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Quirk: Brain Science Makes Sense of Your Peculiar Personality by Hannah Holmes. well, actually i haven't started reading yet but it is the next one up.

A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness by Nassir Ghaemi
Published 2011
pg. 187/340

Nicholas Campion History of Western Astrology

stonewall by martin duberman. my comrade says it's a good read and that it is interesting to see how it all plays out in relation to class positions of characters so i'm reading it.

Im reading The Alchemest by Michael Scott.

Beowulf (in translation. I'd love to be able to read it in the original Anglo-Saxon one day.)

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Published 1987
pg. 74/293

Prador Moon
Shadow of the Scorpion
Think I'll read the whole Polity series in order. I stared at a thousand books and settled on trashy space opera.

I bought four books yesterday with Christmas tokenage.

I'm going to start with Planet Narnia by Michael Ward.
http://www.planetnarnia.com/planet-narnia

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Published 1987
pg. 138/293

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton. This is the third book I've read by her. Previously, I've read The Forgotten Garden and The House at Riverton. In my opinion, she's brilliant in her ability to write multi-generational sagas with a wide variety of complicated and well developed characters. These stories pretty much always involve vivid imagery depicting enchanting and mysterious English manor houses populated by deeply dysfunctional families harboring various dark and often bizarre secrets. These secrets generally revolve around some strange cataclysmic event that took place many decades earlier, with (relatively) present day characters gradually putting the pieces together in order to determine the circumstances leading up to and surrounding said event. Aforementioned circumstances are never fully revealed until the end, though there are invariably plenty of tantalizing clues brought to light along the way. Her stories can be disturbing and have left me lying awake at night on occasion, but they are also absolutely fascinating. Having some experience with her work, this time I have a relatively solid theory regarding the tragic event at the heart of this story. Considering the length of the book, and the pace at which I tend to read these days, I estimate that it will be roughly a week before I find out if I'm correct, partially correct, or completely wrong. I'll just have to wait and see....
ETA: I finished it. I'll admit that my theory was wrong. For a time though, it seemed that I had gotten it right. Certain conclusions were drawn by the narrator in the (relatively) present day who seemed to have unlocked the mystery of the events surrounding one tragic night that had taken place fifty years earlier and done irreparable damage with repercussions still felt half a century later. It seemed that my theory was accurate. All the evidence seemed to indicate that, and it was the conclusion drawn by the narrator as well. However, even though I had come up with this theory two or three hundred pages earlier, I was almost disappointed. This was especially true, because after I initially came up with my theory, I started to have doubts. Certain pieces didn't seem to fit. Something seemed wrong about the whole thing. It was almost unsatisying when I was (seemingly) proven right. I should have guessed based on how many pages were left that more information would be revealed, proving that the aforementioned conclusion was false, that the cataclysmic occurence had actually been caused by something else entirely. The real story surrounding the horrific event was actually far more satisfying, far more brilliant, than anything I had theorized. I was not disappointed at all. Besides, I correctly connected the dots and drew accurate conclusions regarding another, minor plot point. I can bask in that little victory.
I love Kate Morton's work. I hope she publishes more books in the future, as I've now read all the books she's published thus far.

I'll just list my recent post-Christmas book purchases, since f**k knows when I'll actually get around to reading them.

The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome (2008) by Tony Attwood

I don't know if I'll even read this one. I just figured that I needed a book about Asperger's to have lying around. I've got the book version of Mozart and the Whale, but I read a couple of chapters and haven't picked it up again since abandoning it.

The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (1995) by Philip K. Dick, Lawrence Sutin

The subtitle is "Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings," and that about sums it up. Basically just miscellaneous writings of my favorite author. Essays, speeches, introductions, etc. I've read a lot of it before online, but it's nice to have it all collected into one book.

On the Ice: An Intimate Portrait of Life at McMurdo Station, Antarctica (2005) by Gretchen Legler

Yet another book about life in the Antarctica research stations finds its way onto my bookshelf. I wonder if this one will include the phrase "enema loving dick licking f**kwad," like Big Dead Place does.

The Lurker in the Lobby: The Guide to Lovecraftian Cinema (2006) by Andrew Migliore, John Strysik

H. P. Lovecraft on film. I love books that focus on the film adaptations of a writer. I've also got Counterfeit Worlds: Philip K. Dick on Film, Future Imperfect: Philip K. Dick at the Movies, Holmes of the Movies, and Starring Sherlock Holmes sitting on my bookshelf, and I'll soon be adding Sherlock Holmes On Screen when it's released later this month. Now if only someone could write and publish books about the films based on the writing of Patricia Highsmith and Dashiell Hammett.

England's Secret Weapon (2009) by Amanda J. Field

Hey look, another book about Sherlock Holmes movies. This one's devoted to the Holmes films of the 1940s, when Holmes was turned into sort of a proto-James Bond who fights the Nazis. Or as they say in the films, "NAT-ZEEZ!"

Anno Dracula (1992) by Kim Newman

The Hound of the D'Urbervilles (2011) by Kim Newman

I've never read Kim Newman's work, but I've heard plenty of critics raving about his books. Anno has something to do with Dracula and Jack the Ripper and Hound has to do with Sherlock Holmes's nemesis Professor Moriarty. Apparently both books feature a huge cast of famous literary characters, like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which I've also never read.

Shadows Over Baker Street (2005) by various

Sherlock Holmes in the world of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. I haven't been very impressed with the other "Holmes vs. supernatural" stories I've tried, but what the hell. I had money and no idea what else to do with it.

The Final Solution (2004) by Michael Chabon

An elderly Sherlock Holmes meets a Jewish boy and gets involved with Nazis, or something. I don't know.