Halting State (2007) by by Charles Stross

Skiffy. Much recommended by this forum.

Cross-over Mystery/Crime Procedural/Skiffy actually. I'm finding the intial chapters very enjoyable.

Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson

It has exercises at the end of each chapter!

still reading robert reed's "well of stars" about 300 pages in, still enjoying a lot, curious to see how he is going to wrap it up in the last quarter.

sorting out stacks of books, i came across an anthology this afternoon "not the only planet: science fiction travel stories", sat and read the paul mcauley story in it.

I'm going to do a UK Bookstore crawl this week.

Is there anything Skiffy-wise I'll find at Foyle's, et al that I would not normally find in The States?

For example, new McAuley, Watson, Stableford, Reynolds, Morgan, MacLeod, Langford, Jones, Grimwood, and Griffith.

mcauley had a couple novels out about 18 months or so ago. players a crime novel. and cowboy angels an alternate history/dimension novel. not read either.
macleod's execution channel is now out in paper back, near future thriller set in scotland, aftermath of terrorist attacks, while the night sessions is just out in hardback a slightly further future crime novel.
morgan has a new novel called steel remains, which is a fantasy novel, though apparently with his particular style of violence, and a homosexual lead.
seems a while since grimwood did something, he usually has quite a good rhythm built up.
reynolds has one in hardback called house of a thousand suns. but don't really follow him, still only read revelation space and didn't like it, though i do have a couple of others in my to read pile.

Wrapped in Rainbows for school. Very interesting bio of a Florida writer who grew up in Eatonville, an all black city in central Florida.

After booting Pereira's balls through his throat I found myself with time enough to finish reading Distraction by Sterling.

Interesting all-American book. Curious enough, in order to set his score Sterling adopted an strategy similar to Stanislaw Lem in Soliaris: go round and around the same subject/ideas/arguments/discourse uncountable number of times in the hope that, at certain point, you adhere with his point of view. Well, in a book with 532 pages it is a bit of too much.

Biology Eighth Edition - Campbell, Reece, Urry, Cain, Wasserman, Minorsky, and Jackson
_{yay midterms}

Finally finished Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" but it was a trudge. The writing is exceptional, but the story is sooo damn sad and depressing. it's hard to come back to because you have to make a concious choice of putting yourself back into that world.

I did find the perfect soundtrack for it tho. Sunn O))))'s Black One. Fits perfectly.

Jorge Luis Borges' The Aleph. This is my first time reading Borges and I've just started so haven't formed an opinion yet.

Currently reading "Snuff" by Palahniuk.

The first volume of Bob Dylan's autobiography.

Fascinating.
I keep imagining his voice telling the story.

Sometimes, I laugh.

The Yearling - Somehow I never read this in school but I am reading it now for my Florida Studies class. Good story about a boy and his parent living in the scrub of eastern Florida post- Civil war.

Christ almighty, I wish books were cheaper.

Starting Elvissey, in preparation for that month wherein we celebrate the advent of our hip Lord, Jack Womack.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TwiliteMinotaur,

quote:

Originally posted by Wanderer:
Jorge Luis Borges' The Aleph. This is my first time reading Borges and I've just started so haven't formed an opinion yet.

I am reading Collected fictions and am in "Aleph" now. But then, aren't we all?

Borges is the master of condensing the oblique peripherals of reality into the essential viscera of the unknowable, but yet tactile.

Which is how he makes me feel, if it makes any sense. He is a great, on my fave list now for sure.

quote:

Borges is the master of condensing the oblique peripherals of reality into the essential viscera of the unknowable, but yet tactile.

I'm about halfway into the Aleph now, and that's a pretty accurate description. I'm enjoying it in much the same way that i enjoy writers like Murakami or Peter Verhelst (belgian writer): it's real life but with an edge of surrealism to it that i love.

quote:

Originally posted by Wanderer:

quote:

Borges is the master of condensing the oblique peripherals of reality into the essential viscera of the unknowable, but yet tactile.

I'm about halfway into the Aleph now, and that's a pretty accurate description. I'm enjoying it in much the same way that i enjoy writers like Murakami or Peter Verhelst (belgian writer): it's real life but with an edge of surrealism to it that i love.

Is good stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:


...am in "Aleph" now. But then, aren't we all?

Ha!

quote:

Originally posted by TwiliteMinotaur:
Starting Elvissey, in preparation for that month wherein we celebrate the advent of our hip Lord, Jack Womack.

good!