The Year in Books
Dec. 29th, 2006 10:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
Since everyone makes a list, here are the three best books I read in 2006. I say three as opposed to 5 or 10 or whatnot because these are the three that leap to mind when I think about my reading this year, so if there'd be others, it would've been a longer list:
In no particular order:
1. Blindsight by Petter Watts. Heavily-modified humans attempt First Contact with an alien species camping out on the edges of our Solar System. Written by a marine biologist, the background science is all pretty solid and gets used to build some conclusions that will keep you up at night pondering your existence. Just fabulous stuff.
2. The Wrestler's Cruel Study by Stephen Dobyns. Gnostic mysticism, magic coins, theological street gangs and professional wrestlers. If Blindsight is notable for it's wealth of scientific ideas, Wrestler's Cruel Study is sort of it's liberal arts counterpart, a wealth of philosophical and psychological ideas. Reminds me of Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco in a lot of ways.
3. The Lies of Lock Lamora by Scott Lynch. It's a fantasy city novel. It's a con game novel. It's pure storytelling genius. The book doesn't play with Big Ideas(TM) like the other two, but just plows ahead and shows off fascinating characters, intriguing situations and glues it together with delightful dialog. An infectiously good book.
So those are my picks for 2006. If you haven't checked them out, you should certainly consider sticking them on your list for 2007.
later
Tom
Since everyone makes a list, here are the three best books I read in 2006. I say three as opposed to 5 or 10 or whatnot because these are the three that leap to mind when I think about my reading this year, so if there'd be others, it would've been a longer list:
In no particular order:
1. Blindsight by Petter Watts. Heavily-modified humans attempt First Contact with an alien species camping out on the edges of our Solar System. Written by a marine biologist, the background science is all pretty solid and gets used to build some conclusions that will keep you up at night pondering your existence. Just fabulous stuff.
2. The Wrestler's Cruel Study by Stephen Dobyns. Gnostic mysticism, magic coins, theological street gangs and professional wrestlers. If Blindsight is notable for it's wealth of scientific ideas, Wrestler's Cruel Study is sort of it's liberal arts counterpart, a wealth of philosophical and psychological ideas. Reminds me of Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco in a lot of ways.
3. The Lies of Lock Lamora by Scott Lynch. It's a fantasy city novel. It's a con game novel. It's pure storytelling genius. The book doesn't play with Big Ideas(TM) like the other two, but just plows ahead and shows off fascinating characters, intriguing situations and glues it together with delightful dialog. An infectiously good book.
So those are my picks for 2006. If you haven't checked them out, you should certainly consider sticking them on your list for 2007.
later
Tom
