What are you reading in 2025?

[Autumnal]

A random comment and a random question…

Comment: sorting my ebooks. (Several thousand of them), I find that (among other things, about a third of my horror collection is anthologies, just under a tenth of my sf collection is anthologies, and even less than that for my fantasy collection. Partly this is because of the medium - my peak fantasy anthology buying years were the ‘89s and ‘90s, before Peanut Press and Fictionwise got me into ebooks. Still, an interesting and unsuspected gap.

Question: genre fiction publishing goes through waves of omnibus enthusiasm, collecting three or more volumes in a series under one set of covers. Do you like those more, less, or differently than single volumes? If it’s situational, can you point at particular considerations that make it more or less likely you’ll go omnibusing?

(In print, books being too thick for their own good is of course a practical limitation. An ebook being too large to open is a much rarer problem these days.)

 

[prabe]

A random comment and a random question…

Comment: sorting my ebooks. (Several thousand of them), I find that (among other things, about a third of my horror collection is anthologies, just under a tenth of my sf collection is anthologies, and even less than that for my fantasy collection. Partly this is because of the medium - my peak fantasy anthology buying years were the ‘89s and ‘90s, before Peanut Press and Fictionwise got me into ebooks. Still, an interesting and unsuspected gap.

Question: genre fiction publishing goes through waves of omnibus enthusiasm, collecting three or more volumes in a series under one set of covers. Do you like those more, less, or differently than single volumes? If it’s situational, can you point at particular considerations that make it more or less likely you’ll go omnibusing?

(In print, books being too thick for their own good is of course a practical limitation. An ebook being too large to open is a much rarer problem these days.)

I appreciate big anthologies of short fiction, and I also enjoy collections--especially ones like the one I'm working my way through as a side project, Joe Lansdale's Lovecraftian stories. Anthologies or collections of longer works, and omnibus collections of, say, novels, can run into the problem of being too big to handle as books, as well as the potential problem of just being a lot of whatever they are: Most people probably do not have the energy and/or patience to rip through a trilogy (or something longer) more or less in one go. (I have the Library of America's two-volume set of all of Shirley Jackson, and I gotta admit I'm a little worried about that much Jackson without relief.)

 

[Autumnal]

Yeah, overload is always a risk with Big Huge Book Of A Thing reading. I usually have at least a couple different things going, like an audiobook and a distinctly different ebook. (At the moment, The End Of The World As We Know It, an anthology of stories in the world of The Stand, and a Horus Heresy book.)

 

[prabe]

Yeah, overload is always a risk with Big Huge Book Of A Thing reading. I usually have at least a couple different things going, like an audiobook and a distinctly different ebook. (At the moment, The End Of The World As We Know It, an anthology of stories in the world of The Stand, and a Horus Heresy book.)

I have that anthology from the library, got it the same times as the Lansdale collection I'm working through. The Lansdale is more a priority, because it's an interlibrary loan and won't autorenew. I often read planned trilogies and duologies straight through--it's actually my preference--but a very long trilogy can definitely start to get a bit death-marchy.

 

[overgeeked]

Yeah, overload is always a risk with Big Huge Book Of A Thing reading. I usually have at least a couple different things going, like an audiobook and a distinctly different ebook. (At the moment, The End Of The World As We Know It, an anthology of stories in the world of The Stand, and a Horus Heresy book.)

I love anthologies by multiple authors because it provides short snippets of one author before moving on to someone else. I don’t mind novellas and older, shorter novels, but the modern tread of single-author, single-story doorstoppers is just not for me.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

A random comment and a random question…

Comment: sorting my ebooks. (Several thousand of them), I find that (among other things, about a third of my horror collection is anthologies, just under a tenth of my sf collection is anthologies, and even less than that for my fantasy collection. Partly this is because of the medium - my peak fantasy anthology buying years were the ‘89s and ‘90s, before Peanut Press and Fictionwise got me into ebooks. Still, an interesting and unsuspected gap.

Question: genre fiction publishing goes through waves of omnibus enthusiasm, collecting three or more volumes in a series under one set of covers. Do you like those more, less, or differently than single volumes? If it’s situational, can you point at particular considerations that make it more or less likely you’ll go omnibusing?

(In print, books being too thick for their own good is of course a practical limitation. An ebook being too large to open is a much rarer problem these days.)

I didn't think I liked omnibuses until I got my hands on the 50th Anniversary Earthsea omnibus published while Le Guin was still alive, with gorgeous Charles Vess illustrations. The original illustrations have their 1960/70's charm, but wowowow Vess is incredible. Also, each novel has an afterword by LeGuin written I imagine shortly before her death. Certainly 50 years after A Wizard in Earthsea was published.

So I guess what I want in addition to the original content, is additional excellent content from the author, as well as superb additional content from another creator (art in particular).

 

[Autumnal]

Oh, yes, that Earthsea omnibus is such a beautiful book, and a paradigmatic example of Doing It Right.

 

[Retros_x]

I already hate long doorstopper books in printed form, especially as paperback. Omnibus editions are often paperback and remove the advantage of shorter books and aggregate them to my hated doorstopper format that is just uncomfortable to read.

The biggest pro of omnibus editions and the main reason I bought them when I was younger is the bang for your buck, its often the cheapest option to read through a series. As an adult with disposable income, I prefer to buy single editions, hardcover if possible. Its just more comfortable to read for me.

 

[Autumnal]

Thanks! I get worried when my tastes seem too popular. Seriously, though, very good explanation, and I cannot endorse reading comfort too highly.

 

[Mannahnin]

I didn't think I liked omnibuses until I got my hands on the 50th Anniversary Earthsea omnibus published while Le Guin was still alive, with gorgeous Charles Vess illustrations. The original illustrations have their 1960/70's charm, but wowowow Vess is incredible. Also, each novel has an afterword by LeGuin written I imagine shortly before her death. Certainly 50 years after A Wizard in Earthsea was published.

So I guess what I want in addition to the original content, is additional excellent content from the author, as well as superb additional content from another creator (art in particular).

I love Charles Vess so much.

(And yes, Le Guin is amazing and I'm so glad her work got the respectful and gorgeous Vess interpretation, and they got to work together before she passed).