What Are You Reading 2015

And my first book for this year, Love and Math:


This was a birthday gift from my parents and I’m halfway in. It’s partly a biography of a young mathematician overcoming discrimination and finding his passion in soviet Russia. The other part is a sort of an explanation as to why he enjoys math so much. I find the biographical element really interesting, but so far the math has not been terribly engaging. I understand that he’s trying to avoid the kind of nitty gritty detail that makes people hate math in school, but it often leaves me feeling like it hasn’t really been explained. We’ll see how the rest goes.

Happy New Year Folks!

Finished: Love and Math
This book could have been 2 books, one of which I would gladly read, and one of which I would gladly leave on the shelf. The far more interesting part of this book was the biography of the author, who beat the odds and anti-semitism of his home country (soviet russia) to become a mathemetician. His story of working on mathematical discoveries as a side job and sneaking into the best university to read papers and attend lectures, was compelling and interesting.

On the other had his presentation of mathematics was largely boring. I get what feels like a real sense of the passion that he has for math, but I find that his descriptions are too general for me to feel like they've been really explained. Part of my distaste may also stem from the fact that I don't find discussion of these sorts of concepts that interesting to begin with, so it would take a lot for the author to win me over.

I would recommend the book to someone who really enjoys abstract math, but otherwise just get a good biography instead.

Next I'm going to read The Stranger


Since a lot of people on here seem to like it (I'm looking at you corumjhaelen). Should be good!


Finished: The Stranger
Excellent book. I had read a little bit of existentialism before this, so I wasn't unprepared for the content. That said the presentation was great. I really loved the descriptions of the protagonist just experiencing life in the moment. I don't think I need to give a detailed review of this book since half of the people here seem to have read it but, 5/5 would binge read again.


I ditched sixty stories because it didn't look very good in the library (sorry sam). Instead I picked up This Side of Paradise


I've heard from some that it is actually better than gatsby. Should be good.


Finished: This Side of Paradise
Quite a good book. My major criticism is that the plot doesn't move very well, but otherwise the writing is excellent. The portrait of a lost young man hits close to home.

decided to pick up the screenplay, The Seventh Seal


I've always wanted to see the movie, but never have. My uncle gave me the book. Should be good!


Finished: The Seventh Seal
Pretty short, but also pretty good. Really left me wanting to see the movie. I also enjoyed the mildly existential overtones. Not a whole lot to say about this other than that the imagery was amazing and the story itself was the good kind of heavy.

On the topic of existential overtones, I picked up


except in its The Fall because I'm reading the English version (even I'm not that pompous). Should be good!

Finished: The Fall
Another excellent book. I'm genuinely sorry that I didn't start reading Camus' work earlier after having read this. I found the narrative style really cool (always being talked to about the past, makes it seem like an oral history). I also enjoyed the wholehearted endorsement of brothels in this book, all of my friends enjoyed hearing about the feeling of satisfaction that comes from lying drunk between 2 sleeping prostitutes. Great book.

I picked up Across the River and Into the Trees


because I'm on a quest to read everything that hemingway ever wrote. Should be good!

Finished: Across the River and Into the Trees
This book was quite good. The standard stiff drinks, beautiful women, and maimed soldiers that I've come to expect from Hemingway. I think this book was interesting because of the extent to which his warriors were removed from their war. It reminded me a lot of some of the Nick Adams stories in that the colonel finds that he can never really escape his profession. A good read if you want a more hipstery selection of Hemingway's work.

Speaking of hipstery, I've picked for my next book The Torrents of Spring.


Its Hemingway's first piece of published fiction, and that last of Hemingway's non-posthumous novels that I haven't read. Should be good.

Forgot to update, but a few days ago I Finished: The Torrents of Spring
This book was sort of weird. To me it seemed that Hemingway was poking fun at some of the tropes of "lost generation" writing. His characters make numerous references to Paris although they have been there only briefly and many have a massive admiration for continental culture that they don't actually understand. They also tend to heavily overvalue "authentic living" (one his characters prasies pump making factories for about a page and a half), and Hemingway includes numerous asides about his current position in the world of professional writing.

