Minor Thoughts from me to you

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought this was a very good sequel to The Game of Thrones. It picked up where the last book left off and immediately went to work advancing the plot. If Game of Thrones had one fault, it was that there was too little action and too much world building. All of that world building begins to pay off in this book, however.

In the last book, some scenes were presented multiple times, from a different character’s viewpoint each time. There was little of that in this book, as the main characters are scattered all over Westeros.

There are four main Lords claiming the kingship: Robb Stark, in the North; Renly Baratheon in the South; Stannis Baratheon at Storm’s End; and Joffrey Baratheon in King’s Landing. In addition, Danys Targareon is still raising her three young dragons, Baylon Greyjoy is planning a new rebellion in the Iron Isalnds, and the men of the Night’s Watch are hearing rumors of a massive gathering of Wildlings, north of the Wall.

I was entertained by the continued growth of each of the main characters. It was also very obvious that the story was being driven by the personalities of each of the main characters. Game of Thrones revealed what those personalities were. A Clash of Kings showed the actions that those personalities demanded and the inevitable results of those actions. That personality driven story telling made this book a success.

As I did for the first book, I’ll keep notes of the major characters and where each was left at the end of the book.

Robb Stark—Is somewhere between Riverrun and Casterly Rock, still making war on the Lannisters. He didn’t appear in the book much, except as an offstage force of chaos.

Catelyn Stark—Is in Riverrun, interrogating Jamie Lannister. Last we saw her, she was preparing to execute him, during a midnight interview in the dungeons.

Arya Stark—Has just escaped from Harrenhal, after hiding there as a servant girl under two different conquering forces. She appears to be heading towards Riverrun, to find her mother and brother.

Sansa Stark—Is still a hostage of the Lannisters, in King’s Landing. Her engagement to Joffrey has been dissolved and she’s still hoping to escape King’s Landing.

Tyrion Lannister—Is recovering, in King’s Landing, from wounds sustained during the Battle for King’s Landing. He’s no longer the Hand of the King, however.

Jamie Lannister—Is still a prisoner of Robb Stark’s forces, having been captured during the battle for Riverrun. He managed to spend the entire book rotting in Tully’s dungeons.

Cersei Lannister—In King’s Landing, still trying to keep Joffrey safe. She’s no longer the regent however. That role has been assumed by Lord Tywin Lannister.

Joffrey Baratheon—Has been hailed as King by both the Tyrells and the Lannisters now, as well as most of the bannermen for the Baratheons. He is freshly engaged to Margery Tyrell.

Daenerys Targaryen—Is on the far side of the world, booking passage out of Qarth, with her dragons and khalasar.

John Snow—Has defected to the wildlings, north of the Wall. The wildling horde is riding towards the wall and plans to smash through into the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.

Bran Stark—Is heading North, from the ruins of Winterfell. He’s still a cripple but has discovered that he can mentally ride with Summer, at will.

Theon Greyjoy—Is dead, after the Bolton’s sack of Winterfell.

Winterfell—Was first captured by Theon Greyjoy and the men of Pyke, then captured and sacked by the Boltons. The North is at war and completely unprepared to face and invasion from beyond the Wall.

Stannis Baratheon—Presumed dead, at the Battle of King’s Landing.

Tywin Lannister—Newly named Hand of the King and Regent, in King’s Landing.

Temporary Duty by Ric Locke

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: I Shouldn’t Have Bothered

This is another book that I picked up because of a recommendation by Glenn Reynolds and his readers. Most of the recommendations I get that way are good. This book was the exception that proved the rule. Reading the reviews on Amazon, I wonder if I was reading the same book as everyone else.

The story revolves around two enlisted sailors: Todd and Peters. They are assigned to “temporary duty”, as advance crew for a Navy detachment that will be touring the local solar systems as the guest of a space faring alien race. The appeal of the story is that it takes place entirely from the perspective of people who are fairly low on the totem pole.

It’s a good premise. What went wrong? The first problem is that the book is long. If it were a printed book instead of an eBook, it would be well over 500 pages. I stopped reading 54% of the way through the book and not much had happened in those 200-300 pages.

Todd and Peters spent a lot of time on the spaceship learning the language, interacting with the crew, cleaning, talking, exploring, escorting other sailors, eating, sleeping. I was getting quite bored. More than half way into the book and I couldn’t identify an antagonist or a central challenge or any kind of real conflict.

Second, the characters all felt stereotypical and fairly homogeneous. The enlisted were decent. The officers and NCOs were mostly jerks who should have spent more time listening to Todd and Peters. The trader aliens were friendly but clueless about anything related in any way to technology. The technological aliens were standoff-ish but got friendlier when they saw that the humans knew how to perform routine maintenance and were eager to learn about the workings of the ship. And so on. Each character fit neatly into a mold and didn’t deviate too far from the outlines of that mold.

Finally, the Kindle edition had problems. Italics would often start in one word or phrase and then continue across multiple pages. I could fiddle with the book and eventually get the text to rest to non-italics but it kept happening. If the story had been more interesting, I might have persevered. But the combination of a dull story and technical glitches was more than I was willing to put up with.

Overall, I felt like this book could have desperately used an editor and a copy editor. The concept wasn’t bad but it pleaded and begged for someone to shorten it and tighten it up. It also screamed for some proof reading of the Kindle edition to make sure that everything looked good. It’s true that the brave new world of self-publishing doesn’t require the services of a publisher. On the other hand, some of those services are still valuable and worth paying for.

Halting State by Charlie Stross

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: It Was Okay

Charles Stross is one of the best SF writers currently in the field. Hia books are deeply inventive and he has a gift both for imagining potential futures and for bringing them to life. Glenn Reynolds recommended his new book, Rule 34. It sounded interesting but I wasn’t interested in paying new book prices to read it. I noticed that it was preceeded by Halting State. Since it was selling for quite a reasonable price, I decided to buy it.

I enjoyed this book. Stross envisions a new future where network connectivity and augmented reality are ubiquitous. Most people wear glasses that give them information about where they are (virtual maps overlaid on top of streets), who they’re seeing (names and brief bios floating alongside the people you’re looking at), or even information about nearby businesses. Gaming is big business, with massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs) running continuously on cell phones, available for play anytime.

And then a bank is robbed. But it’s a bank located in a game. A bank that should be completely unhackable. And the company running the bank seems strangely unwilling to assist the police in their investigation. The police, meanwhile, are baffled by the entire situation and the gaming scene. It’s up to a forensic accountant and a recently fired programmer to figure out what’s going on.

The book was recent in second person perspective, for 3 or 4 characters. It was nearly first person perspective but instead of the characters narrating their own viewpoint, Stross narrated it for them. (For example, “You stepped out into the street and hailed a passing taxi.”) That was odd but eventually, mostly, faded into the background.

The science and technology in the story was top notch, as you’d expect from an author who used to be a programmer. The characters were real and believable and each had their own voice and perspective.

It was a very good book. So why didn’t I enjoy it more? I think it was that the book wasn’t quite where my interests lay. I really enjoyed the world that Stross created but I’m just not that into gaming. Since the entire story revolved around gaming, I found it hard to really get into the spirit of the thing. For someone who does really enjoy gaming, this is an absolutely fantastic book.

