The following list of books is what I have been reading over the past couple of months. Between the many subway trips, weekend afternoons (on days when it is too cold to venture outdoors), and at the cottage over the holidays, there has been ample time for page-turning adventures. I try to keep things pretty varied. Books for leisure, books for knowledge (worldly affairs), and books for knowledge (academics).

FICTION

1. Salman Rushdie - “The Satanic Verses” – I’m not sure if I was awake enough to grasp everything in this one. This is certainly one of those books you can’t read superficially, so it warrants another read(s). Despite this, the imagery and description of locales and personages used in this book (and the other Rushdie books I’ve read), are fantastic and haunting. I imagine if I am to tap deeper into this book, it’ll require a dedicated, concentrated time frame, as it is a fairly slow-paced novel, it is easy to become lost in the details.
2. Haruki Murakami – “Dance, Dance, Dance” – Recommended to me by my good friend Andrew, this one was quite an intriguing affair. The story of a man, whose life consists of ‘shoveling cultural snow’ in the highly-advanced capitalist society of circa 1980s Japan, and series of coincidences and clues linking to his past (and future). The book made for a great (and quirky) mystery with some very eccentric characters. I’m looking forward to reading more books by the author soon.
3. Charles Stross – “The Atrocity Archive” & “The Concrete Jungle” – Combine a British secret agent, Alan Turing, and Peter Venkman, and you have the main character of these two stories by Charles Stross. These stories were twisted, hilarious, and fast-paced (and also contained quite a few CompSci / IT industry in-jokes). A lot of fun. ‘The Concrete Jungle‘ is available free online (under a Creative Commons license).
4. Kurt Vonnegut – “Timequake” – Partially an autobiography of Vonnegut and partially a story of how the world, and Vonnegut’s alter ego – Kilgore Trout – copes with the Timequake (a Universal reversal in time/space, jolting everything in existence back 10 years and forcing everyone to relive those 10 years, dictated by their past actions, devoid of free will). What I enjoyed about this book was how much of the author’s own anecdotes, observations, and eccentricities flow onto each page. Immersion in Vonnegut.

NON-FICTION

1. Naomi Klein – “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism“  – This book generated a lot of buzz; from poster ads all over Toronto to discussion on matthewgood.org, it seemed like an interesting read, and it my first foray into the subject area of global gov’t policy, economics, and the developing world. This book definitely opened my eyes to a lot of issues I knew little about (Neo-liberal policy in Latin America, post-tsunami reconstruction in Asia, post-communist Russia, etc.). It kept me quite interested throughout; now I’ve got to get a hold of her other book – ‘No Logo‘.
2. Peter Philips & Andrew Roth w/ Project Censored (Editors) – “Censored 2008“  – My Christmas present from Pat, which continues my venture into worldly affairs and policies which began with ‘The Shock Doctrine‘. Highlights of under–publicized and “covered-up” news stories from 2006-2007. Despite being an American publication and having the bias of covering US-related news, some of the stories I still felt strongly about, such as multinational food/health companies such as Monsanto and their efforts to patent the long-time farmer-preserved seed banks of India, or Mexico’s hijacked election. The papers and essays contained are well researched and reviewed by a lengthy list of academics from several universities, which is a relief considering the cover of the collection gave me the initial impression this would be the stuff of conspiracy-theorists.
3. Eugenia Semyonovna Ginzburg – “Journey Into the Whirlwind“  – In this memoir of Stalin’s purges of the late 1930′s, Communist Party member Ginzburg recalls her arrest and interrogation (accused on absurd charges of being a Trotskyist terrorist), her early imprisonment and subsequent solitary confinement, and her journey to the labour camps of Siberia. Not only writing as a victim, she writes as a witness of the times, painting a picture so vivid and strong – I was quite taken back by it.
4. Ray Kurzweil – “The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology” – A “what I want to be when I grow up up” book for me. Fuel for my own aspirations regarding the future of humanity, technology, and our eventual role in the universe – which was discussed in a book last summer (James Gardner’s “The Intelligent Universe“). I’ve just gotten started on this one, but expect more reactions on this one soon!