Becoming a Book Worm, Again

Books were a constant companion growing up, and I read a lot throughout grade school. As I grew in age my books grew in length, and soon I was lugging 500 page behemoths to bed. I also did a lot of re-reading, to the point where said 500 page behemoths have been pored over three or four times now, and some of my favourites have been read cover to cover more than five times. A little excessive, but what'd you expect?

Once university hit, though, things changed. Big time.

Reading transformed quite suddenly from a pass time to a chore, from leisure to studies. If I was to read five or six academic articles a week - in addition to textbook readings - then there was no way on this good Earth you'd catch me spending my free time reading for pleasure. There's only so much the eyes can take.

Now that I'm finished, I've started to read for the sheer enjoyment of it once more. And this time 'round I'm testing new waters: eBooks.

My phone has an eReader built in, Chapter/Indigo's Kobo platform. I was skeptical of the reading environment at first, as the touch screen of a phone isn't nearly as large as a page in a paperback, but I've been pleasantly surprised. The convenience of the eReader is also a huge boon. I can squeeze in ten minutes on the bus. Fifteen minutes during breaks at work. A few more minutes at the cafe waiting for a friend to arrive. And then an hour or more ticks by sitting at home or outside. Rad.

I just finished up reading the second book of Kameron Hurley's Bel Dame Apocrypha, a trilogy of books set in the fictional world of Umeyama. It's of the genre I like to call Sci-Fantasy - technology is at a relatively contemporary level, although space travel has been achieved. However, this is bolstered by the presence of magicians, shape-shifters, and mutant strains of insects often fused with technology for human use. I'll leave the explanation at that, and let you check it out.

With the second book behind me, I'm eagerly awaiting the final piece of the series, "Rapture," out in the fall. There are just so many things I love about the style or Kameron's writing and the world that she has crafted. She takes significant influence from Islamic countries in the creation of Umeyama, which is very much refreshing from the Judeo-Christian basis of most Western fantasy. That's not to say Judeo-Christian influence is absent (in fact, I've established that the Ras Tiegan refugees might be descendants of French Catholics), but the incorporation of Islam, even if not explicit, is something I've never seen done and renders the entire series so much more novel. Then add in themes of national identity, gender roles, otherness, and personhood to make the Cultural Studies major inside of me do a little dance. There's just too much to love.