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I didn't like Anthem but it's a politically charged book and those are bound to put some readers off.

I do however really like A Short History of Nearly Everything. I felt like the writing was a bit patronizing, but I guess it wasn't written for science majors. I particularly like the part about how scientists arrived at their first estimation of the mass of the earth. It had something to do with putting a an object next to a mountain and seeing how much the mountain's gravitational pull offset the Earth's gravity. Well anyway I found it interesting.

i like all of bill bryson's books

though a short history of nearly everything was less hilarious than his others, it was still interesting

it lives!

I just read Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. It was pretty good even if it had troubles staying away from sci-fi sterotypes (which is forgiveable when it really wasn't a sterotype then.) I've read some of his books before (2001,
Rama) and on the whole enjoyed them, this one was better than those two though.

I read the book because I heard it was of great inspiration to Evangelion. Continuing my backwards trace I'm going to read some books by Olaf Stapledon who inspired Clarke and many other noteable sci-fi writers.

I've been reading Death Note for a few weeks now and I'm pretty into it; up to Vol. 6 at the moment. This kid, Light Yagami, finds a notebook called the Death Note that has the power to kill anybody whose name is written into it, and decides to use it to kill the world's criminals. The elite detective known only as L is hired to track down Light, whom the world has dubbed Kira, and the two begin a battle of wits to uncover each other's identities. Pretty engrossing stuff, at least for me.

i've been reading ROGAN GOSH by peter milligan and brendan mccarthy over and over again for the past two weeks

i think i almost understand it now. nearly, kind of.

it totally is (i got it as soon as it came out)

i liked the story with the girl in the box best, especially the ending

also it's funny how i return to volumes 2 and 3 and realise that cool dude animators i've only realised existed the last couple of years like don herzfeldt (rejected) and bill plympton (your face) made comics for the anthology. it's the gift that keeps on giving!

As of late these are the highlights:

Galactic Patrol
Grey Lensman
Second Stage Lensman

Skylark of Space
Skylark Three

by (the awesome) E.E. Smith

Also:

The Golden Meteor
The Lighthouse at the End of the World
Magellania

by Jules Verne

and Aelita by Alexi Tolstoy

i've been reading the moomin books by tove jansson

currently partway through "moominpappa at sea"

my only real previous exposure to the moomins was the japanese/scandinavian cartoon, so this is new territory for me

they're really good

I was reading Life of Pi while I took dumps but this was pretty easily replaced with Pokemon Diamond

i finished reading Inter Ice Age 4 by Kobo Abe. it's an environmental sci-fi thriller from the 70's! and it was pretty damn good.

I just finished Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman a couple of days ago, it was an awesome book, but I didn't know it was the novelization of a BBC series! The series was pretty ridiculous in the same way that every BBC fantasy/sci-fi show is; lots of really, really bad special effects. Prolly gonna cut into one of the 7 YEAR'S BEST IN SCIENCE FICTION that I picked up from the local library's book sale.

I'm not much of a reader, since I prefer writing over reading. I just finish writing my novella, The Watcher. It's about this women whose husband is stalking her, but not because he doesn't trust her. He does it because in truth he's a serial-killer whose decided to clean up his life. Now he simply stalks his wife. Lying to her about everything.

Archangel, you really should post a draft here; most of us are experienced literary critics, and we would be happy to give you some advice!

Really guys? Wow...
I thought most of us were computer nerds who thought books were of the devil.

Shows how much I know...