Wrapped up in books

One of the things I miss about my life of two months ago is all the time I had to read. I still read, but now it's something I have to make time to do instead of being just my normal afternoon activity. But now that my schedule is normalizing somewhat, I'm once again adding material to my book titer.

Currently I'm making my way through Microserfs, which is frankly kind of disappointing. I'm reading it partly because it seems like it should be topical and partly because I've never read it and it's been recommended to me several times. It's about half topical and one quarter interesting, but good enough to finish, so I will.

After I get through that and the latest Harper's, which I should be able to do easily with all the travel time ahead of me this weekend, there are two more books in the to-read-immediately queue. The first is Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters, which Meri recommended very highly. So highly, in fact, that she gave me a copy, so I can hardly refuse. The other book is Oblivion, the new short story collection by David Foster Wallace, which I just got yesterday. Apparently there are almost no footnotes. What is the world coming to?

After all these stories I'm going to be ready for a heavy dose of non-fiction. High on my to-purchase list is Longitude, by Dava Sobel, because Galileo's Daughter was just so wonderful.

I'm soliciting recommendations for the queue... !