I finished A Quiet Belief in Angels last night. A very black but masterly piece of work by
R J Ellory after a slow start he had my tuning pages much later than I had intended. I've also been reading
The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins latest, also surprisingly readable - and much that I agree with.
Message edited by its author, Mar 25, 2008, 2:21pm.
In the past few days I finished
Wallace Stegner's 1987 novel
Crossing to Safety, which I thought was absolutely great, and plan to read
The Big Rock Candy Mountain later in the year, along with the new Stegner biography too. Then I went on to David Hajdu's The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America which I was pretty amazed by, as I was completely unaware of the depth of this tragic controversy over comic books that occurred between the end of WWII and the mid-50s, and Hajdu's book is so well done and so entertaining that I'll probably be recommending it for the rest of the year. (And the cover art on Hajdu's book is by Charles Burns who did the astounding
Black Hole.)
Right now I'm just getting started on
Larry Woiwode's new memoir
A Step From Death and have really been looking forward to it. The immensely talented Woiwode wrote 2 of my all-time favorite novels,
What I'm Going To Do, I think and
Beyond the Bedroom Wall, but his career, and his life in general, have taken some remarkably odd turns over the years, and I'm anxious to read what he has to say about it all.
I'm wiped after hauling boxes of books for several hours today (including up several flights of stairs -- we live in a walk-up). This means I'll still be working on the same reading tomorrow. That would be
Northanger Abbey, though I may also make some progress on
The Elizabethan World Picture, which has to stay home since I can't hold it open while eating.
AAALLLL your reading koolaidmom??? Inconceivable! Hang around here some more and watch that TBR pile grow!
Well, those aren't all my TBR pile... I have over 40 books in my TBR pile... One of the shelves fell under the weight... really.... and now they keep sliding off! But I've been reading about 1 1/2 to 2 books a week, so I'm hoping to get caught up to where I should be on the 50 book challenge.
AND! Hanging around HERE is WHY I have over 40 books in my TBR pile... roll eyes... lol
Message edited by its author, Mar 21, 2008, 7:45pm.
I
just finished
My Life in France by Julia Child - what a treat! If you enjoy cooking, France or just Julia, I highly recommend it. Next up? Either I go back to
War and Peace or choose something else from the TBR pile.
Talbin!!!! Come baaaaack!!
>8 I know, I know. It started feeling like homework, though, and then I knew I had to take a break. The giant tome has been moved to the table next to my reading chair, though, so I think tomorrow will be a
War and Peace day. :)
Currently reading
The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes - I may not have gotten one of the coveted Early Reviewer copies but I managed to get first on the reserve list at my library! So far it's pretty strange; I think the ending is going to determine how much I like it or not.
I'm currently listening to
Pride and Prejudice - kind of strange, since I've seen the movie(s) a million times but never actually read it... but bits and pieces of the dialogue seem *awfully* familiar.
I read
A Fine and Private Place years ago, and I keep thinking I would like to re-read it, because the ending was very interesting.
Turkish book: Still doing page or two a day in
A Cup of Turkish Coffee, stories by Buket Uzuner in a bilingual edition. As I get used to Uzuner's writing style, which involves strange shifts between different times in the past and the present, the Turkish gets easier to figure out, which leaves me thinking about how much of what we understand of what we hear or read is related to what we expect to hear or read. Hmm...if I came across the previous sentence – the one that I just wrote - in Turkish instead of English, it would take me at least a quarter of an hour to get even the faintest idea of what it was about.
Spanish book: I finally finished
Poesía completa of Jorge Manrique, and am now reading
Novelas Ejemplares by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. I remember reading Don Quijote thirty-five years ago, and thinking, “Wow! Old Spanish!” Now, after the 15th century Spanish of Manrique, Cervantes's early 17th century Spanish looks positively modern.
English book at home:
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I'm a little over halfway through. It's an oddly told story, and I imagine Kostova is thanking her lucky stars that the printer didn't charge her for each quotation mark that she used.
Book for lunch break at work:
Victoria Line Central Line by Maeve Binchy. I just finished Victoria Line and am proceeding to Central Line.
I'm reading
House of Sand and Fog. This is the story of an Iranian immigrant family who take possession of a house through an auction, and the story of the woman who was evicted from the house. Realistic, gritty, tense.
I'm listening to the audio of
Special Topics in calamity Physics by Marsha Pessl. Boy, is this book either loved or hated!
Many people cannot make it through the whole book because of the incessant similes and tangents. Behind all of these byways, though, is a very interesting story. I'm about halfway through the book and determined to finish it. Strange characters - but they're intriguing nonetheless.
Message edited by its author, Mar 22, 2008, 11:36am.
Still slogging through
Snow Crash for April bookclub. I'm finding it a very difficult read.
Got a bee in my bonnet and decided to read
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. About 90 pages in and I'm loving it. I do so love the hard-boiled detective!
