Saga of the Volsungs Trans. Jesse L. Byock

I found this book more frustrating than gratitfying (but I have to admit in a way that bothers me about some folktale collections as well) in that we have a fantastic story, but no one has not bothered to do anything other than lay down a bare translation. The language is stiff, and the prose wasn’t very engaging, despite being a good tale.

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Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

I liked the fact that the protagonist is an antihero. Ostensibly, no good qualities, although the author does managed to sneak some in there.

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Received this today via my work e-mail:

2) Bookstore manager seeks faculty recommendations for book titles
The WVU Bookstore is working to improve the title selection in the general book department, and seeks faculty input for a new section called “WVU Faculty Recommendations.” Send recommendations of titles that should be part of an academic college bookstore by Jan. 31 to General Book Buyer, Sandy Weston, at xxxxxx@mail.wvu.edu . The books will be displayed in their own section through the next 10 months as the sales performance of the new titles are evaluated. Successful sales will build sales records that will generate re-orders for these titles and new orders for similar titles, according to David Lang, general manager. “The goal is to create a more academic environment in our general book environment,” Lang added.

Because, of course, faculty are the only ones qualified to make book recommendations for books that should be a part of an “academic college bookstore”.

The rest of us are, of course, unqualified to recommend with authority any books that might be educational. After all, faculty members are so successful at choosing required books for classes that are engaging, interesting, and inexpensive, that we should look to them for the rest of our reading materials.

Ran across this as I was wandering around. This is the BBC ‘Top 200’ Books from their Big Read (books nominated as people’s favorites.)

The books I have read are in bold.

1. Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
(more…)

Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix Glenn Yeffeth ed

We’re not going to discuss my somewhat obsessive interest in The Matrix. Let’s just say it’s one of those things and move along.

Obviously, this book is not of interest to you if you did not like The Matrix or are not interested in the ideas behind The Matrix.

But, if you are like me and fascinated with religion, philosophy and science, then this is a book you may want to read. Which is probably why The Matrix fascinates me so much, becuase it addresses subjects in which I am deeply interested.

But we said we weren’t going to talk about that.

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As I mentioned earlier this month, I read quite a few books over the break. Here are a few:

The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman

The initial book, ‘The Golden Compass’ is set it a world that is similar to, but yet unlike our own, where a person’s soul resides in their animal familiar–a dæmon.

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Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen by Garth Nix

The stories are set in two connected worlds. There is the world that feels to me a bit like England before WWII, and the magical world, whose entrance is guarded by a military conversant in weaponry both modern and medieval.

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Paper Mage by Leah R. Cutter

Xiao Yen, hero of Paper Mage is a dutiful daughter, dutiful niece, and practicing paper mage. The book is set in the Tang Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom (China about the time of the European Middle Ages), and the magic is quite unlike any I have previously read.

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The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint

Onion Girl is Jilly Coppercorn’s story, and delves into her past, and that is the reason that I hesitated for so long to read this book, for Jilly Coppercorn does not have a pleasant past, and so I knew that at least parts of this book were going to be hard to read, but probably no more so than some of his short stories. Regardless, sometimes you need to build yourself up to reading a book that you know is going to be painful in places.

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Lord of Castle Black, Book Two of The Viscount of Adrilankha, by Steven Brust

I knew that it was going to be a good book when I was laughing out loud reading the first page of the introduction.

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Spirits in the Wires by Charles de Lint

Spirits in the Wires is the story of the Wordwood, the literary internet site set up by Holly and others that has taken on a life of its own. Saskia Madding is an independent being, created by the Wordwood, and sent out into the World As We Know It, where she has fallen in love with Christy Riddle, and he with her. All of this is past history at the start of Spirits in the Wires.

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This is not all of what I read over the holidays, so more to come later. Meanwhile, all these books are excellent, and come highly recommended.