My first book of the New Year is Playing for Pizza, which is a short novel by John Grisham. This is his third short novel and the second one in a row that is football-related. I like these short novels because they are SHORT and they are a break from his legal thrillers. PfP is about a third-string NFL quarterback who blows a big playoff game and afterwards nobody in the NFL wants him. He ends up playing for the Parma Panthers in the Italian version of the NFL. Most of the Italian players don’t get salaries, but instead get pizza and beer after the games. I guess I’m just not as big of a football fan as I used to be, so I don’t think I enjoyed this as much as I would have 3 or 4 years ago. The football/team bonding scenes were okay…nothing mindblowing. The love story part of the book was a little boring and I glossed over some of it. Grisham spends a lot of time making me hungry talking about wine and food and it’s obvious that he has spent some time in Italy (he confirms it in the back of the book). Yes, there is a real Parma Panthers team. Did you know that Parmesan cheese gets its name from that place? Since I’m a Grisham fan, I’m glad that I read it, but it’s not my favorite Grisham book.
I have had a nice, relaxing Christmas Break. I spent more time in Jackson than I have in a long time. What did I get?
Blue Dragon
Blue Dragon strategy guide
Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon’s Firefly Universe
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
a bottle of cologne is coming (I think I asked for Prada for Men)
The Pearl Jam fan club Christmas single came in the mail today. We usually don’t get them until January or February, but the fan club people did say they were trying to get the singles out ealier this year. Once again, I won’t be able to listen to it right away because I don’t own a record player.
Tonight I’m finishing up my annual viewing of The Lord of the Rings with The Return of the King. I’m not in the mood to go out and party. This will be a lot of fun.
My last book of 2007 is Dreamcatcher by Stephen King. It’s not my favorite Stephen King book, but it’s not that bad. It’s about these 4 kids who save a kid with Down’s syndrome from bullies. They consider this act to be the best thing they ever did and they remain friends for years because of it. Years later when they are on their annual hunting trip, weird stuff happens. It involves aliens, telepathy, etc. It’s an interesting story. It took a little while to get into as usual and after I got into it there were times when I was bored. I think I’m a little tired of reading Stephen King books. Something about his style gets on my nerves after a while and I’ve read several of his books over the past couple of years.
Yes, there is a movie based on this book and I plan on watching it. The movie was mentioned on a podcast that I was watching a few days ago and it was described as the worst movie ever. It has some actors in it that I like. Hopefully it won’t be too bad.
I can’t wait to get to something really good. I’ve already started a reading list for 2008.
I figured that Wheel of Time fans would somehow find out what was supposed to happen at the end. If nothing else Robert Jordan’s wife Harriet could’ve written something saying what the ending would have been like. It turns out that Harriet has selected author Brandon Sanderson to write the last book in the series, A Memory of Light. I had never heard of him until now, but I’m interested in reading some of his books.
The end of the Harry Potter series may have gotten much more attention, but this year I’ve also been looking forward the final book in Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series. The book is called Confessor. I enjoyed the book overall, but there were a few problems.
One thing I hated was when Character A was trying to explain a concept to Character B that Character B either didn’t understand or didn’t believe. Sometimes it took pages of dialogue for Character B to come around. Usually some kind of analogy had to be used before Character B finally comes around. It happened a lot in previous books but it severely irked me in this one. I’m sure a lot of that had to do with me wanting to find out how the story was going to end.
Another thing that annoyed me was that Goodkind kept repeating a lot of the same ideas over and over again. Richard changed everything…the Order doesn’t value life…the Order is brutal…blah blah blah. I’ve read this way too many times. Just get to the end. I got bored reading Confessor many times, but I just had to put my head down and keep going.
Goodkind also kept putting charactesr in situations that I knew had to be resolved before the book could end. Examples are someone getting captured or something being stolen. I got annoyed every time someone ended up in one of these situations, because I knew I would have to read through a lot of pages of stuff that I didn’t really care about.
After reading these books for the past 7 years or so, it was sad to see it end. At the same time, I’m glad to have a resolution. I was very happy with the way that it ended. Getting there was only a slight pain.
