For those of you who don’t read the comments attached to the blog, Niall points out the happy news that Gollancz will be publishing Gene Wolfe’s The Wizard Knight as a single-volume hardcover in August 05. I’m guessing this is one of Jo’s decisions, so way to go Jo! And thanks for the head’s up to Niall.

My birthday has always been jinxed. I can remember the year I turned seven when my cowboy outfit turned out to be a cowgirl suit, or the year when we went fishing and my father managed to bury the family car axle-deep in beach sand about twenty metres from the encroaching tide (it was harder than it sounds – he was good driver).

While these, and several other events, were amusing they led to a certain reluctance on my behalf to celebrate my ‘special day’, which is probably why I have no recollection at all of 16th, 18th, or 21st birthday parties (the only reason I know I had a 30th was because I held it in my brother’s apartment while he was on the other side of the continent).

This in turn fed into my problems with Christmas. Since time immemorial my family have patiently asked me what I would like for birthday or Christmas, and from time immemorial I have responded “I don’t know” and tried to duck the question. I think it’s partly because I don’t want to think about it, and partly that its harder to come up with appropriate things once you’ve achieved a certain level of disposable income.

Still, setting aside years of problems, I thought I’d try to mention some times quietly here, and leave it in my loved ones hands to do as they would. Now, I am setting aside unreasonable and expensive potential gifts like new computers, 60gb photo ipods, desks, bookcases, cd racks and such – all of which are needed at home – and am instead focussing on more reasonable things. So, here, if you happen to be related to me by blood or marriage are some ideas:

books
The Polysyllabic Spree, Nick Hornby
Unexpected Magic : Collected Stories, Diana Wynne Jones

cds
Any of the five recent Elton John SACD remasters (Elton John; Madman Across the Water; Tumbleweed Connection; Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy; or Honky Chateau)
The Essential Cheap Trick by Cheap Trick

other stuff
A bottle of 10 or 15 year-old Laphroig
A day off
The extended dvd set of Return of the King

I remember my mother saying, of wishing, ‘if “ifs” and “ands” were pots and pans’, which basically addressed the uselessness of idle wishing, but if unrealistic things were possible I’d also love to spend part of Christmas reading Kelly’s Magic for Beginners, Gwyneth’s Band of Gypsies, Howard’s Hearts of Whiteness and C.Js Destroyer. More realistically, I hope to spend lots of time with friends and family, and to maybe finish the projects that are on hand. That would be swell.

A mailing list that I’m on just yesterday began to discuss the forthcoming film adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy into a series of films by director Chris Weitz (director of About a Boy and American Pie) and New Line Cinema. I expressed some disappointment that Wietz had reportedly sacked screenwriter Tom Stoppard because he preferred to direct from his own script (this has been widely blogged about – apologies for lack of cross references), and was even more dismayed to read this article at the the Times, which discusses the need to remove God from the films of the series to appease Bush’s America. Apparently, according to Weitz, “those who will understand, will understand”. I do, but I don’t.

I was wondering if anyone else noticed that the ABC Top 100 books list (see below) is made up almost entirely of either a) books we had to read at school or b) books they made into movies. Not much middle ground at all.

Last night I watched My Favorite Book on ABC TV. The program polled a bunch of Australians to determine “our favourite book”, and the winner was Tolkien’s desperately-in-need-of-editing tome, The Lord of the Rings.

While it was interesting to see that four of the top 10 were genre books, and that the #1 title was a fantasy, it made me think about my own answer to the question: what is your favourite book? It’s a question I’ve always disliked, and tried to avoid answering by claiming poor memory or whatever. I think the reason I’ve avoided the question is that one book isn’t like another and comparisons seem odious. Also, I’ve been so overwhelmed by the cult of the new and the need to read what’s coming out tomorrow that I don’t get to spend much time re-reading, reading just for pleasure, or even looking back. Reading is business these days, and almost everything I read is for business. Kinda takes the fun out of it a bit.

Still, that’s just avoidance. The first science fiction novel I recall reading is Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy and the first fantasy was probably Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but neither book would make my top 3. In fact, I don’t think a genre book would make my top 3, which would probably be:

1. this;
2. this; and
3. this.

Oddly, all were books that I was assigned to read at High School as part of an English class I was doing, and all of them knocked me out when I read them. The #1 book is the only one I ever shared with my parents that seemed to communicate with them too.

I don’t know whether I could pick a Top 3 genre books, just because I’ve read so many and loved so many. And also because I go off them. I once read C.J. Cherryh’s Downbelow Station five times consecutively in early 1987, but I don’t know if I could read it again. I loved Dune, but doubt it’s readable any longer, and I don’t think I could read anything by Heinlein, even though I loved his work above all else at one time in my life. Hmmm. Well, here’s a Top 11 genre books that I’d identify as having had a profound affect on me. They’re not the only books I’d pick, and I’d probably pick a different list tomorrow morning, but today I’d pick (in alphabetical order by author):

Light Years and Dark, Michael Bishop ed.
Nova, Samuel R. Delaney
Burning Chrome, William Gibson
Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay
The Year of the City, Frederik Pohl
Northern Lights, Philip Pullman
Pacific Edge, Kim Stanley Robinson
The Child Garden, Geoff Ryman
The Rediscovery of Mankind, Cordwainer Smith
Islands in the Net, Bruce Sterling
Strange Things in Close Up, Howard Waldrop