Halfway

After I finished Howl's Moving Castle I had a look at the list in the book that started me doing this and it was the 50th book, so I'm halfway to my original goal of reading 100 Must-Read Fantasy Novels. I have actually read more than 50, because I reread A Game of Thrones last year in preparation for the release of A Dance with Dragons, and A Game of Thrones is on the list under the M's.

So halfway there, have I learned anything? How do I feel about the list in general? Some of this stuff I never would have touched, some of it I'm glad I never did, but I would have also missed on reading some excellent work, and it has given me an all around better grounding in the genre.

I do occasionally question the selections and the fantasy credentials of some of the books. Some of the older more classic works seems to suffer from age and the improvements later writers have made on them.

Up to this point the list seems to be heavily skewed to work predominantly aimed at younger readers, that may change as I read through the latter half of the alphabet.

I hope to read the second half of the list a little quicker than the first. I do think this far in that the project has been well worth doing, and I am for the most part, enjoying the reads. There are a few notable exceptions, but then there's others thai I wouldn't have read otherwise and I would have missed out. Plus some of the rereads have proven to be really fun, and in one case forced me to reassess my original view of the book.

50 down! 50 still to come!

Looking Ahead

I've seen a number of other blogs around the place producing their 'Looking forward to 2012' lists over the last month or so. I did give some consideration to doing this here, but have ultimately decided against it.

There are a few reasons for the decision.

1) I know what I'm like, I'll get all excited about the forthcoming releases and wind up having pages of them, and even then I'll forget something.

2) I may not even get around to buying and reading some of the titles I list, and that's really rather pointless, isn't it? I can't have been looking forward to them that much in this case.

3) For reasons beyond anyone's control in some cases, some titles slated for release in 2012 simply won't get released and that makes everyone look stupid.

Having said all that there are definitely some things I'm looking forward to seeing hit the shelves in 2012, that I know I will be buying and reading. However you'll just have to wait for my verdict. I like to keep people on their toes and you never know what you'll get with Travels Through Iest, hell half the time I don't know what I'm going to post! If I get a new release rest assured that I will read it post my thoughts, I did pretty well with new releases in 2011, to the extent that my top 5 is entirely comprised of them.

I do want to get back to my 100 Must Read Fantasy Novel challenge in 2012, though. I let that kind of slip to the wayside for a fair chunk of 2011 largely in an effort to make a dent in the TBR pile. I didn't do badly, and a recent reorg of the library means that I don't actually have a physical TBR pile at the moment, although the books are all still there looking at me accusingly from the shelves.

100 Must-Read Fantasy Novels

I picked up this little tome as a bit of an afterthought a few weeks ago. I don't generally give those 100 Must Read/See/Do/Eat books a second look, but this one intrigued me, being about something that is near to my heart and been a big part of my life for more years than I care to admit to. It also contained the answer to a question that has been going around in my head for a while now: What exactly is Fantasy?
According to one of the co-authors; Stephen E. Andrews in his introduction the answer is: Fantasy is the literature of imaginary and inexplicable places, times, events and beings. Fantasy stories take place either in our world or others, in our time or other times, their authors describing imaginary things that they do not attempt to explain rationally or scientifically, sometimes evoking magic and the supernatural to provide an excuse for the presence of these imaginary elements.

Unlike a number of similar books this one doesn't insist you read the books it recommends it just gives you a brief review and it's up to you whether or not you follow it up. It also contains other works by the same author, things to read on (books by the same author or others with similar themes) and in some cases a list of Reading On A Theme. For instance L Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz may lead you to read a list of classic children's literature including, but not limited to: Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth.

100 Must-Read Fantasy Novels had an interesting and thought provoking introduction, the 100 recommended works and their authors in alphabetical order, a list of World Fantasy Award for Best Novel winners from it's inception in 1975 up until 2008 and a glossary of fantasy terms. Each listed author had a brief biography and a succinct review of the work being covered. It was written in an easy to understand an accessible manner. I found that I learned not only about a number or works of which I was previously unaware, but also found some interesting snippets about authors I thought I knew.

Reading through the 100 works I was struck by how many I hadn't read. I decided to embark on an undertaking which concerns this blog. I'm going to read and review every single work in this book. It should be an interesting journey for me and you.
I need to finish The Eldarn Sequence and The Flashman Papers, but once that's happened the Great 100 Must-Read Fantasy Novels Review will begin.