These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things: Books

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So you've started to learn more about my interests with music and games and technology, and now we get to the root of all my interests, reading. Before I was ever playing games or really interested in music I was a voracious reader. In elementary school by the time I had reached third grade I had read fiction every book in the school library, and a good portion of the non-fiction section. Heck I was reading Dune in the third grade, and that is not an easy book to read even now. I still read a lot, but sadly not nearly as often as I used to. I go through books much slower these days, so I expect that this will be the slowest of my threads.

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Right now I'm immersed in Perdido Street Station by China Miéville.

I'm only about half-way through it, so I can't tell you if it is a satisfying read or not, but I can tell you that the story is fantastic. Set in a bizarre world vastly different from our own Miéville has the ability to build up a world that is completely alien and yet feels real enough to capture your attention and draw you in. If you like mystery, fantasy or horror there is something here for you.

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Recently Terry Pratchett announced that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, which means that there will be few new Discworld novels released before he becomes to ill to write any more.

Terry Practchett is most famous for the Discworld series of novels. I have recently started re-reading them from the first book The Colour of Magic. Written in 1983 this story introduces many of the main characters of the Discworld series, Rincewind, Twoflower, and others. For great humor that skewers the fantasy conventions, you can't go wrong with a Discworld novel.

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Well since I started this, I have wrapped up the first 4 Discworld novels, so it's time for a bit of a break, so instead I'm going to re-read one of my all time favorite modern fiction novels, American Gods, by Neil Gaiman.

American Gods is the tale of what became of all the old gods that immigrants brought to the US with them. At the core of the storyis the belief that the old gods would be wherever they had worshippers, and what happens to them when their worshippers are no more.

American Gods is a fascinating fairy tale mixing ancient stories and legends with a modern twist and an intricate and well crafted story. This is a very highly recommended book, and I can't encourage you enough to read it.

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So Neil Gaiman books read very quickly for me, and as such I find it is already time to move on to another book. In this case It is the follow up to American Gods, Anansi Boys.

In Anansi Boys we revisit a bit of the life of Spider from American Gods and see what a trickster god gets up to in his spare time. This is the story of Anansi's sons as they seek out their "dead" father and perhaps learn a little more about the world and themselves.

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Well I have started reading a second book in conjunction with The Anansi Boys, A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. A Game of Thrones is technically a fantasy novel, and the first in the Song of Ice and Fire series, but unlike most other fantasy novels, there is little magic or monsters, and the story is really more of a character drama, and a story of political intrigue.

The story follows the Stark family and their lives as the kingdom they live in undergoes deep turmoil that will change thier lands and lives forever.

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Well it is time to add another book on to the pile that I am reading, this time it is Wild Cards Vol. 1. Wild Cards is an anthology with several short stories by different authors, all set in the same world with the same history and background.

The stories are all based around super heroes who were infected by an alien virus and gained superpowers. Each author tells their own story and some of them are really quite good.