goodreads, here I come

In another sign that I’ve joined the modern age, I finally got around to joining goodreads. I admit I’ve been interested in it for some time, and that interest was tweaked by friends Tammy and John, who are both big-time readers (and, of course, John’s a guy I’ve collaborated with a few times). I was most intrigued by the recommendations it might come up with for me based on other books I rank.

So I got onto the site and started rating a few books–mostly what I’ll call “old standards,” books I’ve read longer ago, but that have stuck with me. Those, I figure, are my sweet spot. So I tagged, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game series and Mike Resnick’s Kirinyaga stories, and Harlan Ellison’s Deathbird Stories. To this I added Some Neil Gaiman, a little Rob Sawyer, and an Isaac, of course. No good SF list can be complete without an Isaac Asimov–though I realize now in retrospect I left off Bradbury (reminds self to go the hell back there to fix this clear problem).

Mix in a Harry Potter book, and Elric, of course. There is probably the first sentence ever written in which the names Harry Potter and Elric of Melnibone both appear. (The last is, of course, the second). And, of course Jacqueline Carey’s first three books in the Kushiel series. Then there’s my fave Stephen Leigh book Dark Water’s Embrace … though in truth I need to rethink that a bit after having read his story The Woods. And Michael Chabon, Neal Stephenson. Finally, a quick rating of Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games.

After noting that I’m now reading Patty Jansen’s Shifting Reality, I then took a spin to the page where Goodreads’ recommendations awaited me. It was interesting.

Scalzi’s Old Man’s War lept out at me. As did a collection of Bradbury shorts. Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep (which I sadly must admit I have not yet read). Plus a bunch of Guy Gavriel Kay and Robert McCammon, among others.

So, overall, it was interesting. The selections seem in the right directions, anyway. I’ll have to spend more time building up my library of reads and see how it changes things.

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I also have to admit to doing a search for books under my own name, and of course got back a bunch of anthologies–most of which were positively rated. Always beats the alternative.