My only complaint about Ryszard Kapuscinski's
Imperium is that it didn't include maps. The book is a series of stories of his travels through the Soviet Union from the 50's through its collapse. As with all of his books, I'd highly recommend it.
posted by kristin at 7:10 PM
Trips that involve flying usually cause me to read a lot, especially now that we have to get to the airport so early.
On the way to LA I read
Why Is Sex Fun? by Jared Diamond. Definitely not as deep a topic for him as
Guns, Germs and Steel was, but it was fun and informative. For example, did you realize that men can be stimulated to lactate under certain circumstances? Amazingly, I didn't seem to get any weird looks at the airport based on people seeing the title.
While in LA I read Haruki Murakami's book of short stories
The Elephant Vanishes. As always, short stories are a bit harder for me to read than novels, but I did enjoy them.
On the way home I read
The Dream Years by Lisa Goldstein. It's a fantasy-ish novel with the French surrealists as its characters. Starting out it reminded me of
The Hot Jazz Trio by William Kotzwinkle, but I liked Goldstein's book better.
posted by kristin at 2:07 PM
Wow. I should feel ashamed for not posting in almost a month. No good excuses, I just kept forgetting. At least my reading rate has gone done a bit so I'm not quite as far behind as I would have been in July.
8-21-2003 Misspent Youth Peter F. Hamilton
I enjoyed this one. It turned out to be the book he'd done a (very dry) reading from when I saw him at Powells. It's nearer future than many of his others, and not a detective story like the other.
8-24-2003 The Gift of Asher Lev Chaim Potok
I liked this sequel quite well but I don't think it was quite as good as the first book. Still worth reading though.
8-27-2003 King Rat China Mieville
Not as good as Perdido Street Station, but that's good in that it means he's getting to be a better writer. This is dark fantasy set in London, a tiny bit reminiscent of
Neverwhere by Neal Gaiman but that may be just because both are dark fantasy set in London.
8-30-2003 Bone vol 5 Jeff Smith
Have to keep reading...
9-1-2003 New Ideas from Dead Economists Todd G. Buccholz
A survey of famous names in economics with some info on them, their theories, and how their theories have fared (how they apply today, etc).
9-5-2003 A Storm of Swords George R. R. Martin
Excellent fantasy. I can't wait for the 4th book to come out.
9-9-2003 Another Day of Life Ryszard Kapuscinski
Kapuscinski does Angola. Well worth reading.
9-9-2003 Headlong Simon Ings
Semi-cyberpunk British SF. It took me a bit to get into this one but by the end I was quite engaged.
9-11-2003 The Lions of Al-Rassan Guy Gavriel Kay
More excellent fantasy, fortunately in standalone form. Apparently inspired by medival Spain.
9-15-2003 Moving Pictures Terry Pratchett
Pratchett does Holy Wood. I've been told I really need to listen to the audiobook for this one, but I opted for now to just read the thing the oldfashioned way.
posted by kristin at 5:17 PM 
