Of
the few websites that I visit in my daily life, there is one that I make a
habit of visiting at least once or twice every few months. That may not sound
much, but I only visit this site in order to keep up on my obvious interest in
anthropomorphic literature.
You
see, finding good books centered around anthropomorphic animals is not nearly
as easy as it might sound. What was once nearly everywhere one could look is
now surprisingly niche. Redwall and the Warriors series are the only recent
anthropomorphic books of large public note that I can easily recall. We’re far
removed from the days of the Wind in the Willows, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of
NIMH, and The Jungle Book, where such books were just titles that everybody
knew as they grew up. These days, we have far more choices for literature than
we’ve ever had before, and it’s led to a sort of dilution of content. With so
many books out there and so many ways to access and find them, it’s
surprisingly more difficult to discover those treasures like the stories that
made up our elementary school library days.
Also, with the rise of self-publishing, especially in the e-book realm,
finding books that are not only good stories, but also well-edited and written
is harder than it ever has been.
What
is a seeker of literature to do?
If
you said: “Suck it up, pick a book, and get reading.” You would be right!
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| Raccoons don't hibernate. We just get kinda sleepy! |
However,
another handy option is to look online for recommendations and reading lists,
and one of my favorite public reading lists is one known as the “Recommended Anthropomorphics List”, held and curated by the Ursa Major Awards.
The Ursa Major Awards is an awesome website that collects various examples of new
anthropomorphic media and arranges them by year for easy browsing. Every year,
they hold a world-wide vote for the best anthropomorphic works of that year.
The works are categorized by Film, Dramatic Work, Novel, Short Story, Graphic
Story, Comic Strip, Magazine, Website, Published Illustration, and Video Game.
Of
course, it may not be considered as prestigious as an Oscar or Newberry Award,
but seeing such works recognized in fields where they would otherwise be
ignored by the majority of folks is quite wonderful.
The
Anthropomorphics List that they produce each year is what I really go there
for. Specifically the Novel category. Every year, I find some true gems in
places where I never would have looked previously. In fact, the Gamma World
novel that I mentioned in my last post was a novel that I discovered through
these lists. I would strongly suggest that you take a look through the list as
well if you have any interest in anthropomorphic characters in the media!
I
should, however, put a disclaimer about this list. While it’s a wonderful
website that has a wide net of content listed, not all of that content is for
readers of all ages. With a smaller pool of new media to choose from, offensive
content does come up. It’s not unlike any library, however. The purpose of this
list, like libraries themselves, is not to censor or bar content from readers,
but to give an open and free place for authors and creators to be seen or
heard. Thankfully, for those of us that don’t want to have to dive in to a book
or author website just to learn about its content rating, the UMA website gives
a handy Mature Audiences tag at the
end of any entry that qualifies.
In
the future, once the nominations for the Ursa Major Novel Awards of 2014 are
made public (Nominations open on January 15), I would really like to list them
here on the website and read as many of them as possible. That way, when voting
begins in March, all of us here can give some educated votes and maybe even
discussion over which novels are most deserving.
Considering
my reading pace is normally rather slow, this might end up being quite the
challenge, but hopefully a lot of fun at the same time. I do hope you all join
me for it!
Until
next time, happy reading!
Currently
Reading:
The Last Wild by Piers Torday
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