Things to read

First off:

Books of 2009, as of 27 December
1. Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil - Inga Muscio
2. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
3. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
4. The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks
5. Neuromancer - William Gibson
6. The Opposite of Fate - Amy Tan
7. The Joy-Luck Club - Amy Tan
8. The Bonesetter's Daughter - Amy Tan
9. Takarazuka (Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan) - Jennifer Robertson
10. The Hundred Secret Senses - Amy Tan
11. The Kitchen God's Wife - Amy Tan
12. Cunt - Inga Muscio
13. Beyond Heaving Bosoms (The Smart Bitches Guide to Romance Novels) - Sarah Wendell, Candy Tan
14. Killing Rage - bell hooks
15. Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
16. Polite Lies - Kyoko Mori
17. Looking for the Lost (Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan) - Alan Booth
18. Lost Japan - Alex Kerr
19. Geisha: A Life - Mineko Iwasaki
20. Women of the Pleasure Quarters - Lesley Downer
21. The Faded Sun Trilogy - C.J. Cherryh [it's an omnibus, so I'm counting it as one]
22. The Loved Dead - H.P. Lovecraft
23. Idoru - William Gibson
24. Looking for Jake - China Mieville [a volume of short fiction]
25. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
26. Dune - Frank Herbert
27. World War Z - Max Brooks

Now I'm on to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell by Susanna Clark. It's a long book, so I'll probably be at it for a week at least. It's sort of alternate history meets fantasy, which I love: 19th century England with magic, more or less. I've only just started, so I don't have an opinion yet, but I think it'll be a fun read. And, if you like zombies at all, read World War Z because it's awesome. It's written as an oral history of the zombie apocalypse - interviews with and first hand accounts from people who survived it (soldiers, politicians, normal people, etc.). Brilliant stuff.

Outside of the realm of books, but still related, I've fallen deeply, passionately in love with two web comics. I wasn't into web comics for a long time, to be perfectly honest, but recently I stumbled across a couple and started reading and am now completely engrossed and waiting for them to pick back up now that Christmas is past.

The first one is Trying Human. It's a sci-fi romance predominantly about a woman who gets abducted by aliens (who look sort of like stereotypical UFOs) and eventually falls in love with one of them. Then there are subplots, mostly about other attempts at inter-species romance. The title comes from this thing the second alien species in the comic (reptilian) have, the Trying Human circuit, which lets the alien wearing it take on the appearance of a human. So, if you like sci-fi, it updates every Monday and Thursday.

The second one is Beauty and the Beast. As I'm sure you've guessed by the title, it's a retelling of the fairy tale, with a somewhat unusual take on the story and great art (very distinctive and nothing like the Disney film). The Beauty character is a little too perfect, but considering the nature of the story, it's forgivable. This one updates 5 days a week.

Yes, it's Christmas break, which means it's time to catch up on my reading.