Books to read, 2006

[featherynscale]

triadruid, as always, reminds me that if I don't make a list, I'll never freaking remember.

My goal this year is to increase the ratio of non-fiction to fiction books that actually get read, and also to continue to move towards having read all of the books in the house.

To-Read: Fiction
- Re-read Wheel of Time Series, Robert Jordan (we own it!)
- Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman (when triadruid finishes it) (we own it)
- Life of Pi, Yann Martel (we own it)
- Siddhartha, Herman Hesse (have to get a copy)
- Finnegan's Wake, James Joyce (have to get one)
- Perdido Street Station, China Mieville (need to get)
- Promethea series (borrow from gamera_spinning)

To-Read: Nonfiction
- Metamagical Themas, Douglas Hofstedter (we own it, and have for years. Has anyone read it? No.)
- Zero: Biography of a Dangerous Idea (we own it)
- Training Trances (we own it)
- Generation Hex (have to get a copy)
- The Laughing Jesus (in the book club queue)
- The Hidden Messages in Water (in the book club queue)
- Chance, Amir Aczel (in the book club queue)
- The Shadow Club, Roberto Casati (in the book club queue)
- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach (need to get)
- Strategies for Success

Also, taking suggestions: What have you read lately that was of interest? I'm interested in pretty much any fiction that isn't a romance or a western (with preference for sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and alternate history), and any non-fiction about math, science, philosophy, psychology/sociology, ethnography, religion, magic, language or non-military history. Thanks!

Comments

[next-bold-move.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you have, but on the off-chance that you haven't read the G.R.R. Martin "Song of Ice and Fire" series, it's better than Jordan by a factor of some very large number.

And Connie Willis' "The Doomsday Book" was the best book I read in 2004, so I recommend that whenever I can.

On the nonfiction front, I like Sarah Vowell and Mary Roach, both.

[gamera-spinning.livejournal.com]

(Waving complete collection of Promethea).

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

STrategies for Success by the Pacific Institute (Lou Tice). It's actually part of a seminar, but it's about recognizing how our mind works, and controlling it.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I have, in fact, read Song of Ice and Fire. And I love it, even though I think Martin is a reprehensible bastard for what he's done to the Starks, and even though I know that it's highly unlikely that Jon Snow will marry Danaerys in a bid for well-deserved world domination. :) I've also read some of his other stuff, but was generally not as impressed by it (although I got a compilation of short stories of his that included a script for a TV pilot about adjusting to life with a number of alien species that was quite good. It apparently got trashed in favor of the Alien Nation series, which I thought was sort of dull).

Will look into your other reccommendations, though, as I'm not familiar with any of them. Fun!

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

See, I knew I'd forget about that. :)
Thanks for reminding me. I actually could have time to get into it now -- when can we hook up to transfer the goods?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking I should read some more of that business stuff, you know. *adds it to the list*

[capriciouslass.livejournal.com]

I would suggest Elizabeth Moon's Speed of Dark. I know that I have a specific interest because it involves autism, but it had a lot of interesting psychological viewpoints, while still being set in a scifi setting.

[gamera-spinning.livejournal.com]

Here are a few options:
I can drop it off at su casa, except I don't know where it is. Just send me an e-mail at gamera_spinning@yahoo.com with the physical address and I'll find it.

or

If you find yourself in Westport, I can drop it off to you at a coffee house or someting.

or

You can drop stately Wayne Manor. I can e-mail you the address if you don't already have it.

As for timing, just give us a call or drop us an e-mail, and I can probably get it to you.

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

You seemed to be interested in China Miéville's novel, Perdido Street Station. I recommend it highly.

(genre: steampunk & horror-flavored fantasy)

[next-bold-move.livejournal.com]

I am completely gunning for the Jon and Dany pairing. I might have to hunt the man down and beat him senseless if I don't get what I want in the end.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

You are correct, sir. That completely belongs on the list.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Fiction? Sounds interesting either way, though.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Seriously. I considered taking action when A Feast for Crows didn't have hardly any of them in it at all.

Although Arya continues to get cooler, so that was worthwhile. I have decided to let him live :)

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

I just finished _Black Easter_ and _The Day After Judgement_, both by James Blish. I'm pretty sure I read Black Easter a longlong time ago, b/c parts were just SO familiar....

I've also been looking for old copies of Lovecraft at low prices, but somehow they do NOT seem to make it to the used bookstores! Happily, there are new printings available.

I just seem to like the classics, I guess!

[next-bold-move.livejournal.com]

Next book will be Jon and Dany laden. He promised.

I give better fiction than non-fiction recs, so have you read the Kushiel's Trilogy by Jacqueline Carey?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Ummm... I think so. I've read at least two. Is the third one where she ends up in the barbarian leader's prison? If so, then I've read all of them, and enjoyed them greatly after getting past the first book's continual need to explain what masochism was about.

She's also got a newer, closer-to-genre series called Banewreaker. I've read the first one of those, and will probably finish out the series, but the entire first half of the first book reads like a Silmarillion ripoff. The plot seems to be making different points, as the Big Bad God is a god of lust/desire, and may not eventually turn out to be the villain, but the setup and mythology are extremely similar, even to the language and naming conventions. I have decided to graciously assume that this is intentional on her part and will pay off somewhere later in the series, but I am not sure.

[next-bold-move.livejournal.com]

That was extremely gracious of you, since I read them and felt like she was pressured to come up with a new series before she had an idea, and so fell back on someone else's idea.

Let me know if they pay off in the end, and I will give the series another try. :)

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I'll probably finish them out. I hate to start something and leave it unfinished (although I will, in certain circumstances. Simon Green's Deathstalker series comes to mind *eyeroll*).

I saw the second one in the Half-Price Books the other day, and was extremely disheartened to see something that looked perilously like Gandalf arriving on his white horse at the battle of Helm's Deep on the cover. :( Still, the style is good, if nothing else. I'm thinking it's a library-borrowing grade series, though.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Mr. Timothy by Louis Brayard. It's a mystery, of sorts, but combines the unlikely components of Timothy Cratchit, brothels, photography, sexual branding, and dredging the Thames for dead bodies. I can bring it tonight if you're interested.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

A real hero, you are. :) I'm still cheerfully working on the pile of books you gave me for last year's reading. (sigh) Gettin' there.

[kieyra.livejournal.com]

I can't say enough about CJ Cherryh's science fiction, especially her Merchanter/Alliance universe and particularly Cyteen, but the books are not really serial in nature and some find her writing style a little inaccessible.

History: I can read Alison Weir's books on British history almost endlessly. Very readable while also being cleary well-researched. You can pick them up cheap on amazon.

Sociology: A Woman's Right to Pornography by Wendy McElroy. Just slightly dated, but an interesting take on why true 'feminists' should be pro-porn.

[kieyra.livejournal.com]

And since I didn't actually provide a summary of Cyteen:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446671274/qid=1136573895/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-4016398-7012810?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

[chronarchy.livejournal.com]

As is probably obvious from my recent LJ's, I cannot recommend Beryl Markham's West With the Night highly enough. It's non-fiction,a nd would probably fall under "non-military history" in your list there, though "aviation adventure" might be a better category :)

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I actually have managed to not own any Lovecraft either, for the reason you mention. Must do, some time.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Well, who doesn't like brothels, sexual branding, and dragging for bodies? I'd love to borrow it. Thanks!