| Somehow, even with all the other stuff going on, I find time to read. This is
probably a good thing, since we've got 5000 or so books stacked around this
place. What can I say, we're both addicted to books. Anyhow, this completely
nonstructured list is what's been at the top of my stack lately.
To the right, a typical corner of our house. As of March 12, 2001, we have 5,173 volumes, and most of them are on shelves but there are still some corners like this. I don't have a more accurate count, but at the start of 2004 we're probably pushing 6,000 volumes. Yeah, it's an addiction. |
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5/15/2006
S.M. Stirling , Dies the Fire
I let this one sit on my shelf for a good long time, and then devoured it over the course of two very enjoyable days. The premise is a stretch - that electricity and explosions stop working - but after that the consequences are followed with Stirling's usual verve. It ends up being a darned good adventure story as a few natural leaders emerge in the chaos to try to protect themselves and the few that they care about.
5/15/2006
S.M. Stirling , The Protector's War
Sequel to Dies the Fire, this one left me wanting the third book of the trilogy to be out right now instead of next year. War fought with clubs and spears against a backdrop of crumbling modern civilization and bicycles and salvaged seed crops and modern Wicca and remembered Marine and SAS training. Wild and wooly.
5/15/2006
Barbara Goldsmith , Obsessive Genius
"The Inner World of Marie Curie". Part history, part psychological study, this one brought out a few things I didn't know before - such as the fact that Marie insisted to her dying day that her precious radium never did her any harm, even as she died of radiation effects. Like many brilliant people she had a few screws loose.
5/15/2006
D.J. Taylor , Orwell: The Life
A thorough biography of George Orwell, who was a much more complex person than the hagiography of the left would make you believe. His end was quite tragic; he essentially worked himself to death while denying that he was really ill. Interesting stuff.
5/15/2006
Barry Reed , The Indictment
Forgettable legal thriller.Will the lawyer's client get indicted by the overbearing DA? Who killed the beautiful girl? By the end it's tough to care.
5/15/2006
Art Buchwald , Down the Seine and Up the Potomac with Art Buchwald
Purely by coincidence I ended up reading this one while Buchwald was in the hospital dying of kidney failure. It reminded me of how much I used to enjoy his columns while I was in junior high school. Simple political humor is out of fashion now, in favor of purely nasty garbage, and it's a loss.
5/15/2006
George Dyson , Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship
It's impossible for me to read this sort of thing without feeling that my dreams were betrayed. Would I have gotten on an atomic putt-putt ship bound for the rings of Saturn? Absolutely. And I rue that we drew back from such grand vistas of exploration.
5/15/2006
George Orwell , 1984
A classic. No matter what you think of Orwell or his politics, the book remains as strong an indictment of totalitarianism now as it was half a century and more ago.
5/15/2006
Austen Henry Layard , Nineveh and Its Remains
Classic archaeology from an Englishman who went and had a bunch of natives dig up Persian ruins in 1839. There's a fascinating mix of sympathy for the native cultures and utter disregard for them here, along with a sort of slash-and-burn approach to discovering the past that would never do today.
3/13/2006
Robert Daley , Prince of the City
True story of a crooked cop who turned in a bunch of other crooked cops. Pretty interesting stuff, though I suspect some of it grew in the telling.
3/13/2006
Gavin Menzies , 1421: The Year China Discovered America
To hear Menzies tell it, in one year the Chinese fleet visited every continent, circumnavigated Greenland, explored the Antarctic, and left colonies everywhere. He's the von Daniken of our generation. It's amusing to try to count the fallacies here, but it gets hard to suspend disbelief after a while.
3/13/2006
David Wiltse , Home Again
Murder mystery with a heavy psychological component. So-so.
3/13/2006
Eliizabeth Speller , Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey Through the Roman Empire
Spelling does a good job of reconstructing the life of Hadrian, based on fragmentary sources, and exploring some of the relationships around him. Part history, part imaginative retelling, it gets across a good amount of the flavor of the times. I was fascinated.
3/13/2006
Caroline Moorehead , Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life
I was only vaguely aware of Martha Gellhorn, journalist and one of Hemingway's ex-wives, before reading this fascinating biography. She sounds like quite a character. It's always intriguing reading about people who are so far off the beaten path, and so much invidiuals that the make the rest of us feel like part of the herd.
3/13/2006
Richard Condon , Prizzi's Honor: A Mafia Love Story
It's not exactly the Godfather - much sillier. But Condon is always fun, and I gravitate to his stuff when I just need some time off. Never mind the movies, I enjoy the books and their weath of irrelevant detail, like the long lists of foods in this one.
3/13/2006
Nicholas Crane , Mercator: The Man Who Mapped the Planet
Biography of the guy the Mercator Projection is named after. Lots of interesting tidbits here. Apparently he wanted to know everything about everything, and made a good stab at it.
1/22/2006
Richard Moran , Cold Sea Rising
This one is almost a good ecological disaster novel, with the Ross Ice Shelf broken loose from Antarcitca and sea levels poised to rise disastrously in the near future. Unfortunately it's ruined by a deus ex machina happy ending.
1/19/2006
Rick Raphael , Code Three
A classic example of SF written by taking another genre and transposing it to the future, only more so - in this case, highway patrol stories transposed to a world of 600 MPH cars. A light read for late nights.
1/19/2006
David Edmonds & John Eidinow , Bobby Fischer Goes to War
An account of the famouse Fishcer-Spassky world championship chess match in Reykjavik, set against the background of the cold war. There's no special revelation here, but it still makes for a good story of chess and psychological warfare, with Bobby Fischer's nutbar character providing an ample number of anecdotes.
1/17/2006
Richard Sale , Polar Reaches
"The History fo Arctic and Antarctic Exploration", a coffee table book with lots of pictures. A bit fluffy in spots, but still a good summary of lots of derring-do in cold places. I don't want to be those people, but I'm always fascinated to read about them.
1/8/2006
Joseph S. Bonsall , G.I. Joe & Lillie
One of the members of the Oak Ridge Boys tells a love story from the "greatest generation" - of a pair of people who happen to be his parents. The writing isn't especially good, but it's an inspiring and touching book nonetheless.
1/8/2006
Amy Butler Greenfield , A Perfect Red
"Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire" - the story of cochineal, one of the earliest of the brilliant red dyes, and one whose origin was a mystery for many years.I love this sort of investigation into obscure historical byways.
1/8/2006
Harry Turtledove , Settling Accounts: Drive to the East
It seems like Turtledove has been carrying on his alternate history feud between the USA and the CSA forever, probably because he has. This book takes the story forward to the 1940s, and they're still fighring as part of another world war, with A bombs looming. He'll run out of alternate history one of these days, and I'll miss the series when he does.
1/8/2006
Craig Larman , Agiles & Iterative Development: A Manager's Guide
Good high-level introduction to agile practices. If I'm ever forced to pretnd I'm a software manager again, I'm sure I'll end up rereading this one.
1/8/2006
Frederick Forsyth , Avenger
I got this one for Christmas and buzzed through it. I'm a bit skeptical of the premise - hero-type who decides to hunt down international criminals and return them for trial rather than just assassinating them - but it's a great thriller nonetheless. A bit brutal in places if your stomach is easily turned, as the initial nasty incident is set in the Balkans during some of the more unpleasant times.