It was excellent, although I would have liked a bit more explanation of his views on the world. From the sounds of it, though, they can't really be explained.
Now quickly moving through:
Just like with Wind-Up Bird I can't tell if I like it or not, but I can't stop reading it, so...
@cafreema - I just finished Dance Dance Dance - same feeling. Actually, I am sure I love Murakami, and I can't stop reading. I liked those one as much as Kafka, probably my favoirtie, although Windup Bird is a close second.
Meanwhile, I am continuing to plow through this...people kept on telling me that I would like it, which I do. Much it is a a bit of a slog at times. Backed with Giya Kancheli - Caris Mere and the fruit of the vine, makes for a good evening.
Finished Game of Thrones a few days back, after an interlude half way through. I quite enjoyed it, thought not as much as I expected to given its genre and reputation. It picked up towards the end and I was kind of sorry it ended, but it's still a toss up for me whether I'l pursue the series further. I think part of my slight fiction doldrums of late has to do with never finding enough time to plough through big enough chunks, and so repeatedly losing immersion in the book. I don't find as much time to get absorbed as I used to.
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk is on sale at Amazon Kindle this month ($2.99), as is Neil Gaiman's American Gods ($3.97), both seem to be things people around here might like, so, sale ending today if you're interested...
This book is going to take a bit. It's very dense, but very interesting. I focused on Soviet history as an undergrad, but spend most of my time in the Stalinist era, so this is great for me.
I'm taking another run at The Epistle To the Romans by Karl Barth. The Google Books version seems to be complete enough to give one an idea of what it's like. I sort of doubt that anyone will be that interested, though. It's not exactly my perspective. In fact, he gives my usual perspective repeated, hard slaps in the face. I think that's good for me, though. It's better not to get too comfortable with one's assumptions. Besides, to use another metaphor, I think that doing some heavy lifting helps to keep my mental muscles toned, and this is certainly heavy lifting.
To balance it, I'm reading Tom Sawyer and then plan to go on to Huckleberry Finn. I've actually never read either.
Picked it up on some Amazon eBook sale. I've been reading it on my Ipod Touch, mostly at the gym. I really like it so far, especially the author's tone. It is much better so far than another book in the series about Neutral Milk Hotel.
I finished A Dance With Dragons last week. My words on reaching the end: "You bastard!" I mean that in the friendliest possible way. Reading ADWD you start to think you see where it's all going. Then it doesn't, and won't.
Next, I made short work of Heinlein's Starship Troopers. That made for an interesting segue into For Us, The Living. FUTL was Heinlein's first novel. It went unpublished in Heinlein's lifetime and is considered to contain the basic ideas behind the future history novels, not least of all Starship Troopers. It's definitely not the place to start with Heinlein, but it's a good place to end up. Even the damn cat is there, if you catch my reference. I think I've read most of the important Heinlein novels now, having somehow failed to read Starship Troopers while I was misspending my youth hoovering up scifi books. Although it seems I haven't read Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, or I've forgotten it to the extent that it doesn't seem familiar. I blame these lapses on cars and girls, and on college profs who seem to think that students should spend 20-30 hours a week on their class, not including labs. I'll probably read HSWT next. I also have to stick Double Star on the reader. I want to review what Heinlein says about a Farleyfile, because I think I may need one. Double Star is worth another read in any case, being a treatise on identity disguised as a novel. This is one of the novels with roots in FUTL
I read lots and lots of Heinlein in high school, including Starship Troopers. I read Stranger In a Strange Land several times and a small group of us tried to live... I can't go on; it's too embarrassing now, after all these years. Anyway, I've been hesitant to reread Heinlein because I'm afraid I would think less of it now and spoil those memories. Maybe I should take the chance.
Thanks GP, I'll follow up Iain Pears. It will be good to try a new autheor for bedtime reading. I'll look in our library later today. Currently reading this for work:
@elwood: I read the lost City a few years ago. Interesting story about this mythic lost city, though the father and son seemed just a little too tragically crazy.
Abai Kunanbaev Book of words
Written over 100 years ago, this purports to be advice for the Kazakh Muslims of that time but it looks pretty universal to me. Just make the appropriate substitutions: Cars for horses, electronic gadgets and material goods for cattle (or maybe the cars are cattle, for the people with 14 cars), etc. I stuck the pages in an ePub with Calibre so I could read it on my Nook. Highly recommended.
My thanks to the young Muslim man who posted a picture of this book in his stream. I've looked in vain for the post. I think it was a Flickr photostream, so it is as a blade of grass in the wind. I was interested in a book he said he was "excited to read" . This was before I used that phrase to search for the post and learned that the fans of vampire novels and other cultural filler are also all "excited to read" whatever their favorite hack has thrown together for them to buy this quarter. I suppose if GMMR put out another volume of ASoIaF I'd be excited to read it, so I'd best not preach. Any book you've chosen to read has piqued your interest pretty well or you woudn't be reading it.
