THE COOL KID'S GUIDE TO READING: 2015 seemed to take a whole year

It was an odd year, and there won't be another until 2017.

So, with annolis termulous approaching, it's time to stop and reflect -- while rolling phony Latin words.

As we look back, it becomes apparent that the cop has stopped following me. I guess he decided that me driving while writing on my iPad was really none of his bidness.

Just kidding, O Best Ones! The Cool Kid would never craft yuck-yucks and steer. Actually, I'm in my recliner, where I compose all my rationalizations. Also, time permitting, my columns.

It was a big year for books. Worldwide, there were more than a dozen published. Probably a lot more, but who's counting? On me? For an accurate number?

I still haven't upgraded to Abacus 10.

But I did read a slew of books and eat a slaw of bok choy this year. I figure I read about 75 books all or most of the way through. And parts of another 150 or so.

And, of course, I had to read Mrs. Cool Kid's mind. It wouldn't do for her to just warn me of the danger zones I daily slid 'n' slide toward.

One book in particular stood out. It's standing out now. On my porch. But I'm not letting it back in. No way, no Lovey Howell.

The book is "Diaspora," a sci-fi novel by Greg Egan, and it's as convoluted as a Congo vole playing a lute.

Here is part -- just part! I says -- of a paragraph only pages in:

"By the eighth iteration, the womb's memory contained a hundred trillion copies of the mind seed; no more would be required. Most continued to carve new detail into the landscape around them -- but some gave up on shapers altogether, and started running shriekers: brief loops of instructions which fed streams of pulses into the primitive networks which had grown up between the seeds."

And that's about where I stopped.

I don't read to take beatings.

To contact writer Randy Waters, call 744-4240 or email rwaters@macon.com.

This story was originally published December 26, 2015 at 6:04 PM with the headline "THE COOL KID'S GUIDE TO READING: 2015 seemed to take a whole year ."