Well, I have taken to reading a lot lately. Not the stuffy scientific journals but real books (on the shitter) and audio books (on road trips).

To Read List

Amazon Wishlist Bookshelf.

The 2008 List

Due to the advent of technology (Bloglines/iPod Touch), I have not read as many books as I had liked to by the mid point of 2008. I began reading “The Language of God” by Francis S. Collins and hoped to finish it during our extensive road trip of 2008 to Indiana and New Jersey, but it didn’t get done. Instead, I finished, “Metzger’s Dog” by Thomas Perry and “Words of my Father” by Barak Obama. I am also starting his other book, “The Audacity of Hope”.

In 2008 I started an, “Amazon Wishlist” that links to my Amazon Book (and Audio) List.

The 2007 List

The first book finished in ‘07 was Trojan Odyssey by Clive Cussler. It was a great tale with two main plots back to back (instead of interwoven). Like too books in one. I will probably continue with more of the CC novels for 07 as this book was his latest and references a few others that I haven’t read. CC is a fun author and the Dirk character is a riot. I’ve also read “The curious incident of the Dog in the Night” by Mark Haddon, a quirky tale about an autistic kid who investigates the death of a neighbors dog. During the summer I wrestled the latest (and last) Harry Potter novel away from Alisha. This completes by utter enjoyment of all J.K. Rowlings novels (and movies). On a technical note, I read “Switching To the Mac” by David Pogue upon the purchase of my first ever Macbook Pro (which is also the last time I will use Windows exclusively for a very long time).

I also read the hilarious novel “Lamb: The Gospels according to Biff, Christ’s childhood pal” by Christopher Moore, a funny story of the “missing” years in Christ’s life from who better to tell the story than His fictional pal Biff. After my summer reading series, I began in earnest writing my dissertation and thus had little outside time to read. So, more in 2008 hopefully.

The 2006 List

Over the Christmas break I listened to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig on the ride to and from Indiana. In the fall I began reading two books at a time. Of these, I finished John Sanford’s “The Empress File” first. Written in the 80’s, it had a funny take on “cutting edge computer technology”. But I liked it just the same. The other book is “First Meetings in the Enderverse” by Orson Scott Card. It was on the $5 rack at the grocery store and I like Card (see below). It has been entertaining and begins with Ender’s parent backgrounds.

This summer (2006) took me on a number of road trips where I finished two audio books “Stranger in a Strange Land” by Robert Heinlin and “Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris. Both were pretty good, but I liked the scifi cult classic better. The Summer started with a wonderful book called “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel and “The Janson Directive” by Robert Ludlum (of Bourn Identity fame).

Prior to that I read “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” after falling in love with the musical. So I like to touch my feminine side…but the book is quite dark and sexual. It was nothing like the play however. The book was really slow in the middle and my lovely wife got me the two PhD Comics books for my birthday to cut into reading. “Piled Higher and Deeper: A Graduate Student Comic Strip Collection”, and “Life is Tough and Then You Graduate” by Jorge Cham. I cleared through them in short order (after getting them signed by the author when he gave a talk at UT. Then I went back to Wicked.

The 2005 List

Anyway I digress. Prior to that, I read “Prey” by Michael Chrichton, everything by Dan Brown: “Da Vinci Code”, “Angels and Demons”, “Digital Fortress”, “Deception Point”. Then I cleared through Orson Scott Card’s Ender and Bean series: “Ender’s Game”, “Speak for the Dead”, “Xenocide”, “Ender’s Shadow”, “Shadow of the Hegemon”, “Shadow Puppets”. I still have the last book of each of these series to go. I’ve amused myself with the Dirk Pitt series by Clive Cussler: “Atlantis Found”, “Valhalla Rising”. And that was just 2005.