Three bookish things

First, I was so very excited about the announcement that Lois McMaster Bujold will publish a new book in her Vorkosigan saga next year.  That it will focus on Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan is just the icing on that particular piece of three-layer devil's food delight.  And I hope that the rumors are true that it's set on Sergyar, the planet where she has served as Vicereine for so many years.  Since the stories have never taken us there, it will be a new world to explore, with one of my favorite characters.  She was my introduction to the series, since I started with Cordelia's Honor - the first book in the series though not the first published.  I can't wait to meet her again, and in the meantime, I will probably need to re-read some of the earlier books. Or all of them.

Second, I was so very, very sad to read of Terry Pratchett's death.  I owe my introduction to his books to my friend Susan, who picked out Wyrd Sisters and Guards! Guards! for me at Murder by the Book one evening a few years ago.  But I still hadn't read them when I came across Monstrous Regiment on the new-book shelves at the library.  I started paging through it, and though I was intrigued I left it on the shelf.  But as I drove home I kept thinking, no, I want to read that book.  So I turned the car around, suddenly anxious that it would be gone before I could get back.  I was ridiculously relieved to see it still there.  I took it home and read it nearly straight through, and then starting collecting his other books as quickly as I could.  I could never pick a favorite, among all his wonderful stories.  I am reading The Truth right now, which would be high on the list, and I may go on to the Tiffany books.  I am also very happy to hear that he left a final Tiffany book completed, to be published this fall.  There were two lovely tributes that say what I feel about Mr. Pratchett and his books better than I can, Aarti's at Book Lust, and this posted on The Toast (and all the comments).

Third, for the last weeks of the TBR Dare, I decided to look at the books I've had the longest on the TBR stacks.  The ones that date from before 2005, when I began tracking my book acquisitions.  I started with The Canterbury Tales, which has a bookmark from a store in my hometown, where I haven't lived since 1988 (or visited since 1994).  My copy is a Penguin edition, in a "more modern idiom," first published in 1951.  I didn't read a lot of poetry or verse growing up, apart from the obligatory Shakespeare in high school, and my own reading has always been pretty prose-centered.  I think that's one reason this book has been sitting around so long.  When I finally started reading it, I found Chaucer's verse much easier than I expected, and I sailed through the Prologue.  But I don't actually find it all that interesting.  I think I'd like to hear more about the pilgrims themselves, their lives and their journeys, however fictional, rather than the stories they are telling each other.  I also think this may be one of those books I want to have read, rather than to actually read.  I think I'll let it go for now.  The good thing is that it will always be around, if and when I want to try again.

For now, it's back to Ankh-Morpork.