January 2010 The Oxford book of Modern Science Writing Edited by Richard Dawkins. I’ve read all of RD’s books and enjoyed most. This book is a collection of writings that he feels are some of the most important, influential and beautiful in the world of science writing.
January 25th 2010 Super Cannes By J.G Ballard. A disturbing sci-fi peak at a soulless future, from my brother.
February 10th 2010 Three Cups of Tea (Audiobook)By: Greg Mortenson. I often listen to audiobooks when driving anywhere over a few hours away. I was really pleased with Three Cups of Tea, I know i’m behind the ball on this one but it was great.
Feb 10th 2010. The End of Eternity. (audiobook) By Isaac Asimov. I love Asimov and I hadn’t read this one before. Really cool stuff.
February 16th 2010 The Serpent and the Rainbow. By Wade Davis. A book at about zombis and vodoo written by the CBCs 2009 Massey Lecturer Wade Davis. I read his Massey Lectures, The Wayfinders, after seeing him read a chapter in Halifax this past fall. Both are great reads, and the Serpent and the Rainbow is also an interesting look at Haitian culture from an anthropologist who likes to get his hands dirty point of view.
February 20th 2010On the Origin of Species By Charles Darwin, a facsimile of the first edition. I’ve read a lot of Richard Dawkins and you almost can’t get through a chapter of his without mention of Darwin and the Origin and how it’s still very readable and important. Surprisingly much of it is a good read and it’s arguably the most influential book in the english language. The deal with the copy of the first edition is that he apparently revised wordings quite a bit in later editions due to pressure, so the first edition is the way to go.
March 9th 2010 Spook Country, by William Gibson. I read Neuromancer a few years ago and loved it and wondered how the Matrix movies got so much attention and neglected to give Gibson some credit. Anyway I think this is his newest work and I wanted some Sci-Fi. Neuromancer is part of a trilogy called The Sprawl trilogy which I haven’t finished and may just do shortly. Incidentally, he’s also a dual citizen with Canada and the US.
March 13th 2010 Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson. A continuation of Three Cups of Tea, see above. I can’t get over what a life this guy leads. He lives an adventure for half the year.
From the 13th till April 22nd i’ve gone through the ones below:
Naomi Klein The Shock Doctrine pretty depressing stuff in the vein of Chomsky, but it’s on my recommended list.
William Gibson’s Count Zero the sequel to Neuromancer.
What the dog saw by Malcome Gladwell. I’m a big fan of Gladwell.
Arthur C. Clarks’ A Fall of Moondust. A shipwreck on the moon? a good audiobook for driving.
Robert A. Heinlein: Starship Troopers. I’ve read Heinlein before and i find his stories pretty intriguing and fascinating. I don’t need to be the one to say he’s one of the top sci-fi writers out there, but he is. He gets a little preachy at times but he usually has a good reason to.
The first four books of the Stephan King Opus, The Dark Tower series. I had heard of it before but i’ve never read any King before and wasn’t sure I wanted to start, his movies terrify me. Anyway i picked up the first book, The Gunslinger and was pleasantly surprised to see the first word of the introduction was “Hobbits”. I bought the first two books that day and the third about two days later (they were short) the third and fourth are considerably longer as are the fifth, which i’m reading now, and the sixth and seventh book. A long series, enjoyable and perfect to read to relax. Update May 10th: Finished all many thousands of pages of the dark tower series and I’m not sure whether or not I recommend it. It’s interesting but I don’t think Stephen King is my type of author; if you like King I don’t see how you can’t not read it as he goes on and on about how it’s his masterpiece…etc. I’ve come to a conclusion about long sci-fi/fantasy series’ and that is that the long ones are long for no other reason then to be long. I’ve tried reading a few and as a lover of LOTR and Asimov’s Foundation series I don’t mind length, but it seems that too many authors go long simply to go long. I doubt and hope it’s money that causes them to drag out a story but I find the amount of superfluous information being presented is often totally unessential. I found in the dark tower much of what was added didn’t necessarily add to ambiance or plot; but I don’t know, I’m impatient. Many people consider LOTR to be full of useless information, and maybe it is, but I’ve found that the information unessential to the plot wasn’t just put there because it seemed cool or like a good idea, it was put there because the world Tolkien built was so deep that many “digressions” in LOTR he had already written about decades before LOTR was even part way complete and they fit naturally into the story. Anyway I don’t really know what I’m talking about I think i’m angry i spent the past month reading those damn books.
April 25th Arthur C. Clark The City and the Stars Worth it!
Hiatus….
January 2012 Christopher Hitchens Arguably: Essays Great writer and fearless journalist. Covers everything.
January 2012 Vassily Grossman Life and Fate A communist War and Peace, singular for the environment in which it was written. Grossman wrote Life and Fate (a critical look a life during WWII and an exploration of the meaning of freedom) while in the Soviet Union.
February 2012 Rebecca Solnit A Book of Migrations An exploration of what it means to be rooted to one place and all that implies, versus a life without roots; one in which we carry everything important with us.
February 2012 William Faulkner The Sound and the Fury. First Faulkner novel I’ve read, I’ll be reading my second by the end of the week.
March 2012 Hunter S. Thompson Hell’s Anges: The Strange and Terrible Saga. I’ve always enjoyed HST’s writing. My first was Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail and since then I’ve read a good chunk of what he’s written via the Gonzo Papers series.