Amazon is running a Big Deal sale on Kindle books. It includes about 970 books and ends today.

Like most sales, there is quite a lot of dreck in there. But I waded through it all and I did manage to find a few good bargains.

• Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, $2.99. This has received rave reviews from almost every fantasy fan. At this price, how could I not grab a copy to read?
• The Unincorporated Man, $2.99. I read this book last year and loved it. It’s a fantastic look at what would happen if people could raise money by selling “shares” of their future income, instead of taking out a loan.
• Zoo City, $0.99. I read an interview with the author and am intrigued enough to spend a dollar on her book.
• Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge (Anthology), $0.99. An anthology of science fiction stories. What’s not to like for a dollar?
• Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, $3.99. I’ve seen this book referenced several times. At this price, I’ll give it a read.
• The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith, $2.99. Written by Christopher Hitchens’ brother, Peter. Hitch is notoriously opposed to Christianity. I’m curious about what brought his brother to the opposite conclusion.
• Stuff Christians Like, $2.99. The website is occasionally funny and, at $3, I thought the book might be too.
• The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment, $2.99. I own the hard cover edition of this and have never read it. I might have better luck reading the eBook version.
• The Pursuit of Holiness, $2.99. A classic book, by Jerry Bridges. I’ll pick it up cheap now in the hope that I’ll read it one day.

Not a bad haul for $21.00.

In the course of defending Robert Heinlein’s position on firearms from David Brin, Eric S. Raymond offers up a view on the staggering impact that RAH has had on the world we live in today.

(When time has given us perspective to write really good cultural histories of the 20th century, Heinlein is going to look implausibly gigantic. His achievements didn’t stop with co-inventing science fiction and all its consequences, framing post-1960s libertarianism, energizing the firearms-rights movement, or even merely inspiring me to become the kind of person who not only could write The Cathedral and the Bazaar but had to. No. Heinlein also invented much of zeitgeist of the 1960s counterculture through his novel Stranger In A Strange Land; it has been aptly noted that he was the only human being ever to become a culture hero both to the hippies of Woodstock and the U.S. Marine Corps. I am told that to this day most Marine noncoms carry a well-thumbed copy of Starship Troopers in their rucksacks.)

∞

Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As you may be aware (he said dryly), this is the first book of George R.R. Martin’s wildly successful fantasy series, “Game of Thrones”. I really like this book. I know it’s true because I managed to reread it and there are very, very few books that I can stand to reread.

This book meets most of my criteria for being both entertaining and engaging. It has a grand scope, many complex characters, and massive world building with a fine attention to detail. It’s true that the novel sprawls over more than 800 pages but Martin makes good use of that length, through detailed world building.

Most of the story takes place in the land of Westeros, among the Seven Kingdoms. It’s a world where magic used to exist but most people believe that the magic has faded out of the world. The last of the dragons is dead and the other magical creatures exist only in fairy tales told to children. It’s a world where the seasons last for years instead of months. Summer has been long, more than 14 years, and many people don’t remember the harshness of Winter.

The history of Westeros and the Seven Kingdoms is embedded deeply into the story, making the world feel large and expansive. The story revolves around the seven Great Houses and focuses primarily on 3: the Starks, The Lannisters, the Targaryens. Each has their own peculiar history, traits, tendencies, and retainers. The characters in each House are fairly detailed. Everyone has their own unique personality and acts according to their own motivations and those of their House. The richness, depth, and complexity of these characters is a big part of what draws me into this world.

The details of the world are another element that really draws me in. For instance, many of the Lords, being quite imperfect people, father bastards. A bastard isn’t entitled to his (or her) father’s name but needs a name nonetheless. So, each region of Westeros has its own surname for bastards.

Stone was a bastard’s name in the Vale, as Snow was in the north, and Flowers in Highgarden; in each of the Seven Kingdoms, custom had fashioned a surname for children born with no names of their own.

Mix all of this together and you get quite a stew of motivations: greed, revenge, lust for power, duty, fear, loyalty all leading to a constant maneuvering for power in the Game of Thrones. As the Lannisters, Stars, and Baratheons jockey for power no one will move through the story unscathed.

On to the spoilers. Since I’m reading through the series, in anticipation of the release of the fifth book, I decided to keep notes of what happens to each of the major characters in each book.

• Robb Stark, Catelyn Stark—Robb Stark inherited the Lordship of the North when Eddard Stark was executed for treason. He’s currently at Riverrun, having just won a surprise victory over the Lannister forces and his bannermen have just proclaimed him King in the North, to avoid pledging fealty to either Renly Baratheon, Stannis Baratheon, or Joffrey Baratheon/Lannister.
• Arya Stark—Has escaped King’s Landing is headed North with Yoren, of the Night’s Watch.
• Sansa Stark—Is currently being held as a hostage of the Lannisters, in King’s Landing.
• Tyrion Lannister—Is with his father’s forces, on the Trident, but is about to head to King’s Landing to try to knock some sense into his nephew’s (King Joffrey’s) head.
• Jamie Lannister—Is a prisoner of Robb Stark’s forces, having been captured during the battle for Riverrun.
• Cersei Lannister, Joffrey Baratheon—In King’s Landing, ruling.
• Daenerys Targaryen—On the Dothraki sea. Khal Jogo has just died and her dragons have just hatched. Her pitifully small group is deciding where to go next.
• John Snow—On the Wall, with the Night’s Watch. He’s preparing to go North of the Wall, to find out what happened to his uncle Benjen Stark and to investigate the suddenly reawakened threat of the wights and the other creatures of the cold. He’ll be accompnying the Lord Commander of the Watch, Lord Mormont.
• Bran Stark—A cripple, confined to Winterfell, longing to act a man, as his brother Robb does.

The NYT’s Media Decoder blog reports that one publisher has decided that free (or low priced) eBook editions might be just the thing to get customers to buy books at local bookstores.

“We spend a lot of time lately trying to figure out how to sell books in this new world order,” said Elisabeth Scharlatt, the publisher of Algonquin, part of Workman Publishing. “And particularly to help booksellers to sell hardcover books, which seems increasingly difficult. So this seemed like one way of calling attention to a book by giving an incentive to the customer.”

Several publishers have experimented with bundling, whether by grouping several e-books together for one price or selling a print book paired with an e-book. “Consumers are starting to feel like, ‘If I’m buying the book, why do I have to buy it several times to have multiple formats?’ ” said Robert S. Miller, the group publisher of Workman.

This seems like a case of publishers coming late to the party. I was discussing this with friends and family when I bought my first Kindle, 3 years ago. We all agreed that it would just make sense for dead-tree books to come with a free (or very low cost) eBook edition.

I do question the publisher’s motivation though.

If physical bookstores continue to disappear, publishers worry, their books will not have an opportunity to be discovered by customers who wander into a store without knowing what they want to buy. Sales of print books have suffered in the last year, while e-book sales have soared.

First, I think eBook sales have soared because eBooks are far more convenient than dead-tree books. That certainly explains why my own eBook purchases have soared lately. The critical metric shouldn’t be one format versus another but rather total number of books sold. (Or, perhaps, total revenue.) By those metrics, I think my purchases are up compared to previous years.

