It’s a meme! About books! Here goes:
- The book I’m currently reading: Perdido Street Station, by China Miéville. This has been in the book queue, and indeed sitting on my shelf, for years. Not sure why I never picked it up until now, but I’ve finally done so. I’m only a couple hundred pages in, but so far, so good. Miéville is a little too verbose in his descriptions of the world, but at least it’s an interesting setting worthy of description. It’s a little slow to start and the story so far is somewhat undefined, though I think I can see where it’s going (and things will hopefully pick up a bit once it gets there). So yeah, mixed feelings so far, but I’ve got a long ways to go.
- The last book I finished: Packing For Mars, by Mary Roach. A nice pop science book that does indeed get into some of the hairy details about space travel… Roach is able to make the whole thing entertaining, though she does seem to spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on the raunchy aspects of space travel. Lots of talk about farting, peeing/pooping, and sex in zero gravity. On the other hand, those activities are actually much more difficult than it would seem, so those details actually turn out to be rather interesting. I’m glad the book is written well and that Roach is able to make dry subjects interesting, but perhaps a 4 page digression into whether or not Astrochimp Enos masturbated during his flights (he apparently didn’t) is a bit too much. Still, it’s a fun book and well worth a read.
- The next book I want to read: It’s a toss up between Lois McMaster Bujold’s Memory or Katherine Kerr’s Polar City Blues. Both are relatively short SF novels of the space opera variety (at least, I think so), which I’m sure I’ll be ready for after the density of Perdido Street Station. I’m probably leaning towards Bujold right now, as that book is a sure thing in my mind…
- The last book I bought: Foreigner, by C. J. Cherryh. Another space opera series by a female author. I’m hoping it will be able to fill the void once I burn through all of Bujold’s Vorkosigan novels.
- The last book I was given: Theodore Rex, by Edmund Morris. I actually gave this to my uncle for Christmas last year, and he has since returned it to me, as he thinks I’d enjoy it, which I probably will. When I get to it. Which might be a while.
Well, there you have it. What’s your reading snapshot?