Books- read, reading, will read

[sophia jane]

I know we've had bazillions of book threads, but I'm lazy, so here's a nw one. What have you just read, what are you reading now, and what are you about to read?

Just read: Sartre's No Exit and a couple of fluffy romance novels. Oh and Elizabeth Berg's book We are Welcome Here which I really liked, but not as much as some of her others.

Reading now: Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland. I used to love him but haven't read his work in years and years.

Reading next: a few books about Murrows and the beginnings of CBS news (cuz Good Night and Good Luck inspired me), Fall on your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald, Three Women by Marge Piercey and The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank. At least those are some of the pile from the library.

 

[fieryjen]

I am currently re-reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander Series, because it has been years since I read them and I just got the latest one for my birthday.

This will take me a while, so I haven't planned on what to read after that yet.

I just finished a German fantasy novel.

 

[Boota]

After years of refusing in protest, I started the Harry Potter series. I just finished The Order of the Phoenix and I just started The Half Blood Prince. Not a bad series at all. I will be starting on Velocity from Dean Koontz next.

 

[Guest]

reading two at the mo. i'd blame add if i had it.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. An interesting insight into thin slicing and how/why we make snap judgements.

Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen. A comedic murder mystery. He's sick in da head...i totally get it. Any book he does is filled with irony and plenty of laughs. The main characters are almost always "good guys" winning, finally, against wrongs done to them. feels good that slime balls get killed and each and every way they do get killed is too funny. i strongly reccomend reading his stuff.

 

[sophia jane]

Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen. A comedic murder mystery. He's sick in da head...i totally get it. Any book he does is filled with irony and plenty of laughs. The main characters are almost always "good guys" winning, finally, against wrongs done to them. feels good that slime balls get killed and each and every way they do get killed is too funny. i strongly reccomend reading his stuff.

I read his book Skinny Dip. Very funny.

 

[chris 44]

Just read - HERETIC. The last in Bernard Cornwell's 'Grail Quest' Trilogy. For once the love interest didn't end up getting horribly slaughtered.

Reading - FOX EVIL. The third of Minette Walter's crime novels I've picked up in the last twelve months.

To read - THE KISS. Kathryn Harrison's non fiction book was described as little more than pornography in one of the UK writing mags recently, which made it a 'must have'. Couldn't resist when I saw a copy on eBay.

Chris

 

[ElizabethWest]

I'm reading fluff because of all the classwork. Who wants something heavy with all that nursing literature.

I just finished The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell. S'okay but nothing earth-shattering. I also have NLP on the back-burner. Will read some more of that this evening I think.

 

[Munachi]

just read - Ilias by Homer (must admit I skipped over some parts when I got bored), Spanglish by Ilan Stavans (not quite what I expected, I wanted more linguistic facts, it was more of an essay, but nevertheless interesting).

reading - Un mundo para Julius (a world for Julius) by Alfredo Bryce Echenique (highly recommend it! it has its lengths, but very interesting and sad and funny) and Mio, min Mio (Mio, my Mio) by Astrid Lindgren (children's book, but one that I already loved as a kid - reading it in Swedish now mainly for practice purpose)

will read - no idea. I want to read the Odyssy some time soon but think will read something newer first, not sure what yet.

 

[Aurora Black]

Right now I'm switching back and forth between The Lady's Tutor by Robin Schone, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher and my own stuff. I'm planning to get this book when it comes out: Again, by Sharon Cullars.

 

[AngeloMichael]

I'll plug this series I just completed reading every chance I get.

The Prince of Nothing by R. Scott Bakker. It's a 3 book series and I just finished the last book, The Thousandfold Thought, about a month ago. There is another series planned that takes place twenty years after later, but it won't be coming out for at least another year or more.

Roughly based on the crusades and other holy wars with strong religious themes and adding into the mix a non-human force gathering strength in order to deliver the humans of this world to their destruction. Strong magic in this series and interesting explanations on how it is used and its different types.

Imagine if the Nazis had secluded themselves in a mountain hideout for two thousand years while the rest of the known world fought and squabbled amongst themselves with empires rising and falling, meanwhile this clustered community continues to perform their experiments ruthlessly and unemotionally trying to make the perfect human (in thier opinion). Then, when one of them is unleashed upon the world it not only signafies the Apocalypse is coming but he may be their only salvation. That may sound obscene, but this story focuses on a character that has the power to manipulate anyone to believe anything he wishes, pretty much make everyone love him believing he is a prophet, and the struggle of others not to fall under his spell while at the same time facing their own inner demons. All this while an unimaginable horror threatens to return and only this prophet's powers may be able to stop. Not a lot of sympathetic characters in this series which makes you appreciate the few there are all the more. The author uses sex as a powerful ingredient in his storytelling, the series is extremely well written with unique prose and emotionally exhausting.

