book log for 2010

[arethinn]

		Title		Author		Pages		Subject
1		An Exaltation of Larks (Ultimate ed.)		James Lipton		336		Linguistics/philology
2		Wicked Plants		Amy Stewart		223		Herbalism/folklore
3		The Goth Bible		Nancy Kilpatrick		304		Goth subculture
4		The Deluxe Transitive Vampire		Karen Gordon		192		Grammar
5		Kindling the Celtic Spirit		Mara Freeman		416		Pagan/Celtic
6		The Legend of Drizzt Collector's Edition, Book 1		R.A. Salvatore		944		Fantasy fiction
7		The Food of a Younger Land		Mark Kurlansky		397		Food/history of cooking
8		The Duck That Won the Lottery		Julian Baggini		321		Pop philosophy/logic/critical thinking
9		Grammatically Correct		Anne Stilman		328		Grammar
10		The Sibley Guide to Trees		David Allen Sibley		426		Tree identification
11		The Apple Branch		Alexei Kondratiev		320		Pagan/Celtic
12		Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction		David Sheff		340		Memoir
13		The Book of Merlin: Insights from the Merlin Conference		R.J. Stewart (ed.)		192		Literary history/folklore/Western esotericism
14		Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking		Michael Ruhlman		244		Cooking
15		The Flaming Circle		Robin Artisson		452		Pagan/Celtic
16		Lies My Teacher Told Me		James W. Loewen		444		American history/historiography
17		Tantric Yoga *		Gavin and Yvonne Frost		306		Tantrism
18		What's the Worst That Could Happen?		Greg Craven		263		Climate change/Critical thinking
19		Arafel's Saga		C.J. Cherryh		408		Fantasy fiction
20		How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes		Peter D. Schiff and Andrew J. Schiff		231		Economics
21		Eternal Echoes		John O'Donohue		304		Celtic/Spirituality
22		Deliria: Faerie Tales for a New Millennium **		Phil Brucato		318		Fantasy roleplaying
23		Emerald Magic: Great Tales of Irish Fantasy		(various)		364		Fantasy fiction
24		American Gods		Neil Gaiman		592		Fantasy fiction
25		AD&D 4th ed. PHB ***		Rob Heinsoo, et al.		317		Fantasy role-playing

* - This book was pretty rubbish. I suppose what should I expect from the Frosts, but when I was cataloging it I paged through it very briefly (as I do with almost everything) and thought I spotted some energetic exercises which at least might have been worth a look for idea fodder. When I actually came to read it -- and I couldn't bring myself to read it thoroughly after more than the first few chapters, although it was slightly more than skimming -- I got a very skeezy feeling, a wrongness, off of it, plus a whiff of it being an armchair assembly and they hadn't really worked things out empirically (at least not in the group-work setting they imply). Overall I recommend staying away from it. back up

** - This came well-recommended by rialian, but I was disappointed. The first half of the book or so, they spent a lot of time laying out wonderful atmosphere and talking about places and denizens of the Otherworld ("Deliria"). But then when they got into the system mechanics (which I don't like, but it's here nor there) and character creation, they apparently dropped all those threads entirely and I was left wondering just what kind of stories they were expecting people to play out (apparently, something like storybook Grimm's sorts of things? except not? and how was this really related to the first half of the book?) and why they spent all that time on the first part when, apparently, those were never supposed to be player characters (they hinted that you might possibly allow "aelderblood" characters, but didn't talk at all about what that meant or how you might create one) and it seemed the stories were not supposed to be set there (or at least, there was absolutely no discussion of how player characters might get there from here). Phil Brucato was one of the authors involved in Changeling: the Dreaming, and I can see some of the threads from that game echoed here, but I think Changeling does it better overall. The first part of Deliria would map to talking about all kinds of awesome things in the Dreaming - but then doesn't pay off on that promise. back up

*** - What? Hush, you. I'd never read any D&D since AD&D 2nd ed. There's some things I like about 4th ed (I think the dice system is probably much improved if I spent time to learn it, although it's weird because unfamiliar to me), but I can really catch a whiff of WoW on this edition, whereas 2nd ed was rather firmly planted in gaming recreation of fantasy novels, IMO. back up

I also listened to the audiobooks of Harry Potter & the HBP, DH, GoF, PoA, CoS, SS, and OotP (in that order).

So, about a book every 2 weeks, on average. Not great, but not bad considering the amount of internet I consume every day, like some kind of 21st century Conehead.