The Only Way I Can Deal With Pain Is To Spread It Around

Last day in heaven. Stayed in, ate, drank, said farewell to Bigbro. Also finished Target, my eleventh read this month, tenth while in Paris, which turned out to be a letdown. I had enjoyed his first novel, The Business Of Dying, a lot and had great expectations for this one, his latest thriller. The plot was beyond cliche, the dialogue wasn’t as funny as the first time around, the characters wasn’t as engaging, and the story kept getting dragged on uselessly. Barely earns passing grade.

As promised, the list of purchases this month. In bold what I read these past three weeks, in italics what I’ll carry home with me, the rest coming with Bigbro at Easter. FYI: my backpack is killing me, it hangs at a bit more than the allowed 7kg. Leaving with the hope that, as usual, the airport folks don’t make me weigh it.

Aldous Huxley – Brave New World;
Ann Vandermeer – Best American Fantasy;
Campbell Armstrong – White Rage;
C.S. Lewis – The Chronicles of Narnia;
Dan Simmons – Hyperion;
Dan Simmons – The Fall of Hyperion;
David Mitchell – Ghostwritten;
Dean Koontz – Strangers;
Glen Cook – A Cruel Wind: A Chronicle of the Dread Empire;
Glen Cook – Passage at Arms;
Glen Cook – The Dragon Never Sleeps;
Joe Meno – The Boy Detective Fails;
John Armstrong – Grey;
John Kennedy Toole – Confederacy of Dunces;
John Shirley – Living Shadows;
Liz Williams – The Demon & The City;
Kathleen Parker – Light Music (later exchanged for Lombres)
Kate Mosse – Sepulchre;
Matthew Kneale – English Passengers;
Michael Chabon – The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay;
Mary Doria Russell – The Sparrow;
Neal Asher – Prador Moon;
Neal Stephenson – Cryptonomicon;
Orson Scott Card – Ender’s Shadow;
Peter F. Hamilton – Fallen Dragon;
Philip Roth – The Plot Against America;
Richard Kadrey – Butcher Bird;
Richard Russo – Straight Man;
Ronald Wright – A Scientific Romance;
Simon Kernick – Target;
William Gibson – Idoru.

Stayed in, ate, drank, saw Chelsea get their asses handed to them. Finished Prador Moon – a decent introduction to a series. A mostly fun military sci-fi story, although short and concise, it’s extremely light on character development, with mostly cardboard cutouts. I can’t say i’ll be waiting for the rest of the series. Still reading Target.

Went out for a walk, got soaked in the rain, arrived home for lunch. Still reading both books.

Finally, this vacation is ending. Don’t get me wrong, these were three weeks in paradise, but I have to return to real life – the divine book and the delicious movie collections (whom I miss like crazy), the loving (ludicrous) family (hate to quote from Oz, but there’s no place like home), the abhorrent (atrocious) exams (and a couple of thousand of pages to memorize, understand and analyze), and, of course, the absolutely alarming amount of almighty dollars which I owe (in euros it can be summed up as the number of minutes Veronica Mars kept us entertained (if you’re really bad at math, just use Amazon.com)).

Yesterday I managed to finish The Sparrow which is a great feat unto itself – a huge 400+ page hardcover with small margins in just one sitting. Now to the book – a science fiction epic about priests in space whom initiate first contact. I know. I assumed it would be awful, but it just wasn’t the case. It proved to be a wonderful yarn about space exploration, anthropology, tolerance and the consequences of every action – a fine introduction to chaos theory. Funny, gripping and, most of all, thought-provoking, The Sparrow is a space tale that appeals even to die-hard atheists like me. Highly recommended. Read the first third of Target then got bored of thrills so Ialso started Prador Moon.

Right, day eighteen. Went for a walk (after which it started pouring rain again) and a final visit to Book-Off. Picked up the following for just 14€:

Aldous Huxley – Brave New World; Glen Cook – Passage at Arms; Glen Cook – The Dragon Never Sleeps; Neal Asher – Prador Moon; John Armstrong – Grey; Liz Williams – The Demon & The City; Dean Koontz – Strangers; Matthew Kneale – English Passengers.

Also, for 7€:  Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, Dan Simmons’ masterpieces (one’s from Gollancz and the other from Bantam, but still). If anyone’s keeping count, that’s 31 good, great and outstanding books for a measly 61.5€, not even 2€ per book as a whole (forgot to mention I bought Joe Meno’s The Boy Detective Fails, exchanged Light Music and paid to buy China Mieville’s Lombres (french version of Un Lun Dun)). Now this has, in fact, been a absolutely fantastic trip.

Snow day. Actually, rain day, seeing as how it’s been pouring all day long. Spent the day reading – finished A Scientific Romance – a fun little caper from Ronald Wright. It’s the quixotic tale of a love stricken archeologist who wants to defy wisdom, science and fiction by trying to change the past…or at least see the future. The novel is a first person account of the tragedy fun, the story being told as we go, the time travel trip told while rambling about alternating with that fabulous past he so badly wants to save and or avoid. At times it was maudlin, there weren’t any Morlocks, but it still gets you and works as a compelling scientific tale of star-crossed lovers. As for The Sparrow, I’m halfway through it and it seems like a great read, although a bit heavy on the religious nonsense. I’m hoping to finish it today.

