Some Things I’m Reading Lately – 4-9-17

I read constantly. If I go 24 hours without sitting in my recliner with a paperback, my Kindle, or at least a magazine – real or tablet edition – I become cranky. It’s better to just leave me be and let me read, honestly.

From time to time, I like to share some of the things I’ve been reading lately… Here goes.

Love in the Time of Cryptography contains one of the most beautiful metaphors I have ever seen. Right from the opening line, journalist Quinn Norton sets a haunting tone that is both nostalgic and cynical, paranoid and blissfully optimistic. It’s really something.

I don’t really agree with everything Lincoln Michel says in Against Worldbuilding – I think he may be spending far too much time around English majors for good mental health. However, the essay makes some essential points and its central premise is something any writer – or even the discerning, critical reader – should pay heed.

As far as fiction goes, I recently finished Look to Windward, one of the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks that I had somehow missed before. I was delighted in the used bookstore when I realized here was one of the Culture books I hadn’t read yet, and I remained delighted throughout. If you’ve never read about the Culture, you really, really should.

I also raced through The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold, continuing my intermittent and reverse-order enjoyment of the Vorkosigan Saga. These books – space opera yarns that range from military adventure to spy thrillers to political thrillers and feature some of the best characters ever created – are always fun.