Well of the Worlds, by Henry Kuttner (and CL Moore). I really like a lot of Kuttner and Moore's work, although every once in a while you get something like Earth's Last Citadel, which I didn't like much at all. This one is not up there with their best, but it's not terrible, either.

The story is that in the atomic future of 1970, every country is bully for uranium mining. Sawyer is a Canadian investigator sent by a mining company to investigate reports of ghosts in a mine and a conflict between the mine owners, a young woman named Klai (who is weirdly exotic-looking and sounding and was found as an amnesiac in the depths of the mine as a girl) and Alper, a crotchety old man who's supposedly out to do away with Klai. They end up getting whisked off to a parallel, cylindrical world of floating islands ruled by the godlike Issier, who enslave humans and are at war with the brutish Sselli from the lower parts of the world.

The sci-fi aspect is covered in that the world and its residents are inspired by radioactive isotopes and subatomic structures. The plot isn't very interesting. The protagonists show up, they get captured, Sawyer escapes, and spends most of the rest of the short novel evading stuff and learning in awkward exposition dumps about how things work. It mostly has some memorable imagery, it's not slow-paced, and doesn't overstay its welcome.

For those who have enjoyed the writings of Terry Pratchett, you might appreciate a little essay I wrote during an inspirational moment ... perhaps an amalgam of his humor and mine, for better or worse ... ha ha ha.

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_god_of_underpants

P.S. I have no idea why underpants popped into my head while considering the Discworld creation theory, but it was quite suitable I think, going by how Terry approached the everyday aspects of life with his own twist, especially with Gods and toilet related humor.

Haven't read that one, but I liked The Fairy Chessmen and Fury. Tomorrow and Tomorrow was OK, while I found The Dark World rather overrated.

Kuttner&Moore or "Lewis Padgett" had a very good period in the 1940s.

Some books .....

I've just finished THE TALENTED MR. VARG by ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH ... second novel in the series. He's also done a novella and short story, which I've read and enjoyed.

It wasn't a bad book, but overall it felt less than fully rewarding.

I quite like the somewhat laid back philosophical writing of ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH, and if it was only a few dollars for the relatively short amount you get, I wouldn't complain much. However he writes several books a year, and charges a premium, for what are quite short novels. Most authors write at least double the amount if not triple, and in some cases a lot more than that, but charge a lower fairer price. He seems to think every written word he writes whether interesting or not is worth gold. And most of the time, what he writes is at best interesting and sometimes very interesting and on rarer occasions quite funny and insightful. I like reading him for the change of pace and his good humor and desire to see the good in everyone. It has to be said though, that he appears to milk things, to the point where a novel doesn't seem resolved enough ... like he's decided, okay, this is where I will stop, and he winds thing up rather quickly and all too briefly. It seems to me he's gotten worse as he gets older, and is trying to do too much, and ends up watering down what he produces.

He releases a book (ebook) and I look at the price and go - Really ... you want that much? I check the number of pages, and see so few, and say - You're dreaming. Of course, when I say he, I am also including his publisher, who has to share the blame.

Then I wait and I wait and maybe before a year is out, often much more, the book comes down a bit in price, then I wait some more and eventually it comes down to what I believe is within my acceptable range as a price, but rarely is it what I consider a fair price. I probably shouldn't buy them unless they are a fair price, but honestly, ebook prices these last few years have mostly been a big ripoff, and I only want to buy ebooks now ... so I am kinda between a rock and a hard place. Some of his books I enjoy quite a bit, so anticipation with some of them makes me more forgiving of price. So when one of those unfairly priced books is less than fully rewarding, I guess you can see why I have some angst.

I'd be far more forgiving with amount of content, if he wrote a cracking yarn or just made me feel good.

P.S. In the earlier writings in the series, the lead character Detective Varg of the Department Of Sensitive Crimes, seemed much more talented than in this latest novel, where he really doesn't seem talented at all. The short story, initially a once off, really grabbed the attention of fans, and I amongst the many, desired more, which the author eventually delivered, though certainly for me, he made the character more neurotic and less clever, and each outing seems progressively worse.

