[nesfa-reading-group] book suggestions

[R. Luoma]

At one point in my life, I decided to read every winning novel
of either the Hugo and/or the Nebula.  I did so.
I have tried to keep up the Hugo winners,
though I may have missed a Nebula winner or two.

Several of my suggestions were nominated for the Hugo,
though I intentionally avoided the winners
because I would strongly prefer reading something new to me.

While I realize that I will have to put up with a certain
amount of rehashing, if my already-read fraction gets too high,
I would be inclined to stop attending out of boredom.

On Wed, 29 Apr 2015 12:24:50 +0000 (UTC)
M M via reading-group <reading-group at lists.nesfa.org> wrote:

> I'd like to suggest that our focus for this group should be
>   Hugo nominated (or winning) novels;

(see my Hugo comments above)

>   authors who may attend Boskone;

fair enough, though I wish that I had earlier warning
about the Brust/White bookclub selection for the recent Boskone.

>   books published by NESFA Press,

Many of the books are short story collections
and I find it difficult to discuss collections
unless certain key stories are agreed upon beforehand
for the discussion.

>   and more recent raves.

As I mentioned before, I attend other SF/F book groups
that tend to focus on such recent raves.  I am writing
this email to try to pull the NESFA reading group
away from that direction.

> There's a ton of sf/f out there (literally!) to read,
> and only so much time to read it each month.
> The best of the best is a good goal to shoot for, IMHO.

For me, the problem with most "best" lists is that I have
often read most of the books on such lists.

Most of my recommendations have been on somebody's
"best" list, though M. John Harrison has declared "Centauri Device"
as his worst novel and Clive Staples Lewis hated "Star Maker"
by Stapledon (in a curious way, this makes me more interested
in reading "Star Maker").

While it is valid to point out that I can read my list on my own,
I also only have a finite amount of time for reading
and, if the NESFA group's selections diverge too wildly from
my own interests, I would be inclined to discontinue
my participation in the group.