The Court of the Air

The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt reminds me of two other books, both of which I love, so let's just get to the point that although I'm not finished with it yet, at the moment I'm recommending it pretty highly.

First- The Golden Compass. The same sort of setting, pseudopast with alternate or futuristic additions, similar aged protagonists, and an equally dark but more omnipotent organization.

Secondly - these books that I don't remember the name of, about cities that move around and eat other cities. I guess it's the same kind of steampunk feel, almost Neil-Gaiman-but-not-quite. Whenever I read Neil Gaiman I feel like he is just really lucky when his writing or stories turn out well. I'm sure that's vast misunderstanding of mine, and he works really hard to get things right, but that's how it comes across to me. Fortunate more than intentional.

Anyway! Back to string classes, pointers, and idiot-styled Python.

Conflux

So, I played magic at a, you know, place for the first time last Friday. Specifically Eudemonia in Berkeley, and it was pretty ok. For the price and the experience, I'm still into playing at home instead. But I opened up my first pack of Conflux and saw

So that was pretty cool.

Ok, back to coding! And maybe some Murakami. I'm near the end of Sputnik Sweetheart, and I've gotten to this section of kind of bizarre "Why must we as humans be so alone?" rambling that I don't quite know what to make of.

What's Next

Sputnik Sweetheart for sure. Average Murakami is awesome for anyone else.

Here's my bookshelf. It's color coded, ish.





If you click on the link, you can see a bunch of notes on my flickr.


Also! Matt and Kim tonight! I'm super excited.

Man Walks Into a Room

A little background. I love Jonathan Safran Foer. Everything is illuminated is one of my favorite books, period. I've given it to my whole family and basically every other person I like to read.

When I read History of Love, i was likewise completely blown away. I thought, Nicole Krauss, you are a genius of equal stature to your husband, and also i like your hair.

But just like the fact that I love Interpol doesn't mean I ever want to hear Joy Division ever- Man Walks Into a Room is a huge disappointment.
The premise is interesting, but there is a certain style of writing about male protaganists that really bothers me- kind of "He's not a good person, in fact he is horrible all the time to everyone, but it is in this totally dude way, so maybe it's just that all men are secretly awful and how would you even know, woman reader?"

Ugh. Can't wait to be done and never look at this book again.