Book Reviews!

First Post!

/sigh

Anyhoo, here's what I've been reading lately:

I just finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, which is the second Neal book I have read, after Snow Crash. Cryptonomicon was like a workout for my brain, with three main storylines, two during WWII and one in the modern day, which follows decendants of the characters from the WWII stories. It also has EQUATIONS in it, but they are all explained in regular language. It's mostly about the world of cryptography, in which spooky-smart people do spooky-smart things that make no sense to anyone else. It has tons of action, lots of world travel, and all the characters are awesome. My favorite character is Bobby Shaftoe, who's just a regular sort of jarhead assigned to guard the crypto guys, but he's also pretty bright and has some great insights into people and things.

Right after that book, I read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, which is a quicker read as it's more of a young reader book. It's about a living boy who is raised by the ghostly residents of a graveyard. He learns all kinds of cool tricks from them! It's a great book for the spooky child in all of us.

Now I'm working on Death From The Skies by Phil Plait, which goes into excruciating detail about what would really happen if an astronomical disaster were to befall Earth. It's a fun read so far! After that, I feel compelled to tackle a sci-fi classic, Asimov's Foundation series. The last book in this vein I read, Ringworld by Larry Niven, was fantastic, and I liked the fact that it was just one year older than I am :-)