It was enjoyable, but a bit strange since it was written before a lot of the works that it seems to mock, and many of the tropes that it pokes fun at are employed in his later works.

Anyway, for something new and interesting, I picked up a 110 year old copy of The Count of Montecristo.


Should be good.

Finished: The Count of Monte Cristo (Vol 1)
Holy shit, there are 2 volumes O_o

That said, this book as been really fun, I like the adventure feeling and the verbal smack-downs from the count. Its kind of interesting as well to see what the attitudes were toward things like medicine and race at the time. The second volume is supposed to be rife with vegeance, so I can't wait to pick that up, but first an interlude.

I picked up Moonraker


Its one of the Bond books that I haven't yet read since it wasn't in the anthology that I had. Can't wait to get my spy novel fix!

Finished: Moonraker
The book was pretty good. I was super busy this last week so it took me a while to read, but I really did enjoy it. I thought it was kind of interesting in this book to see how little the Bond of the book is like Bond in the movies + Show Spoiler +. That said, it was quite nice.

Picked up Count of Monte Cristo: Part 2
Should be good.

Finished: The Count of Monte Cristo
Finally. Exams and projects really killed my free time these last few weeks. This book was pretty awesome. I really liked all of the focus on honor and the intricacies of parisian society. I also kind of enjoyed the way that Dantes was like a 19th century batman. Really fun read, I highly recommend it to anyone with a lot of time.

Picked up Snow Falling on Cedars


My dad really liked this book and I need something to read at baseball games. Should be good!

Finished: Snow Falling on Cedars
This book was really good. It had all the classic elements of a book about war and the toll it takes on people, plus the detective/crime novel thing going on. It was a really fun read, and definitely a page turner.

Since I'm on books my dad liked, I picked up Pillars of the Earth


which I think should be quite nice.

A brief note on the topic of lit, its true that this thread can get a bit over the top sometimes, but I think most people are reading these books because they genuinely like them, and not to fulfill some sort of quota. As for showing off, the point of the thread is to let other people know what you're reading, so there will always kind of be that element here.

edit: Always the formatting

Finished: Pillars of the Earth
I really enjoyed reading this book. Definitely a page turner with all kinds of political conflicts and such, but it also seemed very realistic. I particularly like the way the author handled the passage of time, and didn't feel the need to comment on every singly year of the characters lives (the book was long enough without it). I also particularly enjoy the idea of historical fiction in that the characters interact with real events at the time, but don't go so far as to influence/cause these things to happen.

Travel Bonus: Animal Farm


Picked this up from a friend and read it on the plane. It was pretty mediocre in my opinion. The general message of "Totalitarianism is bad" was obvious and bluntly presented. Don't really get the hype about this book.

Picked up: Cien Anos de Soledad


I loved it in english, now I'm attempting it in the original spanish. Wish me luck.

Still Reading Cien Anos de Soledad, but when it gets a bit heavy I have to have something else to turn to

Finished: The Face of Battle


This book was a really interesting look at the way that military history is written, as well as an investigation of several battles. I really liked the way that the author tried to use the narratives of particular soldiers to see the battle from a particular point of view. It was interesting to set aside the rest of a large battle like Waterloo, and think for a minute about only those things that one officer or soldier could have seen. I also found the discussion of evolving trends of battle to be quite interesting.

Finished: When We Were Orphans


This book was sort of an interesting twist on the classic detective novel. I found it interesting that the author chose to write in the style of journal entries, as it made the book seem as though it was much less of a contemporary work than it is (It was written in the 21st century, but it reads almost like Frankenstein). Despite the strange style, it was quite the page turner. I highly recommend it.

I picked up another book by Ishiguro, Nocturnes


As well as Bram Stoker's Dracula


To hold me over on my vacation. Should be good!

Finished: Dracula
I really loved this book. I thought that the author did an incredibly good job of giving me a sense of just how evil everything is, especially in the first part of the book when Jonathan Harker is in Castle Dracula. I also really liked that the plot moved rather quickly, since some of the other older books that I read sometimes get a bit drawn out. Even though I know how it ends, I was on the edge of my seating reading the last 40 pages as they chase the coffin to the castle. Really good book. Read it with the lights on.

