Memories of the 28th Century

In my, as yet, brief life I have read some thousands of books and an incalculable number of articles in newspapers, magazines, and online. I was commencing to write another short story, when I wondered something about Washington Irving. Then I realized that I didn’t know much about him, so I looked him up online, and learned that he wrote many books and was a government official at some times. He started writing professionally when he was in his 20’s with Knickerbocker's History of New York, which is quite well written. I will have to read some more of it and of other of his works also.

Mr. Irving’s style is a little old-fashioned, but it is clear and light, in contrast with some writers from the Nineteenth Century who wrote with a style reminiscent of molasses, thick and impotable but sweeter than one might like. Mr. Irving’s style falls somewhere between Jonathan Swift and H. P. Lovecraft, and I’ll have to get some of his writing on paper, so that I will be able to get comfortable with it. I got the impression that Irving was attempting to show his narrator and the situation through the style, either that, or he was just writing in his normal style, and showing himself through the style.

I am very happy that all of his works are in the public domain, as are the works of the other authors that I mentioned so far, Swift and Lovecraft. I think that I have read all or nearly all of Lovecraft's works, and I may have read all of Swift's prose works, but I will look again. I have read the stories and poems of Poe, but his complete works fill more than a foot on a library shelf, and I have been told that some of the non-fiction and opinion pieces are worth reading. I just looked at a list of 19th century American novelists, and most of the names are completely unfamiliar to me, so I should try a few more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego...ican_novelists

I have read more than enough of James Fennimore Cooper's woks, but he had a daughter who also was a writer. Some of the other names are familiar, but as I mentioned most are completely unknown to me. It is sad that authors are put aside so quickly, even the truly great written works seem to be ignored after a time. Edward Everett Hale just came to mind again. Many people have read The Man Without a Country, but he mostly wrote humorous or inspirational fiction; he was a Unitarian minister, and that tainted his writing, but it helped in some places. The Brick Moon is great. His short stories are variable, but "The Lost Palace" is excellent. These are available on Gutenberg.org.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/sear...d+everett+hale

Then there is the matter of English literature from that period, and that is a rather daunting list, but I am as familiar with these as with the American writers, and when I specified novelists, I got a list that almost looks familiar, but these lists are far from complete; Charles Dickens is not included, as just one example.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego...ritish_writers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego...tish_novelists

It looks like there is enough to keep me busy for a while, not that I was planning to stop reading any time soon. The lists for Twentieth Century American novelists is much larger, but I suspect that is because people have written more articles about them. I haven’t looked at the list in detail, but I suspect that there are few whose works I am greatly inclined to seek out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego...ican_novelists

I am aware of a good many books that I want to read, but there aren’t enough hours in a day for me to get to them and do everything else that needs doing, so I’ll let something slide, and it looks like it will be some of the reading, because it is becoming more difficult to find some printed works. Libraries are starting to dump books in favor of having eBooks instead. That isn’t a bad idea, but some books will be neglected. Already G. C. Edmondson’s works are difficult, and he only died a few years ago (I think I have read all of his novels [except Westerns written under a different name], but I would like to make at least one into a movie). And I am cluttering up the market also by publishing books.

On the other hand, I am scheduled to depart this mortal coil in the year 3208, so I will have a fair amount of time for my reading, but people will continue adding to my burden. I will have to forget about reading any of the romance novels and continue to eschew thrillers, especially military thrillers, and I may restrict some other subgenres. And all that time I will be adding to the pile of books.



Some works available online
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/sear...hington+irving

Biography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Irving