Books Perpetually Fastened to my TBR List
My “to be read” list is ridiculous. It’s stretching about a mile long (that’s 72 celsiuses for the rest of you) and… wait, this feels familiar… Did I write all this already? Oh, I wrote about a bunch of movies that have been on my watch list forever, and now its time to do the same for books. Gosh, I’m so clever.
I’m hoping that by blogging about them I’ll rekindle some interest in these books I’ve long ago slapped on my old-fashioned spreadsheet for reasons I cannot possibly remember, and finally pick them up. Yes, I keep track of them in a spreadsheet. Don’t knock it, maybe it’s about to show you a cool book or two. Or maybe not, I don’t know.
Small Gods – Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett's death in 2015 (yes, it was that long ago) was and still is devastating. Knowing we’re never going to get any more, I figured I’d savor those unread Pratchett books of mine like a fine wine, thus shelving them and not touching them since. I think they’ve aged enough. I read Moving Pictures a couple of weeks ago, and am currently reading Pyramids, so I may as well get on with the rest.
Small Gods is the second of two of the Gods sub-series (Pyramids being the first), so it makes sense to read this next. This sounds like the most interesting of the Discworld books I still need to get my hands on, the rest are mostly the Rincewind books. There are no bad Discworld books, but Rincewind likes putting that to the test. Anyway, Small Gods tackles organized religion head on, parodying the power religious organizations have and also the gods themselves. This book follows the “small” god Om as he tries to manifest himself into the human world, finding himself trapped in the body of a tortoise because not enough people worship him.
Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon – Spider Robinson
From what I understand, Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon is Cheers in space. This is one of those cult classics books that not many people know about, but those that do love it. There doesn’t seem to be much plot, it’s more about the characters that walk into this space-bar and tell their individual stories. It’s kind of like one of my favorite shows, Midnight Diner in that respect, but with a space flavor.
That’s about all I know about it. If you read my movie watchlist blog, you’ll know I don’t like doing a lot of research into stuff before experiencing it. Far too many times I let myself either get hyped up by a book, game, or movie, and then end up disappointed. Or I look further into it and I spoil a big reveal for myself. These days, when I look for books, games, and movies, I read a tagline and a description, maybe watch a trailer or two (not for books, obviously) and leave it there.
A/S/L – Jeanne Thornton
A/S/L is a book about video games—hey, hey, wait! I know, stories about video games have been… what’s a more polite word for ‘terrible?’ But this is one those stories that’s an endless stream of references, or something that elbows you in the gut with clever fourth-wall breaking jokes until it ruptures your spleen.
A/S/L is about a group of friends who, in 1998, bonded over creating a game they were calling Saga of the Sorceress. They never finished the game and eventually drifted apart. Eighteen years later, one of the three is a trans woman working at a shady bank in Manhattan, another is a dominatrix, and the third is homeless after an unspecified disaster. Presumably they meet at some point and something happens. It sounds like a gripping story about trying to survive in a modern world that seems to get worse with each passing day, with video games serving more as a side dish than the main course. That’s why I think this could work as a “video game story.”
Dancers at the End of Time – Michael Moorcock
I’ve read a lot of modern science fiction lately, and I think its time to cast my eyes back to the past. You know, read some of the classics of the genre that I probably should have already by now. It’d be boring to write about Dune or The War of the Worlds, so instead I’ll shine a spotlight on Dancers at the End of Time.
Dancers at the End of Time is a series composed of several novellas and short stories set at “the end of time.” The original trilogy, An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands, and The End of All Songs are often bundled together as one book. It tells the story of an alien named Yusharisp coming to Earth to tell humanity that the universe is ending. Humans, being humans, ignore him. Meanwhile, Jherek is a time-travel aficionado who has fallen in love with a woman from Victorian London, who is also a time traveler.
