26 Books Update

I have fallen a bit behind schedule in my reading lately, but have still been chugging along with my alphabetical plan. Since July, I have been at it (the original list is here), and here is what I have read.

• The Music Of Chance, Paul Auster: A fine novel, and a good way to ease myself into reading novels with some semblance of substance
  
• Paradise, Donald Barthelme: Very funny, insightful, if ultimately slight.
  
• A good portion of Sixty Stories by Barthelme, most of which I enjoyed more than Paradise
  
• Storm Front, Jim Butcher, which was awful. It's the first book in a series that I find staggering anyone wanted to read more of. Also I'm offended that it's set in Chicago despite the author clearly never having set foot within the city limits.
  
• Tell No One, Harlan Coben: Only slightly better than the Butcher book. To be fair, I didn't expect great things from either one, but in Butcher's case, I didn't think competence was too much to ask.
  
• Crooked Little Vein, Warren Ellis: Warren writes wonderful comic books. He has many fantastic ideas. He is a brilliant, fascinating man. His prose leaves a great deal to be desired, and scatological humor is not really so much my thing. On the whole, good geeky fun.
• Little Brother, Cory Doctorow: Probably the best thing I've read in the last six months, save some of the Barthelme shorts. Really great commentary on technology and civil and human rights, aimed at a sophisticated but impressionable young adult audience. I recommend this book to everyone.
• Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson: Something I'd picked up and put down more than once, but after reading the Doctorow, it just seemed a perfect follow up. Very enjoyable and probably the fastest I've ever made it through a 900+ pagecount.
• Pattern Recognition, William Gibson: Once I started down the geek-lit path it was too hard to turn around. This was my first Gibson novel and certainly won't be my last. I imagine I'll read either Spook Country or Neuromancer before too long.
• Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson: Hard to believe that this book is over fifteen years old now and the internet has certainly evolved, though not in the ways predicted here. Still, a fun time. I did get a little maxed out on the cyberpunk though, so moving back to the alphabet . . .
  
• And Then We Came To The End, Joshua Ferris: Wonderful book. Very funny, very touching.
• No One Belongs Here More Than You, Miranda July: Lovely stories. I do have a tendency toward male authors and am always taken aback and a bit embarassed that I don't spend more time reading women's works and basically considering the experience outside myself. So I feel reading July is both pleasant and healthy.
• Three Signs Of A Miserable Job, Patrick Lencioni: I had to read this for work. It was homework. I can't talk about without sounding like it was a terrible experience, but honestly, reading it meant nothing to me except it took up some time.
• Dune, Frank Herbert: Just started it today.

So that's my reading from the last eight months. I've made it A-H, with jumps ahead to J, L & S. I think I will try to follow Dune with either some Ibsen or that Innaurato play I'd originally planned on, but right now those both sound like dreary prospects. I also think I may dump Sarah Kane in favor of Robert Kirkman's Invincible or The Walking Dead (or both!). And then with luck, by July I'll have made it to 'S' and be ready for my next syllabus: A year of reading Shakespeare!