At my old blog, I had a What I’m Reading page, less because I thought anyone was interested and more because it was an easy way for me to keep track. When I switched over to Movable Type, I stopped being as good about keeping the blogger page up to date. I think it will be easier for me to just keep a “books” category here. In the extended entry, I have cut & paste the previous book entries.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
I haven’t been reading much lately, I guess. But, I did reread The Silmarillion which is sort of a prequel to the Lord of the Rings. It’s more of an epic tale, starting from the creation of the world through the casting down of the first evil lord, Morgoth. (Sauron was Morgoth’s Lieutenant and went on to do the business with the rings after the Silmarillion.)
I went through several of Mark Twain’s short stories — in particular, the Mysterious Stranger and Excerpts from Capt. Stormfield’s visit to Heaven.”
I also read One for the Road by Tony Horwitz. Horwitz is the journalist/traveler who wrote “Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going where Captain Cook went before.” In One for the Road, Horwitz hitchhikes through and around Australia. I almost have a hangover just from reading about all the beer consumed in that book.
posted by Doug Masson 4:30 PM
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Before I forget to update this, the past few books I’ve read:
posted by Doug Masson 1:53 PM
Sunday, December 12, 2004
American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I had read this before, but it was still good upon rereading. Basically, a guy starts encountering down-at-the-heels gods. The premise is that, as people came over to America, an American incarnation of the gods they believed in came with them. As people stopped believing in them, their condition worsened. So, you find them on backroads as whores and drunks and carnies and grifters and whatnot.
posted by Doug Masson 7:19 PM
Saturday, November 27, 2004
Amazon.com: Books: The Runes of the Earth (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 1) Not bad, but I’m mainly reading it because I read the other Thomas Covenant series. Still a grim slog. Hopefully it’ll be as rewarding as I found the first series.
posted by Doug Masson 11:01 AM
Imagining the Law: Common Law and the Foundations of the American Legal System Pretty good read, particularly given the subject matter. It’s a survey of the development of the common law system in England. Gives a brief discussion of the Justinian/Roman Law system then starts digging in to the common law and how it progressed after the Norman invasion. Prof. Cantor gives a lot more detail and reasoning, but what I’m taking away from it was that the common law system of law developed as a way of taking some of the legal systems in place with the Anglo-Saxons and tweaking them enough to serve as a cheap way for the Normans to keep order in a newly conquered land.
posted by Doug Masson 10:57 AM
Sunday, November 07, 2004
I finished System of the Word Book 3 of the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. Great series. Long retro-technothriller I suppose. In these times, makes you wonder how science broke the grip of religion when religion was ascendant. Now I have to search for something to read.
posted by Doug Masson 3:58 PM
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, Book 7) I finished reading Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” series recently. Seemed like he had an o.k. ending to the thing, if not necessarily one that wrapped everything up, explained all mysteries, and assured that everyone lived happily ever after. It was late, I glanced at the next chapter entitled “Coda,” it looked like an author’s note of some sort, so I went to bed. The next day, I read a little further and the Coda turned into more of the story. Basically, it said that the reader should enjoy the journey, not the destination, but hey if you want a more traditional ending, here you go. Then he provided an ending with a twist that seemed more or less designed to annoy.
posted by Doug Masson 2:44 PM
Friday, September 24, 2004
Neverwhere – A good read. I need to check out the rest of Neil Gaiman’s stuff. American Gods was also very good. Dark, funny, immersive, and a bit quirky. After struggling through 150 pages of A History of God, it was good to slam through a fun bit of fiction.
posted by Doug Masson 7:22 PM
I read about half of A History of God: The 4000 Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam I really enjoyed the history of the religions but then it bogged down in schools of Islamic thought and whether God created the world ex nihlio and whatnot. I guess when the book was discussing the evolution of God from hands on, tribal warrior God Yahweh to the more remote omnipotent version we hear so much about on Sundays, I could keep up. But it got away from me when it got a bit more esoteric.
