Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Book 46 - Eric (Pratchett)

Nice little Rincewind story.

Book 45 - A Million Little Pieces (Frey)

Very good addiction recovery story. In retrospect, pretty clearly fictionalized.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Book 42 - An Exaltation of Larks (Reed)

Very good. Not as weird as Jo Walton says. Some excellent ideas. Characters make the wrong choice in the ending. The turtles were right: an eternal infinite universe would be better than single finite universe.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Book 41 - The Sparrow (Russell)

Pretty average. Emphatically not SF (see Ken MacLeod)

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Book 40 - Disciple of the Dog (Bakker)

Very good thriller. But would I like it so much if it wasn't Bakker?

Monday, October 25, 2010

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Book 37 - Hero of Ages (Sanderson)

OK epic fantasy. Some cool ideas, but awkwardly written.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Book 36 - Siddhartha (Hesse)

Very good.

Book 35 - Religion in Four Dimensions (Kaufmann)

Very good. But the promised existential and comparative dimensions are in somewhat short supply. Another essay by Kaufmann had some good stuff along the line of "the Buddhist can free himself of attachment and suffering and achieve a mild benevolence to all, but the Jew can take a tragic path to sacrifice himself for all people"

Book 34 - Stealing Jesus (Bawer)

Pretty good. But Kaufmann might tell Bawer his church of love is a fantasy.

Friday, September 03, 2010

Book 33 - Autobiopsy (Rubens)

Good literary fiction. Like Isherwood, not awesome, but excellent ending.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Book 31 - Well of Ascension (Sanderson)

Good epic fantasy. A little heavy-handed with the emotional plot.

Monday, August 09, 2010

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Book 28 - Down There On a Visit (Isherwood)

Very good modern novel. Last part is quite a surprising twist.

Friday, July 02, 2010

Book 27 - The Sybil in Her Grave (Caudwell)

Fantastic mystery.

Book 26 - Taliesin (Lawhead)

OK epic fantasy. Seems a little plot-less.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Friday, June 18, 2010

Book 24 - The Fortunate Fall (Carter)

Super-awesome. Wow. Probably the best I've read this year.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Book 22 - The Road Less Travelled (Peck)

Very good self-help. Parapsychology and synchronicity a little hard to swallow

Friday, June 04, 2010

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Monday, May 10, 2010

Book 18: A Generous Orthodoxy (McLaren)

Average. The spirit stuff is very weak and disappointing. Like, that's all you get?

Book 17: David Copperfield (Dickens)

Excellent.

Book 16: The Reason for God (Keller)

Average. The unbeliever has nothing to fear from this.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Monday, March 29, 2010

Book 11 - A Game of Thrones (Martin)

Very good epic fantasy. A little lower than Bakker.

Book 10 - Guitar (Brookes)

Pretty good history of guitars and some modern boutique guitar-building. Brookes is more interested in guitars than music.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

2010 - 9 - The City and the City (Mieville)

Excellent. Police thriller wrapped in weird fantasy.

2010 - 8 - Infidel (Ali)

Good stuff

Friday, February 12, 2010

2010 - 7 - Permanance (Schroeder)

Pretty good SF. Similar universe and ideas to Watts' Blindsight (consciousness rare, though not a disadvantage), but sunny and cheery instead of bleak and hopeless.

2010 - 6 - Zoe's Tale (Scalzi)

Very good SF

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

2010 - 5 - Blindsight (Watts)

Excellent. Philosphically like Scott Bakker, but grimmer.

2010 - 4 - Postwar (Judt)

Excellent. Beyond my competence to comment.

2010 - 3 - Jesus for President (Claiborne, Hay)

Very good. The only acceptable Christianity.

2010 - 2 - The Great Emergence (Tickle)

Awful. Historically ignorant, philosophically incoherent, sociologically fanciful.

2010 - 1 - 2666 (Bolano)

Excellent. Huge and weird.