Ah, summer. It’s come early this year. What are you reading?
Summer Reading List
Published in Recovered Blog Post
Maintenance account for the Babbage Aethernet Reader (BAR) and archival records.
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Working on two at the momet, Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon and Tim Powers’ Hide Me Among the Graves
I’m reading Mainspring, by Jay Lake. Classic YA apprentice-on-a-mission story, without the emo tedium i often get with YA novels. Great images of a clockwork universe were you can see the gears-paths the planets turn on up in the sky.
My roadtrip audiobook was FETIDUS (Foundation for the Ethical Treatment of the Innocently Damned, Undead, and Supernatural), hard boiled detective meets zombie apocalypse, with hilarious public service announcements from the Office of Homeland Security. Free and complete 20 episode download in the itunes podcast section. Some writing hiccups with too much melodrama in places, but over all very listenable. Full cast performance with music.
“Mind over Ship” David Marusek
Currently bopping between Jess Nevins’ Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana and Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series.
You’ve got a copy of Fantastic Victoriana? So Jealous. Looking at the prices of secondhand copies makes me weep.
Not my own copy, no. Got this one from the library. I’ve already had to renew my check-out of it, and I’m only through the C’s. *wry grin*
I own the hardback copy of Fantastic Victoriana. *grin* It’s wonderful. It was a gift from a mutual friend of mine and Jess Nevins.
350 U$ used and 500 new? Yowzah!
Angelmaker, by Nick Harkaway.
Clockwork goodness in the modern era.
Plus you have to love a protagonist named Joe Spork.
forcing myself to finish “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. It burns precious…..
the pending stack has Clockwork Angel, Monstrous Regiment, and Boneshaker.
Also picked up a copy of the HP Lovecraft Compendium, and all 23 Gor novels on the ereader (for free)
Have not yet started the “Girl…” series yet. Burns precious? Boneshaker is fun (there’s a steampunk version of Darth Vader in it, I ain’t joshin’!), but I liked the sequel, Dreadnaught, much more. Real choo-choo foo!
Gor series? Really? The goreans I have met inworld leave me confused, and I perused the books in the store, but was put off. I do not understand the appeal at all!
Lovecraft is wonderful! Definitely a tortured soul (never recovered from his Mother’s death). Read the Dunwich Horror in sixth grade and had nightmares for a fortnight!
I started the “Girl” series out of curiosity, and based on a recommendation from a friend of mine. I have now considered reassessing said friendship. It does serve to make me feel much better about my writing.
The Gor books were e-books I wrangled as a bit of cumshaw after doing some work for a friend. I wouldn’t buy them, and they are very much in the vein of a Robert E Howard type story, with the addition of the fawning 2d female characters and the barechested muy macho swordplay bits. Very light reading.
Amendment to list: Add Song of Fire and Ice to the list (thanks Nook) and add Cryptonomicon as well.
I found that I now have 3K+ titles on my ereader, on top of what I already had loaded.
The 400 page long instruction manual for this motherboard i got last year…
Yes…its that long, no its not in multiple langauges…its all english…
Hmmm. Puts me in the mind of Scottie on the Enterprise reading tech manuals for fun.
Scottie…..that reminds me:
“Sorry to interrupt, but you’ll have to hurry it up. Alcantro and Fedanzo are doing their best, but every plate in my secondary bank’s red hot, and you could fry an egg on any one of my transformers. Even my primary tubes are running hot. She won’t hold together five minutes longer!”
This was well before Engineer Scott’s time. Its from Spacehounds of IPC by E.E. Smith, published in 1931. *applauds the heroic engineers thoughout history who hold things together*
Also, I will donate 1000L to RFL if Victor will do a dramatic reading of the above quote. Anyone else? I just love technical jargon.
I’ll toss in 100L. A background audio for a Utoob vid?
btw, ever read A Mote In God’s Eye? All the engineers are Scots!
In the Heart of the Sea – The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
Nathaniel Philbrick
The true story that inspired Moby Dick.
