Here we are with question of the week thirteen!

QOTW 13: What’s On Your Reading List?

If you’re anything like me, you’ll never get around to reading every book on your to-read list. That’s why at DIY MFA I believe in reading with purpose and encourage you to focus on books in four main categories: comps, contextual, contemporary, and classics.

As I mentioned previously, I have far too many books. It’s really to the point at which, if I were to be in my office when a serious earthquake hits, I’d probably die, buried under my to-be-read pile.

So it’s good that Gabriela limited this exercise and gave it some critical DIYMFA context 🙂

Comparative/competitive books

Because I’m working on multiple books in fantasy (and various sub-genres/categories, thereof) and science fiction, I’ve tried to line up a varied comp reading list.

• One’s Aspect to the Sun – Sherry D. Ramsey (Canadian author, science fiction)
• The Towers Trilogy – Karina Sumner-Smith (Canadian author, fantasy)
• The Worldbreakers Saga – Kameron Hurley (American author, fantasy)
• Binti – Nnedi Okorafor (American author, science fiction)
• Signal to Noise – Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Canadian author, science fiction)

Some of these books are award-nominated and/or the authors are award-winning 🙂

Contextual books

These are books I’m reading to teach me something specific about craft/genre.

• The Second Cadfael Omnibus – Ellis Peters
  My epic fantasy series is based in a world that is (I know, I know) derivative of medieval Europe, one of my characters is a postulant monk, and herbalism plays a role in the novels.
• The Night Angel Trilogy – Brent Weeks
  I’m loving Weeks’s approach to worldbuilding. His world is a mash-up of European and Asian elements (and probably some others I’m not aware of, yet).
• Under My Skin – Charles de Lint
  He’s a Canadian author of urban fantasy. A couple of my novels are YA urban fantasy. It’s good to learn from a master 😉
• Children of Earth and Sky – Guy Gavriel Kay
  I would just love to be able to craft a story like Kay. His was one of the only books that moved me to tears.
• Fish Tales – Sherri S. Tepper
  Just love where her books go in terms of plot and character. Science fiction with a hefty helping of social justice.

Contemporary books

• The Madd Addam trilogy – Magaret Atwood
• The Book of Negroes – Lawrence Hill
• All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr
• The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins
• Quantum Night – Robert J. Sawyer

Classics

• The Kalevala, the Finnish National Epic Poem (in translation)
  ‘Cause part of my heritage is Finn 🙂 And there’s magic and all sorts of cool stuff.
• The Pickwick Papers – Charles Dickens
  Because I discovered I quite like Dickens 🙂
• The Secret Garden – Frances Hodges Burnett
• Boxen – C.S. Lewis and W.H. Lewis
• The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
  ‘Cause I never finished it in school—yeah, I know.

So there you go. You’ve had a peek at my TBR list.

I’ll be back tomorrow with my next chapter update.