My reading list for 2021

Since my last comment I've read:

- Gerhard Wolf, Ideologie und Herrschaftsrationalität. Nationalsozialistische Germanisierungspoltik in Polen.

A book about Nazi Germanization policies in the annexed parts of Poland (Danzig-West Prussia, Wartheland, Silesia) which veered between the alternatives of forced assimilation of the Polish population and mass expulsions/mass killings. An interesting book about a grim subject, but I would only recommend it if one is really interested. I caught some inaccuracies in the introductory section.
My rating: 3/5.

- James Barr, A line in the sand. Britain, France and the struggle that shaped the Middle East.

Basically about the WW1 and mandate era in the Mideast (ca. 1916-1948), with a focus on the British and French mandates in Palestine and Syria (though it also dealt with Iraq). I found it interesting, but can't judge how accurate it is (the author definitely came across as highly negative about France's role).
My rating: 3/5.

- James Barr, Lords of the desert. The battle between the United States and Great Britain for supremacy in the modern Middle East.

Sequel to the book above, dealing mostly with the late 1940s to late 1950s (Palestine, Iran, the Suez crisis etc.), also a bit with Yemen in the 1960s. A much weaker book than its predecessor imo, the story lacks the clear focus of the mandate era and some sections were rather boring. I still found parts of it interesting, but wouldn't necessarily recommend it.
My rating: 2/5.

- John W. Dower, War without mercy. Race and power in the Pacific war.

A book about the Pacific war and to what extent it was seen as a race war on both sides. I found it somewhat annoying in parts, but it was still interesting, especially the part about Japanese perceptions of the war.
My rating: 3/5.

- Thucydides, The war of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, edited by Jeremy Mynott (Cambridge texts in the history of political thought).

English translation of one of the greatest historical works of antiquity. I found it extremely gripping with much to think about (Thucydides rarely makes his own views explicit so the text is open to many interpretations), and surprisingly modern in places. Very good edition imo with helpful maps, glossary etc. Highly recommended.
My rating: 5/5.

The Legacy by R.A. Salvatore

A large raiding party from Menzoberranzan is sent close to Mithral Hall to capture Drizzt.

I’m reading Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. The story is described so realistically that it seems to you that you are also now in Australia and watching the events. Every story of the main characters touches the soul and you are sincerely worried about them. It is an engaging story filled with murder and mystery. The idea is very interesting. On the first page you will find out that the murder happened. But throughout the story, you have no idea who is the victim. At the same time, the genre cannot be called a detective story. A fascinating book about relationships.

Don Quijote (part one, 1605) by Miguel de Cervantes :2.5/5

The tale of the mad hidalgo Alonso Quijano who identifies himself as the knight-errant Don Quijote, his faithful servant and squire Sancho Panza, and his even more faithful steed Rocinante, and their adventures to right wrongs, bring justice to the offended, and defend the virtues of beautiful virgins.

Apparently this is a book you have to read before you die, and it's a book pretentious hipsters like to include in their top lists.

There's no denying its historical importance and value, but for a "modern audience", if a relic of the past like me can be called that, I don't think it's especially enjoyable.
To get the most out of this book you really need to read it in Spanish (or maybe a good translation in a related language), and to be familiar with all the chivalric romances that were so popular in the centuries before DQ was written, especially Amadis de Gaula. I'm somewhat familiar with The Matter of Britain and The Matter of France, but haven't read any of the original writings.
I read a Norwegian translation of the book, which may have been a mistake (but I so rarely read fiction in Norwegian these days). For one thing Norway has no tradition of feudalism (except there was one barony) and even less of knights in shining armour. So the language kind of doesn't fit with the setting and themes of the book. In addition, based on the sentence structure, Spanish must be much closer to English than to Norwegian. At first I even thought the book I read had been translated from English, but the translator was professor in Spanish and even got awards for his translation.

Anyway, I found the book readable enough, but the prose, while not as convoluted as many later books would be, still rather clumsy and unelegant. Again, I guess much is lost in translation.

