Been getting a lot more reading done lately, but not nearly enough. There’s just too much good stuff out there. In a way, I’m glad the summer TV season wasn’t that compelling, and the fall isn’t looking much better. I have enough to do without a full TiVo sitting alone and unloved in the living room.
READING:
John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series — A new friend of mine suggested these books, and man, am I glad she did. Connolly is now up there with Lee Child as one of my favorite thriller writers of all time. He uses the themes of crime and evil to explore the nature of humanity, and how easily our world can slip into the next if we do not pay attention. It doesn’t hurt that he’s an absolutely lyrical writer with a seemingly endless knowledge of obscure subjects. (Seriously, how many people do you know who can quote the Zohar and describe the action of a Colt handgun?) Like Child, I am amazed at how much Connolly knows, and how effortlessly he slips that knowledge into the work. I’ve been rationing the books, putting off reading them, putting other books in between them. It’s been easier to do that because Connolly is also able to describe evil in heartbreaking detail. The deaths of his characters are not plot points or props; you feel the violation and loss, and sometimes it’s hard for me to take, especially when Parker reflects on the murders of his wife and daughter. But now I’m just going into a binge, and then I’ll be caught up with all the other Connolly readers, and like them, forced to wait until the next book in the series. Dammit.
Tom Holt, May Contain Traces of Magic — Another sort-of sequel to the JW Wells books, about the modern business of magic and sorcery. In this installment, a salesman who peddles enchanted gadgets — such as pocket genies that grant three, limited wishes, portable parking spaces and dehydrated water — starts a relationship with his in-car navigation system. Powered by a trapped spirit instead of a GPS chip, she offers conversation and advice. Funny and light and wildly inventive, as usual. Par for the course from Holt.
Charles Stross, Wireless — A collection of old and new short stories and novellas. Whatever Stross is on, I want some. The only side effects seem to be increasing brilliance and a gift for delivering entire philosophies in a well-turned phrase. (Example: the Devil as “the garbage-collection subroutine of the strong anthropic principle.”)
In addition to that, a ton of conspiracy reading, Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice, H.P. Lovecraft, and too many comics.
(Photo of Neil Gaiman’s library from Shelfari, via Boing Boing.)
1 Comment
September 16, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Love to see/hear what other’s are reading. I’m about halfway through that Pynchon book; amazing eye for period Los Angeles and pop cultural details. And tasty weirdness a-plenty. Speaking of books (and forgive if I’ve missed you talking about this somewhere) have you seen the children’s book on Philo T.? E-mail me if you haven’t….