Bakker has become my second favorite author after George R. R. Martin and this series my second favorite after GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire.

I also just finished reading Windhaven by Geroge R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle and I'm currently reading George R. R. Martin's Tuf Voyaging both are collections of short stories concerning the same characters for each book respectively that originally appeared in science fiction magazines. I'm really enjoying these stories as light fare.

I'm waiting for the summer to go on a buying spree at Amazon. A couple more books I'm interested in will be out and also I should have earned a new gift certificate by then.

I'm looking forward to reading:
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
The Blood Knight : Book Three of The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone by Greg Keyes
Flight of the Nighthawks : Book One of the Darkwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist
The Bonehunters: Malazan Book of the Fallen 6 by Steven Erikson

 

[cloudy]

Just finished:
Hoax, but I can't remember the author, and I'm too damn lazy to find it.

Reading now:
Fools Crow: Wisdom and Power, by Thomas L. Mails....can't recommend this book enough! It's about the legendary Lakota holy man Frank Fools Crow.

The Mask of Atreus, by A.J. Hartley - an archeaological murder mystery.

Holy Blood, Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln - the tiny print of the paperback's killing me, but interesting so far.

I have no idea what I'll read next.

 

[sophia jane]

Just finished:
Hoax, but I can't remember the author, and I'm too damn lazy to find it.

Reading now:
Fools Crow: Wisdom and Power, by Thomas L. Mails....can't recommend this book enough! It's about the legendary Lakota holy man Frank Fools Crow.

The Mask of Atreus, by A.J. Hartley - an archeaological murder mystery.

Holy Blood, Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln - the tiny print of the paperback's killing me, but interesting so far.

I have no idea what I'll read next.

Have you read James Welch's Fool's Crow? I read it years ago and enjoyed it.

 

[Guest]

I keep lists just for this purpose I am a listmaking bookslut.

Finished reading -- The Dante Club (well, listened to, was on CD) by Matthrew Pearl. Eh. Was ok, no great shakes.

Also - Self-Made Man by NOrah Vincent. A lesbian impersonates a man for a year and a half, involving herself in places where men are, to gain some insight into why the American Male is the creature he is. Insightful book for reasons I'd have never guessed.

Reading Now - Master Class in Fiction Writing by Adam Sexton. Can't exclaim about this book enough. This is a book to takes notes from.

I've also got about 8 books with markers in them in other rooms of the house -- Inkheart by Cornelia Funke and Kitchen by Banana Yokimoto among them.

To be read either after or before those -- Glen Cooks "Garrett" series (love me some paranormal mystery), a huge stack of SF and Fantasy, the latest Harry Dresden book, the last Weatherwarden book, the last Merry Gentry book, a few biographies, Reay Tannahill's Food in History, and about 4 more pages worth in my reading journal.

This is never a safe question to ask me

 

[arienette]

The last book I read was The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, which I loved and will re-read as soon as I am finished with The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, of course; since the movie is coming out and all.

 

[poppy1963]

The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson

Freakonomics by Steven Levitt

Marley & Me by John Grogan

Persepolis and Persepolis II by Marjane Satrapi

I Am Not Myself These Days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell

 

[shereads]

I just found out that one of my favorite non-fiction writers, Sebastian Junger (Into Thin Air, The Perfect Storm, Under the Banner of Heaven, Fire) has a new book out: A Death in Belmont, about a murder that took place in Junger's childhood neighborhood - on a day when the Jungers were employing a carpenter named Albert de Salvo, who would later confess to the Boston Strangler murders.

In a word: YIKES!

I'll read anything by Sebastian Junger and know it'll be as suspenseful and entertaining as the best adventure fiction. What he writes about, he isn't afraid to experience first-hand. (Better him than me; some people read Into Thin Air and identified with the climbing obsession; I read it because it made me appreciate having all the oxygen I wanted and all of my toes.)

Question: How the hell does a writer manage to produce half a dozen non-fiction books before he gets around to mentioning that the Boston Strangler had access to his family's personal necks? Lots of kids imagine that monsters are hiding under their beds. What must it have been like to find out that the monster was real? Real and so ordinary, he didn't have to hide?

I don't know about you, but I'd still be in therapy.

A Death in Belmont:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393059804/104-6019781-0727950?v=glance&n=283155


EDITED to add:

Next on my list: another non-fiction work, The City of Falling Angels by John Berdendt (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil).

 

[rydia57]

Hmmm.... just finished "1984" by George Orwell, before that "The Green Mile" Stephen King, and now reading William Gibson's Neuromancer. It's better than I thought it was gonna be! After this I hope to read "The Shining" Stephen King again, and a the first three Judge Dredd comix. That'll hold me for the summer I guess.