Great book! One of my favorite reading experiences! Add in that most of them were Quakers, and the nightmare of survival forced them to compromise their sensibilities. But the fascination is with the whale that attacked them; obviously a focused, sentient action by that animal. It observed their destruction, and followed up on its attack. Simply astounding!
I never read the book, but I saw a couple documentaries from the History Channel (yes, they actually still show real history stuff, not just Ice Road Truckers!) and it seemed like such an interesting ordeal.
Speaking of Melville, Moby Dick is one that I am gonna try to force myself through this summer. I’m partway in, but it’s really hard for me to keep focused on it for some reason XD
Um…one of the books I’m pleading the fifth on.
But the others are as follows:
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Wild: From Lost to Found on The Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
A Feast for Crows and A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Once Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
After that, who knows. Only 13 weeks left to read whatever I want and then it’s back to the grindstone.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
One of my favorite books and all time and perhaps my favorite opening line for a novel.
I’ve only just started it and, so far, I’m enchanted beyond words.
I suspect I know what the first title is (or is it the fifth?). I’ll keep your secret, madame.
Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel by Phillipa Ballantine and Tee Morris.
*A secret government organization in Victorian England that investigates and archives strange artifacts, while also trying to stop a secret organization called (I kid you not) The House of Usher.
Somewhere along the line I’ll probably also get back to Life, the Universe, and Everything; which I stopped halfway through due to time constraints with classes and work stuff.
On my bookshelf a Folio Society edition of A Natural History of Selborne by Gilbert White and Rural Rides by William Cobett. Big beautiful books.
On my Kobo ereader, the entire Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Dude, a Folio Society edition. I’ve been collecting their editions of the Andrew Lang fairy books. Looooooove them. Anything they do an edition of is so beautiful.
Dudette… I’m approaching the 200 mark for Folio Books (going back to the 80’s when my father started collecting them)
And, I have to agree, the Andrew Lang Fairy Tale series is fantastic.
mmm, the Barsoom series. that sounds like a good one to settle into.
I very much enjoyed the movie. My heart breaks that it bounced. I loved those books in my High School days. Watching the film decided me to read them again. Praise the Builder for e-books.
Just started Talon of the Silver Hawk by Raymond E. Feist.
Also on the bedside table is The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Finkelstein and Silberman. It’s not technically part of my Uni studies but it does fit in with some of the subjects.
More recently I’ve read: Fuzzy Ergo Sum by Wolfgang Diehr a sequel to H. Beam Piper’s Fuzzy novels.
Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel. Zombies and steampunk
An Embarrassment of Riches by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. Historical vampires
If you are into historical vampires, might I suggest Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Despite what you might think about the horror mashup genre, I thought the way that fiction was blended with real history was actually pretty interesting, and it was a fun read if anything else. Not really sure what to expect from the movie that’s coming out though….
I hadn’t realised that the Abe Lincoln one was a book but I shouldn’t be surprised really. Making it into a movie would have required someone in Hollywood to come up with an original idea instead of remaking stuff.
A little Googling tells me he’s also the author of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and the screenwriter for the current Dark Shadows movie. I might give it a look anyway.
The PPZ novels (there are 3) are really good too. I tried reading Pride and Prejudice and could not get through it…. it took added zombie mayhem to make the story pallatable. Zombies and Victoriana just works… right Victor? hehehe
I’m afraid Dearly Departed was a forced march for me, I will not be reading any sequels. I am happy Lia is getting good reviews over on Amazon though. The reference near the end to New Babbage will bring a smile, if you catch it.
That reminds me, Clockwinder, I scored a copy of Ghormenghast Trilogy last year. Wonderful books, but I felt my mind slipping toward the end of Titus Groan, getting progressively more gloomy. Have set it aside for now. Eep.
Juniper’s diary.
For current books, reading Killing Lincoln/O’Reilly and Ameritopia/Levin.
Not much hard fiction these days – far too much RL craziness that goes well beyond anything that could arise out of fiction – but the eye considers repeating some nice soft bunny rabbit stories like The Iron Dream/Spinrad, Among The Dead/Bryant, and my shelf of Borges and Clark Ashton Smith.
i found borges in the freebie box of a hostel. really dig it.
