I finished Them Bones by Howard Waldrop on the train last night. Less strange than his short stories in a way, but definitely not your run-of-the-mill science fiction. I'm working on My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn at home. I suppose it shows my ignorance about tribal cultures, but there was an interesting synchronicity among those two and Life Form, which I finished last week, in the area of inter-tribal conflict. I'd thought the deliberate introduction of ritualized warfare in Life Form was ludicrous until I read about the same thing in My Ishmael and again in Them Bones. (And in those latter two, what happens when one tribe doesn't play nice and starts slaughtering people).
posted by kristin at 2:59 PM

I read all of Tepper Isn't Going Out last night. When I lived in Champaign I used to have moments driving around where I'd see a parking spot in a part of town that was frequently hard to part and have an insane urge to park there even if it wasn't where I was going, so I suppose you could say I sympathized with Tepper. The only unfortunate thing is that now I'm going to feel a need to track down more of Trillin's books.
posted by kristin at 11:25 AM

I went to see Calvin Trillin do a reading a Powells tonight. So I picked up his latest, Tepper Isn't Going Out. Based on all of the people asking questions I was one of the only people who wasn't familiar with much of his work at all (Only one question was the generic "What's your process for writing?" one that seems to get asked at every reading.

Arrived in the mail today from Powells (because I have no willpower):
Life of Pi by Yann Martell
Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop
posted by kristin at 11:53 PM

I've gotten a bit behind on recording reading here. No apologies, just a comment.

Last night I finished Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck. I was trying to figure out if I would have liked this better than I liked East of Eden when forced to read it in high school. Which lead through a whole thought process to why do we force feed "classics" to kids at all. Isn't it better to actually get them reading something they might enjoy? I suppose not everyone's meant to become a serious reader though.

A few days ago I finished Declare by Tim Powers. It's a spy novel with genies thrown in. I liked it, but not as well as others of his (like The Anubis Gates for example). The first half was a bit slow going, but it picked up some after that. This book did manage to spill into my dreams one night. I dreamt that I was a spy for some unknown country and my mission one day was to go to Target to buy and return things. Somewhat disturbing, but it could have been worse.

The day before that I polished off Life Form by Alan Dean Foster. It was hardly the best written science fiction I've ever read, but there were a few interesting ideas. It made ok waiting room, train, etc reading. And before that I finally finished The Very Slow Time Machine by Ian Watson, a book of short stories that I'd been working on gradually for quite awhile. It was the first book of his that I'd read and I really liked some of the stories so I may well pick up another book at some point.
posted by kristin at 10:42 AM

purchased at Powells last night:
Perfidious Man by Will Self & David Gamble
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (the book I was aiming for when I went in)
Casanova was a Book Lover by John Maxwell Hamilton
Youth in Revolt by C. D. Payne
L'etranger by Albert Camus
Cing semaines en ballon by Jules Verne
posted by kristin at 9:26 AM

The rest of my B&N gift certificate spending from xmas showed up today. I now have a 10 book greater backlog.

Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
A Scientific Romance by Ronald Wright
Uncle Ovid's Exercise Book by Don Webb
City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer
The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman by Angela Carter
TSOG by Robert Anton Wilson
Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen by Larry McMurtry
Sunset Western Garden Book
posted by kristin at 6:44 PM

Picked up yesterday from Powells:

Creatures of Light and Darkness by Roger Zelazny
The Televisionary Oracle by Rob Brezsny

I bought the second one after seeing something I thought I'd never see. Powells has little tags they hang on some shelves that say "If you like this other, you might like this one." They actually had one that said "If you like Robert Anton Wilson, you might like Rob Brezsny" so I had to check it out.

I actually finished 3 books last night as well (just the tail ends of all three). Fitting in Fitness by the American Heart Association (nothing I didn't know, but a nice reminder on a few things), The Soccer War by Ryszard Kapuscinski (excellent) and The Cartoon Guide to Statistics by Larry Gonick and Woolcott Smith (which made me realize how much math I've forgotten in the last 6 years).

I haven't decided what to read next. Suggestions?
posted by kristin at 12:41 AM

Bought today at Goodwill:
Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov

Arrived this week from B&N (part of my xmas gift certificate):
Imperium by Ryszard Kapuscinski
Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney
posted by kristin at 3:31 PM

I finished Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies last night. There's really never a lot to say about Pratchett novels because they're always good.
posted by kristin at 10:38 AM

Gifts from Ken yesterday:
Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay

Bought at Powells today:
The Soccer War by Ryszard Kapuscinski
Nebula Awards 28 edited by James Morrow
Bug Jack Barron by Norman Spinrad
The Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle & Steven Barnes (a Ken recommendation)
The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
69 by Ryu Murakami
Map of Power by Tess Williams
posted by kristin at 5:40 PM

Wednesday I finished Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf. I'd carried it around in my purse off and on for a few weeks working on it wherever. It's one of those books though that I probably would have appreciated more either as an angsty teenager, or perhaps while undergoing a midlife crisis. I'm in neither state so I enjoyed it but don't necessarily think it's an absolute must-read.

Before sleeping in the wee hours this morning I finally finished Possession by A.S. Byatt and did greatly enjoy everything except the huge hunk of letters in the middle that hung me up for so long. Byatt's style still probably isn't my absolute favorite though, but I might again give some of her other books a shot.

I started From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman, but I doubt I'll read it straight from cover to cover.
posted by kristin at 2:37 PM