posted by Doug Masson 7:14 PM
Monday, September 06, 2004
The Year China Discovered America I only got about 1/2 way through this one. Interesting theory — certainly there doesn’t seem to be any technological reason why the Chinese didn’t circumnavigate the globe before Magellan. He relies on various things as proof — old maps with geographic features that shouldn’t have been known, the genetic makeup of chickens in certain New World places, etc. His explanation for why the Chinese themselves didn’t document these voyages was that, during the 2.5 year voyage, a new emperor took power and he was isolationist in the extreme — expunging the record. I’m sure the author left out the dead ends he followed, but the narrative of his discovery is a bit too neat. “From the evidence here and my knowledge of the currents, I surmised that there should be evidence at site X. I went to site X (or spoke with a professor at the University of X) and, sure enough, there was a perplexing monument in an obscure script from the Indian subcontinent — which would’ve been known to the Chinese and their companion merchant ships.” Anyway, having to rely only on archaelogical findings and educated guesses, it got a bit repetitive going through the various Chinese voyages. Maybe I bailed too early, but 100 pages would’ve been sufficient space it seems.
posted by Doug Masson 6:58 AM
Chapterhouse Dune The last of the Dune books written by Frank Herbert. I don’t know if it’s “too deep” for me or if Mr. Herbert just ran into his own mortality at the end of the series. It’s kind of patchy and leaves a lot of loose ends. Still, some good stuff in there.
posted by Doug Masson 6:51 AM
Sunday, August 22, 2004
Dune: Machine Crusade Book II of the Butlerian Jihad prequel to the original Dune series. A decent read if you really liked the “Dune universe”. But, if you haven’t read the original Dune books or were only luke warm to them, these prequel books probably aren’t worth the time.
posted by Doug Masson 1:11 PM
Sunday, August 08, 2004
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West Great book, particularly up to the winter with the Mandan village. Possibly even to the point where they get to crossing the Rockies. Maybe I was just reading too fast, but after that things get kind of fuzzy. Or maybe the expedition just gets less successful from that point. Lewis’s life in the aftermath of the expeditioon was rather disappointing.
posted by Doug Masson 9:31 AM
Monday, July 05, 2004
Yesterday, I finished rereading Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon which is related to Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle: “Quicksilver” and “The Confusion”. Even though the parts dealing with the booming 90s already seem like a far away, happy memory, the book is still a good read.
It was kind of fun, now knowing some of these characters’ ancestry. Took me awhile to put together Avi & Moseh, but then I saw Avi mention “crypto-Jew” and hit me over the head with it. And I like the idea of Enoch being there through all of it.
Guess I read it too fast the first time, but somehow I didn’t recall the Dentist working as a cat’s paw for Comstock and the U.S. Government when he was suing Epiphyte. For some reason, I enjoyed the Goto Dengo parts more this time than on my first reading.
Also, I was happy to become reacquainted with Enoch’s discussion of the distinction between Athena and Ares – both nominally Gods of War, but really standing for fundamentally different premises. Generation after generation of battles between psychopathic assholes (Ares) and Enlightened technologists (Athena). (I’m oversimplifying his oversimplification here, so don’t read too much into my description.)
posted by Doug Masson 8:02 AM
Saturday, June 19, 2004
Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah by Stephen King. This has been a really good series so far. I remember stumbling across “The Gunslinger” in Miami University’s King Library when I was an undergrad trying to kill time and avoid work. Glad I did.
posted by Doug Masson 12:06 PM
Friday, June 11, 2004
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Reasonably funny, quirky book. The AntiChrist is born but the demon assigned to place him with the right family makes a hash of it, instead of being raised evil, the antichrist is raised as a normal kid and hijinx ensue. One particularly good line regarding whether heaven and hell are evenly matched or if God is controlling the whole show: “Instead of being a cosmic chess match, it’s a really complicated form of solitaire.” (Or something like that.)
