Shamballah

I haven't looked at everything here yet, but I was chuckling before I got done with the first page. Think of it as a blurb instead of a book title, or maybe truth in advertising LOL! Twilight has to be in there someplace.
http://betterbooktitles.com/page/1

I'm pretty certain I'm not stupid. I read and re-read Jane Austin with perfect clarity. I can understand a whole lot of Shakespeare and that's not even English. (j/k...just making a point!) I've come to the conclusion that the works of modern male sf writers get rave reviews because people don't understand them and don't want to look stupid, so they are promoting dreck. This is the third sf/fantasy I've started reading because they were deemed brilliant by others and I've ended up skimming to the end out of pure determination just to see if maybe it gets better.

Maybe my brain cells are dying faster than I thought they were, but I don't think so. I've been reading SF since I picked up 'Space Cat' when I was about 7. I read sf like it should be read: you read and absorb details that may not make sense right away but will all be sewn up by the end. Unfamiliar names or items will be understood by context at least eventually. Most things will have a point, but there may be a few red herrings.

Not these books. Pointless. Full of rambling away from the real story. Sometimes entire chapters of stuff-I-didn't-need-to-know. Gods, I just wanted to take a red pen to the entire book and write why, why, why? over and over. And people think romance novels are full of bad writing? At least they get to the fucking point. (Literally, usually.)

They are all pretty depressing too, creating worlds no one would like to live in and maybe that's the point in the end, but has no one any hope for our future? And if you can't make yourself clear to your readers, then you have failed them. I refuse to believe I'm the failure.

I'm tired of this crap. I may need to break out my copy of Alfred Bester's 'Stars my Destination' to sooth myself.

Aside note: I've decided to track all the books I've read this year in a post that will show up on Jan 1 2010. I'm up to 10 full reads and 3 either dropped or skimmed to the end.

I've started downloading this lady's books after reading one about Tibet that blew me away. Isabella Bird was a Victoria age travel book author from England with incredible stamina and a way with words. I'd like to rec this one in particular for those of you who love cowboys like I do. It's about her travels in Colorado in 1875. (She was in her 40's at this time, btw.)
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/755
Her story about meeting Rocky Mountain Jim made me think of Chris or Vin from the Magnificent 7 television series and how they might have ended. Vin in particular, since she mentions he writes poetry and has long curly hair.
I'm reading about her travels in Japan now.

BTW, the web site for Project Gutenberg is a great place to find books to read on your computers, laptops or palm pilot/ebook readers.
http://www.gutenberg.org/

Just call me the ebook pimp. ;o)