still thinking of sooooo many things that never made it to my journal, considering it was on hiatus for nearly four months. among them, reading. i love to read, but it’s very sporadic. i tend to get hooked on a book, read it night and day, and not read anything else for quite a period of time. two books i’ve tried reading, and failed to get into, are the illuminatus trilogy and neal stephensen’s quicksilver.
illuminatus was on my list for many moons before finally finding a cheap used copy. it seemed weird enough to fit me well. the first dozen or so pages suggest someone was on an extended acid trip, stumbled upon a typewriter, and went to town. i do intend to finish it though, i haven’t given it a chance.
quicksilver is a different story. i loved stephensen’s cryptonomicon, and his snow crash. i had to love quicksilver, right? i’ve had to struggle through the 150 pages or so i’ve read thus far, and it just never grabbed me. i had a copy of his diamond age standing by, and opted to switch to another book, something i don’t like doing.
i loved it.
i’ve read several times that quicksilver is not much like his other works, and i guess this is a good example. again, i’ll finish quicksilver sometime — probably before illuminatus.
i’m not sure what’s up next. i’m not jonesing to read yet, as it’s only been a few weeks since i finished diamond age. i could dive back into quicksilver. or, i have a copy of interview with the vampire now.
side story: dana is very much into gothic literature. it was a moment of shock for her when she learned that i had not read the book or seen the movie adaptation. weeks later, she comes across a used copy, and i’m now the proud owner. how sweet is she? i’ll give it a chance.
i also want to obtain and read the following, when they are available on the “used and extrememly cheap” market…
* the big u (neal stephensen)
* just a geek (wil wheaton)
* dancing barefoot (wil wheaton)
* my life (bill clinton)
* the 9/11 report
and i’m sure the list will continue to grow.
I’m reading Quicksilver right now, and yeah, it does take some time to get into it. When I first saw the names of everyone that were similar to the names in Cryptonomicon, I expected it to be like that, only 250 or so years earlier. Not the case, as you could probably tell. I am enjoying it, though; it’s just a slow read since there’s a *LOT* of characters to keep track of, even with the dramatis personae in the appendix.
You’ll hopefully like Interview, though some of the later books I think are better (up until Memnoch, when it all turns to shite). And if you want, you can probably borrow our copy of “The Big U” sometime; I haven’t had a chance to get through all of it yet, but have enjoyed it.
I recently picked up a copy of Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. So far, it’s a very good book and probably one that you would enjoy also.
Weird. I also have Will Gibson’s Pattern Recognition. And I concur that later books by Rice are better than Interview, but you have to start at the beginning, lest you miss something important later. Memnoch and Pandora are my favorites, and Blackwood Farm rocked, too. The “new” chronicles overall though, not so good.
This random book tangent brought to you by me this 30th day of August 2004.