Secondly, I think the model of browsing through book store shelves is dead. Growing up, I tried. Occasionally I found books to buy that way. But, more often, I found myself looking at books wondering “who buys this?”. I found my books through 2 primary routes: browsing the shelves of my local library and checking out what my friends were talking about. I think both of those models are easily transferred to the digital world.

My local library just started offering eBook loans earlier this year. All of the biographies and memoirs that I’ve read this year have come from the library. I enjoy browsing the website to see what’s new. It’s true that the library’s website isn’t as nice as it could be and that the browsing options could use some work. But those are issues that can be fixed. The basic model is sound.

I still get recommendations from friends too. But, today, my “friends” include the entire internet. I can easily get recommendations from Glenn Reynolds, Jerry Pournelle, Sarah Hoyt, and many, many others. Book stores are filled with books that I’ll never have an interest in, picked by no one in particular, and arranged with no particular care. Book publishers should focus less on mass market stores and more on communities organized around special interests. I’m far more likely to buy a book recommended by someone that I respect than I am to buy a book that I walk past on a store shelf.

Finally, publishers have an opportunity to become their own way for readers to discover books. Publishers, you have editors and your editors have taste (at least I hope they do). Use that taste. Market that taste. Tell readers that your imprint offers them a special flavor of reading. Then use your website to draw them, expose them to new authors and new works. Make it easy and convenient for them to buy directly from you. Make yourself a destination, for readers to find new books that they know they’ll enjoy because they know they’ve enjoyed other books that you’ve published.

I can think of three publishers that do this well: Baen Books, Tor, and Crossway. All three have a specific “voice” that the reader can rely on. All three feature recent books prominently on their home page. I can rely on all three to present books that I’m very likely to be interested in reading. If I’m bored and wondering what to read next, I know I can visit their sites and be assured of finding something interesting. That’s good for me, that’s good for the publisher’s bottom line, and it’s good for new authors that the publisher is featuring. More publishers should be like that.

Do we need bookstores to help readers discover new authors and new books? I don’t think so. I think we need publishers to realize that they’re living in 2011 not in 1950 and that bright, new opportunities are waiting for them as soon as they catch up to where their readers are.

Embedded by Dan Abnett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I came to this book through a roundabout path. ClarkesWorld Magazine had an interview with Lauren Beukes, in Issue #56 (May 2011). Jeremy L. C. Jones was talking with Ms. Beukes about her new novel Zoo City. I got intrigued and checked out the publisher, Angry Robot.

As I browsed their catalog, I stumbled on Embedded. The description intrigued me right away.

When journalist Lex Falk gets himself chipped into the brain of a combat soldier, he thinks he has the ultimate scoop - a report from the forbidden front line of a distant planetary war, live to the living rooms of Earth. When the soldier is killed, however, Lex has to take over the body and somehow get himself back to safety once more... broadcasting all the way.

And, at only $4.79 for the Kindle edition, it seemed eminently worth taking a flyer on.

Now that I’ve finished it, I still think it was worth the money. But it wasn’t nearly as good as it could have been. I knew I was in trouble when I started to think about other books, only a quarter of my way through this one. While I can suffer from ADD while reading, getting distracted while reading a book is generally a good sign that I’m just not that into the book.

This book had several flaws, in my opinion. To begin with, the story dropped us onto a planet still undergoing colonization, without first giving us any reason to care about the world itself, the colonists, or the organizations overseeing the colonization. Then we get a main character, Lex Falk, that we again have very little reason to care about or be interested in. I had a very hard time connecting emotionally with anything (or anyone) in the story.

The story also fell prey to the SF temptation to introduce new lingo as a way of showing that the world of the story is different from our own world. It might have worked except that it felt like it took a lot of work in order to understand what was standing in for what. Don’t get me wrong: it wasn’t all bad. But parts were and I didn’t think that they really added much to the story as compensation.

Sadly, it took about two-thirds of the book before I really felt like I developed a bond with the characters and started to care about what happened. From there on out, for the final one-third of the book, I really enjoyed the read. There was some great action, some great investigation work, and a great reveal. It was a really great read and I enjoyed it a lot.

How do I rate a book like this? Well, 4 stars for concept and the execution of the last third of the book. And 2 stars for the execution of the first two-thirds of the book and the introduction of everything. I’ll average that out and call it 3 stars for the book as a whole.

I think this book can be a good read, if you’re willing to endure the setup necessary in order to get to the really good parts.

Salamander by David D. Friedman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found this book through Jerry Pournelle's site, Chaos Manor. David Friedman had written in to say that he'd had his agent publish it as "a Kindle", just to see what would happen. After checking out the first two chapters (and seeing that it was priced at just $2.99), I decided to give it a shot.

I’m glad I did, as I really enjoyed the book. Friedman has constructed a magical system in which magic can be studied, experimented with, and controlled much as physics can be studied, experimented with, and controlled in our own world.

Magic spells and phrases are built up of smaller pieces, each with its own effect. By combining the sounds and words of the magical language, mages can create new spells with the desired effects. Although a mage may not be talented in one area, he can often achieve the desired result through a clever usage of an area of magic that he is talented in. It’s a very ingenious system and offers many possibilities for creativity—and for reflection about how science works in our own world.

The story centers around Magister Coeler and his efforts to create a new magical spell: the Cascade. He’s initially naïve, believing the spell will be used only for good. Eventually, through subsequent events and the arguments of his student Ellen, he realizes the terrible destructive power of his own spell. Together they struggle to protect their world from the spell and the power hungry mages who would seek to use the spell for evil. It’s true that a genie can’t be stuffed back into a bottle. But maybe he doesn’t need to be either.

I found the book to be entertaining, humorous, and thought provoking. Friedman uses the story to communicate the importance of thinking over brute force and to celebrate the triumph of those who are clever, realizing that victory doesn’t always have to go to the strongest. There are many clever uses of “small” magics and it’s fun to see the creative ways that a determined person can go to in order to resist coercion.

Firstborn by Brandon Sanderson

My Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dennison has spent his entire life watching Varion, his older brother by 20 years, win battle after battle. Varion has fought his battles flawlessly, perfectly, never losing. Dennison has fought his own battles valiantly, but hopelessly, never winning. And, yet, his father and his Emperor refuse to release him from military service. Why? What good does it do anyone for him to stay in arms? Especially when his brother is loyally advancing the Empire's cause at every turn?

This was a pure impulse buy for me. I saw it listed as "customers that like this also like this" item on Amazon.com. I'm a fan of Brandon Sanderson and it was only $0.99, so buying it was an easy decision. (Sure, I know it's on Tor.com, but I like supporting my favorite authors and I prefer reading things on my Kindle whenever possible.)

This was one impulse buy I don't regret. As always, Brandon Sanderson is enjoyable and he knows how to tell a story with a twist. For a $0.99 short story, I definitely got $5 worth of enjoyment.

I didn't intend to read this. I really didn't. But, well, now I can't put it down.

"Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" is a fanfiction retelling of Harry Potter. It takes place in an alternate universe in which Harry Potter was raised by loving foster parents who instilled in him a great love for science, rationality, and continuously questioning everything around him. He attends Hogwarts, but attends determined to figure out what in the name of Isaac Newton is going on and how, exactly, magic fits into a rational, scientific universe. The results are rather hilarious.

I discovered the story while reading Eric S. Raymond and loved his capsule description.

Read it and laugh. Read it and learn. Eliezer re-invents Harry Potter as a skeptic genius who sets himself the task of figuring out just how all this “magic” stuff works. The science is real – it really would be a lot harder to explain transformation from a human into a cat than mere levitation, for example. When Harry, confronted with a magical time-travel device, is immediately terrified that he might be holding an antimatter bomb, this is actually a more justified fear than many readers may understand.

But the characters are not slighted. Eliezer is very good at giving them responses to the rather altered and powered-up Harry that are consistent with canon. The development of Minerva McGonagall is particularly fine.

Strongly recommended. And if you manage to learn about sources of cognitive bias like the Planning Fallacy and the Bystander Effect (among others) while your sides are hurting with laughter, so much the better.

I read the first few chapters and wasn't really getting into it. I put it down. Then I picked it up and read a few more pages. Now I'm hooked and I can't put it down.

Go, read it. Don't make me be the only one hooked on this. Grab it as an ePub or Mobi file for your favorite eReader. (Be aware that the story is still on-going and you'll need to periodically re-download the file to get the latest updates.)

Live Free or Die by John Ringo

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Once again, I greatly enjoyed a book by John Ringo.

If you're going to read Ringo, you need to know what you're getting yourself into. He's a veteran and (judging from his books) he loves blowing stuff up, he hates stupid people, he loves weird aliens or situations, and he has quite a vivid imagination.

Live Free or Die follows this trend. Like many of Ringo's recent books it has a "conversational style". When I say that, I mean that it reads as if you were sitting around a fire with him, listening to him spin a tale. The narration is loose and free, the action is usually just a bit over the top, the events are a bit outrageous and the entire thing is ton of fun to experience. It never even approaches the realm of fine art but that's okay. It's too much fun to quibble about.

The book opens when Earth (Terra) receives its first visit from aliens. They drop off a space gate that allows anyone and everyone from the galaxy to come calling. Soon enough, the Horvath come through and start demanding tribute. It's up to Tyler Vernon to figure out a way to make a buck (or a couple of billion) and start leading the way to free Earth.

Along the way, most of Earth's major cities get wiped out (along with most of America's die-hard liberals) leaving the conservatives and libertarians in charge. Most of the Middle East also gets wiped out (due mostly to their own fear and stupidity.) This is at least the second time that the Middle East has been destroyed in a Ringo novel. (The first, I think, was in "Into the Looking Glass".) A trillion ton asteroid gets turned into a floating battle station (complete with 1.5 kilometer thick nickel-iron armor) and hundreds of floating space mirrors are used to turn alien fleets into scrap metal.

Really, what's not to like?

(Oh, and if you want to read it on your Kindle or Nook or what-have-you, I'd recommend getting it directly from the publisher at Baen Books. It's cheaper than Amazon and has no nasty DRM restrictions. You can thank me later.)

Kennedy by Theodore Sorenson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

How suddenly a life can be cut short. That is the lesson I took away from "Kennedy".

I underestimated Ted Sorenson. I shouldn't have. One doesn't get to be Counselor to the President and speech writer without having some skills with words. Nevertheless I strongly disliked this book and allowed that to color my perception of Sorenson's skills. I did, at least, up until the final paragraph.

The final few chapters start to build momentum as Sorenson depicts Kennedy's resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the sudden relaxation of tension with the Soviet Union, the negotiations over atmospheric nuclear testing, and the successful signing of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The tone of the book changes to reflect Kennedy's relief at successfully navigating these crises. Sorenson chronicles Kennedy's trip out west to promote the treaty and the dawning new era of détente with the Soviet Union.

Then, he treats the reader to this final, concluding paragraph.

On November 20 he transmitted an optimistic report to the Congress on our participation in the United Nations. On November 21 he started another tour into the heartland of the opposition, this time in Texas. That evening, in Houston, he talked of "an America that is both powerful and peaceful, with a people that are both prosperous and just." The next morning, in Fort Worth, he expressed confidence that "because we are stronger...our chances for security, our chances for peace, are better than they have been in the past." That afternoon, in Dallas, he was shot dead.

The introduction of Kennedy's assassination is sudden, abrupt, and shocking. This is the first mention of Kennedy's death in the entire book. It's effective. It's very effective. I'm not sure I even like Kennedy that much but, for the first time, I felt the emotional impact of his assassination. It was an unpleasant dash of cold water and I felt the shocking finality of a life suddenly snipped short. A life ended without a chance to say goodbye, without the opportunity for a final hug or smile, without training a successor, or squeezing the hand of a loved one. A life that suddenly, irrevocably, ends.

For that, I'll forgive Sorenson for much of the pain I felt while reading his biography of John F. Kennedy.

Unfortunately, it can't make up for all of the book's shortcomings. Like I said before, I really didn't like this biography that much. I read it expecting to get an introduction to Kennedy, his life, his time, his achievements, and his death. What I got was a hagiographic love letter from a devoted worshipper. Perhaps you feel I'm being too harsh. Allow me, please, to illustrate.

It will not be easy for historians to compare John Kennedy with his predecessors and successors, for he was unique in his imprint upon the office: the first to be elected at so young an age, the first from the Catholic faith, the first to take office in an age of mutual nuclear capabilities, the first to reach literally for the moon and beyond, the first to prevent a new recession or inflation in modern peacetime, the first to pronounce that all racial segregation and discrimination must be abolished as a matter of right, the first to meet our adversaries in a potentially nuclear confrontation, the first to take a solid step toward nuclear arms control—and the first to die at so young an age.

And, again.

History and posterity must decide. Customarily they reserve the mantle of greatness for those who win great wars, not those who prevent them. But in my unobjective view I think it will be difficult to measure John Kennedy by any ordinary historical yardstick. For he was an extraordinary man, an extraordinary politician and an extraordinary President. Just as no chart on the history of weapons could accurately reflect the advent of the atom, so it is my belief that no scale of good and bad Presidents can rate John Fitzgerald Kennedy. A mind so free of fear and myth and prejudice, so opposed to cant and clichés, so unwilling to feign or be fooled, to accept or reflect mediocrity, is rare in our world—and even rarer in American politics. Without demeaning any of the great men who have held the Presidency in this century, I do not see how John Kennedy could be ranked below any one of them.

Much of the book is written in that vein. It grew wearisome after the first 3 chapters. It was dreadfully dull by the end of the book. In Sorenson's estimation, Kennedy could do no wrong. It wasn't enough that he was a superb President. Sorenson was convinced that Kennedy could have been his own best Secretary of State, his own best Ambassador, his own best Press Secretary, his own best speech writer, his own best Chief of Staff, etc. The only thing holding Kennedy back from single handedly running the government the way it deserved to be run was a simple lack of time.