Try Kobo Abe.
I’m adding to my reading list through all your comments, thank you!
I can recommend Boneshaker (especially if you are from the Pacific Northwest) and also Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (a deeper book than you might think). Tenk, I ADORE Jay Lake’s Mainspring universe, and am looking forward to meeting him at World Steam Expo.
I’m going to backread all the issues of Steampunk Magazine for the short stories, just got them all downloaded a couple of nights ago.
For those who haven’t realized it, All Lovecraft stories are available on the web, for free. I’ll leave you to search them out, you lot can stand to improve your googling skills. *ducks*
Also, just to brag about New Babbage talent, be sure to read our Clockwork Dragon’s Steampunk novel Wild Cards and Iron Horses which Sheryl Skytower wrote while sitting in the CocoaJava Cafe. And of course, there’s Tales of New Babbage, written by many of you!
Smith’s are available as well.
http://www.eldritchdark.com/
In real life, I’ve been spending too much time having fun in my workshop to get much reading done, but I am creeping through The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, and recently finished The Kraken by China Mieville. If I keep up with a long-establish schedule, I should re-read Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings again (every ten years, by hook or by crook). Nonfiction currently on my bed side table: Michael Chabon’s Manhood for Amateurs, along with other works focused on woodworking, and I think there is something by Umberto Eco waiting for me there, too.
I believe I have Foucault’s Pendulum by Eco waiting in the wings.
Foucault’s Pendulum is a curious book. I really enjoyed it, but almost everyone I have recommended it to, didn’t. Some returned my copy—half read and accompanied by a look of distain. For the first-time Eco reader, I would recommend Baudolino or the more obvious choice (and work of literary genius) The Name of the Rose. I have The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana waiting for me, I believe. I may be picking up The Prague Cemetery for my e-reader.
And as long as I am back online, I have a book to recommend to all New Babbagers, if they haven’t already read it. I picked this up a few years back, thought it was such a work of wonder and delight that it was a while before I could read fiction again… nothing else could compare, I thought. Get thee hence and acquire: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell by Susanna Clarke. Go now. I mean it. It’s okay, I’ll wait here. Seriously: this book was nominated for the Booker Prize, and it won the Hugo and World Fantasy awards, as well as garnering Ms. Clarke a British Book Award for best new author, and it was named Time magazine’s novel of the year for 2004. According to wikipedia, Neil Gaiman read her first short story and said reading it “was like watching someone sit down to play the piano for the first time and she plays a sonata.” For those who have read this amazing work, Ms. Clarke is reportedly working on a sequel.
I had heard good things about The Name of the Rose, perhaps if I can power through Foucault’s Pendulum that will be next.
I just saw Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel in the bookstore recently and was rather tempted! I will have to go back and grab it. That’s quite the glowing review, sir! :-)
Between Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum I preferred Rose. I’m sure there were references in Foucault that I missed but I picked up on a lot of them having delved into the murky writings of Knights Templar successor groups and associated legends some time before. Though Rose was also tempered by my love for the film. Still one of Connery’s best roles in my humble opinion.
I was chatting today about this book and film, and was reminded of one of the highlights of Eco’s Rose for me: The protagonist, William of Baskerville, played by Connery, is clearly based on another archetypal detective, Mr. Sherlock Holmes. The conversation included the observation that another popular character is unabashedly based on Doyle’s iconic detective: Dr. Gregory House, and his associate Wilson as John Watson from the television drama House.
Brother William’s name derives from two great men of deduction. The Holmes reference is straightforward, but the William is a nod to William of Ockham, best known for the Occam’s Razor principle.
I will second Jonathon Strange & Mr. Norrell. outstanding treatment of the nature of magic and the Fey, and not at all sugar coated.
