Well, I'll get to it eventually. I have a great big stack of books I haven't read yet, but decided to read those two first. Now I want to start that one just to see what you're talking about, though. ^_^
Finished a Clash of Kings and now reading A Storm of Swords. I am really enjoying going back and reading the books after watching the television show. The books are always better, and I do know the show does split off from the story line in the books so will see how it goes with the books
^^^with Game of Thrones I tend to get confused about whether something happened in the show or the book, or both. I have just finished On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. Though reading it made me admire Darwin more, he was such a keen observer, I did at times feel he was a bit repetitive but that might be because I was seeing it through 21st century eyes.
I've just begun...I Am Legend...I hadn't realized it was on my Kindle. I saw the movie version; now I'll get to read the book.
What did you think of Anansi Boys? I quite liked it, but I thought it all ended a bit abrutly, as if Gaiman didn't know how he wanted to end it, so a book that'd been good most of the way through ended up a bit meh! I'm Currently reading Child 44, a thriller set in Stalinist Russia. Couple of hundred pages in and it's excellent. One of the most compelling books I've read in a while.
I think the ending could have been better but it didn't worry me too much. I actually listen to rather than read Anansi Boys. It was read by Lenny Henry and he was excellent and made the book really enjoyable. Neil Gaiman has actually said that Lenny was, at least in part, the inspiration for Anansi Boys and that when he was writing it he often had Lenny's voice in his head. I will buy the paperback version because it is a story I will probably want to revisit one day.
^ I didn't know that when I read it, but Lenny Henry was exactly who I saw as the main character. It really WAS him, in my mind.
I just read Star Wars: Darth Plagueis, by James Luceno. Excellent novel that starts with Plagueis going from apprentice to master, his recruiting of Palpatine, their machinations in their 'day jobs' to advance their Sith cause, the behind the scenes manipulations as Sith, and ultimately ending around where Episode I begins with the blockade of Naboo. Currently reading The Dog Who Knew Too Much by Spencer Quinn, part of the Chet & Bernie series. Very light hearted crime mystery about a PI and his K9 partner, as narrated by the dog.
^^ I wish I'd known that before I read it, having Lenny Henry's voice in my head whilst reading would have been fun. He seems to have quite a fantasy interest given he also wanted to produce and star in a version of James Herbert's Creed as well.
Whenever I hear Lenny Henry's name mentioned, I flash back to watching "The Secret Policeman's Third Ball," several years ago. (For those not familiar with the Secret Policeman's Balls, they were comedy shows - I think for charity. I don't know if they're still doing them.) "James Bond. I don't like James Bond. Everywhere he go, it blow up. He go to Jamaica - it blow up. He go to Scotland - it blow up. That's why he never go home. He go home, it blow up. And everywhere he go, he snuggin' up a woman. There must be ten thousand James Bond, Juniors running around, except the woman is always shot, or strangled, or poisoned, ten seconds later. This is an extreme form of contraception! Take your James Bond, and bugger off! Babies. I don't like babies. The second you go out, they orderin' the baby pizza. Dancin' to the Fisher-Price music. I don't trust babies as far as I can throw them, and that's a pretty long way, let me tell you! Take your babies, and bugger off!" (The scary part about that is that I saw the show over 15 years ago, and I still remember those bits. Not verbatim, I'm sure, but I think I got them pretty close.) On topic... I finished Karl Schroeder's Virga a few weeks ago. I'm pretty busy with last-minute convention stuff right now, so I haven't been reading much recently, but I did start Jim Butcher's Ghost Story the other night (that's one of the later Dresden Files novels.)
Today I'll be dipping into The Halloween Reader, a collection of historical Halloween stories and poems.
I'm re-reading "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer. The story is stomach-churning, about polygamous sects of Mormonism (The FLDS church) and the effect of a "deeply personal God" as Joseph Smith outlined. Most of the story consists of violence, from the history of Mormon persecution in the 19th century, to the central figure in the book, Dan and Ron Lafferty, who killed their brother's wife and baby because it was revealed to them as a prophecy of God. It tries to make a larger point about the effect of religion on society as well.
Currently about 40% of the way through A Feast For Crows and enjoying it. Westeros is still a brutal place, but I'm finding more humour in this than I remember from previous instalments of A Song of Ice and Fire. I'm not sure why people think it's boring. Maybe it has to do with disappointment that certain popular characters don't appear in this book or are sidelined in favour of newer or formerly less prominent ones. Still, for what it is, it's a very engaging read.
Because of all the current board discussion of the upcoming anniversary of the Kennedy assassination I'm rereading a little of the Warren Report from 1964 and also watching conspiracy viewpoints on YouTube.
I'm currently going through the archives of a webcomic called Able Boddy - I don't understand all of it, but what I do understand is funny.