Jeffrey Paris [was Infinite Tasks] > Recent Status Updates

William T. Vollmann is totally metal.

I had to go back through Spook Country (which was a bit more forgettable than Gibson's other work) to even get started on this book, but in its favor, the density of object description is awe-inspiring!

A bit more didactic than Little Brother, with lots of info-dumping as Doctorow presents his vision of the rise and fall of New Work and the 21st century version of inventions for/by everyone!

Probably my third or fourth time reading this, preparing for a Spring 2011 course in which it is assigned: The Philosophy and Politics of Peace & War. The first chapter reminds me of why this is one of the greatest books ever written.

I think I mentioned I'm a sucker for any podiobook that includes Nathan Lowell as a reader, and this one is pretty well rated...

Great first two chapters got me through the sort of irritating DHS confinement. Now, a few hundred pages of anti-surveillance, techno-cyber resistance promises to be a ton of fun! Cory has his finger on the Electronic Frontier, mixing total plausibility with a hacker knowledge and lingo that feels authentic (like I would know).

Definitely captivating, now. The deftness with which he carries out the two cities, the unseeing and the breaches, is really stunning, brilliant, and ... new? Hard to put down, and I hope it succeeds in the end.

I like the writing so far better than Perdido or The Scar. But it definitely has the Mieville distinctiveness, of slightly weak characters but a realnstrength of setting, which is probably the real character, anyway.

Actually, I'm on Chapter 7 of the audio book. I am kind of a sucker for anything written or read by Nathan Lowell, and this one is a lot like his own style of writing. Reading it would probably be uninteresting, but while doing the dishes, it is perfect.

Damn, these first three stories are GOOD! Good as "have to put the book down to breathe" kind of good.

I've always wanted to read an Iain (M.) Banks book. Hope this is the right one to start!

It is somewhere between candy and a novel. I can't take this too seriously as a novel, but it sure is fun! Just like Oryx and Crake (Sorry Jen Angel), and I still want my very own rakunk.

This may be the first book I am reading entirely aKindle. Very good thus far; deft language, imaginative vision. I started it because a graduated student I saw last week just raved and raved over it.

Really amazing stuff. Bloch was far more unconventional - as Marxist, as mystic, as cultural critic - than I had understood before. I am ready to set a religious historian or two on his tail, though. He was working with hermeneutics now 50+ years old, and the selectivity of his accounts (of pagan and Gnostic cults, of Islamic conceptions of an afteerlife) can be a bit concerning.

Well, there is enough here to keep it moving. DFW's approach to his work is pretty interesting, though I do wish the book as a whole was more, something: funnier? revealing? inspiring?

Lack of narrative development makes me wonder if I'll get all the way with this, seeing as how my reading time is so limited right now.

Volume One complete. As interesting theoretically as I had hoped, and considered readable and provocative by students in the course. So far, so good!

The close transcription doesn't make it as interesting as it otherwise might be, but I'll hang in there for a while.

Love the opening pages, yum.

I loved this for 250 pages, but now I'm looking wistfully at the books on my to-read shelf! I prefer hints of people strolling different quantum realities better than when they actually do.