I adored Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell, I listened to it while driving cross country. I wasn’t even out of the state yet before I called Tenk and told him he HAD to give it a read! Now any time I’m getting sleepy on the road I pop it on the Itunes and have a listen.
currently reading Hammer and Anvil, warhammer 40k novel, space nuns with guns vs. robot undead essentially
just finished Leviathan, steampunk, with gene spliced airwhales for airships and combat mechs,
and Martyr, the Dead Space prequel
actually come to look at it, I haven’t been reading alot of steampunk the past month
I’m reading Blue Mars, the last of the trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson about the colonization and terraforming of Mars.
I make at least a small amount of time to read every day but these days most of my literature comes in audio form. The latest was Buried Eyes, a short story by Lavie Tidhar. There are elements in the story which put me in mind of China Mieville’s world of Bas-Lag.
Today I also listened to an installment of Mr. Frank Key’s excellent Hooting Yard programme. There was the appearance by an urchin which made me smile and think of Babbage:
So on that frosty, icy morning, Old Halob took one last puff on his
acrid Serbian cigarette, and, barking a command to the fictional athlete
to keep sprinting faster and faster round the running track until his
return, he trudged away. He headed for an insalubrious part of town
where he might find solace in rotgut hooch and squalor. And it was as he
was about to turn down a particularly dismal alleyway that he was
accosted by an urchin hawking grubby wares.
“Oi, mister, I’m your urchin if you need some spent matches or
tattered bootlaces or chewed-up dog biscuits or leaking batteries or
contaminated sausages or poisoned cans of Squelcho! or regurgitated
hairballs or back copies of the Reader’s Digest! Everything’s a half-crown!”
I enjoyed that series very much. Red, Green and Blue. There is a fouth book called The Martians full of odds and ends but it is not such fun.
I would add Robert Zubrin’s The Case for Mars and Entering Space to those. We could have been there by now.
Or Ben Bova’s Welcome to Moonbase. *sigh*
I have to admit I’m a bit of a sucker for Mars related stuff too. The Martian Race by Gregory Benford is quite good and it was Zubrin endorsed.
Two things happen to me when I read Zubrin’s writing… books and online. 1) I get exctited because I see it is possible; and 2) I get angry because I’m starting to realize I might not see it happen in my lifetime because we are spending all our resources on finding new ways to kill each other.
Okay… I have to stop here. I feel a rant coming on. Maybe James Cameron et al will make it there after they’ve plumbed a few asteroids.
The rovers are fun… but they can’t write poetry about the Martian sunrise.
Oh Zubrin. His books are a lot of fun. We could have been there even earlier if we’d gone with atomic power, Project Orion or the NERVA upper stage. I know Zubrin has good arguements that we should just go now and get started. And yet..
I like Zubrin’s enthusiasm for Mars (I suppose there are three camps, Moon first, Mars first, and NEA’s first.. I tend to be in the latter catagory as I don’t see why we should be tied to big gravity wells going forward), but over the years he’s tended to build up his viewpoint as a kind of intractable orthodoxy. There is only one way forward, and it must be Zubrin’s way, i.e. old shuttle components and in-situ resource development. During the whole debacle of the failed Constellation program he was his own sounding box.
I honestly think any attempt we make to settle areas outside of the Earth-Moon systeem are possible right now, but are going to be pretty dissapointing if we rely on in-situ resources and chemical rockets. It’s technology at the margins, trying to settle America with Phonecian biremes and bronze tools. On the other hand if we had, and we will in a few decades, I am certani, reliable fusion power in space, the entire system will be ours.
One of my favorite discussions but probably out of the scope of the current dialouge.
zubrin is one angry math teacher.
i agree that the way to go is with the small stuff. the big stuff will always loose funding before it gets finished, then you’ve spend a big wad on cash.. on nothing.
I’m re-reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy now also, currently near the end of Green Mars, the second book. I’m surprised at how much of it I’ve forgotten in just a few years. The Kindle version is a bit hard to read in places, with huge sections of text repeated, but I don’t think any of it is missing. I agree that The Martians wasn’t as good. Better to let it end with Blue Mars.