Thankfully, the book was not without its redeeming points. The language was, occasionally, poetic. For example:

But the President was upset, and sternly told Jacqueline later never to do that ... and not to worry about his future. On November 22 his future merged with his past, and we will never know what might have been. His own inner drive, as well as the swift pace of our times, had enabled him to do more in the White House in three years than many had done in eight—to live a fuller life in forty-six years than most men do in eighty. But that only makes all the greater our loss of the years he was denied.

And I did finish the book with a better understanding of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin crisis, the Bay of Pigs, and other significant events than when I started. So my time spent reading it wasn't an entire waste. But it was a trudge, not a pleasure.

If you're looking for a serious introduction to President John F. Kennedy, I'd advise you to look elsewhere. If you already love President John F. Kennedy and simple want to relive the love, this is most definitely the book for you.

Last year, my New Year's Resolution was to finish more books than I started. It made sense because I had a bad habit of starting books, then getting distracted by a newer, shinier book and never finishing the first book (or the second or third, for that matter). My resolution was to focus on actually finishing the books that I started, before starting a new book.

This year, in addition to continuing last year's Resolution, I Resolve to read more non-fiction books. For the past 15 years, my reading has been heavily dominated by fiction books. (I read lots of non-fiction articles and news stories but few non-fiction books.)

My new plan is to read one non-fiction book, followed by one fiction book. I'm off to a good start already. I read A Journey: My Political Life by Tony Blair. I just finished reading Red Dragon by Jerry Pournelle.

Now, what non-fiction book should I read next? I have a lot of great books queued up to read. The list is so good that I'm really having a hard time deciding which one to take off the shelf first. So, what do you think I should read?

My candidates are:

Kennedy by Ted Sorenson

The first appointment made by the new President was to name Ted Sorensen his Special Counsel. Sorenson relates the role of the White House staff and evaluates Kennedy's relations with his Cabinet and other appointees. He reveals Kennedy's errors on the Bay of Pigs, his attitudes toward the press and Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his handling of Berlin and the Cuban missile crisis.

Three months to the day after Dallas, Sorensen left the White House to write the account of those eleven year that only he could write.

Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

This biography by Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning author of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex, is itself the completion of a trilogy sure to stand as definitive. Packed with more adventure, variety, drama, humor, and tragedy than a big novel, yet documented down to the smallest fact, it recounts the last decade of perhaps the most amazing life in American history. What other president has written forty books, hunted lions, founded a third political party, survived an assassin’s bullet, and explored an unknown river longer than the Rhine?

From Poverty to Prosperity by Arnold Kling

From Poverty to Prosperity is not Tipping Point or Freakonomics. Those books offer a smorgasbord of fascinating findings in economics and sociology, but the findings are only loosely related. From Poverty to Prosperity on the other hand, tells a big picture story about the huge differences in the standard of living across time and across borders. It is a story that draws on research from the world's most important economists and eschews the conventional wisdom for a new, more inclusive, vision of the world and how it works.

Hero by Michael Korda

T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935) first won fame for his writings and his participation in the British-sponsored Arab Revolt of WWI, but the adventurer known even in his day as "Lawrence of Arabia" is remembered today mostly as the subject of the 1962 film masterpiece based on his life. This splendid page-turner revitalizes this protean, enigmatic adventurer. That this colorful British scholar/Middle East warrior deserves a better fate is demonstrated amply in Michael Kordas' authoritative 784-page biography.

Unchecked and Unbalanced by Arnold Kling

Arnold Kling provides a blueprint for those who are skeptical of political and financial elitism. At the heart of Kling's argument is the growing discrepancy between two phenomena: knowledge is becoming more diffuse, while political power is becoming more concentrated. Kling sees this knowledge/power discrepancy at the heart of the financial crisis of 2008. Financial industry executives and regulatory officials lacked the ability to fathom the complexity of the system that had emerged.

Extraordinary, Ordinary People by Condoleezza Rice

This is the story of Condoleezza Rice that has never been told, not that of an ultra-accomplished world leader, but of a little girl trying to find her place in a hostile world and of two remarkable parents – and an extended family and community – that made all the difference. On the shoulders of individuals both black and white, young Condoleezza Rice stood and looked out on a world where anything was possible -- and in a way that is singularly fascinating, Extraordinary, Ordinary People takes us not just through Rice’s childhood but, also, her twenties and thirties as she builds a record of achievement that positions her for involvement in world-historical events.

A Journey: My Political Life by Tony Blair

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book caught my eye because I knew very little about Tony Blair. I knew he was the Prime Minister in Britain. I knew he was the leader of the Labour Party and a big government, big spending progressive. I knew he was President Bush’s staunchest ally in the war on terror. And, that’s about it. I really didn’t know anything about what he actually tried to accomplish in Britain or why. I didn’t know anything about who he was or what he made him tick. And, after reading Decision Points, I was interested in his perspective on the events of the past decade.

Although long, this book was an enjoyable read. Blair writes with a light, conversational style that I really enjoyed reading. It could be a little distracting at times, as he would occasionally take a rabbit trail into the past. It was usually apparent when he did so, but I got confused about the timing of events a few times. That was a minor complaint as the style generally contributed greatly to the tone of the book.

As I read, I discovered that Tony Blair has a wonderful sense of humour. That’s matched with a very contemplative approach to life. For example, he recounted several times how stressed out he would get before a big speech, spending his time constantly writing and rewriting his text. He compared this to President Bush who was amazingly laconic before most speeches and never seemed to worry about the message or the delivery. (Some might say that those contrasting approaches showed up in the quality of speeches that each man gave.)

This book is exactly what it says on the cover: a story about the journey Blair took during his political life. It’s partly a history of the events of the past 30 years and partly a recounting of the decisions and actions that formed Blair’s own evolving outlook on life and politics. After reading the book, I came away thoroughly convinced that I would like Tony Blair as a person, even if I felt compelled to oppose many of his policies.

As to policies, I won’t spend a whole lot of time critiquing them. Blair and I are on different ends of the political spectrum, when it comes to the question of how involved and active government should be. It’s not really worth belabouring the point of all of the different ways in which we do disagree.

I was greatly impressed by Blair’s perception of the ways in which traditional big government liberalism and socialism is highly unsuited to our modern economic system and dynamic society. Blair clearly saw what was wrong with the Labour Party and with the government’s highly centralised approach to decision making. He saw that people were used to choice and used to firing incompetent providers in the private section. And he saw that the government’s provision of services wasn’t coming close to what people now expected. As a result, he spent his entire political career trying to reform the delivery and provision of government services. While I don’t agree with his solutions, I was very happy with his overall critiques of government services.

This comes across clearly in his definition of what it means to be a progressive.

First, what makes you a progressive? I would say: belief in social justice, i.e. using the power of society as a whole to bring opportunity, prosperity and hope to those without it; to do so not just within our national boundaries but outside of them; to judge our societies by the condition of the weak as much as the strong; to stand up at all times for the principle that all human beings are of equal worth, irrespective of race, religion, gender (I would add of sexuality) or ability; and never to forget and always to strive for those at the bottom, the poorest, the most disadvantaged, the ones others forget. Notice these are all values, not policies. They may beget policies.

