From the "To-Read" pile...

Every once and again, I go through my books and look over what I have yet to read.

As I have no doubt explained before, I read for a while on lunch and just before I go to bed.  In that evening session, I usually get about three pages in before finding the book on my stomach, a viscous trail of drool down my chin, and the sun coming in through the window.  Excuses excuse, I know.  It's all a matter of gumption.  So to encourage myself to read faster...or to at least read during semi-waking hours...I sometimes leaf through the books I have on the horizon.   Here are two science fiction books that I've been spending time with tonight.

The Forge of God by Greg Bear.  One of Jupiter's moons suddenly disappears.  A previously unknown cinder cone is found in Death Valley.  A mountain rises out of Australia that wasn't there six months ago.  There are unidentified objects headed towards Earth.  And oh yes, there are aliens involved.  It's the end of the world as we haven't known it before.

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson.  Three teenagers witness a shield form around the Earth, blocking us off from the rest of the universe.  The book follows the different lives that these three pursue after that fateful day when a time discontinuity encapsulated our world wherein we see time passing normally while 300 billion years go by outside.  One will become a doctor, another a scientist hellbent on unraveling what happened to the Earth, and the last a religious fanatic.  And oh yes, there are aliens involved here too.

Those are certainly tantalizing enough to inspire speedier reading.


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