Is Trek Lit Enough?

[JD]

If you watch alot of TV you could do what I do, and read during commercial breaks. I know it sounds weird but it works for me, because I get plenty of reading done in short intervals. I started mostly because I found myself having trouble getting comfortable when I tried to read, and I also found my mind wandering after a while. Although for me the main reason I had trouble getting comfortable is that I have some neck problems, and when I read I look down pretty much all the time.

 

[Scott Pearson]

I'm going to skip over all the physiological issues that may be causing you to have difficulty reading and address the more philosophical aspect of your question.

And my answer would be: No, Trek lit is not enough, not in general, and especially not if you want to be a writer. I think a wide range of fiction and nonfiction is important to just being a well-rounded person and particularly inspiring for a writer. For instance, I just read a book called In the Land of White Death, an amazing true story of a Russian in 1912-1914 who made it back to civilization after the ship he was on became frozen in the ice in the Arctic. Not only is it fascinating and gripping as a story, the fact that it really happened makes it that much more awe-inspiring. I could easily see turning around and writing a story, maybe sci-fi or Trek, and being able to use what I had learned from that book to infuse great details into a similar alien setting.

So, as a reader in general, the entertainment and educational value of a broad reading "program" is important, and for a writer it's really an indispensable part of the craft. To do otherwise is to be an architect who ignores all but a few buildings. For me, only reading Trek lit would be an untenable approach to writing.

 

[RookieBatman]

^My brain knows you're right, but my body isn't playing along yet.
Hopefully, this thread will help me build up a healthy amount of "righteous indignation" so I can push myself to be a bit more disciplined about my reading program (I do actually have one, very well organized; I just haven't been following it).

 

[JWolf]

If you want something good and light, try the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.

 

[Avilos]

Growing up I used to go with my parents on long drives a lot. I passed the time by reading. As result even as an adult I got my best reading done while I am a passenger in a car. Which is not to often.

I finally realized the real reasons. No distractions. Primarily this media we are communicating on right now! But also I got used to having the radio playing in the car when I read.

So I find it hard to focus on reading in a quite room. The obvious solution - I now have music playing at home when I read. It works wonders for me.

 

[Technobuilder]

^I used to read as a passenger as well... Then I started to get car sick from reading and the way my Dad drives. I can still usually read on a long interstate road trip, but anytime we're driving in the city, all of the starting and stopping makes me queasy.

In response to the main thread, I can relate somewhat to your situation.

I love to read and it's not a boring experience for me, but I tend to only enjoy reading (or doing anything for that matter) if it's something that peaks my immediate interest when I have the time to read. As a result, there are lot of books that I would LIKE to read, but rarely do I pick them up and am in the mood to read them.

It's odd, but I feel like if I'm not in the mood to read something, I don't want to negatively impact the experience by reading it with a bias if you will. But on those rare occasions when I am in the mood, I plow right through it and if I like it and it's a series I'll have no problem continuing to read on in the future.

I've got "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman sitting on my shelf right now waiting to be read, but I haven't found the right time to start it.

Since I borrowed it from a friend (we're notorious for long book lends) it's ok and I can take my time, but since I first received the book, I've read at least 4 Star Trek books and that's because even though I WANT to read American Gods, I really want to read Star Trek.

Maybe that's part of it for you? Maybe you've got an established interest in Star Trek literature and as a result you can read it fairly well, but not having the same interest in the particulars of a sci-fi universe say for a more classic work like Frank Herbert's "Dune" it's harder to read.

Also, I'd say, don't feel pressure to read, the worst times I ever had reading something where I swear to God it felt like pulling teeth was when I either just HAD to read something because it was so good (Generally the problem I have with Classics - You're expected to like them in a sense) or with being assigned to read something for a class (like summer reading.)

Never fails, you tell me to read something and submit a report in 6 weeks, I'll show you a book that hasn't been flipped past page 17 until just about the night before it's due.

 

[Steve Roby]

Keep regular hours, get enough sleep, and don't read in bed. Read somewhere you don't associate with sleeping. If none of that works, you may have a medical issue to deal with.

As for whether TrekLit is enough grounding for a nonTrek science fiction writer... no. Not even close. I'd be really surprised if any of the published TrekLit writers read only TrekLit. I'm just another reader, not a writer, but I have read enough (books and online conversations) to know that a lot of tie-in readers who don't read anything else have no idea of what current SF is actually about. Generally speaking, it isn't much like either Star Trek or Star Wars. They are, to some extent, 1940s SF.

It's a truism to say that SF is a field in dialogue with itself. In the 1960s some new young writers who loved SF but also loved contemporary literary writing tried to meld influences in a scene called the New Wave, and some older writers joined in, others dismissed the whole idea. In the 1980s cyberpunk kicked off and again brought in new writers and new influences, and again some older writers were inspired by the new ideas to try a few new things. More recently there's the books dealing with the Singularity, and the New Weird, and the New Space Opera. What the most influential writers share, it seems to me, is knowledge of the history of the field, knowledge of the current trends, and knowledge of lit outside the SF world.

There are exceptions, of course. But knowing more is generally better than knowing less.

 

[Michael_Kroh]

^Agreed.

 

[Smiley]

Steve, do you have any recommendations for books in the three "new" styles you listed?

 

[Christopher]

I try to work elements of more current SF into my Trek fiction. The Buried Age was influenced by transhumanist/post-Singularity SF, as well as by some of the hard-science concepts in the works of Greg Egan and Gregory Benford.

 

[RookieBatman]

JWolf said:
If you want something good and light, try the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.

I'm been hearing his name mentioned a lot. I think I probably will give those a try.

 

[Steve Roby]

Smiley said:
Steve, do you have any recommendations for books in the three "new" styles you listed?

It's a big topic and there are more books that I've read about than actually read so far. If you wiki the subgenre names you'll get some good leads. But for new space opera, try Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks; for New Weird try City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer; for transhumanist/singularity... I think A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge kind of kicked that off, and Charles Stross's Accelerando seems to have rebooted it.

 

[JD]

What are the Discworld books about?

 

[Steve Roby]

Try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld

 

[JD]

O yeah, duh. I feel really stupid because I use wiki constantly fof stuff like this.

 

[Steve Roby]

JD said:
O yeah, duh. I feel really stupid because I use wiki constantly fof stuff like this.

Wikipedia's not reliable for everything, but when it comes to pop culture, it's a pretty good source.

 

[JD]

Yeah, that's mostly what I use it for. But I will use it occaisionally for just baisic information, like how old somebody is or where they're from, stuff like that.

 

[Endymion]

It seems like I run across a few people online who read nothing but Trek lit. I love Star Trek, but there are too many good books out there to only read Star Trek. I think people who do that are short-changing themselves.

 

[RookieBatman]

Well, I'm back to my non-Trek reading schedule, but I'm gonna still try to read 50-100 pages of Trek, because I enjoy it more. We'll see how it works this time.

 

[new_mercury]

This may sound strange but I find it easier to be reading two books at a time and always two different types of books. This is because I found that if i just read say a Star Trek book and read it everytime in the day when I wanted to read something my mind would start saying 'it's that book again!' and i'd be reading each page twice. Now for instance i'm reading a ST book and a history book. Thi morning I read some of the ST book and this afternoon I wanted to read but read some of the history book and then this evening I read some of the ST book again.

This is how I tend to keep it going.

To answer your original question, 'no' I don't think reading just Trek is enough. I used to and now i'm playing catch up with everything else I want to read!