After completing the four published books in the Song of Fire and Ice series my exploration of the 'good stuff' in the fantasy genre continues. I just finished Patricia A. McKillip’s Riddle Master trilogy and am into the second book of Robin Hobb's Assassin book. It's amazing that after all my years of sneering at this genre how much I'm enjoying the ride. While I don't think I have the stomach for the whole Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series, I look forward to trying out a bunch of books on this fine list: Top 25 Fantasy Books. The list's author and I seem to share similar tastes.

Fellow readers, I'd like to point you to an excellent source for original short fiction by both established and up-and-coming authors, called Five Chapters. Every week the site publishes a serialized short story in five chapters, released over five days - Monday to Friday. The chapters are short, at around 1500-2000 words and take only a few minutes to read.

This week's story, Voice Lessons by Kate Christensen, tells the tale of a woman taking singing lessons with a very unusual teacher. It's a wonderfully layered short story with some truly surprising twists and turns.

I like to blog about the books I've enjoyed. I don't know if my words have ever influenced anyone or if they ever will but sharing my passion for the books helps me feel connected to all the book lovers of the world. For me, books, both physically and conceptually, embody the ideal of wisdom; the idea that there is truth worth knowing. Authors record the wisdom and the book transports it and when you read a book you consume part of the author; you become connected to something other than yourself. Even if the book isn't great the connection remains. Our memory binds us to the ideas we consumed.

Sometimes the wisdom of a book is concrete. It lays out in discrete words and images some knowledge the author wants to pass on. Other times the wisdom is obtuse; the meaning is ambiguous and needs to be mentally measured and prodded to be understood. The reader is left staring at his or her reflection in the cryptic mirror of the words trying to figure out what really happened.

I've gone down this odd route for a blog post because I just finished a really good book called Kafka on the Shore that falls into the obtuse category. It was written by a Japanese novelist named Haruki Murakami. Don't let my introduction, or the name of the novel, scare you; Kafka on the Shore is fairly short at 448 pages and an easy read written in straight forward prose.

The story unfolds on two separate threads that alternate from chapter to chapter. The first thread follows a teen named Kafka Tamura. Kafka is haunted by his abandonment by his mother and a disturbing oedipal prophecy made by his father. The second thread follows a half man named Satoru Nakata. (I call Nakata a half man because during his childhood he experienced something that, for lack of a better description, stole part of his soul.) Nakata is a blank slate, and a man with a weak shadow, pursuing a predestined fate he doesn't understand.

These two threads weave a story that is at once very entertaining and very mind bending. The duality of the reading experience is further carried out through the themes of the book. Everything has two sides, two meanings - it's two, two and two through out the book. I imagine even the mysteries of the book would come clearer on a second reading and the book is good enough to warrant it.

Only you can judge whether this novel sounds like something you would be interested in but if you find yourself at the library or the bookstore and you're looking for something good to read think about this blog post and Kafka on the Shore. We will be inexorably connected from that point on.

I read my first book online this weekend: Kafka's the Metamorphosis. I did this on a combination of computers, laptop and desktops via a site called bookglutton.com. Book Glutton has developed a simple web UI for reading that's both reminiscent of the book experience and extends it by adding automatic bookmarks and the ability to add notes and chat with others reading the same book.

From what I can determine, Book Glutton currently only offers classic and public domain works. The list of titles isn't extensive, but it's growing every day. In either a funny coincidence or an example of the site's developers desire to please; on the day I joined I searched for Moby Dick and it wasn't available but a day or so later it was added to their collection.

If you're like me and have a hankering to read more of the classics or you want to explore the convergence of print and digital presentation check it out. It's certainly cheaper than a Kindle.

For the past few weeks I've been climbing a metaphorical mountain, a mountain I had attempted and failed on two previous occasions. This time, however, I was prepared to persevere so I set out again. At first the trail was hard to follow. I had to retrace my steps numerous times to make sure I was following the path. During the first days I had doubts of whether it was really worth it, but I continued anyway, sure in the knowledge that those who went before me said it was a spectacular climb.

A week or so into the climb I found a guide. The guide indicated I was on the right path and offered comforting directions. Even so the going was slow. Every once and a while there would be a spectacular view that reinvigorated me but for the most part it was a slog through confusing thickets of story and foul human muck.

