What I'm Reading

I've got the time now to catch up on some much needed reading, so I'm taking advantage of that.

I just picked up The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander, which I've been wanting to read for a while. Originally published in 1979, it is an inspiring book which brings human life and architecture together. Alexander insists that we are born with the ability to create cities, although we don't know it. All we need to do is dream it up, and then go out there and make it happen. He claims this has been innate in human beings since our existence. Pretty out there, I know, but I've only started reading this, so let's see where he goes with this.




I've been keeping on top of Marvel Comics' Messiah CompleX which has been slated as the biggest X-crossover in a long time, with events that will shape the X-Men universe for the coming year. As the story is, mutants are few and far between after the House of M story arc (where many mutants lost their powers), now there has been a mutant birth (abilities usually manifest when they are teenagers) which has sent the mutant world into a search for the child for it is the key for the future of mutant-kind.
It has a vast creative team spanning over the four X-titles, which is great because readers don't need to wait months and months to continue the story (a la Civil War)... This series is WEEKLY!!
I have never been a fan of inconsistent art in a story but since they are all different titles, it's understood. This is a great way to get readers to check out other X-titles, which they would not normally read (like New X-Men for example...think Saved By the Bell: The New Class).
Like a lot of people I'm sure, I haven't read X-Men in years, so I have no idea what's going on. The teams are different, Xavier can walk, Gambit is a villain, the list goes on. It's still a fun read as it is the X-Men after years of continuity, so this is the real deal. The story is getting intense and is constantly selling out, so catch up (it's only on part 6 of 12, so it's not too late).


Although I don't have it on me, I've been reading Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. For some odd reason it is only on reserve in the library, so I think I will have to pick it up at some point (it's only $20 at Pages on Queen Street!). It is a fiction novel, narrated by explorer Marco Polo and is framed as a conversation between him and an aging Kublai Khan. Polo describes to him in detail 55 cities which he had encountered in his journeys. Calvino gathered information through Polo's travelogue to inform this book. It fairly short and so far, quite captivating. The detail of these ancient cities really paint a visual, and reading this at the same time as Alexander's Timeless really gives depth to the idea of humans creating their own built environment since the beginning of time.

I've got so many more books to catch up on before the new year!