What I'm reading:

So after a long hiatus in my reading activity (movies were my main source of entertainment for a while), I've recently finished a few books:

• Guardians of the Keep by Carol Berg: I got started, got sucked in, broke off for a while at a good spot, got sucked in again, and finally finished it a couple of days ago. Another worthy effort from that always excellent author. I think I'll take a bit of a break before I start Soul Weaver, the next (3^rd) in the series.
• Monstrous Regiment, the second-to-latest Discworld novel from Terry Pratchett. I am a big Terry Pratchett fan, and have read every (or at the very least, almost every) Discworld book he's written. Moreover, I have loved all of them. This one, however, was a cut above the rest. But I say that every time.

Next up: China Mieville's Perdido Street Station, which is much-hyped, and promises to have a Neil Gaiman/William Gibson/Neal Stephenson kind of aesthetic; I believe the word is steampunk. More later, but I have to say that although I'm only a page or so in, the beauty of the writing tells me I'm going to like this one:

The river twists and turns to face the city. It looms suddenly, massive, stamped on the landscape. Its light wells up around the surrounds, the rock hills, like bruise-blood. Its dirty towers glow. I am debased. I am compelled to worship this extraordinary presence that has silted into existence at the conjunction of two rivers. It is a vast pollutant, a stench, a klaxon sounding. Fat chimneys retch dirt into the sky even now in the deep night. It is not the current which pulls us but the city itself, its weight sucks us in.

See?