Halfway Mark

[stoutfellow]

With the end of June, we're at the halfway mark of the year. Well, not really, if you count by days, but what the heck; the list I'm about to give is unlikely to change in the next couple of days. To this point in 2006, I've finished reading 37 books. (Some of them I actually began in '05.) 26 of those have been fiction (and two of those rereads) and 11 nonfiction (one of them a reference for Civilization IV, and one a reread). The full list is under the cut.

Fiction
Fantasy/science fiction (18): C. S. Friedman, Black Sun Rising; Greg Bear, Darwin's Radio* and Darwin's Children; Keith Laumer, Retief!; John Crowley, Little, Big; Orson Scott Card, The Crystal City; Mary Jo Putney, A Kiss of Fate; Elizabeth Haydon, Rhapsody: Child of Blood; Timothy Zahn, The Green and the Gray; Neil Gaiman, Marvel 1602 and The Kindly Ones; Steven Erikson, Gardens of the Moon; Clark Ashton Smith, The Emperor of Dreams; R. M. Meluch, The Myriad; Jennifer Falon, Medalon; Lord Dunsany, Time and the Gods; Reginald Bretnor, Schimmelhorn's Gold*; Iain M. Banks, Feersum Endjinn
Historical (5): Gillian Bradshaw, Island of Ghosts; Dorothy Dunnett, The Unicorn Hunt and To Lie with Lions; Lindsey Davis, The Accusers; Laura Joh Rowland, The Perfumed Sleeve
Mystery (2): Janet Evanovich, One for the Money; Elizabeth Peters, Die for Love [Note: Davis and Rowland could also be classed here.]
Mainstream (1): Saul Bellow, Herzog

Nonfiction
Science and mathematics (2): Hewitt & Ross, Abstract Harmonic Analysis*; Steven Mithen, After the Ice
History (6): Arthur Herman, To Rule the Waves; Niall Fergusson, Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire; Stephen Kinzer, All the Shah's Men ; Procopius, The Secret History; Sarah Vowell, Assassination Vacation; H. W. Brands, The Reckless Decade
Miscellaneous (3): George Will, Men at Work (baseball); Peter J. King, One Hundred Philosophers (philosophy); BradyGames, Civilization IV Official Strategy Guide (gaming)

In progress (5): Rahman & Schmeisser, Analytic Theory of Polynomials; Henri Cartan, Formes Differentielles; Penny Lee, The Whorf Theory Complex; Joan Vinge, The Snow Queen*; Gene Wolfe, The Knight

* marks rereads.

Comments

[toraks.livejournal.com]

Is Darwin's Children a sequel to Darwin's Radio? I think the science didn't totally put me off Darwin's Radio, so I may have to look for it if it is.

I just finished Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys -- I really liked it. Much more so than American Gods. Have you read it?

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Yes, DC is a sequel to DR. I'm not sure why I continue to read Bear; I haven't really enjoyed any of his work since Queen of Angels (which was outstanding). He was so good up to that point...

I haven't read Anansi Boys, no, but I plan to. Gaiman has some flaws as a novelist - I think he's at his best with shorter work - but he's usually worth reading.

[toraks.livejournal.com]

I've only read the two I mentioned above of Gaiman's. I really enjoyed reading Anansi Boys though. I'd definitely recommend it as a fairly light fun read.

I don't think I've read anything else of Bear's. I'll keep an eye out for Queen of Angels.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

I regard Queen of Angels as Bear's masterpiece, but I'd also recommend Blood Music, Eon and its sequel Eternity, and The Forge of God. The science is iffy sometimes, but I don't know anyone who's better at sensawunda than Bear.