… Third, there is a new divide in politics which transcends traditional left and right. It is what I call “open vs. closed.” Some right-wingers are free-traders, others aren’t. Likewise with the left. On both sides, some are pro-immigration, others anti-. Some favour an interventionist foreign policy; others don’t. Some see globalisation and the emergence of China, India and others as a threat; some as an opportunity. There is a common link to the free trade, pro-immigration (controlled, of course) interventionist and pro-globalisation political positions, but it is “open vs. closed,” not “left vs. right.” I believe progressives should be the champions of the open position, which is not only correct but also a winning position, as Bill Clinton showed conclusively. However, it is a huge and important dividing line in modern politics.

I would agree with this definition and, by it, I think I could call myself a progressive. I would place myself on the “open” side of his dividing line. I think Blair and I would merely (merely!) disagree on the policies that this definition begat.

I very much enjoyed this book as a look into the mind and growth of Tony Blair. It did exactly what a good political memoir should: it helped me to understand who he is, why he made the decisions he did, and how he grew as a result of his time in politics. Now that I’ve read it, I’m strongly rooting for him to have success in the Middle East peace process and I wish him well in his post prime ministerial career.

Decision Points by George W. Bush

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

When I read political memoirs, I'm typically looking for one of two things: a much better understanding of the politician or a much better understanding of the decisions that were made and the day-to-day, nitty-gritty detail of events that led into the decisions. Sadly, with this book from "43", I got neither.

President Bush had an active presidency and was often juggling many simultaneous crises. I was hoping for a look at what life was like in his White House. How crazy does a typical day look when you're juggling a Social Security reform bill, a war in Iraq, and a belligerent North Korean state all at once? Sadly, I never found out. By organizing the point around different topics and focusing on one decision point at a time, he stripped events from their context, rendering them sterile and unmoored from the emotions of each year of his presidency.

I was also greatly disappointed by the lack of detail surrounding each decision point. Many of the descriptions boiled down to a very simple formula. "An event happened. I had a gut feeling but knew I needed to consult with some trusted advisors. My advisors confirmed my gut instinct and I implemented the plan. Ultimately, I was disappointed in the outcome and I know realize that I should have changed my tactics (but not the overall plan). Today, America is better off and I'm glad I made the attempt, even if it didn't turn out quite the way I'd hoped it would."

I wish I could say that I exaggerate and that there is a higher level of detail in the book. I can't. The Harriet Miers debacle, for instance, only takes about a page to relate. I've watched the West Wing. I know that a huge amount of work goes into the selection of a Supreme Court Justice. Going into the book, I wanted to know a lot more about the process that led to picking Ms. Miers as a nominee. This book did nothing to satisfy my curiosity.

People who already love President George W. Bush will probably love this book. Those of us who read it hoping to find a reason to reevaluate his presidency will have to go away disappointed.

Above: "Summer reading list" by Kimberly Applegate.

Counting up how many books I've read in the last 3+ months, I find that I've just passed my reading list's halfway point; I'm on my nineteenth entry out of thirty-six.

A commute to work by bus has its advantages.

Let's throw some ratings into the mix here. We'll use a five-star system:

1 - being God-awfully inept and offensive. 2 - being so flawed that it lacks entertainment value. 3 - being entertainment, but a clearly flawed work. Inoffensive and forgettable.
4 - being a perfectly respectable example of How It's Done, but falling short of Art. 5 - being something special, a superior achievement.

FICTION

The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett - I paid a visit to the former chair of the Shorter College Humanities Department recently and we naturally flung books at each other before parting. This was his selection. Finished. 4 stars.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan - The movie looks like a great deal of fun, but in general I'm a firm believer of reading the book first. So I will. Finished. 2 stars..

Up in the Air, by Walter Kim - Another book purchased simply because the previews for the movie greatly intrigue me. Finished. 3 stars. Loses points on the dismount with a tacked-on "shocking revelation".

Native Son, by Richard Wright - Because I like my reading lists to have some diversity and realized I didn't have any great African-American novels on it. I love Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Ellison was connected with Wright, so I selected this to fill the gap.

War & Peace, by Leo Tolstoy - I'm probably being absurdly optimistic in purchasing this book and putting it on my reading list for this year; as anyone can tell you, it's huge, and God knows the block of time it'll require has plenty of other claims on it, the rest of this list included. Still, I've really wanted to read it ever since finishing The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and having it readily available is the first step, so just maybe...

Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky - And buying Tolstoy made me think of Dostoevsky, whose The Brothers Karamazov I finally finished when I last visited Korea.

The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden, by John Steinbeck - I've already read Grapes, but I did it back in high school, which really is more or less equivalent to having not read something at all (children are all Philistines; their souls have not yet developed). One of Steinbeck's other novels ranks as an absolute favorite of mine, The Winter of Our Discontent, and one of the particularly proud moments of my time in college was when I had the honor of introducing my Creative Writing professor to it, who afterward declared it one of her all-time favorites as well.

The Angel's Game, by Carlos Ruis Zafon - Zafon's other novel, The Shadow of the Wind, is one of the most enjoyable books I read in '09. My wife's already read this one and told me it's darker, which disappointed her and somewhat disappoints me - Shadow was one of those books where you bounced in your bed at the ending, which is a rarity for me - but so it goes; no doubt it will still be, as Stephen King called Shadow, one gorgeous read.

The Baroque Trilogy (Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World) and Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson - Apparently a force with which to be reckoned in science fiction, which accounts for why I haven't heard of him. I've received a lot of recommendations from friends who are into the genre, though, and Snow Crash made TIME's "100 Greatest Novels of the 20th Century", so I feel pretty confident these'll be enjoyable. Finished with Snow Crash. 5 stars.

The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman - I've always been curious about the His Dark Materials trilogy, a fantasy series that's often referred to as the anti-Chronicles of Narnia. I'm not willing to blindly plump for all three, but I'm pretty sure the first installment is a self-contained story, like The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe. So it turns out that the first book was not self-contained, but it was so good Anna and I immediately purchased the next two. I'm on the third volume now. Grade So Far: 5 stars.

The Magicians, by Lev Grossman - What if a bunch of today's adults found out Hogwarts and Narnia were real? Sounds fun. Finished. 4 stars.

Supreme Courtship, by Christopher Buckley - On the strength of his Thank You For Smoking. Finished. 4 stars.

A Farewell to Arms and The Son Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway - I'd never actually read Hemingway until I picked up_ For Whom The Bell Tolls_ at the airport on my way to my honeymoon destination. I am now of course very much looking forward to reading the rest of his body of work. In March I accidentally found and finished The Old Man and the Sea.

This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald - Obviously I'm taking the opportunity to fill in a few shameful gaps in my reading experience.

Riding Lessons, by Sara Gruen - Because her Water For Elephants is utterly charming.

Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer - I consider it sort of a duty to read anything that gets as popular as this book. Plus my wife's read them all and wants to be able to discuss them with me. Hey, who knows? I didn't want to read the Harry Potter books, either. Finished. 2 stars.

Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger - On the strength of her first book, The Time Traveler's Wife, which reminded its readers of how great science fiction can be when it's not just left for geeks to write. Finished. 3 stars, but not for any observable deficiency; the narrative simply doesn't compel.

