Since people asked about my reading, I might as well make the most of the question and write it up. The more so as it makes thus something for later reading, too, hopefully re-reading, even!

Because that's really the one common thread throughout my reading - not at all one topic or another, not even a visible group of related topics as such, but mostly the potential for re-reading. In other words, how much substance there is to some text and how well it's structured fundamentally, since writing is exactly structured, meaningful expression. And yes, art is structured too, whether literary or otherwise, just like science or technology is beautiful as well - when they are well made that is, there is no contradiction here.

Possibly on this blog so far the scientific and tech/computer science reading got rather over-represented, mainly due to the academic background and then all the work done as part of Eulora, from computer graphics to encryption and quite a lot else besides. By contrast, the other mentions of reading seem to be fewer and far apart, though not that difficult to find, still, from notes at a London book fair to a brief set of notes on a list of books as part of a wider discussion among blog authors, to the more recently adnotated older times explorers.

Even so, the reality is far more eclectic than the above might suggest. For a sample, perhaps the current set of books on my coffee table may even serve better, so let's see this first. In current pile order ¹, there is:

1. Antonia Fraser's "Lady Caroline Lamb" - which is exactly what the title suggests, an attempted biography/re-casting of the lady in question. If the name doesn't ring a bell for you, her description of Lord Byron might be perhaps more familiar: "mad, bad and dangerous to know". Or even his reply to one of her unexpected, unwanted and quite stalker-like entreaties to remember her: "remember thee? remember thee? / [...] / thou false to him, thou fiend to me". At any rate, the book gives if not quite the "free spirit" image it aims for ², at least a much more rounded account of the social interactions and conventions at the time, which is in itself a gain I would say.
2. Randall Garrett's "Lord Darcy" - which is an attempt (from back in the rather early ages of fantasy) at blending detective stories with magical/fantasy perspectives. It's one of those I got exactly out of curiosity to see what it attempted to do, how it worked and even perhaps what it still tells or prefigures of what by now is known to have come afterwards. I have to say it remains quite firmly in the experiment category, not really getting even a full first read, as it's just too little there, for all of its hefty size otherwise (which was meant to be a plus when I picked it, not a minus!).
3. Eva Ibbotson's "Madensky Square" - which is nominally written as the diary of a dress shop keeper in 1910's Vienna. And it gives at the very least a quite delightfully light-touch way of looking at the world perhaps, even if it focuses specifically on an imagined sliver of it (though one of which the author is quite clearly well-aware, at least place-wise for certain).
4. Franz Kafka's "The Castle" - which is as Kafka's name possibly suggests, a well-formed illustration of bureaucratic absurdity, this time in the shape of one newcomer's attempt to actually reach a present, acknowledged but otherwise unreachable (for him, at least) authority. It stands well, as all Kafka does, but I have to say I take it in small doses so it lasts me a while indeed and I haven't yet finished it to be able to say more.
5. Alexander McCall Smith's "My Italian Bulldozer" - which is a gently funny, light but well grounded misadventure story essentially. I picked it up mainly because I knew already the author's style and I was rather curious as to what he gets to say on Italy (his other books I know are based in Edinburgh so that's quite the difference). What I read of it so far is exactly as expected, well made and pervasively sunny really, not by omission, avoidance or even evident design but as natural effect of the whole. In other words, it's well written and it shows just as pleasantly on this topic as on any other.
6. Albert Einstein's "Relativity" - which is exactly what the words say, a chapter-based description of the theory in the author's own words. Going to the source or at least closer to it (this book is still a translation even if an approved one) is always a gain and in this case the road travelled so far is quite pleasant, too.

If the above make the current sample as it happens to stand today on my coffee table, the shelves in the back of some photos give perhaps another view, one more focused on what made it in on a more permanent basis, over a longer time frame. I wouldn't quite call it representative either by now, given how the changes there basically stopped when those shelves were full and that happened already more than 10 years ago. But still, it holds at least some (if indeed far from all) of those to whom I gladly return for a re-read and have yet to find there's truly nothing further to gain from it. First names coming to mind, perhaps exactly for having been in company for so long, would be Bulgakov, Eco, Vian, Murakami.

But then again, there is on the little bookcase by my desk a Spanish version of Ende's Momo story. I am going through it slowly, reading it piece by piece since I always liked that story and it helps maintain what bits of Spanish I still have anyhow. Without counting any of the software development or even cryptography or computer graphics books, there is also Penrose's Road to Reality. And this is not even touching on those in electronic format only, so I'll leave it to you as to what might be the exact topic I like reading about, you know?

For my part, I simply read and I don't put either limit or restriction on the topic at all. It's just part of the day, every day, even if not the only part, of course. It's just one part where the mind and curiosity get something to engage with, too. Happily, there is enough good and even excellent writing on so many topics that there is no point ever to spend too much time with less than good just because it happens to be perhaps on some specific topic...

1. As the only order available, really, but not holding much meaning by itself, since I don't read them or even keep them in order at all, other than the very basic single pile structure.[↩]
2. Despite the book quite annoyingly and repeatedly stating throughout just how much of a free spirit Lady Caroline was (do subscribe to this view!) since the material by itself doesn't quite serve, reality being what it is.[↩]

Category: Lyf, Young, old and oldest

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