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| not everything at Comic Con costs a fortune.. |
Resisting the urge to go absolutely mental and clean out their entire stock, I calmed myself down and tried to focus, picking up a few choice texts that promised both ridiculousness and entertainment. Remember, Crap Looking Books isn't about specifically bad or rubbish books, it's about finding unique gems somewhere between laudable and applaudable, about overturning preconceptions and conventions, and wrapping hands and eyes around books that might otherwise have been sidelined, while pushing so-so books that claim centre stage to their rightfully deserved quirky peripheries.
Anyway, this is what I picked up.
Who could resist such fantastic titles as "Spacepaw" and "The Time Bender"? I wasn't about to walk away from the unashamedly on-the-nose "The Bug Wars" or the fantastically detailed cover of "High Justice" and fantastically atrocious cover of "Near Death" with its wholly unnecessary "Canadian Writer" sticker.
After my initial glee, I realised that (perhaps with the exception of Near Death) these were all science fiction titles. Not a surprise at a largely science-fiction driven Comic Con, but long-term readers of Crap Looking Books will have spotted a majority of crime fiction novels and boil-in-the-bag horror in my past reads and responses, and not a whole lot of science fiction.
I'm prepared to admit that crime and horror really aren't my genres of choice, and I have at times felt a little concern that some of the vitriol that comes from Crap Looking Books is less about the books in question and more about me undermining a genre that I simply don't enjoy. that's not how I want to be or write, and sort of defeats the whole point of reacting and responding to individual books.
With science fiction however, I'm forced to dig a little deeper. There will be no "People living on other planets, I mean what the fuck is that nonsense?" and no "Space is big. Big and boring." Instead I'll be taking the uncomfortable angle of looking for something ridiculous within a framework that I already find both acceptable and praiseworthy. I can't just attack the standard tropes or conventions, I really need to delve in to find the crazy and preposterous.
Although in the case of Spacepaw, that doesn't look like it'll be too hard.
I look forward to it!
Nick
xx
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