February's reading list

[geekchick]

First off, way to make me feel old: I don't care what the station thinks, I should not be hearing The Cult's "Fire Woman" on the classic rock station. No way, no how. I don't care if you're doing a theme playlist of songs with "fire" in the name, nothing I clearly remember buying could possibly be old enough to count as "classic rock". *ahem* That out of the way...

February was more about finishing books I started previously than starting new ones. First, the new titles:

• Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brien - Loved this one. I hadn't read any of the books before seeing the movie, so it was interesting to see which parts of the book they adapted for the screen and how they did it. One of the things that bugged me most about the movie was not having the slightest clue about how Aubrey and Maturin became friends, so I was pleased to get the backstory. I wanted to go on to the next book, but the couple of bookstores I checked in did not have the second book in the series in stock. I suspect I'm not the only one who's seen the movie and now wants to catch up on the series.


• The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading by Francis Spufford - I was honestly a bit underwhelmed by this one, although there were a few turns of phrase that caught my eye (not that I remember them at the moment, but I know they're there). To quote from the back cover: "Weaving together child development, personal reflection, and social observation, Spufford shows the force of fiction in shaping a child: how stories allow for escape from pain and mastery of the world, how they shift our boundaries of the sayable, how they stretch the chambers of our imagination." I was hoping somewhat for a lot more of the "personal reflection" aspect, and was a bit derailed by the discussion of Piaget. "A" for concept, "B" for execution.


• I also caught up with the latest "1602", which is drawing to a close.


• Quicksilver, by Neil Stephenson - Okay, at 480 pages I'm only about halfway through this one, but the sheer volume (har har) of it sort of cuts down my ability to add to the month's reading list. I'm finding this much easier to get through than I did "Cryptonomicon" the first time though; there's still nothing happening, but it's a much more entertaining nothing. I'm not convinced that Neil hasn't taken courses at the "Robert Jordan School of Rambling On and On and On with No End in Sight". I suppose that one way to get around not being able to write a good ending is to just not have one (this is the first of three books in the series).

Stuff I started last month or earlier, and just finished:

• The Templars: The Dramatic History of the Knights Templar, the Most Powerful Military Order of the Crusades by Piers Paul Reid - History. Lots and lots of history. If you're looking for an exploration of the more colorful stories about the Templars, you probably don't want this book. If you want a history of the Crusades and the role of the Templars, then you'll probably enjoy it (although it does get a bit dry at times, which is why it took me so long to finish it up).


• All Tomorrow's Parties by William Gibson - I started last month and put it down for a bit, as I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to read Gibson. I did find myself wishing I'd read "Idoru" much more recently than I have, but I'll put off picking that up again until after the move.

On the top of the stack for March: new Laurell K. Hamilton (woohoo!) and the first two books in the "His Dark Materials" series, "The Golden Compass" and "The Subtle Knife".