17 July, 2009

Reading

Aside from scientific papers and comic books*, I don't do much reading any more. I can't remember the last new thing I read for fun. Maybe it was World War Z by Max Brooks, and that was well over a year ago. I mean, I have read Neuromancer by William Gibson since then, but I tend to do that annually, so it doesn't really count.

The problem is that whenever I sit down to read anything, even a comic book, which is quick and awesome, I feel guilty that I'm not off reading scientific literature instead. I've got a stack of unread papers rapidly approaching the thickness of my head, and I have a large noggin. I see something that looks really interesting, read the abstract, and print it off to read later. Problem is that all too often it doesn't actually get read later, it just gets buried under everything else I've been meaning to analyze and forgotten.

But at the same time I really miss curling up with a good book and reading away.

So, dear reader, what do you recommend? Any great books you've recently parsed?

*Although I am also reading "Makers" by Cory Doctorow as it comes out, serializedy, on Tor's website. It's what made me realize I miss reading stories.

4 comments:

Jason Thibeault said...

At the moment I'm at about 100 pages through Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Given your mentioning World War Z, it might be worth a read for you. It's essentially the original novel rewritten to include zombies, and it's full of hilarity.

Toaster Sunshine said...

I tried "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and the problem with it is simply that it still contains far too much Austen for me to enjoy it.

sarcozona said...

I have the same problem, but I've been trying to read for fun just a little before I go to bed or on the bus for the last few years. It does make life better.

I'm reading Karen Armstrong's A History of God right now. Invisible Cities and Middlesex are two of my favorites. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle and Choke are books I've read in the last year that have stuck with me. And I think I'm going to read The Elegance of the Hedgehog next.

Anonymous said...

I'm on a Dan Simmons kick right now. Specifically Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. Dan Simmons is awesome, if you like classical epic poems and Middle English literature recast as bewildering science fiction narratives, and who doesn't?