Books

I finally finished Rant by Chuck Palahniuk, am soldiering on through Hyperion and have picked back up Jack The Ripper: First American Serial Killer.

Rant is not a long or difficult book, but when you mostly only read while on the toilet it can take a while to get through something. Rant is an interesting book, funny and clever with an interesting vision of the future, although a future that would require many unusual and unlikely things to occur. Worth reading, especially if you like Palahniuk.

Hyperion is great but it's taking me a while to get through it. The format is a little tedious, the individual stories of something like 7 people all visiting the planet of Hyperion in order to get to the bottom of what The Time Tombs are, and The Shrike and how to solve their individual problems. But, the stories are so damn good you rarely have that nagging voice in your head asking, "when's the damn STORY going to start?!" which I get a lot when reading something in this format.

Jack the Ripper: First American Serial Killer compiles a lot of police reports, coroner's inquests, newspaper articles and other archival material to make the case that Jack the Ripper was American. It's really dry, but pretty fascinating and gruesome. I especially enjoy reading it in the park with little children running about.