What Are You Reading??

 

Just finished "The Sympathizer" by Viet Thanh Nguyen. It won the Pulitzer for fiction and a bunch of other awards. It is simply amazing. Probably the best novel I've read in years.

The Raven -Edgar Allen Poe

Why? you ask. Because this midmorn is dreary and I am pondering weak and weary over books of teaching theory and there has come a tapping, tapping at my apartment wall....

 

Killer first chapter. Don't know how the rest will go....

Also

Rereading Fred Saberhagen's original Berserker, the first collection of his Berserker short stories.

As AI's get close to reality, I thought it was a good chance to see what my new job as a goodlife would be like.

Rereading Fred Saberhagen's original Berserker, the first collection of his Berserker short stories.

As AI's get close to reality, I thought it was a good chance to see what my new job as a goodlife would be like.

Does it hold up, do you think?

I recall being much enamoured of the Saberhagen Berserkers, probably from reading that collection.

Those stories are about as old as I am.   I'm please to say that although they are a little grey around the edges, for the most part they hold up fairly well (just like me ).  A lot of SciFi looks laughable after only a few years, so it's good to see stories in the 50+ year range which are still well worth reading or re-reading.

Happily, my Saberhagan books were carefully packed early in the great "box up my library" event, so are nearly all in the same plastic bin instead of being scattered.  Maybe I'll nibble my way through all the rest of the Berserker short stories and novels I have in order of publication.

What was I reading? I tried to read the official novelization of Alien: Covenant by Alan Dean Foster. Reportedly it is both faithful to the movie and features inner voices thus adding a valuable layer. However... and I don't know what it is... but there's just something missing. I did used to read Alan Dean Foster books. I know I've read some of his Alien novelizations before (notably, to my immediate recollection, his Alien 4 version), but this one... not working out for me. Sorry Alan.

Currently essaying All Systems Red by Martha Wells



because if a series called The Murderbot Diaries doesn't do it for me, nothing will.

I am finally reading The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, by John Maynard Keynes. An excellent read. Highly recommended.

In other news, I'm flying home today. Yayyyyy!