The book is at least in parts an obvious parody of the older chivalric romances, and there are some discussion about it by characters in the book.

[snip quotes, because this forum software sucks]

Other highlights is the short story about The Two Friends, and the discussions about the Battle of Lepanto, which ended the Ottoman sea superiority forever and in which Cervantes himself participated, and the fatal Battle of La Goleta, which condemned North Africa to islamic rule ever since.

But overall I found the book, which is more like a collection if vignettes than a standard novel, too long, with too much repetition. Every woman is like the world's most beautiful woman; at least four of them and they all end up in the same small inn, and I'm not even sure Cervantes is still mocking the old romances. And some of the story lines are repeated.

It's interesting how honest such an old book is about sex and especially bodily functions.

And it has a similar meta story to Lord of the Rings, with Cervantes basing his novel on manuscripts he has gathered about the real Don Quijote.

So in the end, more of academic interest than for literary entertainment (even though it does have its moments).

I only read part one so far, since it's overdue to return to the library.

Holger Afflerbach, Falkenhayn: Politisches Denken und Handeln im Kaiserreich.

A biography of Erich von Falkenhayn, German chief of staff 1914-1916, best remembered as the man responsible for the butchery of the battle of Verdun. Special attention is paid to his two years as chief of staff, but there are also interesting sections about the time before WW1 (when Falkenhayn spent considerable time in China and dreamt of becoming head of a new military academy in Beijing) and from 1916 until his death in 1922. On the whole, Falkenhayn doesn't emerge as a particularly sympathetic character, in many ways a typical representative of the Prussian officer class and enthusiastic about the outbreak of war in 1914, though to his credit he was more pragmatic and realistic than many others and saw his job as creating the military preconditions for a negotiated end to the war.
It's a good book, but I would only recommend it if one has already read a lot of general surveys about WW1 and is interested in something more specialized.
My rating: 4/5.

Excellent choice.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes By ACD

Some of the stories were boring for me, but the notes and introduction of the edition that I have (spanish edition by Valdemar) made them good enough. 6/10

Happy World book day!

Polybius, The Histories, translated by Robin Waterfield (Oxford world's classics).

English translation of the major surviving parts of the Histories written by Polybius of Megalopolis in the 2nd century BC about the rise of Rome to Mediterranean hegemony. Includes the full text of books 1-5 (the only ones of originally 40 which have been preserved in their entirety) and the surviving fragments of book 6 (the famous digression about Rome's mixed constitution) and book 12 (where Polybius bashes another historian Timaeus of Tauromenion for his alleged deficiencies and writes about the qualities of a good historian).
As far as I can judge it, the translation is fine, certainly very readable (though more and better maps would have helped). I have mixed feelings about Polybius though. In some ways he's admirable with his fairly rational approach to history and his attempt to explain Rome's success through political analysis (instead of the workings of fate or the gods). Also lots of details which are invaluable for modern historians investigating antiquity. But to be brutally honest, I found much of it pretty boring. Polybius is a very dry writer without any real literary qualities imo (unlike Thucydides whom I read in translation earlier this year). And like most ancient historians he focuses on politics and warfare to the exclusion of almost everything else. This isn't always bad, e. g. I found book 3 with its description of the early stages of the Second Punic war (Hannibal crossing the Alps, Cannae etc.) quite exciting. But then you read about an endless succession of wars and battles in Greece and the Near East, of intrigues at the courts of Hellenistic kings etc. in excruciating detail (XYZ went there, besieged that town etc.), and it's far from clear imo if all of this is really relevant to the larger aim of the work. And Polybius comes across as pretty arrogant in his criticism of other historians (when it's not certain at all imo that he himself is always reliable, he clearly has an extreme bias against several factions and persons mentioned in his account, and also attributes motivations to people in cases where you wonder "How could he possibly have known that for sure?").
I'd recommend it if you're really interested in ancient history, at least for the "classic" parts like Books 3 and 6. But don't expect it to be an aesthetically pleasing literary experience like with some other ancient writers. It's more the "just the facts" kind of writing.
My rating: 4/5.

