I spent the weekend in Denver visiting my parents. Amazingly enough I only finished 2 books: Prentice Alvin by Orson Scott Card and The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski. Prentice Alvin is the third in his Alvin Maker series, a series of fantasy novels about an America that could have been. It was a fairly light read but enjoyable. The Shadow of the Sun is a fantastic collection of essays about the things he saw in Africa as a reporter from the late 50s to mid 90s. It really made me want to go there to experience some of these things, but also made me realize I'm far too much of a wuss to do so on my own. I hope I wouldn't be one of the Americans who goes and only sees the touristy safe things, but I also know that I wouldn't last long there on my own.[quotes]

My parents and I did some book shopping in Denver's used bookstores (and The Tattered Cover, which if it carried used books would definitely give Powells a run for its money). Some are being shipped to me, but the ones I brought home today are as follows:
Steve Erickson - Tours of the Black Clock
Joanna Russ - The Female Man
Iain Banks - Canal Dreams
John Garnder - Grendel
Daniel Pinkwater - Uncle Boris in the Yukon
posted by kristin at 8:22 PM

I'm still working on Witches Abroad because I've been too tired to read much the last few nights. Enjoyable as always for Pratchett.

Last night at the library I picked up a hardcover of Heinlein's To Sail Beyond the Sunset for $2, but I can't quite figure out if it's a first edition (or would even be worth much if it was).
posted by kristin at 3:01 PM

I had dustjacket envy yesterday. I went to the Oregon Antiquarian Book sale and saw my 2nd ever hardcover copy of Snowcrash. It was in very nice condition and actually had a dustjacket (unlike the one I have) but I wasn't about to spend $350 on it.

I had several nice conversations there with random booksellers, including one who was at the same Jonathan Carroll reading I was at the other week, and one who went to UIUC in 1950.

I picked up only three books while I was there. And only one was an upgrade.
The Night Mayor by Kim Newman
A Mask for the General by Lisa Goldstein
Oscar & Lucinda by Peter Carey (the upgrade)

Last night I finished The Panic Hand by Jonathan Carroll, so I've now caught up on all of the Carroll books I own. Great stuff. [quotes]

I started Pratchett's Witches Abroad.
posted by kristin at 11:46 PM

Yup, I remember why I liked Wonders, Inc. "Horatio pointed things out with his Barbed Wit. 'Those computers by the window are adding up Figures of Speech," he explained. 'It used to take forever when we had clerks counting. Then we have the Proverbs Section; this machine can make anything from an ounce of prevention to a stitch in time. And that tank is used for mixing metaphors."
posted by kristin at 7:05 PM

Bought today at Goodwill:
Mark Kurlansky's The White Man in the Tree and Other Stories
Maxine Hong Kingston's Tripmaster Minkey and His Fake Book

Arrived today from abebooks.com:
Wonders, Inc by Crawford Kilian. This was one of my favorite books growing up and I wanted to buy it for the kids of some of my friends, but it turns out it's horribly out of print. I finally found this one reasonably priced hardcover copy, so I'll probably pass on my old paperback copy, but how do I figure out which of my friends' kids to give it to now since it's not like I can buy a copy for all of them!
posted by kristin at 7:00 PM

Last night I finished up Anais Nin's Little Birds, a book of erotic short stories. They were better written than most erotica I've read, but still failed to be very exciting (yes, pun intended). I haven't really been a fan of Nin's writing style in the little bit I'd read, but she didn't seem to write in as flowery a fashion in these stories. (And yes, I did first read her after watching Henry & June).
posted by kristin at 1:39 PM

I thought I was finally catching up but Little Doors by Paul DiFilippo just showed up from amazon. I've gotten a bit behind on his stuff in specific as well.

Last night I did finish Kate Chopin's The Awakening. I'm not entirely sure I think it's one of the best young adult books of the millenium (or any of the other lists it's ended up on) but it was quite readable over a hundred years after it was published (except for occasional words like "befurbowled"). I don't think I would have found it quite as interesting had I not known it caused a huge uproar when it was first published. I rather think I'm glad I wasn't alive in 1899.
posted by kristin at 11:32 AM

Bought today at Powell's:

Dorian by Will Self
Conjunctions 39
The Story of Libraries by Fred Lerner

Finished today:
Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard

I'd been working on Empire of the Sun for a few weeks in spare moments (doctor's office, train, etc) and ended up liking it a lot more than some of the other stuff I've read by him. (I especially disliked Rushing to Paradise) It's an autobiographical story of his time in an internment camp in China during WWII. I don't know if I want to see the movie or not now.
posted by kristin at 12:17 AM

Wednesday night I finished Kissing the Beehive. For a change, with Carroll, it was a straight novel. No fantastical elements at all. That said, it was, like all of his stuff, well-written and enjoyable to read. I was left wondering about a bunch of things when I was done though, but they'd all be pretty major spoilers if you haven't read the book, so I'm not going to write all of them out here. [quotes]

I started The Awakening by Kate Chopin last night.
posted by kristin at 10:38 AM

Yesterday I stayed home sick from work. This gave me a good chance to lie around all day and read. I actually finished 3 books that I'd been in the middle of. Chuck Palahniuk's Survivor, Haynes Johnson's Divided We Fall, and a collection of short stories Shenanigans.

