Currently Reading: Hornblower & The Atropos

Did I say I was a slow reader? Sure seems like I'm going through books lately and contridicting what I said earlier. But the fact of the matter is, the books I've been reading lately have been easier to read than I thought they would, so I'm just blowing through books at a fast pace.

This one is part of C.S Forester's Horatio Hornblower series of novels, and the first novel of his that I read. It's part of the books in the pile that I got last year while in Vermont. Amazing that I've still got books in that pile that I haven't read yet and I only paid a dollar total for all of them. They sure were worth it for the reading I've been doing with them.

Unfortunately, I can't find a summary of this book without spoiling it both here and for myself, but if you've seen the A&E series of movies, then you'll love reading this. I've started reading the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin series of novels, which the Master & Commander movie was based on, and in comparison, this novel feels more simplistic and less stylistic, and almost more mainstream. So far, I've enjoyed the Patrick O'Brian novels more since he has more of a flair for descriptions, and makes you almost feel like you're there, enough to smell the sea water. So, so far, it's good, but not as good as I'd hoped it would be.

Currently Reading: Pattern Recognition

I, err, forgot. That's right, I forgot to post the book that I'm currently reading. I'm more than halfway through it now, but I suppose it's better late than never, right? I sure don't want to make a habit of forgetting.

Right, so with that out of the way, I'm currently reading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. It's my first book of his that I picked up in the bargain section at Chapters, and some say that it's far from being his best book, this one taking place in the present, while most of his other books take place in a far away future. Since I don't have much to say about it so far, I'll just post the synopsis from the book itself:

"Cayce Pollard is an expensive, spookily intuitive market-research consultant. In London on a job, she is offered a secret assignment: to investigate some intriguing snippets of video that have been appearing on the Internet. An entire subculture of people is obsessed with these bits of footage, and anybody who can create that kind of brand loyalty would be a gold mine for Cayce's client. But when her borrowed apartment is burgled and her computer hacked, she realizes there's more to this project than she had expected.

Still, Cayce is her father's daughter, and the danger makes her stubborn. Win Pollard, ex-security expert, probably ex-CIA, took a taxi in the direction of the World Trade Center on September 11 one year ago, and is presumed dead. Win taught Cayce a bit about the way agents work. She is still numb at his loss, and, as much for him as for any other reason, she refuses to give up this newly weird job, which will take her to Tokyo and on to Russia. With help and betrayal from equally unlikely quarters, Cayce will follow the trail of the mysterious film to its source, and in the process will learn something about her father's life and death."

Title: Pattern Recognition
Pages: 368 [Hardcover Edition]
Author: William Gibson
Publisher: P.G Putnam & Sons