Sci-Fi Musings... 

I miss Sci-Fi. When I started reading voraciously I read SF almost exclusively. After a few years that reduced down to extensively and then, a few years later around about half of my reading was SF. Then, little by little, Historical novels, Classics and Non-Fiction took by far the lion's share of my reading time. SF at this point barely made up 10% (or less) of my reading and considerably less than that of my purchases. But I haven’t forgotten my first love, no way, no how! So, I miss it, sometimes more than others but it’s always there, in the background – an itch, a hint of siren song...  

Lately I’ve been dealing with these withdrawal systems using proxies – SF movies or TV series both old and new. But there’s nothing quite like a full-blooded Science Fiction novel to get my imaginary juices flowing. So, I have an idea... Part of that is to simply keep adding the odd (and sometimes very odd) new SF novel into the mix. I actually don’t own THAT many new Sci-Fi books presently – maybe 20 or so – but I’ll drip them in here and there. I’ll also be continuing my re-reads of the Foundation and Dune series I started a while back. The last 3 of the original Foundation will be new to me which will be pretty cool. After I finish the original Dune set, I’ll see about reading the newer stuff by his son. I’ve heard mixed things about them, but I’ll give at least some of them a shot just to see. On top of that I want to finish re-reading the ‘Sprawl’ series by William Gibson after enjoying my re-read of Neuromancer so much. After that I have some SF based series that I’ve started – The Maze Runner, for example – that I really need to finish off.  

Then comes the meat of my idea. I read MANY of the great SF books in my teens and early 20’s LONG before Blogging (or indeed the Internet) was a ‘thing’, so they’ve only really been mentioned here in passing if at all. As 40+ years have passed I’ve been thinking it's about time for a revisit and as I’m coming to the end of my Sherlock Holmes buddy-read with Marian I’m going to have a bit of virtual head-space (although I am planning on reading some Sherlock adjacent books once the originals are dealt with). So, finally, my idea...  

The *aim* will be to read 10 of the best SF in my collection per year. So, Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Blish, and others. They’ll be the Biggies, the Classics, the ‘Must Reads’ of the genre. The kind of books you’ll need to have under your belt if you want to be regarded as a SF fan by other SF fans – and we all know what that feels like (when you’re NOT). As yet I haven’t decided what I’m going to read or when this train will start rolling. It certainly won’t be immediately as I’m smack in the middle of a Classic reading splurge, but it's coming. To be on the safe side I’d say at some point in 2025... What do you think I should read first? Let the debate begin... [lol]