I didn't really like Survivor at the beginning and was starting to wonder why in the world so many people had gone on and on about how good it was, but then I hit the second half and actually started liking it. The main character is the last survivor of a suicide cult (that I'm pretty sure Palahniuk made up, but I had to do some google searching just to make sure I just hadn't missed news stories about it at some point). At the beginning he's just rather pathetic and repugnant (setting up a fake suicide prevention hotline and telling people to kill themselves, etc) but in the second half I started actually having sympathy for him and everything that was being done to him.

Haynes Johnson's Divided We Fall I picked up after hearing him speak one night on NPR. He's a remarkably good speaker and indeed a very good writer. Ordinarily I'm not all that interested in politics, though that's starting to change somewhat, but his book was fascinating reading. He basically wandered the country during the early years of the Clinton administration and asked people what they thought the most pressing problems facing the country were. Violence, illegal immigrants, and politicians who'd do and say anything to get elected were themes that came up frequently. I'd be curious how much people's perceptions have changed in the almost-decade since this book was published. I suspect that a lot of the same problems would be addressed.

Shenanigans(edited by Donal Scannell & Sarah Champion) I picked up because I'd liked Disco 2000 which was also edited by Sarah Champion. Shenanigans was harder for me to appreciate though since many of the stories were very much attached to the Irish club scene which just isn't me.

After finishing all of those I started Jonathan Carroll's Kissing the Beehive since one of the last two by him that I have yet to read.
posted by kristin at 11:05 AM

Friday night I finished reading Pratchett's Soul Music, which, of course, being a Discworld book, I liked. They're all rather light reading, but all quite entertaining. In this one he took on Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll. Err, well, at least the Rock & Roll part. I still think one of my favorite characters is the Librarian though. (a quote from the book).

I started Chuck Palahniuk's Survivor last night. I'm reading it for a new book group that's starting up, but I'd been meaning to read him for awhile just after hearing about his books from so many people. He actually lives in Portland too. I still haven't seen Fight Club though, which I presume has been most people's introduction to him.
posted by kristin at 11:17 AM

Over the weekend I finished White Apples in preparation for Jonathan Carroll's reading last night at Powell's but he ended up not reading from it. Instead he read the short story, as yet unpublished, which will appear in Conjunctions 39 (which I have on order from amazon already since besides Carroll it will also have stories by Neil Gaiman, China Mieville, and more).

Carroll is a good reader yet said he didn't really like doing them. He didn't seem to be just going through the motions though like some of the authors I've seen do readings. His years of teaching probably help him with that. I took all of my books up to get signed and he seemed pleased to see the entire stack of them (minus The Heidelberg Cylinder because I haven't tracked down a copy yet) in one place and even made a comment about how strange it was to think that in my totebag was his entire life's work (to date).

The Panic Hand and Kissing the Beehive are the remaining two Carroll books that I own but haven't read. I'm sure I'll read them soon. I actually started The Panic Hand (a book of short stories) while I was waiting for the reading to start, which lead to a conversation with another fan who was very amazed that I found a copy within the last year for less than $150.
posted by kristin at 10:55 AM

Arrived Monday from amazon:
Barrel Fever by David Sedaris
Snakes and Ladders by Gita Mehta
The Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home
posted by kristin at 10:46 AM

Last weekend's Powell's purchases (from the obligatory trip with an out-of-town houseguest):
Chindi by Jack McDevitt
The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design by Brenda Laurel
The Lost Heart of Asia by Colin Thubron
White Apples by Jonathan Carroll
posted by kristin at 1:47 PM

I got a little behind here. Last weekend I read Tale of the Unknown Island by Jose Saramago, which I'd checked out of the library. I'd started reading it once at Powells but balked at the pages per dollar ratio and didn't buy it. It's a brief little tale. Not quite a fairy tale but somewhat of that feeling.

I finally finished Guns, Germs and Steel a few nights ago. Definitely worth a read, but there were quite a few places that I thought he got rather repetitious. I don't really know how much support he has with the scientific community, but his conclusions about why various civilizations ended up the way they did seemed plausible. I don't know how we'll ever know for certain though (unless time machines are ever developed... and with a fast forward feature).

I'm working White Apples by Jonathan Carroll now in preparation for the reading next week. I've liked everything I've read by him, so I don't think this will be an exception.
posted by kristin at 1:36 PM