yakalskovich

No, not the catpile on my divan. My pile of books to read.

Look at it:

It now consists of:

Peter Ackroyd, The Fall of Troy. I read lots of Peter Ackroyd some years ago; what impressed me most was First Light. When ceitfianna told me he'd written one about Schliemann, I decided I wanted it.
Rosemary Sutcliffe, Sword at Sunset & The Lantern Bearers. essayel told me about these. I had loved what books of Rosemary Sutcliffe's I had read when I was a teenager, in my first great historical novel reading bout after I'd lastingly fallen in love with the genre after reading Teja's canon. These books are about the end of Roman rule in Britain, and that period is one I'm now getting into again. I have made a start on 'Lantern Bearers' but put it back on the stack when To Dream Of The Dead by Phil Rickman arrived and queue-jumped it.
Phil Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect. That's the bloke from the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment; sometimes, some non-fiction about the dark underbelly of the human psyche is a good thing.
Elizabeth Bear, Blood and Iron, Elizabeth Bear, Dust, Sarah Monette, Mélusine. I'd read New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear because of an unfortunately short-lived Milli!charrie belonging to daniidebrabant that had impressed me; and I rather liked it. Then, there was A Companion To Wolves, which is about that whole Nithing memeplex, and which she co-wrote with Sarah Monette; hence these three books as follow-up. I loved the underlying idea and world-building of 'Companion To Wolves' a lot, with the added bonus of some fantastic story-telling of the emotional kind. Isolfr, the main character, pulls a Harry Potter and goes around being self-centered and stuck-up due to daddy issues, never really noticing that poor Skjaldwulf (who comes from the same character mold that Teja came from, 130 years earlier) honestly and seriously loves him; then there's the whole OT3 thing, and the way how Isolfr by the end acknowledges his issues, but doesn't resolve them -- Skjaldwul and Vethulf are still left somewhat dangling, poor guys. I really fell very hard for that book and its charries; I'd love to see somebody bring a wolfcarl (any wolfcarl!) to Milliways. Anyway, I wanted more from where these came from. Elizabeth Bear is on LJ as matociquala; dunno about Sarah Monette.
Lynn Flewelling, Shadows Return. I'd read her earlier books, so of course I want to read this one! However, I fear the whiff of mpreg that seems to come off it. Ugh. I read about three quarters of the book; then it went back on the pile when 'Prayer of the Dragon' arrived (see below). Chances are that she handles the thing originally and adequately; but chances are that she steps into one of the readily available trope potholes, just as easily. While the book sits in the pile, I can at least keep my respect for the author, on LJ as otterdance, a little bit longer.
Felix Dahn, Ein Kampf um Rom. I know it by heart, more or less; it sits there for handy reference while threading, if I need a literal quote.
Roger Zelazny, The Great Book of Amber. All ten parts of the Amber Chronicles. I really want to read it, especially as Milliways bristled with Amberites earlier in the year, and I loved the idea; but this is so not a book to take along in the train to work (where I do much of my ordinary reading, unless a book grips my brain and wants in in a hurry) as it's big and heavy enough to kill a small dog with. That's the only reason I haven't read it yet.
David Sacks, The Alphabet. Cultural history of all the different letters -- why is 'X' mysterious? Etc. Lent to me by the parents of my other godchild, in April. Sounds very interesting, but not enough to push ahead in the queue.
Justus Noll, Ludwig Wittgenstein/David Pinsent. From a 'Famous Couples Duography' series. I'm not into philosophy or Deep And Meaningful much, but I found that interesting...
Cali Resler and Jody Thompson, Why Work Sucks And How To Fix It. I actually read that apart from about five pages of appendix, which are still outstanding, which is why the book hasn't joined the vertical yet. It's about the conept of a Results Only Work Environment, and bloody brilliant. A ROWE is not a perk, and I'm sure all sides can profit from it, and the coming downturn would be a great chance for the idea to spread. However, employers will mostly see the coming downturn as a chance for thightening the thumbscrews, as the concept that employees are adults that WANT to do their job well seems to be incompatible with industrial and post-industrial work concepts. The ladies have a blog, too.
C.J. Cherryh, Deliverer. I mostly read that, then couldn't get myself to go on when I peeked on the last page and saw that the main character, through whose eyes we see the whole series (this is the ninth) apparently dies at the end. I love the 'Foreigner' books and the atevi to bits, to the point where I explained to the Little Lady what the idea and point of aliens is, using the atevi as an example -- and she really got into the whole 'different bioloy, different culture' thing. It was fun sharing that with her. It's very silly not to finish the last book in a series that's among my ten all-time favourites, but while I don't, Bren Cameron is still alive, sorta thing. **blushes**
Eliot Pattison, Prayer of the Dragon. The newest instalment in another of my ten faourite series ever; this is a sorta Buddhist detective series about a former Chinese official who's fallen into disgrace and escaped from a prison camp in Tibet to live with Tibetan dissidents and candestine monks and solve problems among them -- not just murder, but problems of the mysterious kind. This sounds like a terminally depressing setting for a series of detective novels, and a very remote and unaccessible setting on top of it, that would encourage sensationalism rather than psychological insight, but it's really neither. I love the way Shan solves those puzzles with a mixture of Easern philosophy, knowledge, and deep cynicism. And the books have given me lasting concepts and images -- the invisible monasteries of the first book, for example, not just the hidden illegal monks, but also the way the monks in the labour camp stick together and help their fellow prisoners, among them Shan; and then the ancient pilgrim in the second book, oneof several millennia-old mummified bodies that are found in the desert of western China, and cause no end of problems that Shan needs to go and help solve, because they're Caucasian, and the Chinese government fear that the archaeological eveidence would be water on the mill of local seperatists. This one special mummy is buried with paraphernalia that clearly show he was a Buddhist on a pilgrimage to some sacred mountain, because pilgrims today still carry such items (I forget what the item was, but the mountain, I think , was Kailash), and in the end, Shan takes them and completes that man's pilgrimage. That mummy easily qualifies for Most Impressive Character That Never Does Or Says Anything At All, Ever, or perhaps, alternatively, Best M-Thing In Fiction. Now, this is the fifth book in the series, in ten years. Pattison doesn't write much; he's a retired economist of some sort and can take his time.
The Devious Book For Cats. As recommened by saphyria. I want to know what tricks my kitties are up to! Actually, there is useful information hidden within the jokes.
J.K. Rowling, The Tales of Beedle the Bard. It came out yesterday; nazgulwears and I went and bought it in an actual brick and mortar bookshop last night.
A pair of warm, long fingerless gloves I bought at the medieval Christmas market yesterday, before meeting the Nazgul at the bookshop. I don't mean to read them, but they are on the pile, so.

I think that should be enough to read for this winter? I should declare a book-buying moratorium now.

Yes, I saw that pile growing :)

Here is mine, circa maybe 3 weeks ago:

Remarkable. There's lots more on it than on mine. On the other hand, when I moved, I mercilessly stowed all old piles in the vertical; some of it in the book-case in the kitchen, where the blue cat chair is.-

Oooooh, Rosemary Sutcliff!!!!!!!

(Yes, six. No hope for me, evidently.)

Six of what?

**innocent**

Pile

The pile

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