Dead Trees 2004

Discovered that I had done this meme a year ago

1. What did you last read?
   Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke.

2. What are you reading now?
   Berlin, City of Stones, by Jason Lutes; Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky; Radiant Seas, by Catherine Asaro; England Swings SF, ed. Judith Merril.

3. What do you plan to read next?
   My answer this time last year was The English by Jeremy Paxman, and I still haven’t read it. As noted in earlier entries, on my immediate list are Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, and The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge. And I suppose The English by Jeremy Paxman!

4. What would you like to read, but haven’t? See previous entries! Last year I answered “Crime and PunishmentMaus.” Well, this year I’ve read Maus and am halfway through Crime and Punishment.
5. What (that you read in 2004) would you recommend for others to read?
   Overall best book is almost the first one I read this year, Claire Tomalin’s Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, a brilliant insight into the 17th century. Best sf book (and perhaps the most accessible for non-sf readers) was The Locus Awards: Thirty Years of the Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy, ed. Charles N. Brown and Jonathan Strahan. Best other book was Molvania: A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry.

6. What book last made you laugh? The Uncyclopedia, by Gideon Haigh.
7. What book last made you weep?
   Making Sense of the Troubles, by David McKittrick and David McVea, certainly brought tears to the eye.

8. What book last made you angry?
   Certainly The 9/11 Commission report – not just that one feels for those like the FBI agent who “said he was ‘trying to keep someone from taking a plane and crashing into the World Trade Center.’ The headquarters agent replied that this was not going to happen” – but also that despite doing all that fantastic research and narrative writing they then come up with completely the wrong recommendations.

9. What book did you try to read, perhaps several times, and never managed to finish?
   Easy answer: The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson.