Books, books, books

I've been quite busy with reading lately.

The Southern Vampire Series

First I read the entire Southern Vampire Mysteries series, by Charlaine Harries, on which the True Blood TV series was based. The books are addictive; lightweight, but entertaining and easy to read. A different twist on romance novels. I really like the first-person view, and the attention to nominally trivial items and events; it makes the Sookie seem much more real.

Dune

Then I re-read Dune, which I last read some 20-odd years ago. Sadly, it appears that I remembered all the good bits; it wasn't nearly as interesting as I'd remembered. I did enjoy it, nonetheless. Plenty of stuff was derived from Arabic/Hebrew cultures, and it was interesting picking those out. I was also amused to note a fair bit that must have influenced Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time.

Dragonlance

Currently I'm re-reading the Dragonlance Chronicles. The writing (at least, in the initial books - it did get better) is as amateurish as I remembered, and you can see how much it was based on D&D characters, in that the books characters feel like D&D characters rather than living, breathing beings. Still, it's entertaining.

I've read all of these as ebooks; it's damn handy having a selection of books with me wherever I am, so I can just resume my reading while waiting in a queue, or sitting in traffic.