What Do Writers Read?

[ElizabethWest]

I read The Codex about 6 months ago. Page turner, yet somehow unsatisfying. I'd be interested to know what you think when you've read it.

I'm about 100 pages in and it still hasn't completely captivated my interest. Not one of those stay-up-til-3-in-the-morning novels for me.

I'll give you a book review when/if I ever get it finished.

 

[Guest]

I just recently discovered her. She is hilarious!

Undead and Unemployed
Undead and Unwed
Undead and Unappreciated

The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory

Undead and Unreturnable is out as well

And I tried reading Philippa Gregory and just wanted to pull my hair out at the roots

 

[ElizabethWest]

I tried reading Philippa Gregory and just wanted to pull my hair out at the roots

It makes me want to get a family tree of the British Royal family because I can't keep all these people straight. It doesn't help that Henry the 8th had so many wives.

 

[Guest]

It makes me want to get a family tree of the British Royal family because I can't keep all these people straight. It doesn't help that Henry the 8th had so many wives.

I think that I got about 50 pages in and gave up
I can read ALOT
but that was just too much

 

[Varian P]

The Tin Drum by Günther Grass...

I confess that I took The Tin Drum with me on a recent trip with the best of intentions, but never opened it--I just wasn't quite up to what I expect will be a demanding mental task. I read Dog Years a year or so ago, and in some ways it was the most challenging thing I've ever read. But one scene gave me the chills more than any other piece of literature ever has.

I've seen the film, though. So scandelous.

 

[LadyJeanne]

I'm about 100 pages in and it still hasn't completely captivated my interest. Not one of those stay-up-til-3-in-the-morning novels for me.

I'll give you a book review when/if I ever get it finished.

I agree, not a stay-up-til-3 kind of book. But enough of a page turner to work for me as a hanging-around-the-airport-waiting-for-a-delayed-flight kind of book.

 

[crazycatt]

I read The Codex about 6 months ago. Page turner, yet somehow unsatisfying. I'd be interested to know what you think when you've read it.

I've read that as well. It was ok, I thought, interesting plot but not quite enough to get me 'over the edge'. I've been searching for something to match Neal Stephenson's effort in Cryptonomicon but haven't found it yet.

 

[ElizabethWest]

I agree, not a stay-up-til-3 kind of book. But enough of a page turner to work for me as a hanging-around-the-airport-waiting-for-a-delayed-flight kind of book.

I can see how it could work for that.

 

[McKenna]

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

 

[LadyJeanne]

State of Fear is a good'un.

This one is a time-really-flies-on-the-plane kind of page turner. I was actually sorry my flight landed and I had to stop somewhere in the first third of the book.

 

[BlackShanglan]

The autobiography of John Stuart Mill.

 

[Belegon]

Last thing that really grabbed me and shook me around was George R.R. Martin's A Feast For Crows

 

[chris 44]

Last thing I read that really had an effect on me was 'Stone Baby' by Joolz Denby. She's been a performance poet for a long time and only comparatively recently started writing novels.

It's fierce, but it amended the way I write, opened up new areas for me to explore and for that I'm grateful.

 

[NoJo]

Quite a variety here!

It's been a while since I read any fiction. The last book I read is a superb book about evolution called "The Ancestor's Tale", by Richard Dawkins.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

oooo that's a good one, McKenna! loved the imagery in that one...

 

[hotchkiss]

I've just finished "The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer, an account of himself as young naive french/german mixed parentage boy joining the German army and serving on the Eastern Front. Quite a harrowing book!

Now I'm about to start John Peel's autobiography (lighter reading I hope!

 

[CharleyH]

Too busy writing to enjoy, but in context... non-fiction is high on my list right now - 'Different Loving' by Gloria G. Brame. William D. Brame and Jon Jacobs. I do not agree with their take on sexual dominance and submission, but i WILL READ UNTIL THE bitter END.

 

[Munachi]

I confess that I took The Tin Drum with me on a recent trip with the best of intentions, but never opened it--I just wasn't quite up to what I expect will be a demanding mental task. I read Dog Years a year or so ago, and in some ways it was the most challenging thing I've ever read. But one scene gave me the chills more than any other piece of literature ever has.

I've seen the film, though. So scandelous.

Well, it is the first book by Grass that I am reading, but I think I will look at some more... I have about a third read so far, and while it took me a bit to get into I really enjoy it now. But I agree, it might not be the right thing for a trip, it does require some concentration. Then again, I read it on public transport mainly, which has lots of distractions, but I practiced that well, I read most of my university readin on public transport as well. Anyway, you should try it again some time, it is really good, I think.

 

[sophia jane]

I just finished The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg. I love her, and I wasn't disappointed at all in the book. I highly recommend her.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I can't read anymore. I don't know what it is, and it really bothers me, but I just don't seem to have the patience you need to be entertained by fiction anymore.

I can read some short fiction if it's good stuff, but not too much at any one time. I quickly lose patience with most long fiction and get antsy. I just can't seem to maintain the sense of mental leisure I used to have.

I seem to read in a different way than I used to, and I find myself returning to books I've read years ago and reading them in this new, deeper way. I prefer non-fiction for the most part now, and find it more interesting than fiction. I read Patrick O'Brian constantly, and my boy Kerouac still delights me, but I just don't seem to have the patience for anything else. It's very strange, very disconcerting.

 

[Casey's Pen]

The Face by Dean Koontz

 

[Subo97]

just these three this week

A Brother's Price, by Wen Spencer-- about a man in a matriarchal society

Autumn of Glory: The Army of Tennessee, 1862-1865

The First Days of School, Harry T. Wong.

I always read any where from 3-5 books at once, depending on my mood. For some reason, I have the ability to put down a book for months, maybe even a year, then pick up right where I left off.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

I've just finished "The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer, an account of himself as young naive french/german mixed parentage boy joining the German army and serving on the Eastern Front. Quite a harrowing book!

I read that a long time ago. It really brought home the tragedy, pathos, grimness and horror of war, and gave me a strong "there but for the grace of God" feeling. A good book.

 

[cloudy]

almost through with The Dark Side of the Moon, by J. Carson Black (a murder mystery, with some eco-terrorism thrown in for good measure), and have Puppet, by Joy Fielding waiting it's turn.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

"Mountain Betty" by Hannah McCouch. After graduating from college and getting canned from her first job in New York 21-year-old Betty says the heck with it, and finds her way to Jackson Hole where she shacks up with hunky boyfriend Jack while living the ski bum life. She's coming to hate the wake-and-bake ritual of their pot-filled mornings, the measly wages from ski-instructing and cocktail waitressing, and the sense that for Jack ski-bumming is not just a phase. When tryouts are announced for a famous extreme-ski video series Betty decides to enter. But all the training in the world can't prepare her for what follows . . .

It's a real nostalgia buzz for me. I never got quite so deeply into the ski bum life, not being quite cool and daring enough, but I flirted heavily with it after graduating from college. "Wake-and-bake" mornings indeed!