Editor's Note | Moby Dicks

Some books are imposing. You want to read them. But you’re afraid of them. Maybe you know it will be difficult. Maybe it looks incredibly long or the prose is challenging. Perhaps you have heard the material will be depressing. Most of us have one or two of these Moby Dicks stacked in our ‘To Read’ pile in some form. Books we hope, want, NEED to read before we die. I know lots of people who plan to someday read War and Peace—probably the granddaddy of big, intimidating novels. Some of my friends swear they will get to Ulyssess once they have time to really absorb Joyce’s sentences. I promise them both books are worth the late nights staying up reading. 

   Honestly, I have a long list of such books. Some have been waiting for me for years. Others have only recently intrigued me. There are classics, new novels, biographies, and histories, and some I buy and put on my desk to stare at me until I work up the courage to start reading. Others patiently await me in libraries and bookstores. Someday.  

   Currently, I’m in a strange reading limbo. I’ve read the opening chapters of a few books; I’m still making up my mind which one to fully dive into. But I better hurry, because I’ve promised to attack some of my own white whales of books this summer. And the days are flying by! 

   And I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew. 

   I have a couple of hefty biographies, but I also have two or three novels that are each about 1,300 pages. Wish me luck. 

   When I wonder what’s holding me back—they’re just books, I’ve read lots of books, incredibly long books—I think it is ultimately a fear of boredom, that the reading will feel like work rather than joy. Nobody wants that. 

   Sadly, it can (and does) happen. Sometimes the work is worth it, and you’re overjoyed that you pushed through your fear and reached the end. Then there are those books that have burned us. They make us struggle and leave us empty. But you won’t know unless you start reading. 

   Let’s make a deal. You and me. Editor and reader, let’s swear to read one of our Moby Dicks before the next issue of Texas Books in Review comes out in the fall. You can do it. I believe in you. 

   If you love Texas as much as you love books, you may find your next Moby Dick in this issue of TBR. We range from mystery to history and gore and more. Anything and everything focused on the Lone Star State gets featured here. Don’t worry. They’re just books. 

   You can check out thoughts and opinions about two new books by Joe R. Lansdale: his latest Hap and Leonard comic caper, Sugar on the Bones, and his freshly collected tales of terror, The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale. If crime and fear behind the pine curtain are not for you, then you can delve into how Latinx communities participated and were affected by armed conflict in Jesse Aleman’s Latinx Civil Wars. Ruby Camacho gives us her opinion on the spy-thriller Welcome to Cottonmouth, and Mary Mitchem chimes in about the whodunit No Road Home with comparisons to Knives Out and other Agatha Christie-esque ensembles.

   Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you finish your Moby Dicks as long as you love books and reading. The joy of words, the joy of narratives, and the joy of connecting with people (real or imaginary) is why we’re here. It is why Texas Books in Review is here, too. And we’re not going anywhere soon. 

Enjoy your summer reading. Stay cool.