I used to spend an hour a day on the bus going to work, which was an hour a day to read a book. Now, though, I bicycle to work whenever possible, and as my schedule doesn’t require me to go to the office every day, I bus to the office in the winter time, when I need to go in. It’s a shorter ride, and there isn’t really time to set up and read, so my reading time has been greatly curtailed.
I used to buy lots of books by many different authors, but as my reading time has become more scarce, I’m having to narrow down to just the authors whose books I don’t want to miss. I have reached the point where I’m buying almost only books from my “buy on sight” list. That is, authors whose books I will buy on the strength of the author, without needing reviews, synopses, or even cover art. If this author wrote it, I will buy it, and put it on my shelf to read.
While I have the Kindle software on my phone and tablet, I still prefer paper books to ones that are bound up in DRM software and the potential hassles and dangers. I’ll buy unencumbered e-books, the Baen library is excellent for that. I have bought a few Kindle books from Amazon, when they were in special sale bundles. I also occasionally download out-of-copyright books from gutenberg.org.
Right now, I’m re-reading Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon The Deep. I read it almost 20 years ago, but now I have his sequel, The Children Of The Sky, on my shelf, to be read once I finish the earlier novel.
So, who is on my buy on sight list?
- Vernor Vinge
- Jack McDevitt
- Neal Asher
- Karl Schroeder
- Terry Pratchett
- Charles Stross
- Timothy Zahn
- Peter F. Hamilton
Together, these writers are writing faster than I can read to keep up. I’m always hoping to find more time to read, and finish more books.
Other authors who would be promoted to this list if I could catch up include
Then, there are the authors who were on my buy on sight list, but have either died or stopped writing, and whose works I have read in close to their entirety.