While we were visiting some family friends for a day I began reading Love in the Time of Cholera


I enjoyed One Hundred Years of Solitude, so I thought I'd pick up another book of his. Halfway in, it doesn't disappoint.

Even though I still have Nocturnes and Cien Anos de Soledad back home, I couldn't resist the temptation of our local library, and I picked up Lost Tales


and a spy novel, Ludlum's Matarese Circle


The next few days should be a lot of fun.

Finished: Love in the Time of Cholera
This book was quite good. I found it interesting to read a story about the practical side of love and marriage as well as growing older. I'm not quite sure who the "good guy" is, or even if there is one, but I found that the characters seemed very real, in contrast to the average love story where everyone is an archetype. The only part of the book that I didn't like is a bit of a spoiler, so I'll put it in spoiler tags for people who've read it (or people who haven't read it and don't mind revealing a minor plot point)
+ Show Spoiler +

Overall, very good book though.

I decided to pick up Ludlums Matarese Circle next, and as a spy novel, it doesn't disappoint (I'm 350 pages in already ).

Finished: Matarese Circle
Classic Cold War era spy novel about a secret society of assassins. Well written, but no surprises.

Finished: Nocturnes
I found this collection of short stories so good that when I picked it up one morning, I didn't put it down until I was finished. I think I'm really beginning to get a feel for Ishiguro's style, and I really like it. One of the things that I liked best about the short stories was the fact that they all take place in the same "universe" and make references to events that happened in other stories. I also particularly liked the theme of music and music lovers.

I picked up reading Lost Tales by Tolkien, but its a little academic for me so far. I also just got from the library The Garden of Eden by Hemingway, should be good!


Finished: The Garden of Eden
Very Hemingway. I acquired an overwhelming desire to go fishing, watch a bullfight, and drink a martini at 11AM. In all seriousness the book was quite good. I think it was a little rough around the edges, but being a posthumous work, I thought it might be. I guess I don't have much to say about this book other than that it was very like his other writing. I suppose a look at how he sees the life of a writer was interesting. Overall a good read.

picked up Call for the Dead by LeCarre. I'm only going to be here a couple more days, so I wanted something short and sweet.


Should be good!

Finished: Call for the Dead
I actually finished this in an afternoon, but this is the first chance I've had to post about it. I really enjoy LeCarre's Spy novels, since they offer something so different from the rest of the genre. Instead of having the classic bachelor heartbreaker like Bond or Bourne, the first reference we get to Smiley is about his wife leaving him because he's boring. I also find that LeCarre's spies seem far more like they are part of an organized system, rather than the usual lone gunman taking on a singular assassin or kingpin. This book was a great read, I highly recommend it.

Picked up To Have and Have Not


One of the last in the shrinking pool of Hemingway's novels that I haven't read. I'm about 100 pages in, and its good so far.

Finished: To Have and Have Not
Having finished a book the author called a "bunch of junk", I should say that my review is a little better. I think that some of the characters seemed a little too Hollywood compared to the "realness" of Hemingway's other characters. That said, the story is pretty interesting, and it made for a good read on the airplane.

Picked up Islands in the Stream


since I'm trying to work my way through Hemingway. Should be good!

I've been unable to spend much time reading recently, but just yesterday I read 2 books (travel day)

Finished: After Dark


This book was amazing. I particularly enjoyed the way that the reader's viewpoint is explained almost like stage direction. The descriptions of the limits of what we can see, know, and do in the world makes the reader feel like another (albeit minor) character in the story. I also really enjoyed the contrast between the very mundane interactions that some of the characters have vs some of the more surreal scenes, particularly involving Eri. That sort of magical realism (sorry english majors for probably misapplying a term) combined with believable characters made for a really cool story.

Finished: Practical Object Oriented Design in Ruby


Given to me by one of the engineers that I met at a company I'm interviewing with. Interesting book on design patterns. Some of it was review from some class material that I've had on it recently, but there were a lot of concepts in it that were also new to me. I won't bore you guys with the details unless anyone particularly wants to know.

Still trying to finish Islands in the Stream. I'll probably get a chance to read it over thanksgiving.