Still reading Needful Things, and continuing on my Stephen King kick, listening to:

The original Godfather novel. Had no idea how important Johnny Fontane is in the book.

Finished
Starting

Columbine by Dave Cullen

Absolutely atrocious book. I was curious how you'd insert Zombies into a book like this, and I was prepared for some plot changes to accomodate them; however, major characterizations were altered, important scenes and motivations changed, the style of Grahame-Smith did not mesh in any way with that of Austen, and little of Austen's precious humor shone through.

I never thought I'd read the word piss-pot in an Austen novel or encounter a baudy and cheap emasculation joke.

I wish I'd stopped reading this one; fortunately, I watched the BBC 6 hour mini-series while in the middle of this book so I got to enjoy much of what was lacking in this book.

Michael

Just finished:

Just started and just finished--it's a quick read--Tom Robbins' latest,

B Is For Beer



A little different than most of Tom's past work, but interesting and fun nonetheless.

Is that the first Dirk Pitt book you've read? They get better and better after that first one.

how is this?

I've been reading a bunch of the Redwall books lately. Very formulaic, but I like the formula, Jacques has a great sense of good and evil. Latest was Lord Brocktree. One of the best, though the ending was rushed.

Also just started on The Dungeon series again, edited/conceived by Philip Jose Farmer. A six book series, written by several different authors. As might be expected, continuity is a problem. Still a decent read. I'm on book 5.

Finished this one

just started Dave Cullen's Columbine:



Cullen addresses some of the media-spread misconceptions about the attack, as well as about the killers. So far (125 pages in) it seems incredibly detailed, and paints a very vivid and disturbing picture of what happened. Some of the situations he describes have been very difficult to get out of my mind

Not a "fun" read, but compelling and heartbreaking.

Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon

First book of his I've read (aside from his superb, super-long Wired article "Mother Earth, Mother Board").

A masterpiece.

So much depth in that book.

I don't know how many times I've read it.

I just started the same book, let me know what you think once finished. I'd be curious to see what your overall opinion is if you end up having one.

Reading this now

Yes, Pacific Vortex! is the first Dirk Pitt novel I have read. I picked it because it was the first one in the series. I always like to start a series with the first book. I thought it was good, not great. I will read more Dirk Pitt.

Very disturbing.