Which book are you reading currently? #7

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The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin - so far, pretty much what I expect from one of her books (a good thing).

Am also hunting nonfiction books on werewolves, though this is one of those phases that might burn out before I actually manage to acquire anything

Bookfest has me well supplied with science fiction (with many things I've been looking for for ages being found). I think I'll go back on the last day (Saturday) and see if I can find some more off-beat stuff for megacheap.

 

"non"-fiction books on werewolves?

just finished the first volume of Holmes' cases. Moving on to the 2nd volume.

 

As in books on the folklore of werewolves. I'm mostly interested in the writings of people who believed in their existence and were documenting them as they saw it (though those seem to be incredibly difficult to find. Very annoying that no one's scanned them and thrown them on the internet, given that they've probably been out of print a rather long time).

 

Just read the collection of Lois McMaster Bujold's short stories and essays, I think it's called Dreamweaver's Dilemma but since it's not in front of me of course I can't remember it. Only so-so, just something for hard-core fans of hers.

Terry Pratchett's books are indeed wonderful. I hated to hear he's having health problems.

Maybe in 2008 I'll have a little more time for personal rather than professional reading.

 

I've gone back to Pratchett after a six-month hiatus. I finished Feet of Clay in a couple of days and breezed through most of Hogfather while on the train from London today. That's one's very, very good - one of his best until now.

 

Hogfather is indeed excellent. I think Night Watch is his masterpiece - unless I'm reading another one on the day I have that opinion, and then I think it's that one.

 

I agree. Night Watch had me tearing towards the end. Easily his most moving discworld novel imo.

 

I've read two books since the last post: Native Tongue by Suzette Elgin and Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Seeing that they're both feminist science fiction, it's interesting to compare how they go about it.

Native Tongue's feminism was a little bit grating - reading it, the image that came to mind was the author sitting at a typewriter furiously screaming 'All men are bastards!' as she writes. There just aren't any sympathetic male characters, and the reasons why women are suddenly more oppressed than they ever have been are never looked at. Fortunately it's well written and the basic idea is compelling.

Herland goes for positive feminism - rather than a male dystopia it shows a female utopia, with the male characters being sympathetic (well, for the most part, and given that the book was written in 1915 it's hard to say whether or not the less sympathetic ones are a distortion or accurate reflection of men's attitudes at the time - I'm suspecting reflection). Utopian fiction interests me as much as dystopian, though there seems to be infinitely more dystopian, for whatever reason. Overall very good, though at times I wish it was written in a more personal style rather than as a detached account.

Hopefully the sequel won't be all that difficult to find, but while Herland is a great classic of science fiction, I suspect that With Her in Ourland (which is, imo, an awesome sounding title) is not :-/

 

The Winter King - Bernard Cornwell. Pretty good so far. I've enjoyed most of Cornwell's stuff.

 

I'm currently reading Worldbinder which is book 6 of the Runelords saga by David Farland.

 

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. It seems slower-paced than the first book and the story follows a similar pattern, but it's enjoyable so far.

 

Just finished the final Harry Potter- one of her best, in my opinion.

About to start The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

 

Read Erik Scott de Brie's Depths of Madness. Far, far better than a Forgotten Realms title has any right to be. Not at the Martin/Bakker/Erikson/Carey/Hobb/etc level of omgawesome, but roughly at the Glen Cook level of awesome.

 

I recall having trouble getting through The Diamond Age but not why.

Re-reading Lord Valentine's Castle, Robert Silverberg. Maybe the first fantasy book I ever read and actually liked.

 

I decided to pick up my Dresden Files again after the TV series started making one of the national TVs. #2 (Fool Moon) is nice, and I think I'll get a few more at some point.

 

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe and starting on Oliver Sacks' An Anthropologist on Mars...

 

Utopia by Thomas More. Egads this book is slow, and I get the feeling that it isn't going to satisfy my taste for utopian fiction. Hopefully I have another such book in reserve

 

I have finished the two Dreamsong Volumes - the first one got better as it went along (to be expected as they were in chronological order) but the second one was mostly stories that I already had in other books.

I just finished The Outstretched Shadow by Lackey and James Mallory. It was a decent first book in the series but it is very much just an introduction to the characters and the concepts of how magic works. Still, it is an a good foundation that hopefully will be built upon in the rest of the series.

 

Finished re-reading all the Sherlock Holmes short stories. I'm going to finish it off by re-reading the Hound of the Baskervilles later.

 

I'm half-way through the latest Harry Potter.