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Saturday, November 09, 2002 |
Books I'm Reading
I always have a stack going. Here's what I'm reading now; almost done with a couple of them:
Some of these, such as the 1400 page Orwell collection, are going to take some time. I'm almost finished with the Ferris and the Pinkwater, about half done with the Shepard. His stories are so good, it's hard not to gulp down the slim (140 pages) book all at once.
I never count the computer books as books I've read, for some reason. I guess because I don't always "read" them, just keep them for reference. I have books on Python, the Perl DBI, and PostgresSQL on the computer desk now.
2:04:43 PM Permalink
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American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman's American Gods is probably the best horror/fantasy novel I've read (I don't read many) since Carrion Comfort or Song of Kali. When Shadow is released from prison and returns home, he finds that his wife has been killed in a car wreck. He's approached by Wednesday, who hires him as an errand boy and bodyguard. Wednesday isn't all that he appears to be, and Shadow is sucked into a battle between gods transplanted into America from Europe (such as Wednesday) and the new gods of technology. Shadow is well drawn, as is his wife who appears as a corpse. The various gods are also well portrayed, and there's a good feel for the American landscape. The big set pieces are terrific. If it's a little long, that's OK because the themes are large, though personal at the same time. Highly recommended.
12:51:14 PM Permalink
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The Fourth Hand
Catching up on logging some of my recent book reading.
A few weeks ago I read the most recent John Irving novel, The Fourth Hand. Patrick Wallingford is a reporter for a CNN-like news network. When in India, he gets too close to a tiger in a cage, which proceeds to bite off his hand. This happens on live TV, so the entire world knows him as the tiger guy. This causes big changes in his life; previously a womanizer, he finds himself involved with the woman who donates her dead husband's hand to him in a transplant. A very enteraining novel, with well-drawn characters. Still, somehow Wallingford's transformation at the end seemed a little predictable to me and the ending obvious. Nevertheless, Irving's a good writer, and can be very funny; I haven't read him in a long time, but he's worth looking in on every now and then.
12:42:31 PM Permalink
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Listening to...
The last couple days I've been listening to two albums. First, there's the new Guy Clark work, The Dark. Clark is an original; there's a lot here to like -- good melodies, good story-telling, good singing. This is a very listenable and at times very moving album. Recommended.
Next is the new one from the man in black, Johnny Cash, The Man Comes Around. Heavy stuff. Cash is in great voice here, too, though the instrument doesn't have the range it used to all. As Mike said, this is not an uptempo album; it's very serious stuff. In all, though, I do think I much prefer the last album, Solitary Man. I liked the playing, mostly, on that album a lot better. Still, there's no one like Cash, and no one better. (Though the selection of two songs is really strange. It's hard to forgive him for recording the old Bridge Over Troubled Waters and First Time Ever I Saw Your Face chestnuts; as good as they are, and they're very good indeed, they do seem unnecessary.)
(Cursing myself for not going to the Merle Haggard Tribute to Bob Wills show last night in San Francisco.)
Also in heavy rotation is the new soundboard recording of Dylan's show in Atlanta last February; this is one of the best soundboards I've ever heard. Sometimes soundboards lack warmth and dimension. Not this one. The music, and Bob's voice especially, is very present, very three-dimensional. The performance is great, too, though the song selection is not all it could be. I'd like a recording of this quality from the fall tour!
11:40:01 AM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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