wednesday reads, etc.

[isiscolo]

What I've just finished reading: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan, as audiobook. It took me a month to get through it, which was not the book's fault but rather the fault of my hip, which has prevented me from running for the past three weeks, and most of my audiobook listening is while running. (Mountain biking requires too much attention;

Comments

[a_boleyn]

Your eclectic reading habits remind me that my own reading has become even more limited in the last 5 yrs or so as has my attention span. Other than historical fiction and mysteries, I spend most of my free time reading fanfiction on line. I had to return Gabaldon's latest book because it was restricted to a 7 day lending period without renewal, due to high demand, and I knew I'd never get it finished in that time frame. I'll have to request it again when I have 3 weeks to finish it. :)

I wonder if you've ever read any of Elizabeth Eyre's Sigismondo mystery series set in the Italian Renaissance . I enjoyed them very much, though they're out of print now, I believe.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/112566.Elizabeth_Eyre

[isiscolo]

Thanks for the pointer! As for Gabaldon, I "read" that brick as mp3 audiobook, which the way our library works is essentially an open-ended loan until you next connect to the Overdrive server. I see by my Goodreads review that it took me NINE WEEKS to finish the 145 hours!

Thank you for the rec - I shall have to check them out. I'm not particularly a mystery fan, but I love historical novels.

[ride_4ever]

The Mathematician's Shiva sounds like something I'd want to read. And I also have European Jewry and physicists in my family history. I'm interested in learning more about that being in your family history too.

[isiscolo]

I finished the book and really enjoyed it - in fact, I just bought a copy as a gift for my father.

My dad was born in the Sudeten and escaped with his mother at age 6 to what was then Palestine - my grandfather joined them later. He was a scout in the 1948 war and studied physics at the Technion and then came to the US with his new PhD to work for Goddard Space Flight Center, where he spent his whole life until his reluctant retirement. His field of specialty was the theoretical magnetospheres of other planets, and I could basically get through the abstracts of his articles but nothing else!

[mark356]

I love What If?. It's just so fun! I love how he digs up all of these semi-connected facts related to the question. And I like all of the destruction of the Earth. I'm a bit surprised you hadn't been following the blog as well! I think my favorites are the orbital velocity one (I had no idea how fast spaceships were!), the mole of moles, and the periodic table one. But I like them all.

[isiscolo]

Yes, it's great fun! I do actually follow his cartoon, but not his blog! It is an effort parceling the book out bit by bit so that I don't read it all at once.