Liked the movie, bought the book. I'm about halfway through it now. I haven't put my finger on the reason, but I enjoyed the movie more.
I've said it before, but that's one of my favorite novels. It took me about 120 pages or so to get into it, but once I was into it, I was staying up wayyyy too late to knock off huge sections of it.
This has been on my "to read" list for a long time. It is a great book -- I just started and am already about 150 pages in.
The author is not a scientist, but a science reporter. He tries to use DNA evidence to trace back human evolution and tries to mesh the DNA record with other scientific and anthropoglical fields to get a better idea of how humans evolved and how society was born.
Just finished: What an incredible novel. I don't know what else to say but, "Read it." Also just finished: Two great books in the past week. I'm not sure what I'm reading next.
Three relatively recent and thematically related Samuel Delaney stories collected in a single volume.
Just started reading Neil Gaiman's "Anansi Boys." Great story, and I love pretty much everything Gaiman's ever written, but I'm having trouble getting past the nagging feeling that the lead character, Fat Charlie, is anything more than a rehashed Arthur Dent-- wimpy, naive, dull, English, innocent, and watching the flashy guy steal his girl away...
i just started that (i take a while to read english books) but the funny part is that i just finished crime and puniishment and that gets mentioned in the second chapter.
Fascinating synthesis of recent archaeological and anthropological theories about life in the Western hemisphere before contact with Europeans.
Which reminds me, bigredfutbol was absolutely right. The chapter on the Amazon is a real mind blower.
Having finished 1491, I am now reading this. From a brief review, it didn't sound as though it would lose much from reading it after the Cup, and I'm already find that some offhand remarks now have unintended resonance.