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Monday, March 31, 2003
A welcome change has taken place in my free-time-filling habits over the past couple of months... I've rediscovered my love of reading. Not that I ever stopped completely, but I noticed that I was devoting far less time to recreational reading that I had in the past. Not sure why... it just sort of happened.
Lately, however, I've been shying away from the PS2, the surprise X-Box (which I've played for all of 10 minutes total), or killing time on the PC in favor of sitting down with a big, fat novel. I've also been watching a lot less TV (thank you, TiVo), which no doubt has something to do with it. I'm always sure to have a paperback in the man-bag, ready for the quick-draw during lunchtime, and I just realized I've burned through more pages so far this year than I did last year, total. Just finished... Winter's Heart by Robert Jordan. Book Nine in the Wheel of Time series. I've been reading this series for going on 13 years now, and I go back and forth between obsession and total frustration. At times it feels like he's just dragging the story out (it was originally supposed to be 7 books or something), and he throws so many characters at you that it's nearly impossible to keep track of them all... especially when it's been a year or two since you read the last one. I actually got stuck on this book about 1/3 of the way in, and nearly bailed on it. Glad I didn't, though. Once I hit the halfway mark last month, I blew through the second half and felt my love for the series return. Stuff actually happens in this one. Things start moving, people die, main characters connect... the double-climax pays off in spades. Great stuff. Enough to make me buy (or at least borrow) the new hardcover of the 10th book asap. I also recently finished up Lone Wolf and Cub volume 28, by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima. Yes, it's the grand finale. 28 volumes, roughly 300 pages each... that's 8400 pages over the last 2 1/2 years. And I loved every damn minute of it. I'm almost, no I am, sad to finish it up... to not have a volume sitting in my bag at all times, ready to read on the T. This series is one of my favorite things, period.  In progress... Sea of Silver Light by Tad Williams. The fourth and final book of the Otherland series. What a monster. Over 1000 pages, and I'm just over 600 in... but it's taken over my brain and won't let go. I can't wait to finish it... dying to find out how he wraps it all up, how he gets the cast of characters out of the technovirtual-world they've been trapped in for so long. On deck... The next Robert Jordan, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island, the new Robert Parker. I'm also thinking of working in some non-fiction soon... maybe some biographies (the last one I read was the excellent, if fairly depressing, Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven). Recommendations?  |
 neil halstead live in cambridge, ma on november 14th, 2008 previously: joy formidable - boston 2011 recent posts on the 'nac...
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