I just carried a bunch of books to the cellar (which sadly is where I store them, since there is simply no place I could put them in the rest of the house). So while I’m at it, I might just as well quickly link to most of them (at least the English, non-technical ones). This the English-language fiction that I consumed in the last 6 months or so, with a super-fast review thrown in (where 1 star means better spend your time surfing the web and 5 stars mean you will not stop reading even if you miss your own wedding):
- The List of Seven, Mark Frost — very nice reading, with a very good sequel (The Six Messiahs) as well, ****
- Ubik, Philip K. Dick — A classic, still masterful, ****
- The Teeth of the Tiger, * Tom Clancy — I’m a big Clancy fan, but this one sucks very much. Maybe tolerable if you’re a George W. Bush supporter, *
- Pompeii, Robert Harris — Very nice, great research, grippingly told, ****
- Jackdaws, Ken Follett — not exactly great literature, but easy to read in about a day, ***
- The Light of Other Days, Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter — though-provoking, a bit strange; you probably could have made three or four novels contained in this one, and maybe it would have been better, ***
- Contact, Carl Sagan — bought this after watching the movie, pretty good, ***
- The Summons, John Grisham — this one made me wonder why I bother buying Grisham novels any more, **
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick — this is what Blade Runner is based upon, another masterpiece, ****
- Hornet Flight, Ken Follett — light reading, but pretty good, ***
- Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson — simply great, ****
- The Second Angel, Philip Kerr — highly recommended, intelligent stuff, ****
- The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown — almost embarrassing to admit to having read this (in about 2 days), this is pure trivia, but highly entertaining, ***
- Prey, Michael Crichton — great research, as always, but not great, ***
- The Last Juror, John Grisham — sort of a prequel to one of my favorite Grisham novels, A Time to Kill; very enjoyable, ***