About the blog
I read a lot. Rat’s Reading consists of my thoughts about books I read.
I don’t give books a star rating
or other hard rating. The simple reason is that too often my opinions of a book’s quality are fuzzy. I can’t really delineate much better than didn’t like it
, not bad
, and loved it!
You should be able to tell from my writing which books I didn’t like and which books I loved and the rest are automatically in the middle.
If any author, publisher, or book lover wants to send me advance reading copies or other free books, be my guest! I love free books! I’ll even read self-published, print-on-demand or electronic books. If it’s got an I.S.B.N., it’s fair game. However, as a word of warning, I haven’t liked a single book I’ve been sent from these lesser sources. There’s a pretty good chance I’ll rip your book. If all press is good press, then send it anyway. Nearly every book I read appears on the blog. The only exceptions so far have been books without much actual reading in them, like Workman’s spinner books. Books may be sent to:
2301 Fairview Ave E Apt 107
Seattle, WA 98102-6507
My email address is reading 
kingrat.biz.
About the name King Rat
King Rat is otherwise known as Philip Weiss. I’ve been using the name King Rat
online since BBS days in the late 1980s and on the internet starting in 1990 on Quartz BBS. There are a lot of other people who use the name King Rat. I doubt I was the first, and I’m certainly not the most famous.
The literary connection was important from the beginning. Back in my high school days at Seattle Prep James Clavell’s King Rat was assigned reading. The name comes from that.
About me
I live in the Pacific Northwest. I’m currently splitting time between Seattle, on the shores of Lake Union, and Ferndale, just north of Bellingham. I love Seattle, and hope to always have a home here.
From an early age, I read. I don’t remember what my mother did to inculcate the habit, but I read. Teachers didn’t believe that I read some of the books for which I turned in book reports, and I was tested on them. Swiss Family Robinson comes to mind there. I read above my official grade level. I cleared out the Hardy Boys series at the Shoreline Library. I cleared out pretty much everything in the young adult section. The next section over was the Science Fiction section, and I started in on it. It started a love affair with the genre that I still retain. Orbit anthologies to Eddings and Heinlein, I loved it all. I’ve since changed my opinion of Eddings.
I own somewhere around twelve hundred (I’ve lost track again) books. I have no idea how many I’ve read. There’s no real theme to the kinds of books I read. Science fiction, mystery, biography, history, technology, politics, and more are included in my subjects. Whatever looks interesting at the time.
I’m not a particularly intellectual reader. Do not expect reviews that you would see at the New York Times. In fiction, I enjoy plot and character most. Setting, language, and other themes of more famous book reviewers aren’t things I touch on much. I read for enjoyment, though I occasionally open up something that’s great
literature to see if I can get it.
Another, more famous, Philip Weiss blogs about Israel, the Middle East, and American Jewry. I am not that Philip Weiss. You can find him at philipweiss.org.
