just finished Funland by Richard Laymon and started Certain Prey by John Sandford.

Broke my computer in November, so I've done a lot of reading lately. Consequently, this is also my first post in a long while.

Just finished the trilogy His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. It is technically kid stuff I guess, although I suspect it's readers are mainly adults. Anyway, it is a very quick read, and quite good actually. Very anti-organized religion though, in a manner of speaking. It deals with alternate universes connected together and the last book is another war against "the authority" i.e. the big Kahuna.

Also just finished The Sparrow and the sequel Children of God by Mary Doria Russel. First one was great, second one was somewhat good but suffered from the very odd addition of Mafioso types in what was a very engaging story of a Jesuit Priest's journey to the first discovered alien world and back to Earth, and then back again to the alien world. It makes perfect sense that the Jesuits would be able to mount an expedition to the first successful hit of the SETI program before any governments got around to it, and on this premise the author builds a pretty cool story. Things go wrong of course, so the book is part sci-fi adventure, part examination of a man's spiritual journey (the protagonist near-literally gets it in the ass from God at one point and much of the story is about his coming to terms with his faith etc.), part anthropological discourse on biological, social, and political organization, and all in all, a major source of really intriguing moral questions. I was initially turned off by the faith aspect of it- as a atheist I sometimes have trouble liking protagonists who are very into religion, and this guy is a preist- but turns out he is definitely one of my most favorite characters in any book ever, and I was happy and relieved when he regains his faith in God at the end of the story (really only a mild spoiler there). Paperbacks available for both books, and definitely worth a look.

Read some stuff that is not worthwhile, but I can barely remember most of it.

Now reading (finally getting to it): Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. Liking it so far, but I have to read it at about 1/5 the speed that I read all other novels, which is still fast, but I was sort of getting used to reading much much faster. So, it's a big investment of time- hope its worth it. Any opinions on it?

MrKen, a week ago I purchased volumes two and three of the Pullman books and will start reading the series as and when I find volume one "on offer"! It is some years since I read Eco's Name of the Rose: for some reason I don't think I've even read the copy of Pendulum that sits on one of my overburdened bookcases! The Sparrow is a major work and, although the second is less groundbreaking, together they represent some of the more "intelligent" science-fiction around; quite useful for convincing a sceptic that the genre is worth trying!

Currently I am re-reading Jack Womack's oeuvre! For people who like their novels replete with challenging linguistic quirks and in a dark, Manichaean (sp?) near-future setting, they are certainly recommended. I am finding them worth the re-read. (So far I've finished Ambient and Heathern).

I'm currently reading Ceremony by Leslie Silko. I just finished Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.

I'm currently reading "From The Corner Of His Eye" by Dean Koontz. Not a bad book so far. Almost done with it.

(Moderator note: Continue in Part 3: http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=201422 -Blade)