[15:52] Lamont-Cranston> I have read 31 books since January 1
[15:52] Tigger_> list them on the site
Trouble is my Business - Raymond Chandler - finished January 1st
The Broken Sword - Poul Anderson - January 1st-2nd
A Spectre is Haunting Texas - Fritz Leiber - January 3rd-8th
Jirel of Joiry - C.L. Moore - January 9th-10th
Word for World is Forest - Ursula K. LeGuin - January 10th-11th
Rocannon's World and Planet of Exile - Ursula K. LeGuin - January 12th-14th
City of Illusions - Ursula K. LeGuin - January 14th-15th
Soldier of Arete - Gene Wolfe - January 15th-17th
Soldier of Sidon - Gene Wolfe - January 17th-18th
Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. LeGuin - January 19th-22nd
The Winter Queen - Boris Akunin - January 22nd-24th
Our Lady of Darkness - Fritz Leiber - January 24th-25th
Up the Walls of the World - James Tiptree, Jr - January 25th-28th
The Turkish Gambit - Boris Akunin - January 28th-29th
The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Gene Wolfe - January 29th-30th
The Devil in the Forest - Gene Wolfe - January 31st-February 1st
Murder on the Leviathn - Boris Akunin - February 1st-3rd
Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake - February 3rd-12th
Tor Double Thieves' Carnival/The Jewel of Bas - Karen Harber/Leigh Brackett - February 13th
The Death of Achilles - Boris Akunin - February 14th-15th
The Emperor of Dreams - Clark Ashton Smith - February 16th-24th
The Big Time - Fritz Leiber - February 25th
Changewar - Fritz Leiber - February 26th-27th
Special Assignments: The Further Adventures of Erast Fandorin - Boris Akunin - February 27th-March 4th
The Big Jump - Leigh Brackett - March 4th-6th
Alpha Centauri or Die - Leigh Brackett - March 7th-8th
The Ginger Star - Leigh Brackett - March 8th-11th
Free Live Free - Gene Wolfe - March 12th-15th
There Are Doors - Gene Wolfe - March 15th-21st
Tor Double Sailing to Byzantium/Seven American Nights - Robert Silverberg/Gene Wolfe - March 22nd-24th
Three Hearts and Three Lions - Poul Anderson - March 26th-27th
Later today I will begin reading The King of Elflands Daughter by Lord Dunsany.
The decline of SF
It just occurred to me that SF is a form of romanticism that is an expression of our relationship with transport. SF as a genre developed as an imaginative response to advances in transport, beginning with works like Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" where the imaginative world that once belonged to mythology is opened up again through transport, in this case getting shipwrecked in far flung parts of the world. Through the developments of shipping, rail, vehicles, flight, spaceflight, SF revived the mythological frontiers that once belonged to Odysseus, Jason, or Parzival.
But today SF literature is pretty much in decline, and perhaps this can be explained as a consequence of the stagnation of transport technology. Cars today do basically the same thing as they did a century ago, and the flying car remains an impractical and dangerous dream. Space travel is confounded by Einstein's Special Relativity that limits travel to the speed of light, without resorting to as yet implausible FTL solutions. And in any case the universe is bigger and emptier than was once imagined, so there is nowhere to go, there are no Martians at all, let alone Martian invaders. And the Moon landings, real or faked, is history to anyone born after about 1960, and plans to return to the Moon or go to Mars still seem very vague and remote.
This might be why imaginative fiction has turned its back on science and returned to mythology for its adventures. So pedestrians walking to Mordor have displaced Dr. Zarkov's rocketship to Mongo.
*update*
The King of Elflands Daughter - Lord Dunsany - March 28-April 3
You're All Alone - Fritz Leiber - April 4-6
State Counsellor - Boris Akunin - April 7-10
Flashing Swords! #2 (anthology) - Lin Carter (editor) - April 10-13
Searoad Chronicles of Klatsand - Ursula K. Le Guin - April 13-20
The Silver Eggheads - Fritz Leiber - April 20-23
Emma - Jane Austen - April 23-May 5
After the King: stories in honour of J.R.R. Tolkien (anthology) - Martin H. Greenberg (editor) - May 5-10
I have begun reading The Hounds of Skaith by Leigh Brackett