Thoughts of Books - Wandering Off the Road

Do you take a daily vitamin (or two?)? If so, thank Casimir Funk, whose birthday is today. Check out Google for additional information, but I'll be thanking him when I take my daily vitamins later this morning. Right now, however, I'm sitting down with my first two cups of tea of the day, and old friends and acquaintances popped to mind out of the blue. 

Sometimes you just HAVE to leave the road, jump 
the fence, and explore what's on the other side - the 
side that might be less safe, but far more interesting. 

You know how when you don't push your mind to stay between the white fences and only walk on the road ahead, it suddenly jumps those fences and you end up thinking wildly divergent thoughts? My brain apparently is declaring a holiday from straight-forward thinking and instead, is gamboling through the flowers and pitfalls of memory. Crazy thing, brains! 

Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Darkover" series has a total of 
27 volumes in it. The Drizzt Do'Urden series I've been 
listening to while swimming has a total of 39 books, and I'm 
getting close to finishing that series. I'm looking for my 
next series, and Darkover might be the ticket. She did some 
amazing world building in that series. 

For some unknown reason, my mind shifted to book series I love, and Darkover came to mind, which of course led to its' author, Marion Zimmer Bradley. She's been dead for many years now, leaving a tarnished history behind her. She had been the Golden Girl - the author at the height of her profession, who had won every award it had to give her. Until her daughter accused her and her second husband of child abuse and the proverbial "shit hit the fan". Those castle walls she had been building around her with her many awards and her rightly-praised series of novels came crashing down. 

Marion Zimmer Bradley was accused of child abuse by her 
daughter. The main force of the accusations fell upon her 
second husband, but she was also an accessory and not just 
an innocent standing at the side. A lot of people got rid 
of their MZB books, and a lot of places pulled them from 
the shelves and refused to sell them any more. I have 
almost the complete set - they're beautifully crafted books. 
She might have been a horrible person, but she was an 
excellent author and world-builder. 

Her most popular series were two very different ones, the Mists of Avalon series which was set in Authurian times, and her Darkover series, science fiction at its' best. Every award it was possible for an author to win, came to her. She founded the well-known Society for Creative Anachronism, and the lesser known Center for Non-Traditional Religion. 

The Renaissance Festivals of the SCA members 
is far more than our light gathering of assorted 
costumes and mummers. It's a stickler for 
accurate costumes and court proceedings. We're 
rather low-key here for our Ren Faire, but 
these folks are the "real deal". 

Why did I think of her this morning? Because I'm in the middle of listening to one very long series (the Drizzt Do'Urden books) but I'm also thinking about what I might want to listen to next. I'm contemplating the Darkover series. I own all of the books, but if I listen to them, I'll have to purchase the audio books, and I'm not sure they're even available. At the time of the scandal, many book sellers eliminated her books from their offerings. I'm also unsure about potentially sending any royalty funds to a convicted pedophile, even though she's been dead for years. But I'd dearly love to return to Darkover - a fascinating world, complex and deep. It's a moral dilemma that I'll work out at some point. But I still have eleven Drizzt Do'Urden books to listen to, so it's not an immediate issue. 

"Darkover Landfall" is the first book 
of the series. I think I own almost all 
of the Darkover books. I might have to 
venture into our library and take a peek 
one of these days. But, listening to them 
on audio might be the perfect thing. 

So I'll leave all of you today, starting a very busy "day off" as usual. I want to get my repairs complete so that I can contact the owners and send them back home again. I don't think I need to cook anything, so it might be a non-kitchen day off - VERY rare. Have an excellent day and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.