The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton - Since all of her novels are in the public domain now, Amazon asks only ninety-nine cents in return for all thirty-one of them. I actually finished this particular book back in January (we're over a month into '10, after all). Verdict: enjoyable, but The Age of Innocence is far more rewarding to the modern reader. 3 stars.

Between, Georgia, by Joshilyn Jakson - My mother's recommendation. I honestly have no idea.

Being Written, by William Conescu - One of several impulse buys. A minor character in a book realizes his nature and struggles with the author to achieve greater prominence. Finished - and boy, this book wasn't what I thought it would be at all. 4 stars, but I'm disturbed..

Persona Non Grata, by Ruth Downie - My trial installment for a light-hearted series in which an ancient Roman doctor and his slave girl solve mysteries.

Tipperary, by Frank Delaney - In preparation for my Kindle spree I walked about a Barnes & Noble, just letting covers leap out at me. My wife tells me this one did. I naturally no longer remember.

The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth - A tale set in an alternative history in which the Fascists gained political power in America prior to World War II. Why not? Finished. 2.5 stars. Undeniably the work of someone who knows what he's doing, but its message is extraordinarily deceitful and the pace of the plot sometimes unforgivably slow.

NONFICTION

The Art of Biblical Narrative, by Robert Alter - Assigned by my Old Testament professor at college, this is one of the books that spearheaded the (re-?)introduction of literary analysis of the Bible to universities in the last century. Obviously I've read it (got a "B" - Dr. Wallace wasn't easy), but I'd like to read it again at a more leisurely pace. And maybe take notes this time. An assured 5 stars.

Foreskin's Lament, by Shalom Auslander - A memoir from an author who has written only one other book to my knowledge, an anthology of short stories collectively entitled Beware of God, which was so side-splittingly hilarious and poignant I'll probably be buying anything with his name on it for the foreseeable future. Finished. 4 stars.

The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel..., by Israel Finkelstein - A survey of what modern archaeology has to say about the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah and their Biblical records. Finished. 3 stars. Fully half the book is dull summarizing of the Bible stories themselves. The rest is very interesting.

Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick - Six North Korean refugees describe life beyond the DMZ, and how they escaped it. Being in such close proximity to what may be the most evil regime on this planet almost demands an interest in it, so I've always known that when I returned to Seoul I'd be bringing along more reading material about the DPRK. Finished. 5 stars and very moving.

The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, by Dr. Robert "The Bible Geek" Price - A biblical scholar's assessment of the four gospels' authenticity. Finished. 4 stars.

On Writing, by Stephen King - The best book on writing fiction I've ever read, written by the writer's writer. I owned a physical copy but gave it away.

Brotherhood of Warriors, by Douglas Century - A look into Israel's special forces. Already read this one too, but I need to comb through it again for research purposes. Finished. 4 stars for what it is - but what it is doesn't happen to be that audacious, so don't take that as a strong recommendation.

I'll be updating my 2010 Reading List (primarily composed of books I uploaded to my Kindle in February) as I read through it, in no particular order.

And since I've gone ahead and created a post to make that announcement, I'll go ahead and list what I've finished thus far, as well as brief reviews:

The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett – I paid a visit to the former chair of the Shorter College Humanities Department recently and we naturally flung books to read at each other before parting. This was his contribution to my stack - a generations-spanning chronicle of the Englishmen and women involved in the building of a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge. The writer was previously known for his work in the thriller genre, but this radical departure quickly became his bestselling work and has even spawned three board games and a television series, as well as a sequel novel. For good reason, too: I recommend the book to any fan of historical fiction. If Follett does say so himself: "It recreates, quite vividly, the entire life of the village and the people who live there. You feel you know the place and the people as intimately as if you yourself were living there in the Middle Ages."

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan – The movie looked like a great deal of fun, but in general I’m a firm believer of reading the book first. This was the first real disappointing read of my batch, though in all fairness that's largely because I turned out not to be the target audience; the reading level on this one's far below, say, the Harry Potter series, on which by the way it is far too shamelessly based (the gods' children all attend an annual summer camp where they train, for cryin' out loud). What I did enjoy enough to finish the story was how well Rick Riordan handles the central theme of parental abandonment. Naturally, it's that very redeeming feature at the core which the movie mishandles as badly as possible. Instead of keeping Percy Jackson in the dark about his completely mysterious god of a father, alternately longing to meet Poseidon and hating him for leaving, the film adaptation (1) shows Poseidon in the first minute of the film, so that we don't have any of that pesky curiousity bugging us as we take in the special effects, (2) has everyone Percy knows assuring him that Daddy loves him and is kept from his side by forces outside of his control, and (3) even has Poseidon's voice repeatedly guiding Percy through danger. Oy.

The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway - This actually wasn't on my reading list. A copy was included gratis by the curriculum publisher from which my school purchases all its materials and I stole it for a night. Coincidentally, two of Ernest Hemingway's other famous novels actually are on my list.

The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton - I uploaded all 30+ of her novels onto my Kindle for .99. That never ceases to tickle me. That aside, I can't really recommend this one. It's not unenjoyable, but the book is written in a Victorian tradition that most modern readers will find silly and unsatisfying: the morality tale about the girl who foolishly engages in one or more Ill-Advised Activities, like putting off marriage too long or flirting with men so they buy you things. The consequences of these crimes is almost unfailingly homelessness and death in her twenties. The contrived nature of these dire ends can be hysterical, but they're never engaging. Fortunately, Edith Wharton moved on from such stuff to write The Age of Innocence, which is a mature and engrossing study of both an unconsummated extramarital affair and New York's high society at the beginning of the 20th century, fabulously written. Go check it out.

Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick – The true accounts of six North Korean refugees, who describe life beyond the DMZ and how they escaped it. Any account of the horrific and inexcusable conditions in which people in North Korea are trying to live out their lives is bound to be moving, but living as I currently do in the Koreans' southern republic - surrounded by this proud race and witnessing the society they're capable of achieving when not trod into the mud by a dictator - each story in this book feels barbed with greater poignancy. To see an ajumma happily teasing her toddler as she shops for dinner at an overstocked supermarket, then to read about a practically interchangeable woman watching her own baby die of starvation and incapable of even acknowledging the fact, truly impresses on one just how monstrous the crimes of Kim Jung-il and his cronies are.

The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, by Dr. Robert “The Bible Geek” Price – A biblical scholar’s assessment of the four gospels’ authenticity by one of the infamous (in Christian circles, anyway) Jesus Seminar's founders. Dr. Price is the very opposite of a fundamentalist Christian; ometimes there seems to be no passage in the Bible which he considers believable. I don't agree with all of his opinions (I find it likely that a historical Jesus has at least walked this Earth at some time), but he always provides a very dense, informative, and witty read. Plus, he's a fellow comic book geek. What other Biblical scholar can you find who quotes recent issues of the Justice League of America?

I love the internet. Love, love, love it. I find so much there.

For example, I read a book many years ago. I was visiting my grandparents as a young teenager and checked out a bunch of books from the Cuyahoga County Library. I really enjoyed one of them and it's stuck in my mind for years as something that I'd like to re-read. Except that neither the title nor the author stuck in my mind. Just the plot. Something about Science Fiction, teenagers, summer vacation, a game, an island, and something to do with space -- or a pig. Or both.

