lets keep talking about books

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Hey gang! Long time no see.

Recently finished Colson Whitehead's neat little novel, the Intuitionist which about racism and elevators. But mostly racism with a healthy side of elevators. And a mystery! I think. It's worth a read but I'm not sure I could sum up any point the book is making, though it indeed attempts to make many points.

I also recently finished Jitterbug Perfume by the irrepressible Tom Robbins. I've got two more books of his waiting in the queue and I'm pretty psyched. One of them is written in the second person singular. You non-grammar geeks can figure out what that means on your own.

Just completed: Temeraire! (That excalamation point is not in the title FYI) Anybody else read any part of this series? It's the first in a trashy, CVS-stocked fantasy series with a hook guaranteed to make yours truly sit up and pay attention. The hook? It's the Napoleonic wars. The French are rolling over Europe like a Firestone over a Fig Newton. Only Britain has the temerity and the audacity to fight against the diminuitive French overlord and his Machiavellian machinations. Admiral Nelson out-thinks the Frog fleet with legendary guile but will his mind be able to put a halt to plans to invade Britannia from across the narrow Channel? The fate of Western civilization is at stake.
And BOOM! Dragons. There's also dragons. A bunch of them. People ride them and crew them like flying tanks and fight on them and stuff like that. It's the Napoleonic Wars. But with DRAGONS! Can't you see how I was practically powerless before this simple addition to regular history? It's like my uncle Olaf always said: it's always better with dragons.

Right now I'm 20 pages deep in Gary Shteyngart's newest farce: Super Sad True Love Story. Thus far I'm not impressed, but he's got about 220 pages to turn me around.

One last item on the docket. Did anybody in a certain house in get around to reading any of the China Mieville stuff that's there right now?

[Infinite Jerkgrinders]

Finished 'A Game of Thrones' by George R R Martin - for which the HBO show is made after. A bit of a dense startup but it gets really, really fucking good.

Workin on 'A Clash of Kings' (the next book in the series) by the sam author, is good, so far. 950+ pages to go!

Also working on World War Z by Max Brooks.  A fun read, more or less a bunch of short stories which makes it a good book to have at work for a quick reading break.

[Shire Le Buff]

Finished Wonderboys recently by Michael Chabon. Not my favorite book of his since it lacks a lot of the things I like about his other works (a real world look at the fantasical, show-offy descriptions that never seem show-offy).

Started The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell but taking a break while on vacation where I've filled up my Kindle with the cheesiest, lightest, beach-read-iest of fantasy novels (The Dragonlance series). Reading them is half nostalgic and half embarrassing.