a miss, two hits, and another miss

I thought i loved Charles Stross. Then i read his Halting State. Accerando and Glasshouse were two of the best scifi books i've ever read. Charlie, what happened? The concept of Halting State is just short of brilliant, but the execution just didn't work for me.

I thought i loved Jeff Vandermeer (who i do still, dearly adore), then i started reading Michael Moorcock's Elric Saga. the grace of his prose, the poetic romantisicm of Elric's exquisite pain. Not sure if i've ever run into this depth of intelligence in fiction before. i don't mean smart like tons of 50 cent words, i mean smart like the perfect elegance of a golden mean. and yes, smart can still have plenty of plot holes. it happens. i finished this book a few days ago, and keep staring at it. . . i'm going to read it again cover to cover before it goes back to te library, aren't i? and my review was so. . surface.

Mr Vandermeer, you'll have to deal with being my new second most loved, rather than first. m'kay? (and no, i still haven't taken City of Saints and Madmen back to the library, but the novelty hasn't worn off yet)

After much nagging from a friend, i picked up Catch 22. i'm laughing, i'm crying, i'm avoiding watching the news even more. this really is better than Slaughterhouse Five (not V's best by a long shot, but his most famous, and a very accessible anti-war novel). these days, i could probably be arrested for reading the Catch.

i decided to try cous cous. trying to experiment with grains other than wheat (holy crap, have you seen the bread prices??), and i remembered having a cous cous salad thing a number of years ago and liking it. so in an effort to make my cooking adventure a little easier, i bought one of those prepackaged cous cous dinner things in the ethnic aisle of the grocery store. Note to self: cous cous is good, but don't ever ever, EVER buy those prepackaged cous cous things in the ethnic aisle of the grocery store. those things taste of nothing but salt, so just march your butt back to the bulk section and buy a 1/2 pound of straight cous cous. you'll be much happier.