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Readings

What am I reading... let's see...

Jack Vance _This Dying Earth_ (series of stories set in a rather odd
     retro-medieval far future when the sun is on the verge of going out.)
Tipler _The Cosmological Anthropic Principle_ (a comprehensive look at
     how the Anthropic principle has shown up in physics, biology, and
     the social sciences.)
Franz Kafka _Der Prozess_ (The Trial)
Thomas Hohlbein _Wolfenherz_ (Wolvenheart - fantasy about werewolves)
Somebody Cooper _A Living Faith_ (Quaker history/theology)
Don't Remember _Flatterland_ (somebody trying to update _Flatland_ into modern math)
Various _Most censored news stories of 2000_ (summary of what the big media didn't
     want you to know last year, compiled by an academic media watchdog 
     group.  They put one out every year.)
Karen Armstrong _The Battle for God_ (on the growth of fundamentalisms
     in the 20th century)

Just finished recently:
Bill Bryson _I'm a Stranger Here Myself_ - very funny series of essays
     about moving back to the US after many years living in the UK.  Rather
     Dave Barry-like.
Tad Williams - Book 4 of _Otherland_ - very satisfying end to a remarkable series.
Jeanne Cavelero - Book 2 of the Babylon 5 technomage trilogy - brain candy.
     guilty pleasure.  :-)
Andreas Eschbach _Das Jesus-Video_ - fun sci-fi about an archeological dig that
     finds a 2000-year-old skeleton with the instructions for a video camera
     that would not be invented for three years.  A bit disappointing in the end.

Here are some responses to what you guys have written:

I read Lord of the Rings for the first time when I was about 7 years old,
and I keep reading it again every few years.  I think I'll read it again
before the movie comes out.  :-)

> Mark Helprin's Refiner's Fire would've been on that list too, but I just 
> finished it yesterday... 

Is he the guy that wrote _Winter's Tale_?  I quite liked that one.

> "At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election" by Bill Sammon

Wow, that's an ironic title, considering who *did* end up stealing the election.

> Tom Robbins (something - any suggestions?)

I quite liked _Skinny Legs and All_, although I disagree with some of his
historical interpretation.  The characters were great, and I really enjoyed his
little digressions (like the one about Thanksgiving).  I read it quite some
time ago (six years?), and the plot has become hazy in my mind.  Haven't read
any of his other work yet, though.

> Bruce Metzger: the Text of the New Testament

Excellent book.  Very dry, though.  McDonald's _Canon of the New Testement_
is also very good.

> Eleanor Cameron: The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (3rd read)

Whoa.  I haven't even *thought* of that book in *decades*.  If I'm thinking of
the right book, I used to love that book.  Was that the one with the little
professor guy with the big bald head who turned out to be an alien after all?
There was a whole series, wasn't there?

I'm going to have to look up Charles de Lint.  I quite liked Thomas Covenant,
so if this Trader thing compares favorably, I'll check it out.  Has anyone
read Donaldson's _Gap_ series?  Whew.  That was one of the most brutal stories
I've ever read.  

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions.  I'll add them to the stack of about
40 books waiting for me on my bookshelf...
-- 
Don Smith                    Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment
donaldas at umich_edu                          http://xte.mit.edu/~dasmith/

"I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."
					     - Sarah Williams
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