2009: The Year in Current Reads

The other night, my wife, my daughter and I were comparing the number of books we are simultaneously reading. For my wife and daughter, if was four or five books; but for me, I guessed I was reading between thirty-five and fifty books.

I've always been able to do this, don't know why. I can juggle multiple plotlines or non-fiction threads. I can put a book down for days, weeks or months (even years) and pick it up again without a problem. Don't know how...

Anyway, here's a fairly complete list (without pulling off layers from the bookshelves to scan all the titles) of what I'm currently (more or less currently) reading. In looking at the non-fiction, can you discern what I'd like to be doing now?

Abnett, Dan: The Founding (omnibus, part of the "Gaunt's Ghosts" series, which is part of the "Warhammer 40,000" series).

Anvil, Christopher: Interstellar Patrol.

Asher, Neal: The Shadow of the Scorpion ("Polity" series).

Banks, Iain M.: Matter; Use of Weapons ("Culture" series).

Bear, Greg: Darwin's Radio ("Darwin's Children" series).

Beattie, Donald A.: ISScapades: The Crippling of America's Space Program.

Benford, Gregory: Across the Sea of Stars (part of the "Galactic Center" series).

Berry, Adrian: The Next Ten Thousand Years.

Bova, Ben: Laugh Lines.

Brooks, Max: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War.

Brotherton, Mike: Stardragon.

Brunner, John: Stand on Zanzibar.

Buckell, Tobias: Crystal Rain; Halo: The Cole Protocol (part of the "Halo" series).

Burrough, Bryan: Dragonfly.

Burrows, William E.: The Survival Imperative; This New Ocean.

Butrica, Andrew J.: Single State to Orbit.

Campbell, Donovan: Joker One.

Chandler, A. Bertram: Spartan Planet (part of the "Commodore Grimes" series).

Chesterton, G.K.: The Man Who Was Thursday.

Clarke, Arthur C.: Tales from the White Hart; The Coast of Coral.

Cook, Glen: Passage at Arms; The Dragon Never Sleeps.

Cooper, Henry S.F.: A House in Space.

Crichton, Michael: The Andromeda Strain.

The Dali Lama: The Art of Happiness.

Dick, Philip K.: The Man in the High Castle.

Dickson, Gordon R.: The Right to Arm Bears.

Dickson, Gordon R. and Anderson, Poul: Hokas, Pokas.

Drake, David: Cross the Stars; Grimmer Than Hell; Old Nathan; Seas of Venus; Starliner; The Sea Hag; Paying the Piper (part of the "Hammer's Slammers" series); Redliners.

Dyson, Freeman: Infinite in All Directions; Origins of Life; Imagined Worlds; Disturbing the Universe; The Sun, The Genome, and The Internet; The Scientist as Rebel.

Egan, Greg: Incandesence.

Eisley, Loren: The Invisible Pyramid; The Unexpected Universe; The Star Thrower.

Flint, Eric: The Philosophical Strangler; Forward the Mage ("Joe's World"); Mother of Demons.

Flint, Eric and Freer, Dave: Pyramid Power ("Pyramid"); Rats, Bats and Vats ("Rats" series).

Forward, Robert L.: Indistinguishable from Magic.

Franklin, Benjamin: Autobiography (Harvard Classics, Volume 01).

George MacDonald Fraser: Flashman; Quartered Safe Out There.

Friedman, Thomas L.: The Lexus and the Olive Tree.

Gallun, Raymond Z.: The Planet Strappers.

Geston, M.S.: The Books of the Wars (omnibus).

Gibson, W.: Idoru (part of the "Bridge Trilogy"); Spook Country (part of an unnamed duo of books, probably a trilogy).

Gilliland, A.A.: The Revolution from Rosinante ("Rosinante Trilogy").

Gleick, James: Chaos--Making a New Science.

Gordon, Michael R. and Trainor, Bernard E.: Cobra II.

Greenspan, Alan: The Age of Turbulence.

Hackworth, David R. and Sherman, Julie: About Face.

Hamilton, Edmond: Crashing Suns.

Hamilton, Peter F.: The Confederation Handbook; The Nights Dawn Trilogy; A Second Chance at Eden (all set in the same universe).

Harrison, M.J.: Viriconium.

Hart, Stephen: The Last Three Miles.

Heinlein, Robert A.: Between Planets; Farmer in the Sky; The Rolling Stones.

Herodtus: The Histories.

Hodgell, P.C.: The God-Stalker Chronicles (omnibus).

Hughart, Barry: Bridge of Birds (part of the "Master Li Kao and Number Ten Ox" series).

King, Stephen: The Stand.

Kipling, Rudyard: Kim; Departmental Ditties and Barracks Room Ballads (poetry); The Kipling Reader; Verses, 1889-1896 (poetry).

Kishimoto, Masashi: Various volumes in the "Naruto" series of manga.

Kitmacher, Gary (editor): Reference Guide to the International Space Station.

Kratman, Thomas: A State of Disobedience; Caliphate.

Lambshead, John: Lucy's Blade.

Lumpkin, John: Through Struggle, The Stars (unpublished, courtesy of the author).