Addendum: I feel I should offer further explanation for why I have only the barest idea where I might have seen the post I mentioned. Mutex disregards Dylan's adviceMutex plays around the firehose. I will go to Flicker Explore Latest Uploads and reload the page until I see something that catches my eye, then I'll click on the stream, rather than the image on the theory that if there is one interesting picture, there are probably more. I probably clicked a stream that had just uploaded an interesting architectural or landscape photo, or perhaps a particularly effective portrait. I seem to recall there were some family/daily life pictures, and the book was in with those.
Comments
Yet another European detective - this time Daniel Jacquot in Marseilles, although British author.
It was excellent, although I would have liked a bit more explanation of his views on the world. From the sounds of it, though, they can't really be explained.
Now quickly moving through:
Just like with Wind-Up Bird I can't tell if I like it or not, but I can't stop reading it, so...
Craig
No need to explain further!
Meanwhile, I am continuing to plow through this...people kept on telling me that I would like it, which I do. Much it is a a bit of a slog at times. Backed with Giya Kancheli - Caris Mere and the fruit of the vine, makes for a good evening.
and
Well, more like rereading for a conference paper I'm revising.
Started this last night - yet another crime novel!
This book is going to take a bit. It's very dense, but very interesting. I focused on Soviet history as an undergrad, but spend most of my time in the Stalinist era, so this is great for me.
Craig
To balance it, I'm reading Tom Sawyer and then plan to go on to Huckleberry Finn. I've actually never read either.
and
Picked it up on some Amazon eBook sale. I've been reading it on my Ipod Touch, mostly at the gym. I really like it so far, especially the author's tone. It is much better so far than another book in the series about Neutral Milk Hotel.
Next, I made short work of Heinlein's Starship Troopers. That made for an interesting segue into For Us, The Living. FUTL was Heinlein's first novel. It went unpublished in Heinlein's lifetime and is considered to contain the basic ideas behind the future history novels, not least of all Starship Troopers. It's definitely not the place to start with Heinlein, but it's a good place to end up. Even the damn cat is there, if you catch my reference. I think I've read most of the important Heinlein novels now, having somehow failed to read Starship Troopers while I was misspending my youth hoovering up scifi books. Although it seems I haven't read Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, or I've forgotten it to the extent that it doesn't seem familiar. I blame these lapses on cars and girls, and on college profs who seem to think that students should spend 20-30 hours a week on their class, not including labs. I'll probably read HSWT next. I also have to stick Double Star on the reader. I want to review what Heinlein says about a Farleyfile, because I think I may need one. Double Star is worth another read in any case, being a treatise on identity disguised as a novel. This is one of the novels with roots in FUTL
Gentle, art-history flavored crime novel. Witty in places, little sense of menace, very European. Rather enjoyable, an easy page turner.
What DaVinci Code aspired to be, still not as good as I had hoped. Fifty cents in a thrift shop, so worth the investment.
@Germanprof - I loved Pears' Instance of the Fingerpost, but have not been able to get into his art-crime books.
and am just finishing...
After starting a week or so ago this I discovered it has just been released as a film, it'll be interesting to see how they do it.
The Great House at Annaberg by elwoodicious, on Flickr
I finished this a couple of weeks ago - relevant to the thread about Death of Music in Mali, besides something I am struggling to write for work!
Abai Kunanbaev Book of words
Written over 100 years ago, this purports to be advice for the Kazakh Muslims of that time but it looks pretty universal to me. Just make the appropriate substitutions: Cars for horses, electronic gadgets and material goods for cattle (or maybe the cars are cattle, for the people with 14 cars), etc. I stuck the pages in an ePub with Calibre so I could read it on my Nook. Highly recommended.
My thanks to the young Muslim man who posted a picture of this book in his stream. I've looked in vain for the post. I think it was a Flickr photostream, so it is as a blade of grass in the wind. I was interested in a book he said he was "excited to read" . This was before I used that phrase to search for the post and learned that the fans of vampire novels and other cultural filler are also all "excited to read" whatever their favorite hack has thrown together for them to buy this quarter. I suppose if GMMR put out another volume of ASoIaF I'd be excited to read it, so I'd best not preach. Any book you've chosen to read has piqued your interest pretty well or you woudn't be reading it.
Addendum: I feel I should offer further explanation for why I have only the barest idea where I might have seen the post I mentioned. Mutex disregards Dylan's adviceMutex plays around the firehose. I will go to Flicker Explore Latest Uploads and reload the page until I see something that catches my eye, then I'll click on the stream, rather than the image on the theory that if there is one interesting picture, there are probably more. I probably clicked a stream that had just uploaded an interesting architectural or landscape photo, or perhaps a particularly effective portrait. I seem to recall there were some family/daily life pictures, and the book was in with those.
Just started it, has a The Dervish House vibe to it so far...