Dreamcatchers, Stephen King
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
Summer of the Monkeys, Wilson Rawls
The Hedge Knight, George R.R. Martin
The Sworn Sword, George R.R. Martin
The Taking, Dean Koontz
Timeline, Michael Crichton
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt
On Truth, Harry G. Frankfurt
The Long Walk, Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik
Throne of Jade, Naomi Novik
Black Powder War, Naomi Novik
Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik
What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return to Democracy, Thom Hartmann
Thanksgiving Break was pretty good this year. It was great seeing my family again. I got to finish reading the new Terry Goodkind book and begin another Stephen King book. I always got to watch the end of season 3 of Deadwood. I also undertook a major cleaning project here in Starkville. It took a lot a work, but I’m glad that I did it. I’m hoping that it can remain this clean…for a while at least. I wish I didn’t have to go back to work tomorrow.
I’ve been slowly working on Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson for the past couple of months. I really wanted to like it because of all the good things I’ve heard about it, but for me it was only okay. I guess the amount of time I spent on it should be an indication of how much I liked it. It took about 100 or so pages for me to and eventually I got to the point where I just wanted it to end. Maybe my next book will be better. Hopefully, it’ll be coming in the mail tomorrow.
Dreamcatchers, Stephen King
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
Summer of the Monkeys, Wilson Rawls
The Hedge Knight, George R.R. Martin
The Sworn Sword, George R.R. Martin
The Taking, Dean Koontz
Timeline, Michael Crichton
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt
On Truth, Harry G. Frankfurt
The Long Walk, Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik
Throne of Jade, Naomi Novik
Black Powder War, Naomi Novik
Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik
What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return to Democracy, Thom Hartmann
I just saw on Dragonmount that one of my favorite fantasy authors, Robert Jordan, passed away today. He was suffering from a rare blood disease called amyloidosis.
My friend Seth introduced me to the fantasy genre around 1999 or 2000 when we were working in New Orleans. He seemed to enjoy the books I always saw him reading a lot so I decided to give it a try. We were on one of our many lunchtime trips to the bookstore and I asked him to pick out some books that he thought I would like. The ones he picked out were The Eye of the World by Jordan, Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind, and Magician: Apprentice by Raymond Feist. Of those 3, The Eye of the World was easily my favorite and I’ve read most of the books in the Wheel of Time series that it belongs to on multiple occasions. Despite whatever complaints I may have had about the progression of the series, I really enjoyed reading it and it’s a shame he won’t be around to write more books.
I finally finished reading What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return to Democracy by Thom Hartmann. I don’t really have a lot to say. It’s an interesting book and it’s informative. He gives a lot of information about decmocracy in the world and in the United States and argues that democracy is being threatened. For some reason, I just never really got into it much and that’s probably why it took me so long to read it. It was probably just the wrong book to read right now.
I added another book to the bottom of the list. It’s been in the back of my mind for months, but somehow it never made it onto the list.
Dreamcatchers, Stephen King
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
Summer of the Monkeys, Wilson Rawls
The Hedge Knight, George R.R. Martin
The Sworn Sword, George R.R. Martin
The Taking, Dean Koontz
Timeline, Michael Crichton
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt
On Truth, Harry G. Frankfurt
The Long Walk, Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik
Throne of Jade, Naomi Novik
Black Powder War, Naomi Novik
Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik
What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return to Democracy, Thom Hartmann
Earlier in the week I finished reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. It’s about two children that everybody considers to be strange. With the help of three beings disguised as old women and a new friend, they go on an interplanetary journey to find their long missing father and fight the forces of evil. It’s aimed at a younger audience, but I enjoyed reading it. Apparently it’s the first of a series of books about these characters. Maybe I’ll check out some of the others.
I’m steadily making progress on my book list.
Dreamcatchers, Stephen King
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
Summer of the Monkeys, Wilson Rawls
The Hedge Knight, George R.R. Martin
The Sworn Sword, George R.R. Martin
The Taking, Dean Koontz
Timeline, Michael Crichton
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt
On Truth, Harry G. Frankfurt
The Long Walk, Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik
Throne of Jade, Naomi Novik
Black Powder War, Naomi Novik
Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik
What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return to Democracy, Thom Hartmann
My first book of the New Year is Playing for Pizza, which is a short novel by John Grisham. This is his third short novel and the second one in a row that is football-related. I like these short novels because they are SHORT and they are a break from his legal thrillers. PfP is about a third-string NFL quarterback who blows a big playoff game and afterwards nobody in the NFL wants him. He ends up playing for the Parma Panthers in the Italian version of the NFL. Most of the Italian players don’t get salaries, but instead get pizza and beer after the games. I guess I’m just not as big of a football fan as I used to be, so I don’t think I enjoyed this as much as I would have 3 or 4 years ago. The football/team bonding scenes were okay…nothing mindblowing. The love story part of the book was a little boring and I glossed over some of it. Grisham spends a lot of time 
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