Taking a dip in the backlist.

wcag head

I've been on a backlist reading kick.

It started with Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead, and I loved reading it so much I had to dive directly into its sequel, Xenocide. That hasn't happened since Lamentation, and you all know how obsessed I am with that series.

And it was a great choice to make a return to backlist. Why? Because there's a reason these books are classics. They're extremely well written, amazingly engaging, and the topics seem just as fresh as they ever could have. Some people react negatively to the author's public policy stances, but to me, they're not relevant. The ethics that these books espouse are the aversion to mob mentality/brutality, the exaltation of knowledge, and the greatness of kindness and restraint. Those are ethics that everyone can get behind, and they make damn good reading!

Oh, and because I couldn't help but squeeze just ONE more backlist title in, I'm reading my (embarrassed) very first Neil Gaiman novel, American Gods! I'm only a quarter through, but it seems like this book might have been the originator of the urban fantasy genre? Anyone else agree?