What I’ve been Reading

There are not a whole lot of updates since my last post. Its been a pretty quiet week at the hospital. I've just been sitting in the office every day chugging along, getting work done.

I thought, to at least give some update, I’d talk about the books I’ve been reading since I left the US. I’ve actually just finished the 26th last night. I’ve read a lot of really great books and some that were okay. I will briefly mention a few that stood out and give a list of each of the books at the end.

I’ve been doing all of my reading on my nook eReader. It was a great investment, and has allowed me to vary around so many more books than if I was still using paper books. For only a hundred dollars (probably less as there are newer versions out) I’d definitely recommend it for anyone who reads a lot. The other tool I’ve been using is the Calibre ebook library tool. Its free to download and it makes organizing your books and converting them to different formats extremely easy. I organize and rate my finished books on GoodReads.com which is how I know how many I’ve finished.

The first book I finished since getting here was called Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by British author Susanna Clark. It’s a long book but was a fun historical fantasy epic that’s written as if it were written in the time period it took place in, which was the 18^th century.

I read John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series which is a good intersteller war scifi saga. They are pretty fast reads and I’d recommend them to any scifi fan.

I read Brandon Sanderson’s Allow of Law book. Sanderson has recently probably become my favorite fantasy writer. I’ve not read all of his books yet, but I’ve loved all of them that I have read so far. Allow of Law takes place in the Mistborn universe which is an incredible trilogy I’d highly recommend. His books average at least 700 pages though so prepare to be with them for a while.

I also stared rereading the Wheel of Time books. I first read them years ago. There were 11 book, each 800 pages with the 12th final one on the way until Robert Jordan, the author, died before finishing them. Fortunately, he had left a lot of notes for people to follow and the aforementioned Sanderson is working on finishing them up. He split the 12th book into 3 books. The first two of which are out. The third and final book in the epic series is coming out this winter, so I wanted to reread some of the old ones in preparation for the final one.

I read Good Omens by Neil Gaimon and Terry Pratchett. It was a fun read and offered some nice commentary on good and evil and the human condition.

The best book I’ve read so far has to be Red Shirts by John Scalzi (who I mentioned above). It is his newest scifi book about the idea of the redshirt characters in science fiction (the characters that don’t really have names who just get killed off for dramatic tension) realizing that there is something going on with their mortality rates. It is well written and hilarious. If anyone has watched star trek, you should read the book right away.

I read The Last Wish and Bloods of the Elves which are the first two books and the only ones translated into English so far of the Witcher Series. They were written by a polish author and are really great, and pretty fast fantasy reads. There is now a video game series based on them.

Recently I finished up Pox: An American History which is all about small pox epidemics in the US during the progressive era. It offers a great deal of social commentary, and shows just how much power the government has when it comes to dealing with disease.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I’ve also read 3 or 4 Vonnegut Books since coming here. I finished Hocus Pocus last night, and with that, I’ve actually read every one of Kurt Vonnegut’s novels. I might blog about them some other time. While they were not all as good as Slaughterhouse-Five, they were fun and fast satires.

Well, those are the highlights. Below is a full list of the books I’ve read so far, as well as the ones that are next on my list. (I’m not going to hyperlink to all of them as that would take too long with the slow internet.) If you’d like any of the books, let me know and I can email them to you in any eBook format.

Books I’ve Read

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susana Clark
Situations Matter by Sam Sommers
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
The Last Colony by John Scalzi
Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut
The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
Infections and Inequalities by Paul Farmer
The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
The Bhagavad Gita
Hero’s Trial (Star Wars) by James Luceno
Jedi Eclipse (Star Wars) by James Luceno
Redshirts by John Scalzi
Balance Point (Star Wars) by Kathy Tyers
Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
Blood of the Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski
The Checklist Manifeso by Atul Gawande
Pox: An American History by Michael Willrich
Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut

Book I’m Currently Reading

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Books I’m Reading Next

House on Fire by William Foege about Smallpox eradication
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, a highly rated fantasy book
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, a scifi book
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami