No Mod Required

Hannibal Rising I'm a complete geek for the first two books in this series- Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs. I'm also a complete and utter fool for the film version of Silence of the Lambs. I think it's complete genius.

In other words, this is a book I should like. I did, but only a little. Really, it should have been so much better. My biggest problem with this Hannibal Lecter:Year One style tale is that it just doesn't feel all that connected to the later stories. There are touches of Hannibal the Cannibal, but a lot of times it felt like another character entirely. Of course, I seem to remember having a similar reaction to Hannibal, so I guess this shouldn't be a total surprise.

And yeah, I'll still end up watching the movie at some point.

Doors of Perception Huxley actually argues in this book that we should transition off of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, etc. and onto mescalin.

How awesome is that?

I really enjoyed this book. There's not that much literature of this quality written from this perspective so for that it's a really interesting read. He connects a lot of dots that you might not expect a book about a mescalin experience to connect. Being an art nerd I thoroughly I enjoyed his altered trip through viewing art and art history. I especially enjoyed his appraisal of Vermeer.

The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest While not quite the work of literature that Jon Krakauer's book is, it does offer an interesting perspective on the tragic, dramatic events of May 1996. Everest is a fascinating topic for me in general and the tragic events of that night are especially so.

Solaris: Better than both films combined. There's some fun, pure imagination at work here. Lem's imagery is brilliant in the same way that Jodorowsky's is- it pulses with pure infectious creativity. The pure poetry of the ending is really what pushed this book over the top for me. It's a wonderful chapter.

Hunters of Dune I can barely talk about this book without spoiling the hell out of it. It's better than any of the other Anderson/Herbert books. It also, owing to a plot point I can't possibly divulge without spoiling the long-awaited punch line to three books (Chapterhouse, Heretics and this novel,) makes some of the other Anderson/Herbert better.

The thing about it is, I'm not sure if I like it as a novel or just as part of the whole Dune arc. I'm thinking the latter since there are characters and situations in this that are so Dune-geeky, I can't help but enjoy it. Which is fine.

I can't wait for the next one.

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life It was suggested to me, so I read it.

So slow, this year.

Ambient Findability: A fascinating read. One of my favorite parts of it is that he name checks people like William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, a lot. I think he tosses in a Neal Stephenson reference as well. That's pretty cool.

As for the book itself, it's really thought-provoking. As a whole it's great, but page by page it's almost too rich to keep up with. I'm planning on going through and looking through the footnotes for links as I was repeatedly intrigued by quoted articles and never had the time to fully explore them. There's a lot of great practical insight here and a lot of wonderful speculation on the shape of things to come. Well worth it if you make the Internet your job.

What a pathetic haul of books so far. I've been way too busy for my own good this year. Thankfully, that's all over and done with now and I can hopefully squeeze in another one or two before the year's out. Next year I'm aiming for 26.

Anyway, just in time for a lecture with the author at the MFA next Thursday:

The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece

It's a fascinating story and the painting itself imprinted itself on me strongly when I saw it this past year in Amsterdam. It was probably the biggest surprise of all the paintings I saw in Europe. I wasn't super familiar with Caravaggio before that trip and when I walked out of that exhibition I was a certified fan. The Taking of Christ was a big reason why- it's an incredible painting.

Why Black People Tend to Shout: Cold Facts and Wry Views from a Black Man's World: Interesting for dozens of reasons, the primary for me being Wiley's writing. I just enjoy reading his writing. The fact that the book is thought-provoking just makes it all the more worthwhile.

Eldest (Inheritance, Book 2) Good stuff. The interesting thing is that where the major plot points were predictable, there were enough surprises in the details to make the book interesting. I'll be picking up the third book as soon as it drops.