rich: i had a lame gobot and the way it transformed is you stood the stupid thing up on it’s back bumper
luna: i totally wanted a 2xl
luna: but my parents were too poor
luna: http://www.2xlrobot.com/
luna: 2xl was huge
optic: you had one gobot?
rich: yes, 1 gobot
luna: lol 1 gobot
optic: 2xl wtf
luna: it wasnt even 1 trasnformer
optic: what did the gobot fight

Now with stars (out of 5)!
*** Rachel Dewoskin - Foreign Babes in Beijing
**** Timothy Mo - Sour Sweet
*** Nordhoff and Hall - Mutiny on the Bounty

**** The Wire (season 1)
*** Star Trek
* Honey West
*** The Shop around the Corner
**** The Prisoner
*** Mutiny on the Bounty
***** Touchez pas au Grisbi (aka Hands off the Loot)
** The Master Touch (aka Un uomo da rispettare)
** The Trouble with Harry

Anathem was a birthday present last year, and it made the perfect jury duty book. I hauled that thing (1000 or so pages) to the courthouse every day for three days, and sat in that (very nice, airy, light-filled) room with it until it was done. I like big books and even finished all three of Stephenson’s baroque cycle, so I was looking forward to this one. On the other hand, I’ve had my issues with Stephenson, so, you know.

Anyway, the book is pretty much “The Name of the Rose” meets “Idiocracy” meets “The Urth of the New Sun”. It’s got the first’s (more or less) monastery setting and rambling philoso-religious dialogues (which are an excuse for the author, whether Eco or Stephenson, to show off lots of library time), the second’s humorously stupid future (some 3000 years in the future and the masses still walk around wearing sports jerseys and drinking “sugared beverages” from gigantic plastic cups), and the third’s assault of words you don’t understand (in Stephenson’s case, because he made them up; in Wolfe’s, because they are archaic dictionary words no one actually uses any more).

Some new recipes up at my food blog: pad thai, berbere (the Ethiopian spice mix), and berbere chana.