I finished Charles Stross' Toast and Other Rusted Futures before sleeping last night. Some of the stories are pretty far out there, but they're generally fun. I especially liked "A Boy and his God" (Dogs die too quickly? Buy your kid an elder diety!).

If you couldn't have guessed from my last little post, I also read Alexandria after I got home. His stuff is always good.
posted by kristin at 9:51 AM

Read Nick Bantock.
posted by kristin at 12:30 AM

Have I mentioned my lack of willpower?

tonight at Powells:
Alexandria by Nick Bantock
Amrita by Banana Yoshimoto
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
posted by kristin at 11:41 PM

The Grand Complication wasn't the best book I've ever read, but it was entertaining, and made me feel better about my odd little habits, because compared to the main character I'm downright normal. Should I ever actually go through with grad school and become a librarian, I'll still be a bit more in touch with the world than he is.

I finished Kurzweil's book two nights ago. Last night I finished Greg Egan's Our Lady of Chernobyl. I'm pretty sure only 1 of the short stories was entirely new to me, but rereading a Greg Egan short story is hardly a bad thing. In fact, it's something I really ought to do more of. (His collections Axiomatic and Luminous are both fantastic.)

I'm not sure what will be next up, but I also wanted to mention that I've been enjoying Charles Stross' Toast and Other Rusted Futures immensely in the little bits and pieces I've been reading it. (I've been carrying it around in my purse for those waiting moments when I want a book).
posted by kristin at 11:07 AM

I forgot to mention what book I started reading last night after finishing Roots: Allen Kurzweil's The Grand Complication. After starting it, I browsed some reviews which seemed to be mixed, but I'm enjoying it so far, so that's what matters.

Books that showed up today from powells.com and amazon.com:
Made in America by Bill Bryson
Affluenza by John de Graaf, David Wann and Thomas H. Naylor
95 poems by e.e. cummings
Stephanie by Herbert Rosendorfer
Black Projects, White Knights by Kage Baker
Captain Jack Zodiac by Michael Kandel

posted by kristin at 11:11 PM

I finally finished Roots last night after spending very large portions of the day engrossed in it. I'm glad I read it, I enjoyed it, yet at the same time it annoyed me that it took that long to finish. I guess I've just gotten to the point where almost nothing (fiction at least) takes more than about a week and it seems strange to me to spend more time than that reading. Parts of the book were depressing, but not nearly as much as it could have been. The characters were not really complaining about their lives (which indeed had much more that was deserving of complaints than I've ever had) but celebrating the things that were good.

One thing the book did make me wish (at least a little) was that I knew more about my family. All of my grandparents were born in the U.S. and I really don't know how far beyond that you'd have to go to find immigrants. I've heard a few stories here and there about relatives, but not very many. Imagining an oral tradition of family lore that stretches back 7 generations is rather amazing to me. At the end of the book Haley tells about how he researched the family history and found it to link up with the oral traditions in Africa. My family definitely wouldn't be able to do that.

And yes, I did occasionally feel guilty about being white.
posted by kristin at 11:44 AM

I'm still slogging (though enjoyably if depressingly) through Roots. A variety of distractions have meant that I haven't spent as much time reading lately as usual.

Arrived today via half.com:
In Dreams edited by Paul J. McAuley & Kim Newman, purchased purely on the basis that it had a Jonathan Carroll story I don't think I have. I happily realized that it also has stories by Ian McDonald, Greg Egan, Lewis Shiner, Jonathan Lethem, Don Webb & Peter F. Hamilton. Why is it I seem to prefer a lot of the British SF authors?
posted by kristin at 10:06 PM

After some trouble tracking down a copy (amazon couldn't get me one when I tried ordering there!) my copy of Judd Winick's The Adventures of Barry Ween Boy Genius 2.0 finally showed up yesterday. I read it in one sitting. I'm not normally a fan of comics, but the first one of these was handed to me by a friend and I'm hooked.

Later in the evening I actually read aloud Jonathan Livingston Seagull in its entirety. I really don't feel like I'm very good at reading things aloud, but I suppose it does make me slow down and pay attention to every single word. I was reminded that there are many many books I should reread, but with how many unread books I have piled into my house, I think I feel a little guilty every time I ponder rereading something. Maybe I should try for some sort of balance. Perhaps 1 reread book for each 5 new ones, or something like that. I haven't reread much the last few years whereas when I was younger I did quite regularly.
posted by kristin at 10:52 AM

Monday night Greg Egan's Our Lady of Chernobyl showed up in the mail from Australia. I think I already had most if not all of the stories in another collection but it was cheap and I'd never even seen a copy before so that made me happy.
posted by kristin at 10:43 AM

I went into a bookstore (the Powell's in Beaverton) yesterday and didn't buy anything. I just wanted to share.

I'm still working on Alex Haley's Roots which is interesting but fairly slow going so far (and I haven't spent much time reading the last several days) so it might be awhile before I finish.

Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card showed up from amazon on Friday. I must not read it on a weeknight (unless I start right after dinner).
posted by kristin at 2:44 PM

Arrived by mail yesterday:

The Void Captain's Tale by Norman Spinrad
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
Stories of Your Life by Ted Chiang
In Defense of Elitism by William A. Henry III
posted by kristin at 10:23 PM

This weekends Powell's purchases:
Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe
Indigo by Graham Joyce
The Grand Complication by Allen Kurzweil
posted by kristin at 7:30 PM

I read The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh over the weekend. I didn't like it as well some other books I've read by him (The Loved One for example) but it was a fascinating example of paranoia literature. The frightening thing is that apparently it was somewhat autobiographical. I'd not like to live through that boat ride. (3.5 stars of 5)

I started Alex Haley's Roots last night. I've had it sitting around for quite awhile without having picked it up yet, so decided it was time. This one may take awhile to get through (700+ pages).
posted by kristin at 7:16 PM