Paul Di Filippo's Fuzzy Dice is the first novel of his I've read (since I haven't gotten around to Ciphers yet, sorry Chris). In feel it had a lot in common with his short stories, though was also very reminiscent of Rudy Rucker's work. I think memeworld was probably my favorite section, but like all of it. I just need to track down a reasonably-price copy of the book now. I read the library's.
posted by kristin at 9:35 AM

Commuting to work downtown leaves all kinds of time for reading. The train ride goes a lot faster when buried in a book, though reading a lot first thing in the morning is taking some getting used to. My first commute book is finished. I read Paul J. McAuley's Pasquale's Angel. (I did cheat a little by finishing it at home last night, but who wants to only have a little bit of a book left for commuting and then, horrors, finishing it and not having anything to read the rest of the way home).

The book is probably best categorized as alternate history, but more in a general way than a specific "what if". It takes place in Florence where the main character is a painter. Other characters include Macchieveli, Michelangelo, Raphael, and the 'Great Engineer' (who I only had absolute confirmation on the identity of at the very end). I'm not sure I liked this one as well as Fairyland though they're hard to compare since they're very different books.

At home I'm working on Fuzzy Dice by Paul Di Filippo. I'm going to have to track down a copy at some point, since I'm not willing to steal the library's copy, which is what I'm reading. It's unfortunate that so many of Di Filippo's books are so obscurely published and in such limited numbers, but I suppose he's not for everyone.
posted by kristin at 7:38 AM

I got behind again. I'm going to blame the new job though ;)

I read Pratchett's The Last Hero, an illlustrated Discworld book. I don't think the illustrations really added much, but the story was fun, as they always are.

The ending of Captain Corelli's Mandolin made me very sad actually. I cried a bit. The story was enjoyable overall though. He created some very quirky but believable characters. I somehow doubt that the movie does the book justice though.

Last week when I was at Powells I picked up Susie Bright's Who to Write a Dirty Story and proceeded to read it throughout the weekend. There's some very good sounding exercises that I haven't tried yet, but want to. (Writing exercises that is). A large portion of her writing advice applies to any writing though, not just sex scenes.

Last night I finished up Haruki Murakami's Hear the Wind Sing. I suspect it'll be part of the Vintage Murakami collection coming out soon, but I figured I should finally read it. It's not my favorite of his, but it was worth a read. The only one I have left to read now is After the Quake so it's time to start hoping they translate more of his stuff into English.
posted by kristin at 8:35 AM