Recently Read (October - November 2005)

Like previous posts [1] [2], here's a list of several books that I haven't already reviewed in more detail, and which I don't have enough to say to give them a full review. I've given each an Amazon-style star rating.

• Be Cool - Elmore Leonard
  Good, fast read. Helps to have read Get Shorty.
• Where's My Cow - Terry Pratchett
  Interest children's book. Definitely helps to have read most some of the Discworld Series
• Space Opera - Ed. Brian Aldiss
  
• Little Green Men - Christopher Buckley
  I remember enjoying this, but for the life of me, I'm failing to recall any memorable lines; just the overall plot.
• Lost Horizon - James Hilton
  I'd seen the film. Now I wanted to read the book (which incidentally was the first book ever published as a paperback).
• Swatch: A Guide for Connoisseurs and Collectors - Frank Edwards
  This could have been so much more. It really isn't a guide for connoisseurs and collectors. I particularly disliked it when it described interesting Swatch watches, but didn't include pictures of them. I really wonder whether this is just a book about the Swatch watches owned by the author. I'm still waiting for the Automatic Chrono or AquaChrono Swatch watch. If they did that kind, I'd snap one up in a blink of the eye.
• Table of Contents - John McPhee
  Typically McPhee, who seems to be able to take any subject and write about it in an interesting way.
• Chasm City - Alistair Reynolds
  Reynolds has become the latest author where I now want to read everything he's written. As he mostly writes huge books, this could take me a while, although, unlike Stephen King or Robert Jordan, so far they don't seem bloated or too lengthy.
• The Algebraist - Iain M. Banks
  The latest SF book from Banks doesn't disappoint. I'm still not convinced that this is a different universe then the Culture novels. Just a different time. Well worth reading.
• The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse - Robert Rankin
  Rankin, like Tom Holt, is a comedic writer that is vastly underrated. He should be heading up there with Terry Pratchett. This was a book that I just couldn't put down. Luckily it was also an easy read.
• Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything - James Gleick
  Lots of interesting anecdotes on time and the accelerated pace of life. It's made me feel a little bit more comfortable about being easily distracted nowadays and wanting to do something different.

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( Dec 06 2005, 07:56:02 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [1]