I've bought a few books lately that I've forgotten to post about. At Powell's over the weekend I picked up Russ Parson's How to Read a French Fry and something else I've managed to forget already. Arrived today from amazon, Puzzles and Essays from "the Exchange": Tricky Reference Questions by Charles R. Anderson and The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal by Jared M. Diamond. Prepare for a huge list of ordered books soon when I use the 4 gift certificates I received for Christmas (thanks to Chris, Matt, my aunt & uncle and my parents).



posted by kristin at 10:20 AM

My reading rate has totally slowed down the last few weeks. Between holiday preparedness, and not especially liking my current commuting book (at least not yet, it's Tim Lebbon's The Nature of Balance) I just haven't been hurrying through much of anything. I have finished a few books since I last posted though.

I finally tracked down a copy of Tim Powers' Night Moves at the library and read it. It was decent, but he's one of those authors that should stick to novels. Richard Russo's Risk Pool was quite good. He does a good job of making you care about naturally not that sympathetic characters (lots of alcoholics, guys that have run out on their families, thieves, etc). And I read Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days which is a book of short graphic stories. Worth reading, but not as good as the sandman stuff. (Especially since I don't know the background story on things like the Swamp Thing).
posted by kristin at 10:16 AM

My lastest commuting book was Connie Willis' Passage. I won't tell you what caused it, but I'll say that it's a bit unpleasant to be brought to tears by a book when you're on a train on the way to work. I seem to like Willis' style. It's SF but she focuses a lot more on the characters than many writers do.
posted by kristin at 9:56 AM

I've been reading less than usual lately. Last week I finished up Iain Banks' Against a Dark Background. It took me a little while to get into but I ended up quite liking it. (No annoying dialect like Feersum Endjinn.)

Over the weekend I spent a bunch of time finishing up China Mieville's The Scar. Far better than King Rat and possibly better than Perdido Street Station. I would recommend reading PSS first since it's set in the same world. Some of the things that came up in PSS were mentioned in the Scar but not really explained. They're peripheral to the main story, but definitely made more sense having read PSS. Given that I love the book, it might sound strange to say that I am somewhat surprised I didn't have nightmares after finishing it. (I'd HATE to see what Hollywood would do to this one). It's definitely not horror, but there are indeed horrific elements.

Last night I finished up Scott Turow's Ultimate Punishment, a non-fiction look at his time spent on a commission looking into the future of the death penalty in Illinois.
posted by kristin at 10:07 AM

So I've been slacking both on reading and on writing about the books. Starting work again has just made me slack on so many things actually.

In the last couple of weeks I've read The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay (very good), Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn (good, and I'll pick up the sequels when they're in paperback, but not as good as Hughart's books), The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (decent) and Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis (quite enjoyable).

I'm in the middle of The Scar by China Mieville (great so far, possibly better than Perdido Street Station), and Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks (my train book and also good).
posted by kristin at 9:50 AM