I've got Privilege of the Sword on my PDA but have not read it. I did just read Spook, by the woman who wrote Stiff. It's about scientific research into life after death, and is pretty funny, although maybe not a pay-full-price.

I also just read Accelerando (cyperpunk), Smoke and Mirrors by Gaiman, and some fantasy novel. Oh, right, Elantris. And one of Elizabeth Peters first books, which showed me how much she's improved.

Oh, and the Simon Winchester book about the San Francisco earthquake, which is a perfectly Simon Winchester book.

cross posted with Bitches because more buffistas should read this book

Tonight was a literary evern - 15 of my neighbors and friends got together for beverages and snacks - but mostly for readings from Sperm are from men, eggs are from women

a review:

From Publishers Weekly

Wild Kingdom meets Dr. Ruth in Quirk's bawdy guide to species reproduction and the differences between men and women. Each topical chapter compares romantic relationships to sociological, biological, anthropological or zoological findings, all related in Quirk's off-the-cuff prose. The easy reading can be attributed to the fact that Quirk isn't a scientist, but a fiction writer with an interest in science and a knack for finding humor in explaining why people act the way they do. Chapter titles like "Why You're So Horny" and "Why You Like Spielberg more than T.S. Eliot" set the tone for Quirk's revelations on the purpose of body hair ("It's to stink ... Now we know why the French are so sexy"); promiscuity in the animal kingdom ("the faithful sex looks drab, and the slutty sex looks fab"); and art ("I look at Michelangelo's ceiling, and I see a gay man's erotic fantasies"). Men, Quirk writes, are "sperm spreaders" bent on spraying their worthless sperm as frequently and widely as possible, while women are "womb carriers" competing against one another to land the best sperm to fertilize a precious egg. Granted, Quirk's book is far from breaking new scientific ground, but his humorous touch (not to mention the chapter on penguin prostitution) make for a readable and off-beat treatise.

I mean, really, why aren't we reading more about penguin prostitution?

I also just read Accelerando (cyperpunk)

I downloaded the free PDF of that ages ago, and have been about halfway through it on my PDA ever since. I should really buy a paper copy, just so I finish it.

I should really buy a paper copy, just so I finish it.

I wasn't terribly invested in finishing it, because I really didn't care what happened. It was just fun for the ideas and the refs. At one point, he namechecks Spider Jerusalem and I thought, "Yeah, reading this is exactly like reading Spider. Except without the pictures."

It was just fun for the ideas and the refs.

I felt the same way about Singularity Sky -- it was a neat little collection of ideas, but I'm not sure there was an actual book underneath it all.

Interesting bit from the NYTimes:

*******

Britain and Ireland are so thoroughly divided in their histories that there is no single word to refer to the inhabitants of both islands. Historians teach that they are mostly descended from different peoples: the Irish from the Celts, and the English from the Anglo-Saxons who invaded from northern Europe and drove the Celts to the country’s western and northern fringes.

But geneticists who have tested DNA throughout the British Isles are edging toward a different conclusion. Many are struck by the overall genetic similarities, leading some to claim that both Britain and Ireland have been inhabited for thousands of years by a single people that have remained in the majority, with only minor additions from later invaders like Celts, Romans, Angles , Saxons, Vikings and Normans.

The implication that the Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh have a great deal in common with each other, at least from the geneticist’s point of view, seems likely to please no one.

Oops, that probably doesn't belong in Literary.

But let's pretend it did!

Irvine Welsh, Jane Austen and James Joyce = The Same.

Discuss.

Jane Austen and James Joyce = The Same.

My brain may explode. Although Trollope set some of his early novels in Ireland.

Irvine Welsh, Jane Austen and James Joyce

FCM?

Actually there's a bit in that article about the historical linguistics of English that has already been debunked by the blog Language Log, which I found funny and interesting. Because, basically, what the article attempts to do is tie genetic heritage and language heritage together, which is a huge no-no in linguistic circles.

(Considering how often people from Parts conquer people from Other Parts, and convince them to speak a new language, languages travel at quite a different rate from genes, and in different patterns.)

(Also, it smacks of the history of tribalism/racism that linguistics tries to downplay, as it strives to be considered a formal hard science.)

One of the things Language Log points out is that we have Old English attestation as soon as about 800 CE, which means that Old English was being spoken (but not written down) for quite a while before that. that is always the trouble with historical linguistics -- the number of illiterate peoples in history about whom we can attest nothing.