To start off this new site on a (somewhat pedestrian) note... I'm continuing an experiment that I did on-and-off on my LJ for the last couple years (and which many many friends have done to much greater effect): I'm going to attempt to keep track of what I've read. Since it's a new year, what better time to start counting? I've set myself a (hopefully low) goal of 75 books in 2009. And whattayaknow? I've already finished two.
1) Anathem by Neal Stephenson
I really enjoyed this book. As one of my co-workers put it, "Depending on your concept of quantum mechanics, it can really be defined as anywhere from fantasy to hard SF." I've never read any Stephenson before, so I can't speak to all of the reviews on Amazon saying that it's not as good as Snow Crash or any of his other books. I can see where some readers felt that the book was about 300 pages too long, but I actually enjoyed the parts where others felt "bogged down". Maybe I'm just a philosophy/physics dork. OK, I definitely am, but maybe that's the explanation for why I enjoyed this book so much. A world in which science has retreated to monasteries and much of the exposition is done as part of thought-experiments, in such a way that you have to infer the history and situation of the plot from the givens of the experiments? How would I NOT love this? I enjoyed reading a book that I had to put it down to actually try to work out some of the concepts that it was working with... HAD to figure them out because I knew they'd be important. I'm going to move on to some of his older stuff next, I think.
2) Why We Suck by Dr. Denis Leary
Yes, Denis Leary is a doctor. Reproduced his doctorate in the book and everything. This was a quick read... started it last night, finished it at work today. It's helpful to have spent several months listening to his No Cure For Cancer non-stop for several months around the time I was 11 or 12. He's a very rhythmic comic, and the ways that he plays with rhythm through punctuation (or the lack thereof), repetition, and even formatting are... interesting is the best word I'm coming up with. Hit-or-miss, but enough on the "hit" side that I'd recommend the book. I certainly don't agree with everything he says, but a lot of it reflects a common sense that I can really get behind. There's one chapter in particular that talks about why sending your kids to school, rather than home-schooling, is a good idea and frankly, I've known enough socially stunted home-schoolers to know that he has a point. I'm thinking of passing this book to my girlfriend next, since it perfectly espouses her attitude toward children, which includes a fierce hatred for the parents suffering from "precious little snowflake" syndrome.
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