MacAvoy, R.A.: Tea with the Black Dragon.

Machiavelli, N.: The Prince.

Martin, George R.R.: Clash of Thrones (part of "A Song of Ice and Fire").

Maberry, Jonathan: Patient Zero.

Marozzi, Justin: The Way of Herodotus.

Matloff, Gregory L.; Johnson, Les; Bangs, C.: Living Off the Land in Space.

McCaffrey, Anne: Dragonflight ("Pern").

McCullough, David: Truman.

Miller, Christopher: The Cardboard Universe--A Guide to the World of Phoebue K. Dank.

Moon, Elizabeth: Heris Serrano (omnibus, part of a series made up of three major lines of stories).

Moore, Harold G. and Galloway, Joseph L.: We Were Soldiers Once...And Young.

Mullane, R. Mike: Do Your Ears Pop in Space?

Niven, Larry: Flatlander, Tales of Known Space, Crashlander (all part of the "Known Space" series).

Norton, Andre: Star Flight (omnibus); Crosstime (omnibus); Dark Companion (omnibus); Darkness and Dawn (omnibus); From the Sea to the Stars (omnibus); Gods and Androids (omnibus); Janus (omnibus); Lord of Thunder; Masks of the Outcasts (omnibus); Moonsinger (omnibus); Search for the Star Stones (omnibus); The Sargasso of Space; Plague Ship; Voodoo Planet; Postmarked the Stars; Star Gate; Star Hunter; Star Soldiers (omnibus); The Beast Master; The Game of Stars and Comets (omnibus); Time Traders I (omnibus); Time Traders II (omnibus); Warlock (omnibus).

Pangborn, Edgar: Davy.

Peters, Ellis: A Rare Benedictine (part of the "Brother Cadfael" series).

Pournelle, Jerry: Exile and Glory (omnibus); The Mercenary ("Falkenberg"); West of Honor ("Falkenberg"); Prince of Mercenaries ("Falkenberg"); Go Tell the Spartans (with Sam Stirling) ("Falkenberg"); Prince of Sparta (with Sam Stirling) ("Falkenberg"); King David's Spaceship ("Empire of Man").

Pournelle, Jerry and Niven, Larry: Footfall; Lucfier's Hammer; The Mote in God's Eye.

Pratchett, Terry: Jingo (part of the "Discworld" series).

Pressfield, Stephen: Gates of Fire.

Rand, Ayn: Atlas Shrugged.

Reynolds, Alastair: Revelation Space ("Cojoiner").

Ringo, John: Hells Faire (part of the "Posleen" series); March to the Stars (part of the "Prince Roger" series).

Robinson, Spider: Very Bad Deaths ("Smelly"); Very Hard Choices ("Smelly"); The Lifehouse Trilogy (omnibus).

Robinson, Spider and Robinson, Jeanne: Stardance Trilogy (omnibus).

Sawyer, Robert J.: Flash Forward.

Schmitt, Harrison H.: Return to the Moon.

Schroeder, Karl: Sun of Suns (part of the "Virga" sequence).

Stanton, Doug: Horse Soldiers.

Stapledon, Olaf: The Star Maker.

Stephenson, Neal: The Diamond Age. Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer; Cryptnomicon; The Baroque Cycle; Snowcrash.

Stewart, George: Earth Abides.

Stine, G. Harry: Living in Space; Halfway to Anywhere; The Space Enterprise; The Third Industrial Revolution.

Stross, Charles: Halting State.

Thomas, Lewis: Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony; The Lives of a Cell; The Youngest Science; The Medusa and the Snail; The Fragile Species.

Thorpe, Gav: The Last Chancers (omnibus, part of the "Warhammer 40,000" series).

Toffler, Alvin: Future Shock.

Travis: Karen: Aspho Fields (part of the "Gears of War" series).

Van Gulik, Robert: The Chinese Lake Murders (part of the "Judge Dee" series).

Various: The King James Version of The Bible; The Common Edition of The New Testament; The Psalms.

Weber, David: The Honor of the Queen (part of the "Honor Harrington" series); The Oath of Swords/Sword Brother (the "War God" series).

Williams, Liz: Snake Agent (part of the "Inspector Chen" series).

Williamson, Michael Z.: Contact with Chaos (part of the "Freehold" series).

Wolfe, Gene: The Shadow of the Torturer (part of "The Book of the New Sun").

Zahn, Timothy: Blackcollar ("Blackcollar"); Blackcollar: The Judas Solution ("Blackcollar"); The Cobra Trilogy (omnibus).

Zebrowski, George: The Omega Point Trilogy (omnibus); Macro-Life.

Zelazny, Roger: Jack of Shadows; The Amber Cycle (10 books).

Zelazny, Roger and Saberhagen, Fred: The Black Throne.

Zimmerman, Robert: Leaving Earth.

Zubrin, Robert: The Case for Mars; Entering Space; On to Mars; How to Live on Mars.

And that's not all! I've pretty much skipped the current reads from The Year in Shorts. In typing up this list I said "Oh, yeah, what about..." several times, but did not enter most of the titles I recall I'm also reading. Hopefully this will be constantly modified, as I finish titles or remember what else I'm reading.