My Re-read List Has Become Very Personal

 This last year has been rough for me on many levels. The hardest hitting event was the sudden passing of my father a few months ago. It did mess with the holiday season.

I am helping my mother go through things so she can move into a smaller apartment. The biggest element that needs to be dealt with is my father's books. Even after he downsized his collection about fifteen or so years ago, he kept a good amount based on certain factors. Going through his books has been an experience. There were also some interesting personal correspondences between him and several notable authors.

My mom is keeping all the autographed books for now, including two Robert Heinlein autographed novels, to have them appraised. He had gotten a lot of autographs over the years.

As I go through them, I am pulling out books that he had recommend and we shared an enjoyment of.

His favorite author was at one time Roger Zelazny (Not sure if that had ever changed). His favorite novel of Zelazny's was 'This Immortal' and was the first Zelazny novel I read. That was on I knew I wanted, as well as 'A Night in the Lonesome October', which was the last full novel he wrote, and I remember how much I enjoyed it. I also snagged the Amber novels, which I remember being great.

While I was the one who picked up all the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, he ended up getting the Dirk Gently books. So those ended up on my snag list.

He was not a fan of the big series by local author Carrie Vaughn, but we both enjoyed some of other works like 'Discord's Apple' and 'After the Golden Age'. His copies of both of those are now in my collection.

There are a good deal of other books I've claimed, be crazy to try to list them. Regretfully I don't have room to take all of his books. I am still working on going through the several dozen boxes of paperbacks I ended up with after his big downsizing.

So If you've read the title of the post, you should be able to guess were this is all going.

Right now my read pile is all re-reads of those books we shared enjoyment of. I have no doubt that is the best way to honor his memory, as it was his passion. He played a huge part in getting me to read more and was so proud of my own writings, being my biggest fan. Reading these books this time around has so much more meaning than ever before. 

Just wish I could talk with him about our enjoyment of them.

Of course I have to end this with encouraging everyone to read. Obviously, the books listed here are ones I recommend. Then of course there are my writings I would love for you to consider.

'Open Mic Night at the Nexus', is my newly published collection of my short fiction.

'A Day at Georgie and Armand's Place' is the first novel about an interdimensional hotel run by two shapeshifting, master mage dragons. There are two novels and a dozen short stories in this universe.

'Renee of the Sacred Order of Our Lady of Bloody Vengeance is one of my favorite short stories that I've written.

'The Cost of Leveling Up' is apparently a LitRPG I wrote without knowing that LitRPGs were a thing.

Just get out there and find books and stories to enjoy and share that with others. That is the best way you can honor his memory, even if you never got the pleasure of meeting him.

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