More for the Great Pile

Went to a local chain bookseller that just happens to have an extensive used book collection for the first time in over a month and picked up a trio of interesting reads. At a combined cost of $7.60 I felt justified with the purchase, because though interesting they immediately seem to me, due to the massive backlog of books I own, and which ceaselessly annoy the wife, these new ones are just more fodder for the Great Pile: those five-foot high towers of tomes surrounding my writing desk.

I’ll get around to reading them sometime before the decade’s out.

Anyway, for those keeping score, here’s what I got:

Report on the Shroud of Turin, by Dr. John Heller

Read this one (library version) two years ago during a two-month Shroud of Turin phase. For the record, I believe the Shroud is what believers believe it to be: the crucified image of Christ mystically imprinted upon it. Don’t remember the conclusions of this book, but I seem to recall the good scientist doesn’t come down sharply on the side of “Hoax!” Probably ambivalent, possibly neutral, to the Truth. But I enjoyed reading the detailing scientific analyses they put the Shroud through.

Fundamentals of Number Theory, by William LeVeque

Certainly way over my head, but since I’m in a whole math-phase-thing right now it felt potentially intriguing to me. Worth a perusal, and perhaps I’ll learn a half-page worth of stuff in this compact-yet-280-page pristine paperback.

Soldier of Sidon, by Gene Wolfe

Always wanted to delve into Gene Wolfe’s work. He’s a classic SF writer who I’ve never read, save for a novella a decade ago that I’ve mostly forgotten but impressed me at the time. In fact, he was a runner-up to my Philip Jose Farmer experiment of a year ago (and in hindsight, perhaps I should’ve gone with Wolfe). This book seems to be a fantasy tale set in Ancient Egypt, and since I know nothing of Ancient Egypt but like fantasy tales, I decided to pick it up.

So that’s it …

Happy reading!