March's reading list

Today is Prickle-Prickle, day 26 in the season of Discord, 3270.

The word for today: tedium. More than a day spent making updates by hand and then finding things I'd missed on a second pass through. Woo. At least today the streaming audio is working, so I've discovered Radio Paradise.

Since I'm thinking about it, let's look up March's reading list. It's very slim, which is disappointing. (Also cute and fluffy!) In all fairness to myself though, I was both moving and slogging through a 900+ page book, not exactly conducive to tearing through books at a high rate of speed.

• Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson. I started this in February and finally finished it in March. Good lord, I'm starting to feel like I'm reading more Robert "This is the story that never ends, it just goes on and on my friend" Jordan what with the thousand-ish pages that are only the first of three books and in which very little actually happens. Hey, I didn't realize I finished just in time to start the second book next week. I gave up on Cryptonomicon in frustration because more than 200 pages in, nothing had happened yet. I did manage to push past that point some months later and finished it, but it didn't exactly grab my attention and not let go. Quicksilver is much like that earlier book in that nothing happens, but for some reason I found this a much more entertaining version of nothing happening, as I think I mentioned earlier.


• The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman. I liked this, but I have to admit that it wasn't one of those "I have to stay up all night and finish this book" experiences. I also bought the second book in the series, but it ended up in a box and I haven't found it yet. I'm almost tempted to go buy another copy, as it will be faster and less of a headache than opening seventeen boxes to see if it's at the bottom. As a standalone book, I would find this disappointing; as the first volume of a trilogy though, I thought it was okay. I'll probably reserve judgement on the storyline until I've read all three books, which I do intend to do.


• Seduced by Moonlight, Laurell K. Hamilton. The latest Merry Gentry book; one long, extended kinky sex scene (not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you) interrupted with bits of sulking, angst and a couple of scenes that seem intended to try to move the story along. This was good brain candy * (because after all, who isn't into the idea of having a harem full of gorgeous fae?), but I would rate it below either of the previous two books. Again with the "nothing happens, really", at least nothing much related to advancing the plot. It does seem like things are being set up for a conclusion, but it ain't happening yet. Not intellectually taxing in the least, but definitely entertaining.
  
  * Heh, I have to agree with one of Amazon's reviews, which describes the Merry Gentry series thusly: ""It's the literary equivalent of cotton candy, but not the cheap stuff in the plastic bag. No, this is the really, really good kind you only get at the fair, pink and blue, soft, sweet, and mostly air. It won't replace a steak and potato dinner, but then, steak and potato won't replace cotton candy, if it's cotton candy you want."