Books: What are you reading tonight?

[maltaille]

I tend to read a few things at a time too, especially when they don't grip me, or when they're non-fiction.

Currently I'm part way through Mirror Worlds, by David Gerlernter. Now about 15 years old, it deals with a lot of his research on representing large-scale, complex data sets - such as cities, companies, hospitals, and similar - using computers. It's not particularly technical, more concerned with the philosophical reasons, the uses for them, and the big problems in their development. For any of you who have read Snow Crash, this is the research on which the Earth program was based. Despite being 15 years old, it's still far and away the most prescient and influential book about computers and networks I know of. I've read it more than 20 times so far.

Also part way through Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad. Appreciation, rather than enjoyment, might be the best description for my feelings. Despite it being very short, I've taken almost a month to get halfway through, and I'm the fastest reader I know.

Also rereading Reuben & Ciaffone's Pot Limit & No Limit Poker, because I've been playing more Omaha lately, and Arturo Perez-Reverte's The Sun Over Breda, because I refuse to believe that the man who wrote The Fencing Master can continue to turn out unreadable dreck (unfortunately I'm wrong, he can).

Notable recent reads are The Grifters, by Jim Thompson, because Dominic reminded me how good it was, and Spook Country, by William Gibson. I'm not so much a fan of his cyberpunk stuff, but I've come to really like his stuff set today. Spook Country is as good as Pattern Recognition.

Bartman, are you limiting yourself to classics for Halloween? If not, check out Anno Dracula, by Kim Newman. Set a few years after Dracula finishes, it's premise is Dracula won, and proceeded on to effectively take over England, he and his get turning half the population, and thus gaining de facto acceptance. It's sort of an homage to the vampire genre, and lots of famous vampires make an appearance, either explicitly if out of copyright, or implicitly if not.