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February 18th, 2010
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New Baby Slowed Novel Reading, Boosts Short Stories
February 12th, 2010
So with new baby Addison in house and doing well, I don’t think that I have read more than 40 pages of The Burrowers Beneath. Nothing against the book at all, I rather like it, but I might have to change titles to get my reading steady again, well novels at least.
The funny thing is that I have read no fewer than eight short stories over the last week and a half. I have found that I really don’t have the time to put in to reading a continued story line, but a story that is short and can be killed in a single sitting or two is prime. This is especially true with a newborn in house and a rather unexpected feeding schedule.
I will have to ponder which book to replace Titus Crowe with and possibly finish it later in the year.
On a separate note, I have been trying out Google Buzz and am actually liking it. It allows me to easily let friends know what is happening, ala Twitter, from GMail, which is perpetually open anyway. It also lacks a lot of the other ridiculous features found in Facebook that do nothing more than annoy me to no ends.
Anyway, More later…
Meet Addison Kay Murphy
February 9th, 2010
So one week ago My wife gave birth to my second child, her third, Addison Kay Murphy. She weighed in at 9lbs. 4oz. and was 21” long with a 14” head circumference. Things went so well that we were allowed to take mom and baby home after just one night in the hospital. Since then everything has been going well and we are all trying to adjust to the new sleeping schedule, which quite honestly isn’t that bad.
Sorry for the delayed reaction on getting this post up, but things have been crazy around here. So much so that I have started reading more short stories and have neglected the 45 book goal for the time being, which really isn’t a big deal since I scheduled for this. Anyway, here are some pictures of the new baby.
The Importance of Being Earnest
January 30th, 2010
On a strange whim, I read The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde this morning. I adore that play and wouldn’t mind the opportunity to see it live one day.
This is book 3 of the 45. Still reading the Atrocity Archives as well. Also, there is likely to be a new addition to the family in the next couple of days.
When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth
January 28th, 2010
So I read this little gem of a story by Cory Doctorow this morning and I really liked it. And while I don’t explicitly believe in his “experiment” or his views on copyright, you cannot doubt that his short stories are great.
This story follows Felix and Van two system administrators who are trying to keep the major Canadian backbone of the Net online after a series of catastrophes have brought about a worldwide apocalypse. It’s a good story, and to prove it (only if awards are your thing I suppose) it won the 2007 Locus award for best novelette.
- When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth at Baen’s Universe
- When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth at Doctorow’s Craphound
On a completely different note I need to figure out if and how short stories will add into my overall total for the 45 books in 2010. I’m thinking 2-1 if they are novellas, or 3 or 4-1 for novelettes. Hell I might not even care.
Poison Sleep put to Sleep, Enter Lovecraftian Bond Please
January 26th, 2010
So I blew through Poison Sleep in two days. What a fun book! And so much more satisfying than the first one was. I will be after the rest of this series this year for certain. This novel follows Marla Mason, lead sorcerer for the fictional city of Felsport, actually battling it out within her own city. (The first novel had her fighting some foe in San Francisco, something I always thought annoying. I mean why create a fictional city and then not even use it in your debut novel?)
The character development is more involved here and there is a feeling that the characters are not cardboard cutouts like I sometimes felt in the first novel. Either way a very enjoyable read.
For the next read I am going to do something that I don’t normally do, I’m going to re-read a book I read about a year ago. Some of you you just “whoopty-dooo’d” me into next week, but honestly I do re-reads very rarely and usually only after several years.
But with the possible release of a third book in the fantastic Laundry series, I thought I should make the effort to re-read on of the funniest and funnest books that I have read, ever. The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. And this has me ahead of the game for the week starting book 3 inside week 2 is always a good thing.
Pride Prejudice and Zombies Finished
January 25th, 2010
On Saturday I finished the vastly popular Pride Prejudice and Zombies from Quirk Press. The basic premise is that of a Victorian England story of misunderstood love that everyone is familiar with thanks to the forced reading of the novel in high school and from the excellent BBC productions that have been produced over the years. There is one major difference however, the addition of a strange plague that has afflicted England’s corpses reanimating them into the “unmentionables” (zombies) “denizens of Satan” with a penchant for brains.
At first, I wasn’t too sure about this book and therefore left it alone for the better part of a year, but my resolve and curiosity finally gave way and it was added to the Queue. This was a really fun book to read and honestly was hard to put down. It was fun and funny and really kept me interested even though I knew the main plotline almost as well as the back of my right hand. 
It is campy with lots of innuendos about England’s “balls” and I was happy to see Mr. and Mrs. Bennett still are the primary humor for the story. I won’t go into the prime differences as they are far too numerous to list. But just know that if you LOVE the original you likely won’t enjoy this version. But, for those of us that are casual fans or totally unfamiliar with the story it will be a really funny read. I can say that reading this has actually made me want to read the original because you realize how very good it really is. So I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Now for the next on the reading list is Poison Sleep by T.A. Pratt, book 2 of the Marla Mason series, I’m already about half-way through so another post on it should follow this week.
This means that I am still on tract for the 45 books this year. Yippee to me, prematurely at least.
How to Tie your Shoes Properly
January 20th, 2010
Novel a week (well almost)
January 20th, 2010
So at the end of 2009 I scoured through my Goodreads and Shelfari profiles to determine to number of books that I read last year. And to my surprise I didn’t even break through to the 30’s. This really surprised me at first but then the more I thought about it I realized that I had indeed gone weeks without touching a book and even more weeks reading the same damn thing.
It turns out that having a pregnant wife can really zap your time and energy when it comes to allotting the needed time for reading, well that and Wire in the Blood on Netflix. So this year around, I am challenging myself to read a novel a week for the rest of the year minus two proscribed 2 week breaks. Since it is already the third week of the year and accounting for the 4 weeks off, that leaves me with 45 novels until victory.
Lending even more difficulty to this is the realization that I will have a newborn in the house here with me at any time now. Hopefully the odd feeding hours and early risings will give me the right amount of time to finish what I plan.
To be honest 45 novels in a year is not an unheard of proposition, but I am almost certain I can’t do it. But on the other hand, it would be nice to read that much again in a year.
So for fuck’s sake if you see me watching too much Robson Green or Top Gear on the tellie please kick me in the ass and through me a Warhammer novel so I can get back on track.
Singularity Sky
January 18th, 2010
So Sunday morning I finally finished Charles Stross’s Singularity Sky, a science fiction novel centered around the event and aftermath of a “type 3 singularity,” a technological singularity, occurring on a distant planet under a feudal government. The premise is that a backwater feudal government and pre-industrial society under heavy censorship and an informational chokehold is thrust into an open information galactic network hub, essentially becoming the equivalent of a giant PBX switch in space. The flood of information to and from the purported attackers, known as The Festival, exchanges local information for basically anything the person wants.
This book took me a long time to get through, from no fault of its own, and honestly the first half is somewhat slow. But the second half is excellent. and while this is not my favorite book as a whole, that still belongs to the excellent Culture series, this is still a brilliant piece on a subject with which Mr. Stross is always good at, a singularity. The premise is very interesting but the story doesn’t really grab you and hold you until the later half when 
things turn more exciting. All in all it is a good sci-fi novel and worth reading, and it’s evident sequel Iron Sunrise will definitely be on the list of to- read items very soon.
So next on my to-read list is the humorous Pride Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. So far I’m about a third of the way through its campy humor and zombie vanquishing Victorian ladies.
On a personal note my wife is ready to pop with my second child, her third, and therefore posting, and reading have been slow. I will post pics as soon as it happens.
goodreads
