What are you reading?

[Swatopluk]

Alan Gurney - Compass

[Lindorm]

"The Arrival" by Shaun Tan.

A graphical story without a single word of text about a man who leaves his family behind and emigrates to another country, in the hope of finding a better future and being able to support his family. Then, things happen...

Graphically, it is made in a mixture of utter realism and dreaming surrealism that is very, very effective. The book is beautiful, and the images are both thought-provoking and really evocative, truly telling a story, making you hear the words of the story in your head.

Shaun Tan recently was awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the sort of "Nobel prize for children's literature" for "The Arrival" -a well-deserved recognition in my opinion. Recommended!


A link to the book itself:

http://www.amazon.com/Arrival-Shaun-Tan/dp/0439895294/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1308568182&sr=1-1

And the artist's own webpage:
http://www.shauntan.net/

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

My head is bowed in shame:  Dan Brown's Lost Symbol.   

The question is: does it justify the trees felled to print it?
---
About to start The Absolute at Large from Karel Capek. 

[pieces o nine]

My head is bowed in shame:  Dan Brown's Lost Symbol.   

The question is: does it justify the trees felled to print it?

Well. he does write ripping capers, if you don't keep plot analysis or even what you know of the real world in mind.

Age of Reason  finished. I was amused to find myself taking some umbrage when he broke down and tore into linguists and poets, perhaps after he had completely exhausted his ire against churchmen.

Currently revisiting Sam Harris' The End of Faith.

[Swatopluk]

Questionnaires for a report on sustainable chemistry

[Aggie]

Blood and ashes...  I've started re-reading the longest novel in a Latin or Cyrillic alphabet, according to Wikipedia (the Wheel of Time series). 350,000 words down, 3.9 million words or so to go, assuming the last book gets published by the time I finish the rest.

[Swatopluk]

Draft for the revised BAT manual for the chlor-alkali-industry

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Almost done with the Infinite at Large, deliciously subversive (which may explain it's relative obscurity). Recommended.

[pieces o nine]

Time for another re-read of Ira Levin's This Perfect Day.

[Swatopluk]

finished Compass (Gurney)

[Griffin NoName]

The Girl who played with Fire ~Larsson

(I already read the Girl with the Dragon Tatoo - someone gave me the trilogy)

and

Life-Span Development - Frameworks, Accounts and Strategies ~ Sugarman

[Swatopluk]

Back to The Warbow.
Did you know that in the 250 years when the longbow dominated there were about 7 million of them produced in Europe (primarily Britain) almost leading to the extinction of the European yew tree? The tree has still not recovered and is a protected species, so (traditional) archers have to go for US (Oregonian) yew, although it is not up to medieval quality standards. But that does not matter since very few modern archers are either and modern longbows have about half the drawing weight of their forebears.

[Griffin NoName]

No, I didn't know; I knew it was a big number, but not that big.

Still reading the same book. Why do Larsson's books take on average thirteen chapters before anything interesting happens? And just when one thinks I cannot read any more of this tedious stuff, one gets hopelessly hooked and becomes a nail-biting pageturner?

[Swatopluk]

Just finished Snuff, the latest Discworld Book by Terry Pratchett.
After some (minor) problems in Unseen Academicals that I feared were first signs of his Alzheimer he has come back to full and best form. Vimes' butler Willikins grows into a major character and another downtrodden species shows unexpected capabilities. Oh yes, and Vetinari has to admit defeat in a match of wits.

[pieces o nine]

Something I picked upon a whim-
Victor Gischler: Vampire a Go-Go

Does not readily conform to pop genre, but has a great deal of fun with the current "vampires / sparklepires / ghosts / Dan Brown-gak / spy thriller" marketing campaigns. Quite amusing; recommend to any sibling looking for snarky humor to wind down the day.