Thaks for the info. Problem is Against the Day is the one I’ve got. I’ll probably let it sit there for a tad longer.
Finished Only Begotten Daughter. I wouldn’t mind reading more novels where God or Jesus or Satan (or their children or siblings) come to earth in some form or another. Anyone know of any?
Next up is Demons by Dostoyevsky. I read the intro last week and should actually read the damn book now.
Is it any good?
My favourite in this vein is Gonik’s Cartoon History of the Universe.
Agreed. I read Vineland a while back, and am probably going to try The Crying of Lot 49 next. I made several attempts at Gravity’s Rainbow and was unable to get past about page 20 or so. My guess is I turn out to be a light Pynchon reader.
Inherent Vice actually had me giggling with delight this weekend.
So far, Logicomix is great. It starts with the early life of Bertrand Russell, and actually reminded me of the Capote novel Other Voices, Other Rooms in a couple of ways.
Started Demons. I didn’t realize Dostoyevsky was so snarky. He describes Stepan as an “excellent man” but from what follows, I don’t think he means it. It’s really funny. I hope I’m not missing the point. I’ve been known to do that.
Just started Unseen Academicals yesterday and already enjoying it immensely.
I finished **Hemingway’s Chair **and was somewhat disappointed. I expected more from Michael Palin.
I started Steven Erikson’s **Gardens of the Moon **today and nearly gave it up after going through the maps and cast of characters at the beginning. It seems to be moving more briskly now.
Took some lightweight stuff to the beach last week and was generally disappointed:
Gale Force, book #7 in Rachel Caine’s Weather Warden series. All I can say is that it’s better than the previous book.
Come Twilight, another Saint-Germain novel. Not one of the better ones.
The Hob’s Bargain, Patricia Briggs. Not one of her better novels.
Charity Girl, Georgette Heyer. The best of the lot, a fun read, but not one of the author’s best.
I just finished reading Lord Hornblower. It’s been a while since I read the other books in this series, but I remember them being better than this one. God, what a miserable bastard Hornblower is.
About to start on Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash.
I gave up on the Weather Warden series early on. I thought the fantasy world had potential, but the series just didn’t work for me.
I can’t recall if I read Hob’s Bargain. I usually like Briggs, but if I read it, it wasn’t good enough to catch my memory. (Well, OK, my memory is for shit these days anyway…)
The Whisperer in the Darkness, a collection of some of H.P. Lovecraft’s early Cthulhu stories. I bought the book in June and then lost track of it for about three months, so it’s pre-Halloween reading.
I read some illustrated Cthulhu Mythos books as a kid - two of my cousins were doing the role-playing games - but hadn’t read any of the author’s own work. The writing is much better and less hysterical than I thought it would be. The Call of Cthulhu, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Nameless City were especially good, and I also liked The Hound despite its eye-rolling setup. I’ll pick up more of his work after I finish this one, assuming Yog Sothoth doesn’t get me - and assuming I don’t get too annoyed by Lovecraft’s insistence on spellings like “lanthorn” and “shew,” which are more than a little ridiculous. And there are touches of prejudice against blacks here and there. I understand it gets worse in some of his other books.
Finished The Book Thief (loved it). Now reading The Haunting of Hill House for my Halloween book.
Yes, alas, it’s true: H. P. Lovecraft - Wikipedia (see “Race, ethnicity and class”).
“The Whisperer in Darkness,” “The Colour Out of Space” and “The Thing on the Doorstep” are among HPL’s best, I think, although I can’t say I’m a big fan. Stephen King also wrote a great Lovecraft pastiche, “Crouch End,” which is worth a read.
I read that entry yesterday, in fact. There’s enough prejudice on display in the stories I’ve read to this point, and he can’t help emphasizing race when it comes up. And the entry left me thinking it’s worse in other stories.
I just slipped Mary Roach’s Stiff back on the shelf. That was quite an interesting read – her humor was often a bit hit and miss, but I enjoyed it overall.
I’m supposedly still reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, but it’s in the office and I’ve so far avoided bringing it back home with me. It’s also a good read, and I’m glad I made it through the first hundred pages and have some inkling now how things tie together, but whether I’ll make it through afterall is the question.
I just received the most recent addition to the Oxford History of the United States, Gordon Wood’s Empire of Liberty, which is the expected 700 pages or so. I’m looking forward to it – I enjoyed Wood’s other books.
I’ve got to prepare a number of classes, so I’m reading (more like carefully going through) The Merchant of Venice and scores of poems and lesser plays, and have just finished Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. And if there’s any time, I’ll have to check out two books I might take on a flight with me next week, Tim Power’s On Stranger Tides and Brian Keene’s The Rising.
Walking Dead (The Walker Papers book 4) by C.E. Murphy. This is urban fantasy that mixes Celtic and Native American mythology. It is a not a bad series, I enjoyed it, but there is nothing exception about it. I will likely continue to read the future installments.
Started the last in the Flinx series by Alan Dean Foster. It has been years and years since I have visited with Flinx and Pip. I haven’t kept up with the series, but as this was the last I want to read it. (Hopefully I haven’t missed too much to keep up.)
Casually picking through HST’s Kingdom Of Fear.
Harry S Truman?
“We were somewhere outside of Yalta on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold…”
“Stalin’s face melted, and I knew it was going to be a very, very bad summit…”