Penguins. Yes, penguins. Don't ask.

Why Baroque? Because it is set in the Baroque, and it is baroque. Why Cycle? Because I am trying to avoid the T-word. In my mind this work is something like 7 or 8 connected novels ... So to slap the word 'trilogy' on it would be to saddle it with a designation that is essentially bogus.

Having said that, I know everyone's going to call it a trilogy anyway.

-- Neal Stephenson, on his Baroque Cycle.

A couple of days back I finally started reading the first part of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle - Quicksilver. Considering that it's december already, and that this book is a 2 lbs weighing, 1.000 page behemoth, it's fair to assume that this will be the last book I'll read this year. Not that I mind, because this book looks set to be marvelous - it took me the whole of three pages to become fully immersed into Stephenson's wonderful semi historical/semi fictional world.

So, including this one, 2005 adds up to a total of 17 books, which isn't really all that much, but is still 17 books a year more than I read five years ago. So not bad, not bad at all. However, the least I can do is try to read at least 18 books in 2006; should be doable. At this rate I'll be reading one book a week in, erm, 35 years.

Recap
Best book of the year (excluding Quicksilver; I'm only 100 pages in): Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Worst book of the year: Kil'n People by David Brin (a reread, too, for some unfathomable reason).

Cheers