I just read here that David Eddings has died. I know him through his first two series--the Belgariad and the Mallorean, which I started reading when I was about 12. Even though I found his treatment of gender and race vexing, I kept on going, finding the books strangely fascinating and very good escapist reading.
I last read the series a little more than nine years ago, at a time when I badly needed comfort reading that would go on and on and on, making few demands of me as a reader. In the space of two weeks, I had a new baby and brain surgery, in that order, and in the days that followed I found great solace in my Eddings re-read.* I still have all the books...I figure that when I'm about 99 or so, in a nursing home somewhere, they will be just the thing.
So, sigh. RIP David Eddings.
*on my maternity leave with my second child, and with no nasty other things to deal with, I read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. And then, so help me, I started re-reading the Xanth books. Talk about sexism. I guess I just wasn't in the mood for feminist classics, like The Awakening, or The Yellow Wallpaper.
I was so sad to hear he had died. He was such an amazing author, in my opinion. I loved his books, they're probably my favourites.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any David Eddings, but I have (she says sheepishly) read a lot of Xanth novels. I'm a little scared to re-read them, actually. You might like Emily Jenkins's piece for Salon, "I was a captive of Xanth" (http://archive.salon.com/books/feature/2000/12/07/xanth/index.html), too.
ReplyDeleteOh, and brain surgery??
ReplyDeleteYep, it was My Medical Excitement, hopefully for a long time--I found out I had a brain tumor when I was eight months pregnant. But fortunatly as these things go it wasn't bad, and I am more or less fine now. It was really the stinky timing that sucked.
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