I'm still working on Hobb and Joyce. For some reason I read a lot less when I'm on a video game kick, and lately I've been playing a lot of games. Still want to keep up the momentum though.
Hope you enjoy the book! It seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it title. I just started The Brothers Karamazov, which some college friends used to read each December. It's been a while since I took on a book this long so I am getting an early start. Trying the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation this time instead of the usual Garnett.
Count me squarely in the "love it" camp. Something happened to me with this book that I don't think has ever happened to me before: I dreamed about it a lot. It took me about ten to fifteen days to read it once I decided to sit down and do it. I would say that at least seven nights my dreams were invaded by the characters. I'd say big credit to Stephenson on that. I have very few qualms with the book. If anything, I thought its pacing was too fast. That is, 80% of the book felt like a third act. But on the other hand, that really keeps you turning the pages.
I haven't read any Stephenson, and I don't know anything about his stuff, so I'm going in blind. As for OPM, Kay is pretty sanguine, actually. The material might be a little scary, but ignoring isn't going to make it go away. One comes away with a sense of despair, but with a shimmer of hope in the silver lining, too. The takeaway message of the book is that there are a lot of people in finance who would like to do right by their customers, but that currently, the economics favor more trading, and more focus on tomorrow than rational trading and more focus on distant time horizons. The only policy solutions he advocates are ring fencing deposits from investments, and the Tobin tax or something similar. Absent its adoption, whose chances are nil right now, Kay thinks that what the system needs is a return to retail customers' outcomes as their primary endpoint. All in all the book pissed me off, since it made me relive 2008, but it is a very worthwhile read. Highly recommend.
Winston Churchill's The Hinge of Fate, book IV in his WWII series. At this point in the account the U.S. has entered the war, and Churchill relates that they then knew that they would win. The uncertainty was how long it would take, and how many lives would be lost before it was over.
I'm reading a book written by my friend, and once I'm finished with that it'll be Crime and Punishment. I'm really looking forward to reading it, I've heard many great things
I really enjoyed Crime and Punishment, it was a quick read.
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. I'm enjoying it a lot more than the film at the moment, possibly because of the specificity of it
Sure is! It's definitely going on the top of my 'to read' pile. Have to make sure I don't forget about it again! Seems some Australian state governments are still terrified of motorcycle 'gangs'... There are some pretty crazy anti-association laws that more or less directly target biker groups. But for the most part, they're harmless people who just love to ride motorcycles! :D
The Jeeves Omnibus! Copped at a booksale this weekend, it immediately takes its exalted place at the top of my reading list. Been ages since I dipped into Wodehouse, and there is no one better. All reread, as far as I can remember, but I couldn't care less.
On of my friends told me about The League of Regrettable Super Heroes. I'm tempted to try and hunt down a copy this week to read it. In other news, Child of Tomorrow is interesting as a second read through. On the one hand, the stories seem a little bit cornier when you look at them more critically, so if you try to read it seriously you're not going to have a lot of fun. On the other hand, if you're able to overlook the corniness, they really have a sense of style that you can get into. Kind of like classic Star Trek or The Andy Griffith Show.
Been reading _The Hoax_ by Clifford Irving - the author once wrote a fake autobiography about Howard Hughes, the reclusive billionaire. It's a bizarre tale, and so far very interesting.