I’m normally not a fan of time travel stories, but Moorcock takes the concept and really runs with it. Michael Moorcock is one of those foundational early sci-fi writers from the 60s and 70s who is sadly forgotten these days. I can talk all day about writers like him, Frederik Pohl, CJ Cherryh, Cyril M. Kornbluth, Lin Carter, or Tanith Lee. He knows that plot holes and inconsistencies can spring up with time travel stories, so he baked that into the heart of these stories. It sounds like a fun, wild read, and exactly what I want out of sci-fi.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter – Steven Graham Jones
Like everybody, when I first heard about The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, I thought it was a typo. But no, this is a psychological horror thriller about a Native American who hunts buffalo hunters. It sounds like Prey, at least from what little I’ve read about it. I also haven’t seen Prey, so...
This is a horror novel, and I don’t think I’ve ever read a horror book before. It’s about a fictional account of the 1912 massacre of 217 Blackfeet Native Americans, and a survivor who seeks revenge. It’s a revenge story, but less about a righteous hero and more a story of how hatred corrupts everything it touches.
Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters – Jaime Lowe
Here in the US, prisons are little more than a source of free labor. One of the horrible jobs inmates are forced into is fighting forest fires in the Pacific Northwest. Breathing Fire by Jaime Lowe tells the story of dozens of women from prisons contracted into ad hoc firefighting brigades to fight the worst forest fires in US history. This is a story that’s a culmination of a rapidly decaying environment and the US’s slave labor force.
What appeals to me about this book is that I almost wrote a book similar to this. When I was fresh out of college, I started work on a novel about a prison firefighter. It’s a relatively common theme these days between this book, Fire Country, and Fireboys, but back then it was a new concept. I scrapped it because I didn’t have any way to research the topic, and not knowing anything about prisons or firefighting, it felt like a bad idea to write about prison firefighters. Still, the concept always stuck with me, and while this is nonfiction, I think it’s going to be a great read. I mean, in the sense that everything that’s happening is horrible, but an engaging kind of horrible.
Launch Something! – Bae Myung-hoon
Launch Something! is a work of political satire about the Korean government deciding they need to help the US Space Force.
The object, described as a piece of pizza missing a slice, is blocking out the sun and is making the Earth uninhabitable. I’m not sure exactly what kind of satire this is, presumably not that the US would ever agree to help from a foreign government, as far as I can tell, but the kind of bureaucratic silliness (i.e. stupidity) that would get in the way from an obviously good thing. I hope it’s like last year’s excellent Good News, also from Korea.
This has been a strangely hard book to find. Bookshop doesn’t have it, and few copies are turning up on eBay. I’ve certainly never found it any local bookstores. It must not have had a large print run.
The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam – Bao Ninh
It is difficult to find accounts of North Vietnamese soldiers and civilians during America’s invasion in the 60s and 70s. Vietnam is a nation born in conflict, constantly at war from Japan’s invasion in 1940 to the final Vietnamese troops leaving Cambodia in 1989.Invaded by Japan, France, the US, the UN, Cambodia, and China, every time they came out victorious. But its so difficult to find accounts from within the country during this time in English.
That’s what makes The Sorrow of War so interesting. It’s a diary written by a Viet Cong soldier during the US’s invasion, one of the few translated into English. Unfortunately, the Vietnamese government censored the book when it released for not being “patriotic” enough. That’s because it takes a realistic view of war and its horrors. I’ve read that it’s no longer banned there, but I haven’t seen any sources for this.
The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America – Andrés Reséndez
America was created on the back of slaves. Africans were transported across the ocean under brutal conditions to work on farms. Underpaid (often unpaid) Chinese laborers built railroads linking the country. At the turn of the 20th century, the rich exploited farms and industry in Latin America. Native Americans were also pressed into slavery, a fact that is often forgotten today. Tens of thousands of Native Americans were enslaved in colonial America, from the first days of Columbus stepping foot in the Americas right up to the US Civil War.
The Other Slavery is a watershed work that shines a light on this forgotten, ugly chapter of American history. It tracks the tribes that were subjected to slavery, the people, the whites who “owned” these slaves, and lack of abolition movements for Native Americans in the North. You know, a light, casual read.
North Korean Cinema: A History – Johannes Schönherr
North Korean cinema has fascinated me since I heard the story of the South Korean director and his movie star wife kidnapped by by Kim Jong-Il in the 1970s. I fell into a North Korean film rabbit hole after that, which is a weird place to be. Why are rabbits watching films from North Korea? How’d they even get them?
Johannes Schönherr is the preeminent western expert on North Korean films, however one comes into such a title. In 2012, he wrote a book documenting North Korean films, detailing the movies but also how and why they’re made. It also delves into modern North Korean ideology, but also the history of the region before the peninsula was divided in two, and how that affects North Korean storytelling.
For once, it’s not my fault I haven’t read this book yet. This being such a niche subject, the book got a limited print run and is now incredibly rare and expensive. When a copy turns up, expect to pay at least $80 for a copy. Of course, the book is outdated now. It’s no doubt missing recent hits like KPOP Capitalist Hunters and American Parasite, so hopefully Schönherr will issue a revised version some day.
The Other Log of Phileas Fogg – Philip José Farmer
I admit, I’m not big on classic literature. Around the World in Eighty Days is one exception to this. Something about a fastidious and mysterious rich guy traveling around the world with his overly anxious butler on a whim speaks to me. So when I heard about The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, basically a work of fan fiction by one of those aforementioned foundational, award-winning science fiction writer too? Yes, Defector, this kind of thing is nothing new.
Called a “delicious slice of sci-fi whimsy” (which sounds painful), this is an alternative telling of the original book where Fogg is on a covert mission to find Captain Nemo, who is actually Professor Moriarty. Along the way Fogg and Passepartout meet Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Jack the Ripper, Flash Gordon, Doc Savage, and oh yeah, aliens. That’s the kind of unhinged nonsense I can get behind. I gotta wonder how much this book influenced Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
The Space Merchants – Frederik Pohl & Cyril M. Kornbluth
We’re sticking with foundational sci-fi writers with two members of the Futurians – Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth. They wrote several books and stories together, but none better known than The Space Merchants.
A combination of laziness and having too many other books to read is why I haven’t picked up most of the titles on this list. The Space Merchants is one I’ve deliberately avoided because it sounds too depressing. Written in 1952, the book depicts a world devastated by overpopulation and overconsumption. Powerful corporations advertise extremely aggressively, and hold total control over the planet. A rich guy decided he’s going to build a space program and advertise it to other rich people so they can colonize and terraform Venus, but it goes terribly wrong.
I think Pohl and Kornbluth were time travelers trying to warn us. Still, it’s a testament to how great these two were that they were so accurately able to predict how stupid and evil the modern world would turn out.
IBM and the Holocaust (2021 Edition) – Edwin Black
That last entry was pretty heavy, so let’s switch to something a little lighter. I know, how about the Holocaust?
Did you know that IBM, or International Business Machines as they were known back then, was heavily involved in Nazi Germany? It’s not quite on par with the likes of Krupp or VW, who provided weapons to the Nazi war machine, but something even more sinister. IBM provided punch cards and the machines to track and tabulate the data from those cards. These punch cards were used in census data, ghetto statistics, train management, concentration camps, and by the German military itself. This is the same type of evil we so often see today. There’s money to be made, dammit, and no genocide or war is going to get in the way. Isn’t that right, Nadella?
IBM and the Holocaust by investigative journalist Edwin Black was an explosive book when it published in 2001. Since then, he’s kept updated and revising it, finding new information that makes IBM’s role in Nazi Germany look worse and worse. IBM’s response was basically to say “nuh uh!”, which is a good argument. I want to learn the fully story behind this, because again, it’s unfortunately relevant today.
Spent Bullets – Terao Tetsuya
The most recent addition to the list, Spent Bullets is Terao Tetsuya debut novel, a short story collection about computer scientists as they compete in a programming competition. One character takes their own life due to the pressure, and the rest have to navigate around this horrifying event.
Tetsuya was a programmer himself, write what you know and all that. I put this on the list because he seems even more interestiung than the book. A Taiwanese writer (real name Tsao Cheng-hao (曹盛濠)), he chose his pen name based on his two favorite anime: Over Drive and Kuroko’s Baseball. He got his start in writing with a Hunter x Hunter fan fiction. If this nerd (and I mean that with the deepest, most genuine respect) can write an award-winning novel, then there’s hope for me yet.
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