Bigbro’s last day off, so we had to take advantage – the plan was to be shocked and awed by the Château de Versailles. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t with us – five degrees and constant raining. Took the RER to Versailles – a forty minute ride – at 3€ each way – and arrived at the scene of the crime. Stopped at the ticket shop so Bigbro could get his – for just 20€ (being European <26, I enter for free at everything, as opposed to last time, when I summed up about 100€ or more in museum bills). Once at the Chateau, shock and awe. Not because of  the beauty, but because of the lines – about 120-140 people standing in line to enter. While cold and raining. Twenty two minutes later, we enter, after passing the metal security check which is just as fun as at the airport.

We enter the Chateau. Boring paintings of dead kings and queens, boring sculptures of dead kings and queens, boring photos of dead kings and queens. In the last strech of the Chateau, thankfully, there are some paintings of war scenes, the only redeeming quality here. What a ripoff. After that painful ride, we headed out for the gardens, the beautiful gardens. We spent a few hours walking around and when we got bored, finally took the RER home. There – mashed potatoes, turkey steak, boiled wine, A Scientific Romance, Barcelona playing like crap, beer.

The day started out beautifully, about 8 degrees celsius and a slight windchill. The plan was to go for a long walk, all across town, to see Champs-Elysees again. We started out good – Diderot – Ledru Rollin – Bastille – Sully – Cardinal Lemoine – and then took a left path by mistake, thus  screwing up the route. We scattered across Place Monge – Les Gobelins – Place D’Italie, saw our mistake and corrected – Glaciere – Denfert Rochereau – Raspail – Montparnasse – Rennes – Saint Germain des Pres – Cite – Chatelet – Louvre – Pyramides. A small stop at Tarom so Bigbro could get his ticket for Easter. Once we arrived at Opera, almost five hours later from when we started, dead tired, we realized we needed the metro. At home, dinner and A Scientific Romance.

Sunday, the day of rest – shops closed, streets empty, a hollow Paris. We rested for a long time and just strolled around the markets, today booming with business. We picked up fresh salmon, huge shrimp and some gorgeous strawberries, which cooked together made for some expensive, but damn right delicious eating.

Spent the rest of the day finishing two books: The Boy Detective Fails – a rather weird take on childhood fantasies and adult bereavement, but hey, to each his own. The book is a strange combination of fantasy, detective fiction and Kafka-esque storytelling. It managed to freak me out a number of times and almost made me abandon the book, but I managed to keep going and the story worked itself out in the end. As a bizarre drama, the story worked for me, although I’m still scratching my head at some parts of it. But taken with two Ativan, it can a three star ride that’s worth checking out.

Now the other one – Living Shadows – a collection of short stories by a prominent sci-fi and horror writer, noted Blue Öyster Cult songwriter. The collection is split in two – the first half is comprised of mundane drama, while the latter section is supernatural & futuristic assembly. Most of the stories are just decent, some good and a couple of great ones (Buried in the Sky; Skeeter Junkie; Isolation Point, California). It’s an ok read, but you have to appreciate the effort. Tomorrow I’m starting The Sparrow and A Scientific Romance.

The weather cleared up a bit so we took a long walk – Diderot – Gare de Lyon – Gare d’Austerlitz – Luxembourg – Rennes – Montparnasse – Pernety, all the way down to Porte de Vanves. Tired and hungry, we took the metro home. As Alex ordered African Myths of Origin to be delivered to me, since there are problems at his campus post office, I ordered Ilium & Olympos for just 12€, two great books which sat way too long on my wishlist, thankfully all will be waiting for me when I get home. As for the current lecture, still reading Living Shadows and The Boy Detective Fails.

Another freezing day in paradise. The plan was to go out for a walk, but it was a bit too cold for my taste. Stayed inside and finished Butcher Bird, the latest romp from Richard Kadrey. The book is a great read, no wonder William Gibson raved about it on that fantastic cover. Butcher Bird is a fun, neatly plotted, extremely entertaining piece of supernatural fiction, much to the tune of Joss Whedon, though it’s not as deep as his stuff. I mean it, I know it’s high praise, but this apocalyptic treat feels like the best (season four) that Angel had to offer us. I would’ve loved it had the author fleshed out the characters a bit more, maybe given each some backstory, but it works like this too. You can download it for free from the publisher – Night Shade Books, I recommend it. I tried to get into Light Music, but just couldn’t get past the first third so I sold it back to Book-Off. Also gave up on Straight Man when I realized I was in the mood for something else, but I’ll probably try again at home. Now starting Living Shadows.

Spent the day going from bookstore to bookstore. It’s a disease. I couldn’t stop myself. With the last 10€ of the trip I went for the final visit to Book-Off:

Richard Kadrey – Butcher Bird; Ronald Wright – A Scientific Romance; John Shirley – Living Shadows; William Gibson – Idoru; Simon Kernick – Target.