On Books. Lots of Books.

Now that the movies are taken care of, it's time for a Book Update. This last year, I've read more aggressively than I ever thought I would. A total of 6 books since January! It may not sound as much, but it's a personal best! And I hope to continue like this. Anyway, here's what I've tackled during my long hiatus:

Not a novel, but a short story based on the Cthulhu and Sherlock Holmes mythos. It mixes the two verses together in a very clever way, and also throws in some references to other classic stories like Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I discovered Gaiman just recently, and I'm thoroughly hooked. This story also has a twist ending, which I didn't expect at all! It really helps to be familiar with both Cthulhu and Holmes in order to get into it.

I finished reading Blackout, by Connie Willis. Honestly, I've been reading this for almost a year, with several intermissions to read other things. But despite that, I really enjoyed this take on time travel/historical drama. This novel receives a lot of criticism because of the characters' actions, which often seem random and pointless. They mostly just go from place to place, never accomplishing anything and missing each other. But I think that this is the essence of what Willis is tries to tell us about history. The greatest of events are the result of lots of little coincidences that seem random at the best of times. That's just what history is. This is why I believe that Blackout deserves more praise and thought than it gets. I got the sequel (which apparently isn't actually a sequel) a few days ago. This one won the Nebula, so I'm really looking forward to it!

Now for the stuff I started to read during the hiatus. I like to read at least two books at a time. Otherwise I get bored and loose interest. At the moment, I have two. The Golem and the Jinni by Helen Wecker, and A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. Greatly enjoying them both!