posted by Doug Masson 2:17 PM
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
I just finished, “Prey” by Michael Crichton. It didn’t bore me, and it was a quick read, but just seemed like he took a few plot elements from prior books and jammed them together. Take an out of whack home life from Disclosure plus an out of control virus from the Andromeda Strain (might be wrong on that one, it’s been awhile) plus technological/biological combination resulting in megalomania from the Terminal Man, plus an unknown life form with obscure motivations from Congo (and possibly the Eaters of the Dead), make sure everything is consumed in fire at the end (Congo) and presto, new book.
posted by Doug Masson 12:58 PM
Monday, May 17, 2004
I finished Neal Stephenson’s “Confusion: Book 2 of the Baroque Cycle” last night. Very entertaining. Probably not as educational as Quicksilver was, but still had a lot of good information about the creation of modern monetary systems coupled with some good swashbuckling adventure.
posted by Doug Masson 12:56 PM
Thursday, April 15, 2004
I finally finished Moby Dick . Struck me as a long, hard, pointless slog. I sort of liked Ishmael’s tone at the beginning as jaunty and irreverent. I’m sure I missed nuances, but at a certain point I was thinking, “I get it. Ahab is obsessed with taking out a force of nature; Starbuck wants him to relent; Ahab is sympathetic to Starbuck, but ultimately can’t turn aside and takes everyone else (except Ishmael) to their doom.”
posted by Doug Masson 9:55 AM
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
I’ve read a couple of short books in between larger projects:
Also, I’m in the middle of:
posted by Doug Masson 9:19 AM
Friday, February 13, 2004
I’ve read a few books since I posted last:
A Game of Thrones which is Book 1 of the Song & Fire series. Just trying to get up to speed before Book 4, a Feast of Crows, comes out. Good series, but I have my doubts about this guy getting the story concluded any time soon. Hope it doesn’t turn into a Jordanesque slog fest.
The Last Juror Grisham’s latest. Typical Grisham. It’s a pleasant read, but it won’t make you any smarter. Sort of literary cotton candy.
A Short History of the World This is a great history book that is exactly as billed. A very compressed history of the world. The author packs an astonishing amount of information into each paragraph and still makes it readable. Obviously it leaves out vast amounts, but it gives you the basic idea in a hurry. My only complaint is that I would’ve liked at least one world map in the book. When he talks about places, I would like to flip to a map to figure out where things are in relation to each other. Place names change, but if he just gave me a current map of the world, I could work out the rest for myself.
posted by Doug Masson 7:25 AM
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
Profiles in Courage “During 1954-55, John F. Kennedy, then a U.S. Senator, chose eight of his historical coleagues to profile for their acts of astounding integrity in the face of overwhelming opposition. These heroes include John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benson, and Robert A. Taft.”
posted by Doug Masson 6:52 PM
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Wolves of the Calla was very good. Glad to hear that Mr. King has finished the Dark Tower series and we are now just waiting for publication. I first stumbled across the series back in the summer of 1991. I’m not sure if the Wastelands had been published at that point, but I don’t recall having to wait for that novel. Then in ’96 or ’97, we got Wizard & Glass. ’03 was when we got Wolves of the Calla. 7 years between novels is a bit much. But this series seems to be an overarching sort of thing for Mr. King so I guess patience is warranted.
In any event, I am about to begin Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them. A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right. I keep telling people I used to be a Republican at heart until about ’96 or so. Sure, I voted for Perot in ’92 and ’96, but he represented what I wanted most in Republicans — balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility. But then we got the Clinton blowjob impeachment and the stolen election of ’00. Follow that up with GeeDubya lying us into a war and I’m all for whatever gets him out of office. I actually miss the days of his father and Bob Dole.
posted by Doug Masson 10:15 PM
Sunday, December 14, 2003
Finished Quicksilver yesterday. It did a good job of getting me interested in the significance of the Enlightenment and the rise of science over religion. It’s obviously part of a series since the ending doesn’t build to a climax but rather drops off a cliff.
