Book Corner

Ok, couple stuff for you about some books.

First off, there is a book that came out a few months ago by a British author named Joe Abercrombie, called, 'The Blade Itself'. If you can find a copy, it's worth it. I ordered it from Powell's online (Powell's in Portland is seriously one of the greatest bookstores I've been to in my life), but I don't think it has been released in the US, so you'll probably pay a little more for an imported copy.

Anyway, it's a fantasy novel, but not high fantasy, maybe more of a gritty, highwayman type store with great characters and a story that keeps your rapt attention at all times. The only problem is that this is only first in a series, so now I've got to wait probably another year or two to read the next book.

Then I've been reading a bunch of stuff by a guy named Tim Powers. Same thing, lumped in the fantasy category, but I'd say his stuff is more fantastic than fantasy. He takes historical figures out of their context and kind of mixes all kinds of genres. I've read 3-4 of his books now and each one was completely different. 'The Drawing of the Dark' might be a good one to read first to get a sense of his style, or maybe his book, 'Declare'.

At work somebody left a copy of a John Grisham book lying around, 'The Partner', and like a sucker I picked it up just to see what all this Grisham novelty is all about. Turns out it's pretty good and I'm about halfway done after reading it at just two lunchtimes. It sucks when you make fun of popular bestsellers then find out that you kind of like reading them. Sort of like the DaVinci code. After that I had to go read all his other books, even the bad one.

I need more time in my day.