I thought I would take a minute to list the books I read in March and April. I also thought I would use the same minute to rate them on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is "Help! My eyes! My eyes!!" and 10 is "I never ever want to stop reading this book. Never. Ever!" I could have said I would score them on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is bad and 10 is good, but that would make sense and, well, why would I want to make that? I would recommend anything rated 6.5 or greater.

• Had Enough? by James Carville (6.3)
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (7.0)
• Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett (8.1)
• A Preface to Paradise Lost by C.S. Lewis (6.0)
• Jingo by Terry Pratchett (8.5)
• Wedding of the Waters by Peter L. Bernstein (7.2)
• Misunderstimated by Bill Sammon (3.5)
• The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett (8.0)

As you might notice, I've resumed my Pratchett habit. I know of no more entertaining way to read about discrimination, racism, nationalism (or jingoism), crime, war (the worst crime of all) and werewolves than to read a Discworld novel.

For over two weeks, I've been trying to get through Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. The book is over 900 pages long and is the first of three in Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle. (I say this not to brag, but to excuse my slowness.) It's a piece of historical fiction set in late 17th-century England. The first quarter of it focuses on Daniel Waterhouse, a member of the Royal Society, who returns to England from Boston to try and settle a dispute between Isaac Newtown and Gottfried Leibniz over which of the two men invented calculus first. This book is like quicksand. It isn't a quick read, but I'm hopelessly drawn in and the only way to escape is to finish it.