Now I’ve started the latest in the Dark Tower series: Wolves of the Calla.
posted by Doug Masson 1:44 PM
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1) by Neal Stephenson Just got started on Neal Stephenson’s newest offering. It’s sort of a prequel to Cryptonomicon . So far we have Enoch Root wandering around in circa 1710 America where he’s come across the boy, Ben Franklin, as well as a Waterhouse founding MIT. In addition, there was a flashback to sometime in the 1600s where he comes across a young Isaac Newton being smart and kicking ass. As always with Mr. Stephenson, should be an interesting read.
Apropos of very little, one of my favorite magazine articles of all time is Mother Earth, Mother Board. It’s an account of the laying of a communications cable. The introductory paragraph reads:
In which the hacker tourist ventures forth across the wide and wondrous meatspace of three continents, acquainting himself with the customs and dialects of the exotic Manhole Villagers of Thailand, the U-Turn Tunnelers of the Nile Delta, the Cable Nomads of Lan tao Island, the Slack Control Wizards of Chelmsford, the Subterranean Ex-Telegraphers of Cornwall, and other previously unknown and unchronicled folk; also, biographical sketches of the two long-dead Supreme Ninja Hacker Mage Lords of global telecommunications, and other material pertaining to the business and technology of Undersea Fiber-Optic Cables, as well as an account of the laying of the longest wire on Earth, which should not be without interest to the readers of Wired.
At the time I read it, in December of ’96, I wasn’t familiar with Neal Stephenson and it wasn’t until much later that I connected him to that herniated magazine article.
posted by Doug Masson 8:09 AM
Sunday, October 12, 2003
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair One of those classics that I should have read long ago. My experience with “classics” has been very hit or miss. “The Sound & the Fury,” for example, is a horrible waste of time. “The Jungle,” however, was outstanding. Graphic portrayal of the meatpacking industry at the turn of the century and a horrifying description of the lot of the working man.
posted by Doug Masson 6:23 PM
Sunday, October 05, 2003
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) by J. K. Rowling I got a little bored with the Wheel of Time series, so I picked up the latest Harry Potter book. Quick read. Took me about a day and a half to read the 870 pages.
posted by Doug Masson 9:18 AM
Saturday, September 27, 2003
Winter’s Heart (The Wheel of Time, Book 9) I’m still at it. Up to Book 9 now. Looking at Amazon, there is only one more book currently in print and it’s not due out in paperback until November. The reviews are not encouraging. Nothing much has happened in the last 3 books and, apparently, nothing happens in this or the next one either.
posted by Doug Masson 4:47 PM
Friday, September 05, 2003
The Path of Daggers (The Wheel of Time, Book 8) I’m now up to Book 8 — probably 6,000 pages into this thing.
posted by Doug Masson 4:14 AM
Thursday, August 28, 2003
A Crown of Swords (The Wheel of Time, Book 7) I’m still plugging along on the Wheel of Time series. It’s pretty good but I’m almost looking forward to reading some non-fiction. On the other hand, it’s serving its purpose. I haven’t had to struggle with finding a book to read for months now, and I think I’m creating a backlog of things I’d like to read.
posted by Doug Masson 5:37 PM
Sunday, July 20, 2003
I am now reading Lord of Chaos the 6th book in the Wheel of Time Series. It’s about another 900 pages. I’m not absolutely sure, but I think by the end of this one, I’ll be at the 5,000th page of the series.
posted by Doug Masson 4:56 PM
Sunday, July 13, 2003
I haven’t been posting to this as diligently as I probably should, but within the past couple of months, I have read a couple of books by Tony Horwitz :
In retracing key legs of the circumnavigator’s journey, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tony Horwitz chronicles the cultural and environmental havoc wrought by the captain’s opening of the unspoiled Pacific to the West, as well as the alternately indifferent and passionate reactions Cook’s name evokes during the writer’s journeys through Polynesia, Australia, the Aleutians, and the explorer’s native England.
Horwitz spent two years reporting on why Americans are still so obsessed with the war, and the ways in which it resonates today.
I have also been reading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. It’s a fairly good, though staggeringly long, fantasy series. The books I’ve read to date are:
That pretty much covers what I have read over the past two months.
