Bought in Pasadena at
Vroman's over the weekend:
The Golden Age by John C. Wright
The Coming of the Book by Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
posted by kristin at 11:11 PM
I got behind again. Since my last post I've finished 5 books:
Programming Interviews Exposed by John Mongan and Noah Suojanen,
Eater by Gregory Benford,
On the Road by Jack Kerouac,
A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay, and
Villa Incognito by Tom Robbins.
Programming Interviews Exposed was well worth the money I paid for it. Now that I'm in the position to be looking for another programming job this book is great for brushing up before an interview. (We'll have to wait and see if it actually worked though on the interview I had last week). It provided some general hints plus a bunch of example questions.
Eater was given to me by my dad some time back and I finally got around to reading it. It wasn't the most interesting SF I've ever read, but it was enjoyable. I think I'd have been happier if it was a couple hundred pages shorter though.
On the Road is one of those books I'd always thought I should read but had never gotten around to. The beginning didn't grab me but I started getting more interested as I got further along. I especially liked his descriptions of the jazz shows seen, like Slim Gaillard. I'm glad I read it, but I don't think it affected me as much as it might have had I read it at a younger (more impressionable) age.
A Song for Arbonne was one of the best fantasy novels I've ever read. I read almost the entire thing Monday at the airport and on the airplane (when I should have been sleeping). Highly recommended.
Villa Incognito was good but not Robbins' best. (I think I still like
Jitterbug Perfume the best). I did have to go look up a picture of a tanuki online after finishing it.
posted by kristin at 11:10 PM
Thursday's book purchases:
The Tummy Trilogy by Calvin Trillin
The Dog with the Chip in His Neck by Andrei Codrescu
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Trout Fishing in America, The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, and In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan
posted by kristin at 5:17 PM
A few days ago I polished off
The Reader's Quotation Book edited by Steven Gilbar. Some nice
quotes but I'm not quite sure why I bothered to buy it. Fortunately Powells took it off my hands when I splurged there a bit on Wednesday (list forthcoming).
Last night I finally finished Jeff VanderMeer's
The City of Saints and Madmen. I really enjoyed it though it wasn't a particularly fast read. It's a linked series of novellas about a city named Ambergris. It could be probably best classified as one of those books that's probably fantasy (since if it takes place on Earth it's not any Earth I know about) but doesn't have any magic or elves or swordfighting. Feel-wise it's probably the most similar to the little bit I've read by China Mieville. I'd recommend it, but probably not to everyone.
I started Tom Robbins'
Villa Incognito.
posted by kristin at 2:56 PM
Over the weekend I was in a SF store in Berkeley and found a new hardcover of Jonathan Carroll's
From the Teeth of Angels so I had to buy it. Being good I managed not to buy anything else!
posted by kristin at 6:13 PM
Sunday night I finished Kay Kenyon's
The Seeds of Time. It's not the best science fiction book I've ever read, and two halves of the book seem rather disjoint other than one character and a few small details, but I enjoyed it.
Last night I finally finished
From Beirut to Jerusalem. I really enjoyed it and think I learned a lot, but am also incredibly glad I'm done with it. I really don't know why but it seemed to take a lot longer to read than it should have. I realize interrupting it to read other books in the mean time didn't make it go fast.
posted by kristin at 10:41 AM
Purchased at Goodwill over the weekend: Kobo Abe's
Inter Ice Age 4
Arrived today from amazon.com (proof of no willpower):
Poetry 180 selected by Billy Collins
posted by kristin at 7:35 PM 
