Decisions, decisions

Okay, so my birthday came and went, and among the couple of presents I got from my innermost group of loved ones was a new book and a gift card to a large chain seller of books. Now here’s my dilemma. After reading a couple of heavy, in-depth, and/or long-winded novels (Ishmael, Silence, Kim, She) I’m looking for something fast and quick. Some light-entertainment. Something pulpy, something sci-fi-ish. (“Sci-fi” is the term we geeks use to refer in a derogatory fashion to science fiction; it’s the antithesis of “SF”. )

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to my awesome used book store, which is a hike to get to. The last time I was there, sometime in the late winter, I bought four paperback SF anthologies. All of writers I’ve never read before. I also have a fantasy epic by George R. R. Martin on deck. While I’m not a big fantasy reader (because nothing can measure up with my experience of the LotR as a kid), I am in love with the prose and intellect of George R. R. But speaking of the LotR, one of my close friends bought me The Children of Hurin, by Christopher Tolkien, the latest anthropologic epic culled from the massive notes of his father’s mythos.

So … what to read? I’m plodding my way through Ramanujan’s biography (The Man Who Knew Infinity), and it is keeping my attention, but it is slow going. My free time is limited to about an hour a day to read as I’m working on other projects to hopefully get some money and take care of the house and children. However, I’m really, really jonesin’ for some fiction.

Do I invest the time, possibly a month’s worth, in reading the Tolkien, which may be dry and encyclopedic rather than epic, or in reading Martin, which may be a roll of the dice and cause my esteem of him to slip? Should I put away one of the SF (or sci-fi) anthologies I bought a while ago? I could finish such an anthology in a week, though short story work generally tends to leave me dissatisfied (I find it more enjoyable to lose myself in a 300-page novel than a 15-page short story). Or should I just wait till I can find an hour to use the gift card, shopping the shelves until something jumps out at me?

Ah, decisions …