As I neared the summit my expectation for the payoff filled me with excitement and I ran ahead. I knew that a grand vista must be right around the corner; a vista so impressive that it would warrant the effort expended to reach it. Unfortunately, as I turned that final corner, thick clouds rolled in and the air filled with the sounds of a carnival carousel. I was confused and disoriented and I set the book down.

It's been a long time since a book really surprised me. Steven Hall's The Raw Shark Texts did just that. It's a strange and wonderful novel that tangles metaphor and reality in a thrilling story of discovery and loss. It was both an easy read and a mind-bending experience.

The novel opens as the protagonist wakes to find he knows nothing of his life. As he explores his surroundings he finds a note from himself that launches him on a bizarre journey of discovery. On his tail during this journey is the scary and brilliantly weird Ludocivian - a conceptual shark that lives in the world of ideas. Hall uses this passage on a page by itself to introduce the villan.

The dark shape glides up into the flow
of conversations and stories, swims
through the word-hum of packed
Saturday night bars, circles the loops and
edges of exchanged mobile numbers.

A telephone call is misdialed and, miles
away my unconscious self shift in sleep.
disturbed by a ringing bell.

From four degrees of separation, the shadow 
under the water catches the scent.  A curved,
rising signifier, a black idea fin of momentum
and intent cuts through the distance between
us in a spray of memes.

The frailty of memory, the evils of group-think, the power of ideas for both good and evil are among the many things explored. It's a really great novel. I highly recommend it.

Kudos to Oprah for picking another great book for her book club; Ken Follet's The Pillars of the Earth. I read 'Pillars' over 15 years ago but many images from the book have stuck with me through the years. While I was already a software engineer when I first read it, the book reminded me a lot of a previous read that had been very influential in my career choice years earlier: Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund. I highly recommend both.

While on the subject of good reads, I've been reading a lot of fiction this fall and I've been lucky in that everything I've picked up has been good. You could do worse than read any of the following:

• Lois Lowry: The Giver
• Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
• Matt Ruff: Bad Monkeys

and as I mentioned in a previous post, if you're in a sci-fi mode:

Peter F Hamilton: Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained.

I didn't think I could be happier given that the Coen's adaptation of No Country for Old Men is nearing release (I know it's in limited release but it's not in a theater near me), especially given reviews like Roger Eberts, but now I find out Ridley Scott is looking to make Blood Meridian.

I go through phases where I read different sorts of things. One genre I return often to is space opera. Lately however I've been bored with the genre and unable to finish anything I pickup; I've been finding things too trite, too contrived or too dull. That was until I picked up Peter F Hamilton's book Pandor's Star.

I was already a big fan of Hamilton. I've previously read the three works of his Night's Dawn Trilogy as well as Fallen Dragon and enjoyed them all. Unlike some of his peers, Hamilton's novels work for me because he doesn't let the science get in the way of the fiction. Like most good sci-fi his novels are about ideas but he doesn't get too worked up about connecting the dots of his propositions. He's also more of an optimist than many sci-fi writers so the worlds he creates are refreshingly bright instead of the drab warrens of despair we are so often faced with.

And what worlds he creates; vast stellar empires populated with varied and fully developed races and governments controlling technologies of awesome power. It's not all mind bending weirdness though. Part of what appeals to me is that the protagonists tend to be people who act and speak in a recognizable manner. There are differences, for sure, but the worlds have enough continuity with the present that you can imagine yourself immersed in their machinations.

In the case of Pandora's Star, Hamilton has created a society of humans who have expanded out into the galaxy with the help of wormhole technology. The problems of pollution, over population, and aging are all distant memories. Feeling old? No problem; go in for a rejuvenation treatment and get your cells reworked back to their twenty something versions - raging hormones and all. That last fact creates more than one amusing situation where some middle aged character has to witness their horny, rejuvenated elder cavorting.

Against this backdrop of limitless real estate and near endless lifespan, Hamilton puts the human race in grave danger and sets in motion a series of story lines that illuminate the struggle to save our race. Hamilton's style actually reminds me a lot of early Tom Clancy with it's fast paced and intertwined mix of political and technical intrigue. In this case both the political and technical stuff are all made up but it has the same cadence as one of Clancy's action/adventure novels.

Good stuff.

The trailer for Joel and Ethan Coen's much anticipated movie (by me anyway) No Country For Old Men. Due in November.