Reading List 2006

Salamander (Thomas Warton)
I've had this book on my bedside table for quite a while -- my mom gave me a big stack of paperbacks she had read and thought I'd like, and this is one of them.  She was right!  It reminds me of "The High House" (James Stoddard) or "The Baron Munchausen" (which to my surprise, I just found out exists in book form and not just the movie). Salamander is also one of those "books about books" and thus calls to mind "If on a winter's night a traveler" (Italo Calvino).  

Our hero is a bookmaker, who is employed by the eccentric creator of a mechanical castle with no fixed rooms (to avoid taxes, natch) to create one-of-a-kind books, including an infinite book. Cleverness abounds, there's a romance, travel to strange lands, and lots of mini-stories.  Highly recommend.


The Samurai's Garden (Gail Tsukiyama)
I read this one for the M&M book club.  (Yay, now my trip to Friendly's next Tuesday is for more than just ice cream!) It is a quiet and contemplative book about a Chinese man recuperating from TB in pre-WWII Japan.  He is living in a coastal village that also has a nearby leper colony, which makes this the second time I've ever read a book that had a leprous main character.  (The other, of course, being the Thomas Covenant series.)  Plot-wise, not much happens, but it isn't boring.


Modular Knits (Iris Schreier)
I saw this book on the "new books" shelf at the library and took it home on spec.  It seems the main goal of the author/designer is to create items that look as if they have been knit piecewise and then sewn together, but instead knit them as a single piece. There are a lot of garter stitch pieces, which is about my least favorte knit pattern.  For me, the whole point of knitting is a smooth finished product -- if I want something lumpy and bumpy I'll crochet it.  The cover item (a two-tone scarf) is the best pattern in the book, and I may make a copy before returning the book to the library.