Book Roundup

One of the things that has gone by the way side on the blog is the little chart to the left that tracks what I'm reading. Not sure why I stopped updating it, but it's horribly out of date. I'm going to fix that at some point but I thought it might be interesting to mention some of the books that I've read since then.

• 'Fountains of Pardise', Arthur C Clarke - this was a Hugo winner and I'll give it a full review when I get back to doing so.
• 'The Road', McCarthy - a bleak masterpiece. Post apocolyptic journey of a man and his son. Reminded me of the best of Stephen King.
• 'Anathem', Neal Stephenson - this is on my reread regularly list apparently. Damn fine book.
• 'Godforsaken Sea', Lundy - a book about the '96 Vendee Globe race, a single handed yachting race that takes place every four years. The story is phenomenal, filled with injuries and sudden disappearances. The writing was good but not nearly as good as:
• 'A Voyage for Madmen', Nichols - a book about the very first single handed round the world yacht race. Simply a gripping book with several fascinating stories. Very well written.
• 'Possession', Byatt - the Booker winner from 1990. Incredibly highly regarded but kind of a dud for me. Details two scholars trying to connect English poets from the 1800's. Didn't do a thing for me.
• 'Snow Queen', Vinge - Hugo winner for 1981. Couldn't get into it, will try again.
• 'Downbelow Station', Cherryh - Hugo Winner for 1982. Couldn't get into it, will try again.
• 'Foundation's Edge', Asimov - Hugo Winner for 1983, will get it's own post at some point.
• 'How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe' Yu - a possible nominee for this upcoming year's Hugo award. Pretty good, may get it's own post.

And probably half a dozen other smaller things that I can't remember right now. Strangely for me, the non-fiction held my attention better than the fiction.