As you can imagine, it's rather hard to find a book based on such sketchy information. I'd tried once or twice over the years but my attempts mainly revolved around browsing the stacks, hoping to find something familiar looking. I didn't have much success and I'd pretty much given up on the attempt.

And then, out of the blue today, I found it. Art Carden wrote a post for Division of Labour entitled "The Kids Are Alright". He included a brief comment that triggered a memory. Well, a partial memory. Okay, more like the half remembered smell of a forgotten scent. It just felt familiar in a way that I couldn't quite define.

We then talked about books I enjoyed when I was younger (William Sleator). One of my favorite Sleator books was Interstellar Pig; I was pleasantly surprised to learn that one of these burgeoning movie-makers has it.

And, sure enough. Interstellar Pig is the book that I read all of those years ago. Amazing. Thank-you internets, with your plentiful, bounteous tubes. And thank-you, Art, for mentioning not only your favorite author but also the book title.

"I cannot live without books." - Thomas Jefferson

FICTION

The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett - This is the book I'm reading right now, actually, and in physical form yet. I paid a visit to the former chair of the Shorter College Humanities Department recently and we naturally flung books to read at each other before parting. UPDATE: FINISHED.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan - The movie looks like a great deal of fun, but in general I'm a firm believer of reading the book first. So I will. UPDATE: FINISHED.

Up in the Air, by Walter Kim - Another book purchased simply because the previews for the movie greatly intrigue me.

Native Son, by Richard Wright - Because I like my reading lists to have some diversity and realized I didn't have any great African-American novels on it. I love Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Ellison was connected with Wright, so I selected this to fill the gap.

War & Peace, by Leo Tolstoy - I'm probably being absurdly optimistic in purchasing this book and putting it on my reading list for this year; as anyone can tell you, it's huge, and God knows the block of time it'll require has plenty of other claims on it, the rest of this list included. Still, I've really wanted to read it ever since finishing The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and having it readily available is the first step, so just maybe...

Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky - And buying Tolstoy made me think of Dostoevsky, whose The Brothers Karamazov I finally finished when I last visited Korea.

The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden, by John Steinbeck - I've already read Grapes, but I did it back in high school, which really is more or less equivalent to having not read something at all (children are all Philistines; their souls have not yet developed). One of Steinbeck's other novels ranks as an absolute favorite of mine, The Winter of Our Discontent, and one of the particularly proud moments of my time in college was when I had the honor of introducing my Creative Writing professor to it, who afterward declared it one of her all-time favorites as well.

The Angel's Game, by Carlos Ruis Zafon - Zafon's other novel, The Shadow of the Wind, is one of the most enjoyable books I read in '09. My wife's already read this one and told me it's darker, which disappointed her and somewhat disappoints me - Shadow was one of those books where you bounced in your bed at the ending, which is a rarity for me - but so it goes; no doubt it will still be, as Stephen King called Shadow, one gorgeous read.

The Baroque Trilogy (Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World) and Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson - Apparently a force with which to be reckoned in science fiction, which accounts for why I haven't heard of him. I've received a lot of recommendations from friends who are into the genre, though, and Snow Crash made TIME's "100 Greatest Novels of the 20th Century", so I feel pretty confident these'll be enjoyable.

The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman - I've always been curious about the His Dark Materials trilogy, a fantasy series that's often referred to as the anti-Chronicles of Narnia. I'm not willing to blindly plump for all three, but I'm pretty sure the first installment is a self-contained story, like The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe.

The Magicians, by Lev Grossman - What if a bunch of today's adults found out Hogwarts and Narnia were real? Sounds fun.

Supreme Courtship, by Christopher Buckley - On the strength of his Thank You For Smoking.

A Farewell to Arms and The Son Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway - I'd never actually read Hemingway until I picked up_ For Whom The Bell Tolls_ at the airport on my way to my honeymoon destination. I am now of course very much looking forward to reading the rest of his body of work. UPDATE: Accidentally found and FINISHED The Old Man and the Sea.

This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald - Obviously I'm taking the opportunity to fill in a few shameful gaps in my reading experience.

Riding Lessons, by Sara Gruen - Because her Water For Elephants is utterly charming.

The Twilight Saga, by Stephenie Meyer - I consider it sort of a duty to read anything that gets as popular as these books. Plus my wife's read them all and wants to be able to discuss them with me. Hey, who knows? I didn't want to read the Harry Potter books, either.

Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger - On the strength of her first book, The Time Traveler's Wife, which reminded its readers of how great science fiction can be when it's not just left for geeks to write.

The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton - Since all of her novels are in the public domain now, Amazon asks only ninety-nine cents in return for all thirty-one of them. I actually FINISHED this particular book back in January (we're over a month into '10, after all). Verdict: enjoyable, but The Age of Innocence is far more rewarding to the modern reader.

Between, Georgia, by Joshilyn Jakson - My mother's recommendation. I honestly have no idea.

Being Written, by William Conescu - One of several impulse buys. A minor character in a book realizes his nature and struggles with the author to achieve greater prominence.

Persona Non Grata, by Ruth Downie - My trial installment for a light-hearted series in which an ancient Roman doctor and his slave girl solve mysteries.

Tipperary, by Frank Delaney - In preparation for my Kindle spree I walked about a Barnes & Noble, just letting covers leap out at me. My wife tells me this one did. I naturally no longer remember.

The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth - A tale set in an alternative history in which the Fascists gained political power in America prior to World War II. Why not?

NONFICTION

The Art of Biblical Narrative, by Robert Alter - Assigned by my Old Testament professor at college, this is one of the books that spearheaded the (re-?)introduction of literary analysis of the Bible to universities in the last century. Obviously I've read it (got a "B" - Dr. Wallace wasn't easy), but I'd like to read it again at a more leisurely pace. And maybe take notes this time.

Foreskin's Lament, by Shalom Auslander - A memoir from an author who has written only one other book to my knowledge, an anthology of short stories collectively entitled Beware of God, which was so side-splittingly hilarious and poignant I'll probably be buying anything with his name on it for the foreseeable future.

The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel..., by Israel Finkelstein - A survey of what modern archaeology has to say about the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah and their Biblical records.

Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick - Six North Korean refugees describe life beyond the DMZ, and how they escaped it. Being in such close proximity to what may be the most evil regime on this planet almost demands an interest in it, so I've always known that when I returned to Seoul I'd be bringing along more reading material about the DPRK. UPDATE: FINISHED.

The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, by Dr. Robert "The Bible Geek" Price - A biblical scholar's assessment of the four gospels' authenticity. UPDATE: FINISHED.

On Writing, by Stephen King - The best book on writing fiction I've ever read, written by the writer's writer. I owned a physical copy but gave it away.

Brotherhood of Warriors, by Douglas Century - A look into Israel's special forces. Already read this one too, but I need it on hand for research.

BOOKS I WOULD HAVE BOUGHT IF THEY WERE AVAILABLE ON THE KINDLE

Books by William Faulkner - Really? Nothing of his is available in an online edition? What's up with that?

Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card - Sorry, Joe. I tried.