Books, always so many to read

Been away. I know. I’m a lazy guy sometimes. Been focusing a lot of my energy into getting ready for training for my new job. Lot’s to learn and absorb. Hopefully two weeks from now with the training done with I’ll be back and writing again. Been keeping myself busy with reading (covered later) and playing Super Mario World with the wife, along with the game below, Doukutsu Monagatari. Addicting little pleasures. Been to pretty much every coffee shop in Tacoma studying, and still really havn’t found a consistent or even really good Americano here in Tacoma. I’m sure it exsists, at least I hope it does.

But, to keep my mind away from the cardiovascular system, and the joys of treating hypertrigliceridemia and hypertension, I’ve been trying to read more. Been reading comics a bit, but also trying to cut down my backlog of books that I have to read. Both my wife and I havn’t been to a book store in a month or two, because we know we’d just buy more books that would have to go on the shelf and just add to all the other books we want, or just have been meaning to read.

As a treat tonight we went to Borders after a nice meal out (date night!) and while checking up on authors I like I found Nick Hornby’s new book – The Polysyllabic Spree. It’s his account of his own struggle to keep up with the books he buys and the books he’s been meaning to read. It kind of made me think about my back log and since I havn’t been writing much recently I wanted to write about it!

Books I’m Reading Now (Yes, I tend to read more than one book at a time)

  • The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene – I always enjoy a good non-fiction science book and Brian Greene is an entertaining writer, keeping me updated on the latest developments in physics dealing with space, time and the basics of how the universe really works.
  • The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby – Just got it, and it’s for my flight back to New Jersey, but I like it already.
  • Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace – This thick and heavy book is slow going. Not because it isn’t good. It’s huge, thick, unwieldy and with a ton of Wallace signiture footnotes. Great writing, but work to read on account of how big and thick the book is to read. I’ll get there.

A few of the books on the shelf:

Reading, my hobby alongside my gaming habit.

Doukutsu Monogatari

Doukutsu MonogatariThis amazing little game was brought to my attention by Insert Credit. Doukutsu Monogatari is three weeks of work by a Japanese programmer called Pixel. It’s a little adventure platforming game similar to say Metroid. It’s hard to describe how the game fits together to make a game that is not only challenging, but engrossing, fresh, and pulls together everthing in a tight package that so many companies try so hard to reach. It’s by no means revolutionary, or filled with new ideas, but it is one of those games that you just can’t wait to keep playing.

It’s fun weapon leveling system, and creative music, and story all take you in. It’s got secrets to spare, and three endings to search out. Play it. It’s worth it. Go here to get the game (it’s the first link), and then go here to get the English patch (easy to install).

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