I read this in school and loved it but its one of those books I scared to go back to just in case it doesn't live up to my expectations.

Currently reading:
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor - this guys humor is subtle and dry. His short story The Last Smoker (or something) on the interweb is a very amusing read.

Harris - Hannibal Rising (4 hour read - entertaining, but not really challenging)
Currently: Brooks - Scions of Shannara (Brain Candy)

Just finished: Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Up next: Dearly Devoted Dexter

The other three Heritage of Shannara books (Druid, Elf Queen, and Talismans - crap, but entertaining crap)
Currently reading:
Gaiman - Fragile Things
Buchanan & Peskowitz - The Daring Book for Girls (I have young daughters)

I just finished Vernon God Little by D.B.C. Pierre. It was an interesting novel - a first person narrative of a teenager who is accused of being responsible for a Columbine-like tragedy at his high school.

Last week I read The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. Alternate history + detective story = entertaining.

The week before that I read Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. It's a work of historical fiction about the founding of the Royal Society of London. I enjoyed it. (Which was strange because it didn't have much of a plot and it was 500 pages long).

You realize that there are another 2,200 pages or so of that story?

Yes, I do. I bought the whole Baroque Cycle.

SM Stirling - the Domination (Omnibus of first 3 Draka books - Alternate history where Tories and Confederates are granted South Africa by Britain and processd to take over the world.)

Re-reading Otto Rank-Art and Artist
(creative urge and personality developement)

I found some beautiful pressed flowers in it also, that I had forgotten about.

Me too. The Eternal Champion. In all his guises.

Currently reading Poel Anderson. The Gods Laughed. (did anybody know that his daughter is married to Greg Bear?)

Grant Naylor - Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
Roger Zelazney - Creatures of Light & Darkness (In progress)

Except for Jerry Cornelius. That stuff was totally insufferable.

Finished "Rant" and just read "The Sirens of Titan" by Kurt Vonnegut.

Now I'm reading "Rose Madder" by Stephen King, and will follow that with "Children of Man" by Cormac MacCarthy

Just finished Cerulean Sins by Laurell K. Hamilton. Next up will be The Dance of Time by Eric Flint & David Drake.

Missed three before the Domination:
Van Lustbader - The Sunset Warrior, The Shallows of Night, and Dai-San.

Hazily remembering... was that the "In Alien Heat" set or "Dancers at the End of Time"? If so, yes I think those were drug induced. But then there was Jherik Carnelian. Which I thought was the same Champion.


I read a bunch of Van Lustbader years ago (about 20) the first of which was a really juicy thriller called The Ninja.

After a few of these series, it got predictable though. But it does remind me of another rather juicy novel in the genre by Trevanian: Shibumi. I recommend this as a thrill read.

Jherek Carnelian was a differnet guy in the same mold. The series he was in was "Dancers at the end of Time", the first or last (been a couple decades) book was "An Alient Heat". Jerry Cornelius was the no doubt drug induced protagonist of the Cornelius Chrinicles 1 through 3. Not quite as bad as Finnegan's Wake, but getting there.

Favorite Bathroom reading of mine in Jr. High.

I have that one, but I've never read it. This is good. I am in the market for something good to read just now.

Pompeii:
Pretty good. Short version: A roman engineer is in charge of figuring out why the water in an aqueduct has stopped flowing. The catch is, the aqueduct serves pompeii and the surrounding cities, and the book starts three days before the erruption. Very well written, and lots of fun.

I finished Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle about a month ago. So, that was:

Quicksilver
The Confusion
System of the World

I preferred the first two over the last book.

Earlier this week, I finished
Winter in Madrid by C J Sansom. It followed the story of a British interpreter in Madrid during WWII. It was ok.

Let's pick this back up....
I'll note that I did read Shibumi quite a while ago, since it was mentioned.
Not long ago I started in on Brian Herbert & Keving Anderson's Dune Books, and have plowed through, Dune: House Atreides, Harkonnen, Corrino, The Butlerian Jihad, The Machine Crusade, and the Battle of Corrin. Finished Hunters of Dune yesterday, and am currently in Sandworms of Dune.

In there somewhere, I have also read Buckley - No Way to Treat a First Lady, Clavell - Nobel House, and Asimov - The Naked Sun. Also in progress Calagione - Extreme Brewing and Asimov - I Robot.

That ought to catch me up for now....

Finished MFK Fisher's Serve It Forth yesterday. I liked The Gastronomical Me better; Fisher's strength lies in her ability to capture personal moments and reflect upon them.

Also finished Christine Schutt's All Souls this morning. What a beautiful book. Her prose verges on poetry. I really enjoyed it, and highly recommend it to anyone who likes a novel that isn't run-of-the-mill in its use of language.

Finished Sandworms of Dune. On to Pratchett - Sourcery

I just completed The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. While it didn't show spectacular writing ability it wasn't predictable as I thought it would have been. It certainly made me think on how people bury their emotions in the grieving process.

