2003-08-02 - 2:31 a.m.

Reading Update

Today hopefully marks the end of a rewarding but stressful week. If I had to pick, though, I'd rather have weeks like this (big event over, lots of pieces to pick up) than last week (scrambling to get ready for the big event). I'm not a detail person. I knew all along I wasn't going to do an especially good job of coordinating the move and that I'd be living in fear until it was over. On the other hand, I am a pretty solid troubleshooter, and the work I've been doing this week has been good by any standard. Yay me.

Outside of work, I've been spending a lot of time missing the days when I had a life outside of work. Well, OK, not really. Let's see... I've been reading some. Iain Banks' Culture series retains it charms, especially Excession, with its bizarre conspiracies of artificial intelligences and demented aliens. I read Steven Brusts' The Paths of the Dead, and enjoyed it muchly. I'm glad I have a natural talent for skimming books, though. The voice Brust uses for the Paarfi books can get stale, and it's nice to be able to rush through the verbiage and directly access the plot sometimes. Other times I read every word and giggle incessantly. It's a mood thing. Now I'm reading Walter Jon Williams' The Praxis, which Mer very thoughtfully ordered for me from amazon.co.uk. I think Williams is one of the best SF/fantasy authors alive today, and whatever idiotic agent or publisher bears responsibility for letting so much of his stuff go out of print must be killed. If you haven't read his stuff, run to your local used bookstore and hope your luck is good.

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