Category Archives: Books

His Dark Materials

Now that I’ve had a bit more time to write, you might guess that I’ve also had a bit more time to read.  I have, and that has allowed me to finally finish His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman.  This one has been on my “in progress” list for a while, so I’m glad to finally move on to reading something else.  Though one might want to dedicate a post to each book of the trilogy, I’m only going to be writing this one post covering all three books.  There will be minor spoilers below, so read at your own risk. Continue reading His Dark Materials

The Universe in a Single Atom

My reading time is a little reduced, but I did recently take the time to finish a book a friend of mine recently lent me, The Universe in a Single Atom by the Dalai Lama.  This book was initially interesting to me because it sounded like a spiritual leader attempting to reconcile spirituality (in this case, Buddhist spirituality) with modern physics.  As I read it, it actually was a bit better than this, which I’ll go into below. Continue reading The Universe in a Single Atom

The Pseudopod Tapes

This week, you do get two media posts in a week, because I recently finished reading The Pseudopod Tapes by Alasdair Stuart.  I heard about this book from Alasdair while listening to Escape Pod, and I’m really quite glad that I did, because this book was awesome – I enjoy listening to Pseudopod and the outros make the podcast that much more amazing.

I’ve probably hyped this book a bit more at this point than other stuff I’ve read, so let me really talk about why I liked this book a little more objectively. Continue reading The Pseudopod Tapes

The Cuckoo’s Egg

I recently finished reading the Cuckoo’s Egg by Cliff Stoll.  This one has been on my list for a while, when my friend Cam recommended it many years ago.  It somehow never made it to my list because, well, it’s not science fiction, and I used to have a lot less time to read.  But, when I saw Cliff Stoll on Numberphile, I remembered the book and decided to pick it up – I’m quite glad I did. Continue reading The Cuckoo’s Egg

101 Short Stories in 101 Days – Part 1

If you’ve been paying attention to the goals on the right sidebar, you may have noticed I’ve reached my first – I’ve read (mostly listened to) 101 short stories.  What I’m particularly proud of, in this case, is that I’ve read 101 short stories in 101 days, which was something of a sub-goal that I really hoped to reach as part of this one.  It feels good to have listened to and rated all these stories, and I can definitely say I’ve enjoyed getting back into science fiction short stories.

Of the ones that I’ve listened to or read this year, the next couple of posts will be short reviews and recommendations (in no particular order).  I’ve provided links to the ones at Escape Artists, so hopefully, if one sounds interesting, you can listen to it for yourself. Continue reading 101 Short Stories in 101 Days – Part 1

Sacrificing an Eye for Wisdom

After my post on dragons, I ended up talking with one of my awesome coworkers about Odin.  The thing I like the most about the Odin myth is that he gave up an eye for wisdom.  For reasons that I never fully understood, this always resonated with me and I’ve thought about it often.

As I went down that path, I was reminded of one of my favorite poems (In the Darkest of All Forests), in one of my favorite books (Armorica), from my favorite trilogy (Riverrun) by my favorite author: S. P. Somtow.  I’m not going to analyze this a lot, except to say that poem doesn’t stand alone – it sits within a context (the series of poems, Tales of the Wandering Hero; the story, Armorica; the trilogy, Riverrun; and my life at each juncture I’ve read it) and acts as an anchor to that context for me.  It is bookmarked so that I can unfold that context in a few short verses and remember my own personal search for wisdom. Continue reading Sacrificing an Eye for Wisdom

The Magic Labyrinth

The Magic Labyrinth, by Philip Jose Farmer, was the next book on my queue, as it was the next book in the Riverworld series.  Dark Designs was hard to follow up, but I felt like The Magic Labyrinth was a fun read – while somewhat predictable, it had a certain flair to it that kept the story going.

This time I’ve certainly got spoilers, so go no further unless you want to hear them. Continue reading The Magic Labyrinth