Can You Handle Glib Profanity?

Another author I enjoy is Devon Monk.  His Allie Beckstrom series are entertaining, thought provoking, annoying and pretty much done.  Nine books, planned that way from the beginning, and all in print.

So, what thought do I think when I reflect on them?

One of my first thoughts it that there is more nastiness going on around us than most of us suspect.  My daughter worked for a police department typing up reports while in college, and mentioned that the crimes against women, the crimes against minorities, and the crimes that don't make it to the papers were maybe a hundred times what she ever thought could happen in that small college town.  My guess is that it's much more intense in a larger city like Denver, Minneapolis, New York or Seattle.  Monk's series only seems to be about magic.  I think it depicts basic human lust for power, greed, insecurity and willingness to do harm to others, something we sort of know already.

One of my next thoughts is that there are a few people who are willing to stand up to nastiness.  They may "talk bad", look different, be in high or low positions, and they may or may not be religious, but they have an innate sense of right and wrong, of respect of other humans as opposed to disregard or indifference, and many of them put their lives and reputations on the line to "be there" stopping the flood of filthy behavior when they can.

What do you think?  Have you read Monk?  What thoughts are sparked for you?

What I Think About What I Read

With this article I begin reflecting about what I am reading, or have read.

I read four to seven books a week.  Mostly, but exclusively, I read fiction.  Junk fiction.  Popular fiction.  Detective stories, fantasy stories, sci-fi stories, magical stories, and espionage stories are the sorts of stuff I read.  I stay away from romance, really dark stories, and zombie/vampire series.  On the other hand I have read a bit of history, including a book on the equations that changed or created our history.  Maybe I am a bit eclectic.

I have my standards.  If a story or history or essay is not well written I do not finish it.  If it has too many typos I drop it.  If the story is choppy in a convoluted or way useless to telling the story I quit reading it.  I have lots to choose from that meets my standards of quality.  "Why waste time," I ask myself, "forcing myself to read poorly written [from my point of view] stuff when there is so much well written material I have not yet read?"

I started to create another blog for this series, then decided it fits in this one reasonably well.  Fall is here, I have a backlog of books and stories I have read, and it's time to write in a more disciplined way.  I took three months "off" and only wrote haphazardly.  This should be fun.

I hope you enjoy the series.

Here are a few authors I have enjoyed this summer.  I'll be writing about some of their stories.

• Robin Hobb. 
• Lois McMasters Bujold
• Trudi Canavan
• Robert Parker
• Kristen Britain
• Terry Pratchett
• Mercedes Lackey
• L.E. Modesitt Jr.
• Elizabeth Moon
• Robert K. Tanebaum
• David Weber
• Stuart Firestein
• Ian Stewart
• Alex Berenson
• David Baldacci

These are in no particular order.  My next article will select a work and mull it over with you.

Al