I really had to push to get through the Mars trilogy. I’d actually tried reading The Years of Rice and Salt. After the second attempt a friend suggested I try the Mars books to get used to KSR. Red was slow, Green wizzed through but Blue just draaaaaaaaaged. Took me about three months to push myself through it. After all that the third attempt on Salt was a failure as well. I’ve decided Kim Stanley Robinson is not for me.
Grabbed a copy of The Clockwork Three by Matthew Kirby at a Goodwill a while back. Hopefully I will crack into that soon.
However, I believe The Once and Future King and The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White are up next. As well as a few non-fiction works.
“The Once and Future King” with Sky and the “A Song of Fire and Ice” series. Those should easily fill my summer.
I may try to squeeze in Stephen King’s “11/22/63”, of which I’ve heard good things.
Speaking of reading, what’s everyone’s take on e-reading? I’ve been using the Kindle app on a tablet and I have to say that it’s made reading much more enjoyable. About the only thing I miss is the smell of a book and the fact that it fills bookshelf space.
But everything else about the e-reading experience seems superior. I’ve found I really enjoy reading at night, having synced bookmarks and notes across platforms, and having a dictionary at my fingertips.
What has everyone else’s experience been like?
Instant convert. My trouble with reading on laptops and desktops is not being able to get into a comfortable position.
I believe in the power of my kindle. Charge lasts for ages, instant books wherever i go and it takes up less room than the average paperback in my carryon when I fly (no more packing three or four books for that 20hr flight!). I also like that I could condense down the usual five or six books that I have to carry around on any given class day down to, well, one kindle.
Nookus Vult!
I am dead-bang happy with my rooted Nook Color, using Aldiko as a reader.
Strangely enough I don’t have anything currently on my summer reading list although the ones above sure help to see what’s out there that’s good.
Last actual book I read was “Dances with Dragons” and working my way through “The Flinch” which is totally not a fiction book but more of a self help book. Hopefully will help me get out of my shell a bit more (and was free).
Almost finished with Mark Hodder’s The Strange Affair of Springheeled Jack…slow to start, but half-way through, it really gets interesting…after that, its on to the next novel The Clockwork Man. And, of course, the weekly Adventures of Phineas Frakture on bigworldnetwork.com (shameless plug) He has his own coffee mug now!
Anathem by Neal Stephenson, at the suggestion of Junie. Bring waders.
I’m bad. I haven’t started it yet. It’s at the top of my list after Angelmaker.
Lines of Succession – Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe
Michael MacLagan
They reprinted K.W. Jeter’s Infernal Devices this year, finally. I’ve been prowling for it in used bookstores for years and just picked up a copy at Barnes & Noble. *sigh* Now if they’d only do the same with The Anubis Gates/Powers my classic collection would be complete.
I’d also recommend the classics Clockwork Heart/Pagliosotti and Anti-Ice/Baxter. And of course, The Difference Engine/Gibson + Sterling and The Diamond Age/Stephenson – always worth a re-read. They never get old.
Loved The Diamond Age. Call me crazy, but I couldn’t even get through The Difference Engine.
I’ve been reading a lot of nonfiction lately. Just finished up Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World.
When and where do you all normally read? I always seem to have trouble prioritizing my time to reading.
Its tricky to make time to read, but I enjoy it so much I do it anyway. I try to wind down a little earlier than I am actually sleepy, and brew up a HUGE mug (I do mean huge) of chamomile tea with a few dried poppy flowers mixed in (don’t judge me!). As the tea brews, I get the house settled out, dishes dried and put away, messes tidied and workthings for the next day laid out.
Then I grab my illicit tea and crawl into bed, turn on the boneshaker (okay, it’s an adjustable bed with vibratey stuff, I call it the boneshaker, and I like to pretend I am bedding down on an aloft airship), dim the lights to soft-readable, and sink in for an hour.
It is WELL worth an hour of your time to get the hell offline, turn OFF your computer, lose the games, depart the social drama, and simply sink into a soft place with a book and tea. I daresay some of you might even complain less of insomnia if you crafted your own nightly ritual that included an hour with a book in a relaxed setting.