 

[shereads]

After this I hope to read "The Shining" Stephen King again

<ulp>

Ah, yes. The Shining. My first and favorite Stephen King. I read it at the same time as three friends, during a week we spent at the beach. It was winter and better suited for reading beside the fireplace than walking on the beach, so we spent hours comparing notes on The Shining and then, when the lights were out at night, making each other squeal by whispering 'Redrum!'

Near the end of our vacation, the four of us indulged in a recreational smoke before climbing to the top of the Hilton Head lighthouse...(Note to the inexperienced pot smoker: Do not smoke before climbing something if you will also have to come down.) The weather was foggy and we had the lighthouse to ourselves, all the way to the top of the narrow iron staircase. We giggled nervously into the dimly lit emptiness, hearing our voices echo along with the creak of rusty stairs.

When the stairs emerged into the room at the top, the fog had blocked the view of the harbor. All we could see was the whitewashed interior, with this spraypainted in big red letters all around the circumference:

redrum redrum redrum redrum

Number of high-pitched screams: 4.

Length of trip down the stairs: interminable.

Time elapsed before smoking pot or reading Stephen King again: a lot.

 

[Andreina]

Just reading: A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson

Just read: Life is a Dream by Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Will read next: Der Dativ ist dem Genetiv sein Tod .... a (funny) book on the german grammar which is slighly *cough cough* more complicated than the english one.

 

[shereads]

just read - Ilias by Homer (must admit I skipped over some parts when I got bored).

If you want to fall in love with the Iliad, I recommend "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea" by Thomas Cahill. He uses a recent translation of the Iliad to illustrate the spiritual and cultural traditions of ancient Greece; in turn, his insights into Athenian culture bring the story and characters of the Iliad to life. I admit I sleep-read my way through the Iliad when I read an older translation as a class assignment. Cahill's book made the story not only relevent, but so moving I was in tears at the end.

 

[damppanties]

Just read: Maggie Needs An Alibi by Kasey Micheals. Very imaginative and full of humor. A character from an author's detective novels and his sidekick come to life in her apartment one day and the problems she faces because of that. A murder happens at the same time and the detective is off inspite of her efforts to keep him under wraps. Easy entertainment! I'm going to hunt down her other books.

Reading: The Loop by Nicholas Evans. A bit disappointed with this one. Not as good as his other books.

No idea what I'll read next.

 

[sophia jane]

I tossed aside Eleanor Rigby. I have this bad habit of giving books only so long to make me interested; if they don't do it, then I stop reading them.
So...I'm reading The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank. I don't know what I expected with this book; but I love it. Stayed up entirely too late reading it.

 

[Guest]

I tossed aside Eleanor Rigby. I have this bad habit of giving books only so long to make me interested; if they don't do it, then I stop reading them.
So...I'm reading The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank. I don't know what I expected with this book; but I love it. Stayed up entirely too late reading it.

There's a wonderful book about reading books (Yes, there is) called " Little Guide To Your Well Read Life" that advises a reader not to struggle through any book that doesn't grab attention after a certain period (only you can judge how long). The logic is there are far more wonderful books and stories than we will ever get to read, far too many that will instantly sweep us away to spend any time with a book or story we don't like, are bored with, or just can't stay interested in.

I was the kind who had a "clean the plate" mentality about books. If I didn't finish it, I felt guilty, like I'd failed. Now I realize that every book is a relationship and some relationships aren't going to work. I don't have to struggle to make it work because (unlike most relationships!) I can easily find another. So, now I abandon books much more easily, because I do have an enormous stack and more always coming in, and I could be missing the read of my life while fighting my way through something that doesn't suit me.

 

[Aurora Black]

I was the kind who had a "clean the plate" mentality about books. If I didn't finish it, I felt guilty, like I'd failed. Now I realize that every book is a relationship and some relationships aren't going to work. I don't have to struggle to make it work because (unlike most relationships!) I can easily find another. So, now I abandon books much more easily, because I do have an enormous stack and more always coming in, and I could be missing the read of my life while fighting my way through something that doesn't suit me.

I never leave a book unfinished. I always choose my books carefully before buying them, and if I'm disappointed by a book I'll still finish it and then never touch it again.

(Cute thumb, Mallie! )

I forgot to add some of my "Coming Soon" books:

On Writing, by Stephen King
Writing the Breakout Novel, by Donald Maass
Love Lasts Forever, by Dominiqua Douglas

 

[chris 44]

I forgot to add some of my "Coming Soon" books:

On Writing, by Stephen King
Writing the Breakout Novel, by Donald Maass
Love Lasts Forever, by Dominiqua Douglas

On Writing - probably the main reason why I allowed myself to write.