What's Next??

I always feel a little lost, a little confused and unfocused and scattered, and even a bit overwhelmed when I am between books. My to-be-read shelf is overburdened to say the least. Actually, it's three shelves and two large stacks of paperbacks at this point -- eep! I'm not exactly sure what would happen to me if I finished a book and there was not another one readily available. I don't want to find out so I keep lots of insurance.

Of course, lots of insurance also means lots of choices. I have a hard time when there are too many choices. I'm frozen like a deer in headlights. If I don't choose I will not be able to vanquish this feeling that something fundamental is missing from my life. But choosing is committing my reading time for the next several days, perhaps as much as a month, to one bit of fiction. For I am (mostly) a monogamous reader. What am I in the mood for? What sort of fiction will satisfy me this week? Do I crave something challenging, thought provoking, and dense? Or something light, entertaining, and quick? Do I want dark and gritty? Or bright and hopeful? Fantasy or Science Fiction or something else? So many choices! I've narrowed it down to the stack pictured above. From the bottom up:

• The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers. I love, LOVE, Tim Powers. I discovered him many years ago and I carefully ration his work. I do not want to run out of Tim Powers. His work is savory and full of texture. It's gritty and dark and ironic. His secret histories are my favorites. I'm not entirely sure what this book is about, but it's Tim, it will be tasty.
• Axis by Robert Charles Wilson. I really liked Spin. Apparently lots of other folks did too -- It won the 2006 Hugo. Axis is the sequel.
  
• Empire of Ivory is the 4th book in the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. I've read the first three. These are set in the Napoleonic era and the style is similar to nautical fiction. Only, there be dragons. And the dragons are really nifty! I'm not entirely sure what prompted me to pick up the first book. Perhaps it was all the hype. Anyhow, these books are tons of fun.
• War for the Oaks is apparently Emma Bull's best known work. I recently read Territory and, oh boy, is it ever good! Territory is a secret history of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday. Blew my socks off! I was drawn to Emma Bull because of Shadow Unit. If you have not checked out Shadow Unit yet, you are missing out bigtime.
  
• Maelstrom by Peter Watts is the sequel to Starfish. Peter Watts won my undying allegiance with Blindsight. That book will twist your brain around in painful and disturbing ways and you will like it, nay, love it! And you will beg for more.
  
• Whiskey and Water is Elizabeth Bear's second Promethean Age novel. I discovered Bear a little over a year ago and have since devoured all of her novels. I have this and Companion to Wolves left before I'm caught up with her current published works. She's so prolific that I don't worry about catching up (like I do with Tim Powers). Bear is my hero. Her fiction all has a minimum of eighteen layers with subtext and allusion. It tends to be dense and challenging and the more effort you put into it the more enjoyable it is. I'm anxious to get through this book because I'm really looking forward to the next two Promethean Age books set in Elizabethan times. I suppose I could read the next ones without reading this one first since the Elizabethan ones are prequels, but I get kinda twitchy when I read things out of published order.

Decisions Decisions!!

At least I know what I'm knitting next:
I'm going to learn to knit socks! This will be a nice change from The Sweater which is now only a few days from completion. I picked up Knitting Circles Around Socks at the Whitmore Lake Yarn Co when my super awesome friend Mary (who writes Shazam in the Kitchen -- a very fun food blog) happened to be in town. The people there were very nice and recommended this book for learning to knit socks two at a time on circular needles. Unfortunately I bought only one skein of sock yarn so I'll only be able to knit one sock at a time (I could work both ends of the skein, but then the pattern that the yarn makes would go opposite ways on the socks and that might be weird). I think I could learn with two at a time but for the sake of the socks I will take it slow and do them one at a time.

Now that I've spent half the day indoors writing about books and knitting, it's time to get out in this gorgeous weather and put a few miles on my bicycle! I rode 20 miles yesterday with the local bike club and I hoping to get in 25 or 30 solo miles today. Tomorrow will likely be a few more bicycle miles and a nice long walk to prepare for this next weekend.