three Harlequin Historicals in a day, sometimes four, and they are always good for waiting in the doctor's office, waiting on line, or any other time I am alone and need a little diversion. I don't usually read them that often, so I tend to collect 15 or 20 and read them for a few days on end, then leave the others for another time.
Fantasy and Sci-Fi, on the other hand, are my meat and drink. This is what I most often prefer to read. Some of them also have romance subplots, but the focus is on other things, like fighting a war or the minions of the evil King/Queen. Unlike many romances, some of them, the science fiction especially, tends to make you think and question, turning over knotty problems presented on the pages and wondering how you would solve such a problem. I also must admit, I am fascinated by fantasy magic systems in all their wonderful diversity, both magic of the gods and other magic as well. I also find that Fantasy and Sci-Fi these days are where you can find strong female heroines, not just adjuncts or placeholders for the heroes to save, screw and rescue from their problems. If I read a fantasy, I want it to be where the women are just as strong as the men, if perhaps in different ways.
In this world, women have enough of a time getting taken seriously, still, that I still want to dream of a place where women can do it all and aren't looked down upon as lesser because their genitalia is internal, rather than external, as one book I read put it. Women can be heroes, too, and that's what I want. I can dream it within as I put it to work without.
Have a Happy New Year everyone!
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