It has recently been suggested to me that I might want to keep a running tally of things I read. I kinda dig this idea. Seems fairly mindful.
Anyhow, a few recent reads and brief thoughts on them:
- Uplift Series by David Brin: I have read Sundiver, Startide Rising and I’m currently reading The Uplift War, all part of the Uplift series by David Brin. Pretty decent sci-fi series in which species are “uplifted” to full sentience by other species and shenanigans ensue. Humans, for example, have given chimps and dolphins a genetic bump up the old ladder so they are now doctors and scientists and star-ship captains. Great concept, sometimes slightly bad writing, I expect it gets better.
- Purity by Jonathan Franzen: I’ve only ever previously read The Corrections so I’m not exactly a JF fanboi but I did actually enjoy this one too. Very modern and relevant plot, kind of dark comedy, enjoyable read. Girl with mysterious past gets involved in an international conspiracy, but not what you might expect.
- The Prague Cemetary by Umberto Eco: This was a difficult book to like if for no other reason that the main character is an anti-semitic lunatic with multiple personalities who is personally responsible for developing the concept that the Jews should be eliminated via The Final Solution and he is NOT Hitler, he’s an earlier fictional character in the late 1800’s. I hated him throughout the book and at the end when the author stated that he was the only fictional character in the book and the rest of the stuff actually happened it made me kinda ill. As usual with Eco, it was enthralling and you couldn’t turn away, but still…
- Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon: Sometimes with
Pynchon I can get into the book and even enjoy it by the end, and sometimes I am just thinking “dude, wtf?” This book was the latter. I will be honest, I didn’t go to the end. I got 2/3rds done, wondered why I was bothering, and abandoned the read. WWII intrigues around a guy who has been conditioned to get a boner whenever a rocket is about to strike.Ha ha , except, not really. Weird but not enjoyably so. I have read Mason and Dixon, Inherent Vice, The Crying of Lot 49, I basically know what I’m getting myself into with TP, but still, this one just didn’t do it for me and I bailed. - Fight Club 2 (Graphic Novel) by Chuck Palahniuk: I had no idea there was
a FC2 or that it was a graphic novel until I ran into it at a bookstore in Marquette MI a couple weeks ago. Color me intrigued. Devoured it in one sitting and I have to say I enjoyed it until the end where I felt it got a little too clever, a little too deus ex machina, a little too silly. Would it stop me from recommending? No. Would I re-read it? Almost certainly. I loved Fight Club, both the book and the movie, and I have loved some other books by this author, so, sure, why not? - A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick: I love me some Dick. Seriously. (Shush, you.) He’s a great writer who strikes a really great balance between unique ideas, entertaining writing, relevant and thought-provoking concepts, and frankly, being funny. His books are always weird and worth it. ASD is no exception. A story about a cop who gets involved in the use of a drug called Substance D (aka Slow Death), it’s really a disturbing, sometimes funny, very strange exploration of
drug culture. Normally I shy away from stuff like that. I am not a fan of Trainspotting. But in this case, well, I can see why this is one of his more popular andbetter known works. And speaking of Dick… - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick: Immediately before I read ASD I read The Three Stigmata… and everything I said above applies but perhaps it’s even more bizarre. ASD goes into a drug culture that is more like
opiate addiction but T3SOPE is more like LSD, with Barbie dolls, and pottery, and space colonies, and aliens, and religious symbolism, and… well… Just read the damn thing. You’ll see what I mean. Perky Pat my ass… - Ready Player One by Ernest Cline: I didn’t see the movie but after reading the book I would sure like to. What a fun read. Probably the most entertaining full-length descent into 80’s geek culture ever, in which everything from John Hughes movies to Zork is relevant and the stakes are high no matter how basically silly the core concept is. I don’t care whether it makes sense, I had fun. Let’s all live in a lifelike virtual world in which everything is possible and spend our lives fetishizing 8-bit video games as if Joust has some sort of ultimate value. Why not? It’s fun. At least, as a book it is.
- The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean: God I loved this book. Did you know that you can buy spoons made of gallium that appear to the casual observer to be standard metal spoons but dissolve in hot tea?
No you didn’t. Except you, James. I know you knew that because you’re you. But the rest of ya… This book tells a story about each element in theperiod table and it’s just fascinating reading. Doesn’t hurt that the writer is funny either. Highly recommend. Especially if you like Mark Kurlansky’s work (Salt, Cod). - Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe by Simon Singh: You are here. Science has gone through a fairly massive effort to try to figure out how that happened. This is the story of the path that
lead to the current best understanding and it isn’t what you think. Somebody didn’t just say “Big Bang, we don’t need no stinking God, Darwin FTW!!!” There is a long and fascinating backstory and many many people who contributed and Simon Singh tells the story very well. Read this book, and then The Disappearing Spoon. They actually go quite well together.
I could keep going, there are a few more recent reads worth sharing. Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly