Books Read in 2001

I quite enjoyed this, moreso than Gaiman's previous novel Neverwhere and his graphic novel Sandman: Season of Mists. I'd place American Gods somewhere between the styles of Clive Barker and Stephen King. Gaiman touches on the mythologies of many cultures, and he constructs an interesting plot around them. This is good, but not quite great, fantasy.

Neverwhere is an enjoyable, light fantasy confection. It reminds me a bit of Clive Barker's Weaveworld in places. It doesn't quite qualify as good literary fiction because too many of the fantastic elements have no good reason for being included (I think this may be a problem with Gaiman's writing in general). I did, however, quite enjoy the book.

House of Leaves is a complex, convoluted, and ultimately unsatisfying post-modern horror novel. The premise is interesting: at the core of the novel is a house in Virginia that is larger inside than outside. The story is told at several levels, and by several narrators simultaneously, with each narrator offering commentary on the next. The book is suffused with footnotes and obscure scholarship, and though the puzzle has interesting pieces, it never quite comes together to form a coherent picture. I did not find it to be scary in any sense, although some elements are disturbing.

Watchmen is a graphic novel that boasts a complex, mature storyline. I was not impressed with the artwork per se , but there is plenty of detail, and the panels complement the text in sometimes surprising ways. The story is very structured, and there are hints that there is more of a backstory than is actually presented. The ending is forshadowed early on, but it comes as quite a surprise. Because of the lack of detailed prose, much is left to the imagination — we never get as much insight into the characters minds as we'd like. I'm not that familiar with this form of art/literature, and I doubt that I'll ever be a huge fan, but Watchmen is a worthwhile read.

The illustrations are wonderful, and I don't think the prose stands well without them. The only problem is that the captions are often redundant, and they don't always go well with the main text body.

Veronica is a novel filled with fantastic and magical elements. Christopher works within a very structured universe, and the novel gradually reveals its rules. To my taste, however, there are too many magical elements and not enough characterization. At the end of the novel, the title character is nearly as much a mystery as she is at the start. The protagonist is even more a mystery; we never learn more than a couple of trivial bits about his life prior to meeting Veronica. Still, Veronica is well written, and it maintained my interest from start to finish, though I frankly enjoyed A Trip to the Stars more.

The Corrections is as good as all the critics are making it out to be, and this is definitely Franzen's best book so far. Though I liked Strong Motion almost as much, The Corrections is clearly a more mature work. All of the pieces fit together nicely, the characters all have substantial depth, and the writing is beautifully polished. A lot of the pop culture references that I noticed are outside of the mainstream (the tangential Stephen Malkmus cameo, for example), which makes me wonder how many I missed completely.

This is Franzen's weakest novel (also his first). I much prefered Strong Motion and I'm currently enjoying The Corrections even more.

This is Hornby's weakest book to date. High Fidelity remains his only great novel.

Simmons is one of my favorite authors, not because he's a brilliant wordsmith but because he consistently entertains in creative ways. Hardcase is not his best book by any stretch. ( The Crook Factory and Hyperion are my favorites among his work.) It's a potboiler with no literary pretense, and I'd guess that Simmons wrote it purely for fun. I read somewhere that he planned to release it under a pseudonym — I'm glad he didn't because his writing is always enjoyable.

A true classic among programming books.

This novel is abysmal compared to Lightman's other work. The abundance of typos in the email messages contained in the book is supposed to add an element of verisimilitude, but they are ridiculous; they take away rather than add to the story.

Although A Trip to the Stars isn't likely to last centuries as a classic, it's a damn fine creation. The characters are interesting, the setting is creative, and the plot has much to recommend it.

This is an enjoyable read but it's nowhere near the league of Cryptonomicon.

I'm somewhat a sucker for time travel novels — this one isn't bad.

This was a gift from Ed and Annie. It's a travelogue, and there are lots of interesting anecdotes about life in Australia.

This was highly recommended by Brian Whitman . It takes a long time to come together, but it's worth it for a reader who likes a puzzle.

This was the text for an IEEE continuing education seminar I attended. The book, however, was clearly aimed at undergraduates, and it doesn't serve professionals very well at all. The major case study is trivial, and the coverage of design patterns is weak at best.

This is a good book on building GUIs with Python. Not great, but good. It seems like all the relevant information is present, but it's not, perhaps, organized as clearly as it could be. It remains to be seen (for me) how well it holds up in practice.

Code Complete is one of the best programming books I've come across. It doesn't focus on one language but rather concentrates on the practice of writing code in general. Since my programming training consisted of two courses more than 10 years ago, with no coverage of medium or large size projects, this book is a godsend. And as a bonus the book contains loads of great references to other programming references.

The Drawing of the Dark was Powers's first novel, and it has many of the elements he later used to good effect in Last Call. Here, however, Powers struggles to maintain interest in a passable, but not great, story.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is worthy of the critical praise it has received. This was my first exposure to Chabon's deft writing, and in my opinion, this novel places him in the front ranks of contemporary literary fiction writers. His prose is not as clever as Richard Powers's, but his story is less convoluted. One need not be a fan of comic books to appreciate this wonderful tale — it stands on its own as outstanding work of modern fiction.