Finished Psycoshop. A thoroughly mediocre book. Not one of Zelazny’s best by far. I can’t say that I hated it, but I won’t recommend it. Part of the issue for me though is all the time-travel - which I rarely find to be done well.
Next: Innocent Mage.
Now I’m on The Austere Academy in the Lemony Snicket books, and In Search of the Castaways (The Children of Captain Grant) from Jules Verne. My copy was printed in 1911, but every seventh page is uncut(!)
I saw the Hayley Mills/Maurice Chevalier/ Disney movie as a kid, but don’t trecall much of it. Apparently it’s been filmed twice , and more faithfully, in Russia, and people still listen to the score from the 1935 version. The story shares some characters with The Mysterious Island, which puts it in the same universe as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
That’s some good stuff. I loved The Man Who Was Thursday and Cloud Atlas; and, long ago, The Brothers Karamazov.
You might like Ghostwritten, too.
Just finished L.A. Confidential. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a crime/mystery novel that I couldn’t put down until the solution was revealed. That one’s going on the wishlist.
Almost done with Karen Essex’s Pharaoh. It’s okay–I’m about tired of Antony’s whining though. Fortunately I’m on the last chapter and he’ll be dead soon. 
There’s also one line that’s been irritating me more than it should. Octavian is giving a speech bad-mouthing Antony to his troops. He has to stop and explain himself at one point:
Except “uxorious” comes from the Latin word “uxor.” You know, Latin? The language of the Romans? The people Octavian was speaking to?
I finished Descartes’ error which was good, though a lot of the brain science was a slog. The I read Science and Creation by John Polkinghorne, which is Christian apologetics informed by science. After all the Dawkins and Dennet I read I thought I’d get something from the “other side.” It’s pretty good but ultimately, for me at least, not convincing. I’d recommend it though. If nothing else, it’s short. Also, despite it’s title, the author isn’t a creationist in the common usage. He accepts evolution and argues that creationism isn’t just bad science, it’s also bad theology.
Now I’m rereading the Odyssey.
Taking a short break from Quicksilver to read No Country for Old Men. Loved the movie, wanted to see how McCarthy wrote some of those scenes.
I got my copy of Small Favor last week. I’m rereading the series on the way to it, and I’m currently up to Blood Rites. I am once again being amused by some of the bits about goings-on at the porn studio, mostly because I know Jim’s point of reference for such things.
I am currently reading aloud the Border’s Compendium of the first three Indiana Jones’ movies.
The kids are loving it, but the writing is exactly to the movie ( which is ok) but it is a bit redundant in using the character names, even when there are only two characters in the scene. *Indy throws down his torch to Marion. Marion catches it. Indy starts pushing against the Anubis. * kinda thing.
I am hoping to finish book 1 by the time #4 comes out. Which means I will have to get cracking.
For adult “reading” I am listening to Pride and Prejudice on playawaydigital ( dot) come. Courtesy of the library. I wish these kinda things were more affordable. I would buy one for all my Jane Austen spazoid friends. le sigh
Toilet Reading: How to build an Igloo and other snow shelters because it just might be a great xmas gift fur alles.
Knitted Gardens I just bought today for 50% off at Joann’s. It is superdoubleplusawesome! So what that I will never knit a farmhouse, cottage or garden. This book is for my yarn pron collection.
w00t!
Ghostwritten is on my list of things to read. I liked “Man Who was Thursday”. OTOH, I LOVED Cloud Atlas. I very rarely re-read books but I know this is one I’m going to reach for when I just want to settle into some comfortable prose.
I finished Crime & Punishment earlier this year and I heard Bros. Karamazov was even better. So far I’m liking it quite well.
I’m reading By George by Wesley Stace – which is apparently the real name of the musician who performs as John Wesley Harding. There are two Georges – one of them a ventriloquist’s dummy used by a member of a British family of variety performers, and the other his human namesake, sent off to boarding school some 40 years later. The dummy narrates his own sections, the boy doesn’t. Sounds kind of weird but I’m really enjoying it.
The Gypsy in Me by Ted Simon.
I am not sure if it was recommended by a Doper or a Farker, but since it arrived via interloan yesterday, I am totally taken with the narrative and writing style. This guy really has a wonderful way of capturing a mood or scene without stroking his ego.
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon.
I know I’m a little late to the parade, but what a wonderful book. The setting and characters are wonderfully outrageous, but you completely buy into the traditional “whodunnit” plot. Am definitely looking forward to reading more by this author.
Yesterday was Library Day. I picked up Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and The Quiet American by Graham Greene.
Cloud Atlas reminded me somewhat of the work of Italo Calvino (particularly “If On A Winter’s Night a Traveller”). You might like that, too.
Still reading Quicksilver but took a break to read No Country for Old Men, and will take another break next week when Knockemstiff and Lush Life arrive.
I’m really enjoying Quicksilver – I’m in Jack Shaftoe’s section now.
The Baroque Cycle is immensely enjoyable. The only drawback IS the length (of elapsed time and of the books themselves)…by the time you’re finished, you’re exhausted!
I would suggest (if I haven’t already…it’s been a long month), once you’re finished with tBC, that you read The Cryptonomicon as well. It’s not as enjoyable a read as tBC (to me, anyway), but it’s satisfying as a kind of very late capper for the earlier-set Cycle.
The Cryptonomicon is set later? I thought maybe it was earlier, because characters in Quicksilver have talked about a Cryptonomicon. Not the same thing then. Cool.
I’m not exhausted yet, except from holding up the book. I read a lot of historical fiction, and with the change in POV, it feels almost like starting a new book.
Without getting into spoilers, the novel The Cryptonomicon is set in the 1930s/40s and the 90s. The book within the universe of tBC/tC called the Cryptonomicon exists in one form in the 17th/18th centuries and in a more developed form in the 20th. There are other things from tBC that appear in tC as well, but I’m not going to spoiler them for you…
Finished this today, and I’m going to put my reputation as a book-recommender on the line and recommend it. If you liked English Passengers and Soldier of the Great War, check it out. Not exactly similar in plot or anything, but similarly quirky and well-written, with a story that didn’t really go in directions I’d’ve expected. Liked it a lot.
Hey, me too. I just moved on to Post Captain.