I finished reading Life of Pi (school required reading) last night. The first 100 pages or so I absolutely despised (religious rants and whatnot), but after Pi became a castaway, I enjoyed the book. The book’s tagline “this book will make you believe in God,” holds no substance. To me, god(s) wasn’t even a part of the book after page 100 or so. Oh well.

It’s not your typical school required reading.

I just finished reading Neal Stephenson’s The Confusion.

It’s long.

Although not as long as Quicksilver or Cryptonomicon.

Anywhoo, if you enjoyed Quicksilver, go read The Confusion. If you are impartial toward Quicksilver, go read The Confusion. If you didn’t like Quicksilver, don’t go read The Confusion.

I finished reading Dracula last night. It’s a good book (far better than any adaptions of the tale), but much too long. Only the last half of the book is really concerned with Count Dracula.

I finished reading Jack Kerouac’s On the Road last night. It’s one of the best books I’ve read, by the self-proclaimed “voice of the Beat Generation”.

Hailed by The New York Times as the most beautifully executed, the clearest, and the most important utterance yet of the Beat Generation, On the Road is the kind of book people read, reread, and take to heart.

If you dislike William S. Burroughs, then don’t worry. Kerouac is completely different…yet somehow the same.

So go read the book.

I finished reading Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon today. The quote on the front from the London Times sums the book up best.

This seamless marriage of hardcore cyberpunk and hard-boiled detective tail is an astonishing first novel.

Needless to say, I enjoyed it. It reminded me alot of K.W. Jeter’s Noir.

Though less on the detective, and more on the cyberpunk.

I finished reading Crimethinc‘s Off the Map. It’s the story of two girls from Olympia who travel to Europe with no money, squatting in different buildings and the like.

I highly recommend it. It’s one of my favorite books.

From the site:

A punk rock vision quest told in the tradition of the anarchist travel story, Off the Map is narrated by two young women as they discard their maps, fears, and anything resembling a plan, and set off on the winds of the world. Without the smug cynicism that seems to permeate most modern radical tales, this story is told with genuine hope, and a voice that never loses its connection with the mysteries of life, even in the midst of everyday tragedies. Wandering across Europe, the dozens of vignettes are the details of the whole—a squatted castle surrounded by tourists on the Spanish coast, a philosophizing businessman on the highways of France, a plaza full of los crustos in Barcelona, a diseased foot in a Belgian train squat, a glow bug on the dew-covered grass of anywhere—a magical, novel-like folktale for the end of the world.

I finished reading Junky: The Definitive Text of “Junk” by William S. Burroughs today. It’s a good book.

I enjoyed it more than Naked Lunch. The writing is easier to follow, there is a discernible plot, and less homosexual orgies.

If you don’t feel like reading the book, I’ll sum it up for you: don’t do opium or derivatives thereof.

I finished reading Siva Vaidhyanathan‘s Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens Creativity. It’s an interesting book, if you’re into copyright. Me, well, I was bored at parts, and it’s not very high on my recommendation list. I suggest you go to your local bookstore and read the Afterword. If you’re not getting evil glares from the management when you finish that, skim the last chapter (“The Digital Moment”). Those are the only good parts.