Lovely Bones. I remember thinking it interesting but can't remember a thing about it. I'll have to pull that out again.

This week I read:

Twilight. (Shut. Up. Friend said I just HAD to read it and OMG it's the BEST book EVER. No, it wasn't.)

Ghost Plane (Stephen Grey's expose of the secret "extraordinary rendition" program of the CIA in which they swoop in, kidnap someone who is vaguely suspected of knowing someone who once saw a terrorist, tie him up, throw him on a plane, and fly him to Syria, or Iran, or some other country that tortures people for information. Then they sit there and watch while this guy is tortured, questioning him during the process, all so they can claim the United States doesn't torture suspects.)

Light This Candle (bio of Alan Shepard)

and am currently reading Edgar Sawtelle, which is another book everyone said is awesome, but so far. . . .Meh. Well written but the story is somewhat disjointed.

Finished Pratchett - Sourcery. Had me cracking up on smoke breaks at work. Brilliant.

Started Clarke - Breakpoint. Thought it was going to be terrorism threat analysis and counterterrorism policy and technique. Turns out he's writing novels now. Pretty neat stuff so far. May have to find the first one.

Mrs. Hat just ploughed through the whole series in 2 weeks. I got the blow by blow. I figure I could go my whole life without reading that and not be dimished thereby, just so long as I remember that one needs extra towels at a vampire/werewolf hybrid birth.

Yeah, pretty much. Kind of a hybrid of a romance novel and a vampire book. . .with the heavy emphasis being on the romance novel. The author sets up invulnerable and all-powerful vampires, and then has them all hiding from the humans.

Uh. . . Why? Bite everyone. . .

I'm finishing out my unread Chuck Palahniuk books; I read Lullaby in 2 days, Stranger than Fiction in one day, and am working on Invisible Monsters right now. I think that's the only one I haven't read yet.

I'm also reading "On Writing" by Stephen King. Then it's on to Harry Potter Year 4

I recently finished Sebastian and followed it by the second book Belladonna both by Anne Bishop. I found the first book somewhat intriguing and felt I wanted to continue, I must say that I was disappointed in the second book.

Working on two more as we speak, Moment of Truth in Iraq by Michael Yon and 1984 by George Orwell.

My thought on 1984 having now read it is that it has been much over-hyped. It was alright but I didn't feel it lived up to all the talk.

I am still reading Moment of Truth in Iraq. I think it is best read in small parts, not the type of book I would just devour in an afternoon.

A Game of Thrones, George Martin. Cernunnos recommended this to me and I was happy with the book. Not a typical choice for myself but it had a lot to offer me as a reader. I have ordered the second book of the series.

I also finished The Story of O, Pauline Reage, that was quite hot to say the least. The ending was.. well something else, eye-opening. I realized I was right in my early impressions of the relationship.

OK, Cook - A Fortress in Shadow, Powers - The Stress of her Regard. Couple others in there too, but I've lost track.

Just finished Pillars of the Earth-Ken Follett. Now I'm reading the newest book in the Eragon series to my wife as a bedtime story.

Witness: Writings of Bartolome De Las Casas by Bartolome De Las Casas , edited by George Sanderlin

The book sat on my shelf for quite a long time. I finally got around to reading it. De Las Casas fought for the rights of indigenous peoples during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. It was an interesting read.

Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix

I'm about 150 pages in

Looked at my stack of finished books last night and can fill the space between Breakpoint and Fortress in Shadow:

Herbet & Anderson - Hunters of Dune, Sandworms of Dune, and Paul of Dune
Gaiman & Pratchett - Good Omens

I read the first three books of the Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. Some good, some bad. I liked the first book the best.

Just finished the second Dark Tower graphic novel - The Long Road Home.
Currrently working on Pratchett - Mort

So it's a week later and I'm only at page 400. Need to step it up...it's due back at the library soon

The slowest of the 7 (though parts of the last drag a bit.)

Cold Moon Over Babylon by Michael McDowell.

I'm sorry that McDowell is no longer with us. His stories are all very involving and able to invoke a dense setting and mood within the first few pages. 'Babylon' is one of my favorites. Very creepy stuff.

The prologue, which is only two pages long, manages to create a small town atmosphere with absolute clarity that resonates throughout the entire story. It also includes a shocking series of events that are somehow presented in a way that does not interrupt the languid pacing of the story.

I loved this guy. Also by McDowell: The Elementals, Guilded Needles, The Amulet and The Blackwater Trilogy.

He also wrote the screenplay for the movie "Beetlejuice."

Just finished rereading Watchmen since the movie is coming up soon.
Now reading Hogfather by Terry Pratchet.

Finished Pratchett - Mort
Finished Silverberg (ed.) - Legends
Working on Cook - A Cruel Wind (again)
Gaiman - The Graveyard Book on deck.