★★☆ Valis / Philip K. Dick
★★☆ The Ball and the Cross / G.K. Chesterton
★★★ Data Science for Business / Foster Provost, Tom Fawcett
★★☆ Nature's Numbers: The Unreal Reality Of Mathematics / Ian Stewart
★☆☆ The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers / Robert C. Martin
★★☆ Czerwona gorączka / Andrzej Pilipiuk

List of all books read in 2021.

Russka by Edward Rutherfurd. It was a good read, although sometimes I get tired of the fact that it seems like in every book of his there are some cringe-worthy moments and truly evil characters. I wonder: can he write one book that's a relaxing read without putting in the story of a rapist, or an incestuous rapist, and spoiling the overall effect?

Joining late. But I intend to update this post/list throughout the year.
Include Me.

=> In Praise of Shadows by Junichirō Tanizaki
This is an English translation of a sixty-odd pages long Japanese essay written by Tanizaki in the early 1930s. The essay shows an immense depth on the matters of Japanese aesthetics on the part of the author, and showcases the mental conflicts faced in the wake of modernisation of a society, especially when traditional ides of aesthetic values contrast with novel realities of Occidental cultural influences and technological innovations. The essay projects in-depth observations on Japanese ways of seeing and experiencing beauty in everyday objects and spaces on Tanizaki's part.

=> Ways of Seeing by John Berger
Really insightful book about how artistic representations are influenced by social, political and economic realities and how in turn these representations influence the meaning we (try to) find within our social structures. Though about fifty years old by now, this book certainly makes one think about their way of experiencing the world. The book is based on a BBC series , and has been made by not only John Berger alone, but also by Sven Blomberg, Chris Fox, Michael Dibb and Richard Hollis.

=> Abandon the Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
This book of Manga consists of eight stories written by one of the masters of Gekiga style of graphic narrative. The stories were all published around 1970 and represent a bleak view of life in the rapidly changing urban landscape of post-war Japan. The Characters in Tatsumi's stories are flawed at best, yet they are not " "Evil" with a capital E" as Koji Suzuki states in the Introduction to the book. Some stories contain dark and shocking scenes, clearly intended for a mature audience.

=> Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh
This debut novel by Singh, written and published in the 1950s, narrates a story set in the backdrop of the violent times surrounding the partition of India. Rather than focusing on the turmoil following the division of a nation and the ensuing violence as a whole, Singh focuses his narrative attention on a single fictional village situated near the newly created border. The novel succinctly tells stories of individual and social tragedy weaving them to the larger event of social disharmony.

=> Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
This novel unravels the psychological aspects of a diverse range of human beings in an urban Japanese landscape. The use of magic realism as a driving force seemed to have been handled with great nuance and the readers' attention seems to be tethered more to the characters and their journeys rather than the apparent unreal nature of the central pivot. All the chapters organically develop nourished by the complete plot, and the book is, overall, a got read.

=> Headspace: The Psychology of City Living by Dr Paul Keedwell
This book is an illuminating read. The author has carefully organized a host of research on the various aspects of urban existence. The book covers a lot of ground, from sizes of windows to designing hospital wards, and how all these varied aspects of urban design influence our physical and psychological wellbeing.

=> The Hotel at the End of the World by Parismita Singh
This graphic novel (monochrome) attempts to tell stories of journeys, strife, seeking, hope, and loss by narrating tales from the lives of a number of characters whose lives are intertwined by a central interest. The story mixes real and surreal to the effect of exposing not only the struggles and suffering of people living on the periphery (literally, that is in the title itself) but also their attempts at redemption. A really nice book to read and contemplate on.

=> Poison for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket
Actually, this is the first Lemony Snicket book I have read. It was pretty gripping, The enormous amount of allusions sprinkled throughout the narrative was an added bonus. The story was interesting and well paced.

=> The enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl
As enjoyable as any Roald Dahl book. The paperback edition was printed on nice glossy paper with full colour illustrations by Quentin Blake. The story is fun, simple and short.