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by
Neal Stephenson
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Of course. Everyone's reading this book. It's thick, it's meaty, and believe me, if you've read and loved Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, you have breathlessly awaited this tome. And tome it is -- I'm on page 298, and here are the words I've marked to look up later: Titanomachia, swidden, Lissajous, mestizo, hegemony, lianas, mickle, cahoutchouc, kerf, Sgrhs, gaffer, boffins, fulminant, stylite Stephenson is obviously influenced by Gravity's Rainbow, but believe me, I had to look up hundreds more words with Pynchon. You do the math. Update: it's now a month later and I'm on page 534. The unusual words are thinning out, with only one new to look up: moiety. I think he's got his vocabulary loading into his words processor, and he's sticking with it. The plot has emerged, and I'm already past the infamous Cap'n Crunch part. The book has become an old friend, but not in the good sense. Slow and plodding at times, but there's a certain cozy familiarity. I can read a few pages a night, put it down with a light heart, and get a good night's sleep. Meanwhile, I've started and bookmarked a few others: The Illustrated Pepys selected & edited by Robert Latham------------------------- If you love other people's diaries and journals, eventually you have to dig into Pepys. If you have a certain amount of cash, you'll want the definitive Pepys, a row of volumes edited by Latham and William Matthews. If you can't cough up a thousand-plus dollars, you can appease yourself with this small, but illustrated taste of the whole. Here's what the editor says about the famous diarist: "One characteristic stands out above all others in Pepys's self-portrait -- his genius for happiness." There you go. WE Yevgeny Zamyatin translated by Mirra Ginsburg------------------------- This is a great, strange science fiction written in 1921. It's cryptic and prefigures the classics Brave New World and 1984. It's a clean, simple diary of a loyal member of the State, a prime-numbers mathematician. I sort of already know the plot, I suppose, which is why I start and stop this book. I go back to it each time Neal Stephenson (see above) spends too much time describing yet another Pacific atoll. The Elephant Vanishes Haruki Murakami translated by Alfred Birnbaum and Jay Rubin------------------------- A book of short stories by one of my favorite writers. I've only got one story to go, and I'm merely dragging my feet. I never want to leave Murakami book. There's something about the simple way he describes things, a feeling of Hemingway in his settings. Almost Transparent Blue Ryu Murakami translated by Nancy Andrew------------------------- I bought this book from Amazon as a result of looking for other Murakami titles. I found out in my search that Haruki is far more prolific than I'd thought, and that there was another Murakami writing, as well. This book is quite different, and if you are offended by: sex, drugs, and/or rock and roll, you should pass it up. I read it in one night, straight through. As the jacket copy warns: if you think Japan is only cherry blossoms and bald-headed monks, than this book is not for you. If, however you don't mind reading about vomit, have at it. This is a book about vomit. A lot of vomit. You can never have too many bookmarks. Find new books at:
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