I haven't made a new post about books in about 3 months, when I reviewed the most recent Wheel of Tedium book. I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed it, and it really turned my opinion about one of the characters around that I had previously lumped in with some of the shrill harpies that populate this series. Anyway, it was enough to get me to reread them, which meant I had to go out and re-buy them as I had sold my original copies off after the author passed away a few years ago (the series has been passed on to another author, with Jordan's blessing). Our B+N had the first 6 books, so I bought them and I'm most of the way through book 5.
While out on our quasi-Valentine's date today, we stopped by the B+N on the other side of town which had the rest of them and I grabbed the rest of them...but after about 5 minutes I changed my mind and put them back. I've got a big backlog of books that I've been meaning to read, and I did resolve to make a little more effort to read new stuff rather than re-reading things that I've read many times before (but very much enjoy). In the past 3 months I've read those 5 Jordan books and re-read the excellent Tawny Man trilogy (the last book of which is my sentimental favorite for best fantasy novel). But, here's what I have piled up to read:
- The rest of Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything
- The rest of The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball
- The rest of Simmons's The Book of Basketball
- Bryson's I'm a Stranger Here Myself
- Bryson's Notes From a Small Island
- Bryson's The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid (You can tell I'm a big Bryson fan)
- #17 on the KLAW 101 Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
- Klaw 101 #15, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
- Klaw 101 #42 Brideshead Revisited
- Marvin Miller biopic A whole different ballgame
- Joe Posnanski's excellent The Soul Of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America
- Posnanski's The Machine
- The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers
- The new BP Annual
- The Hardball Times Annual
- The 2010 Cubs 'Anal', with 2 articles by Shawn
I picked up Wind-Up Bird Chronicle after putting the WoT books back. A skim of the back cover makes it seem like it's pretty cool. Not that I agree with Klaw on his rankings in general - I was not a fan at all of his #1, The Master and Margarita, and my wife (who I view as a good authority on this) thinks that Emma, his #3, isn't nearly as good as the other two Austen books (P+P and Persuasion) on the list and isn't as good as one (Sense and Sensibility) that didn't make the cut. A curious selection. He also has Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in there, both of which I despised in high school. He does score huge points for including Lonesome Dove though (at 98),
Anyway, I have my work cut out for me. I'm going to finish reading through WoT #6 and then get back to work on these things...