After Falcon, I'll probably start The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay or
A Spot of Bother.
I'll be reading
Dead Man's Folly by Agatha Christie this week.
:) Yay! I love her!
Finished
The Beleagured City by Shelby Foote. Planning to start Charles Dickens'
Great Expectations on Monday. In the mean time I need to finish Lapman's Quarterly and two National Geographics.
Continuing my "end of the Austro-Hungarian empire" mini-theme, I read
Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig.
This weekend it's
Midnight for Charlie Bone by
Jenny Nimmo. The spacing between the lines is really annoying me (it's too big!), but it doesn't seem like such a bad book so far.
Next week I'm going to finish
Galileo's Daughter. I specifically saved it for when school started again. *cough* :D
I am currently reading
Desperation by Stephen King. The first 300 pages moved fairly fast but it seems to be dragging really bad right now. After I finish this I will proably start reading
One Part Angel by
George Shaffner.
I am currently reading
Fractal Imaging by
Ning Lu. It's interesting looking at
Fractal Imaging and
A New Kind of Science side-by-side. They try to address the same subject matter from different angles. So far, I like the way that Ning Lu is trying to explain things in an organized fashion.
Confessions Of A Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella and have been LMAO the entire time !
Message edited by its author, Mar 23, 2008, 12:30am.
#34 I read Callahan's Crosstime Saloon last year and enjoyed it. S.F. isn't my normal genre but I enjoyed this one.
#34 usnmm2 Did you see the Irish RM series on Masterpiece Theater two or three decades ago?
#35: Oklahomabooklady,
So far it's the only Spider Robinson book that I've enjoyed.
#36: LydiaHD,
Yes! and I enjoyed them alot. That's way I picked up the book when I came accross it.
I just picked up and started Retribution by Max Hastings. It's about the last year of World War II in the Pacific and the defeat of Japan. It;s well written and highly interesting.
Working on an HP Lovecraft anthology, House of the Dead by Dostoyevsky, thinking about trying to work on a few chapters of The Historian again.
#33
trinah I'm also reading
Atonement right now, and am halfway through. I'm getting ready to start Part Two after Easter service and dinner. What do you think of it so far? It takes about 150 pages to get going, but it's now really good. If it hadn't been for Briony, I might have lost interest... I'm probably one of only a few who actually
like Briony... she's just like me when I was younger.
>40 Heh, I thought Briony was like me when I was younger, but I
didn't really like her - partly for that reason!
I finished
The Somnambulist yesterday afternoon (review
here) - sadly the ending didn't redeem the confusing nature of the rest of the book.
I've scratched the surface of
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco for my Go Review That Book! assignment... and hopefully it gets more involving, because the prologue and first little bit are really dense, and making me feel like I'm too dumb to read it.
Message edited by its author, Mar 23, 2008, 11:07am.
I am new to this site. I heard about it on NPR while driving to work. I was so excited to hear of a place to talk to other book lovers. My husband, though a sweet and wonderful guy, is not a big reader. He is a magician and reads books about magic tricks usually. I am finishing Pillars of the Earth, I love historical fiction. I am also reading Ankenhaten and Penolopiad, the Odyssey according to Penelope. Ankenhaten by Mahfouz Taleb, about the pharoh that changed the god that the Eqyptians worshipped, was a quick, interesting, poetic read. Also just finished Three Cups of Tea, very inspiring.
Ooh, NPR sends us another! Welcome, mutley! I hope your magician husband doesn't make books disappear. I'm reading
A Cup of Turkish Coffee right now. I'm sure it must be shorter than
Three Cups of Tea, but it's taking me forever.
As a matter of fact, Lydia, my husband does make my books disappear. When we moved recently, he made me get rid of a bunch of them because he didn't want to move them. I agreed to get rid of 3 boxes, which I still miss, but there are still about 5 boxes in the garage unpacked.
welcome mutley, I'm sure you will enjoy LT as much as the rest of us do.
I have
Three Cups of Tea in my TBR pile. I think I might have to move that up. Also I have
Pillars of the Earth--since that's a long one it may wait a while.
I just finished Cormac McCarthy's
Blood Meridian. Staggering, stark, raw, intense. Those are the words I can spit out about this book.
I also read an Early Reviewer copy of from the Coffee House of Jewish Dreamers by Isidore Century. A lovely collection of poetry, both poignant and humorous.
I'm almost finished
Brick Lane by
Monica Ali which I am loving and almost at the end of
Chaos by James Gleick. After that, the only book left is
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, another Booker winner - finished
The Sea by
John Banville last week. Then it's a trip to the second hand English bookshop before returning home next month to my giant pile of TBR. Finding decent books when travelling is my pet peeve...
Message edited by its author, Mar 23, 2008, 4:45pm.
I also am new to the site. I heard about it on NPR when I was at work and knew it was for me!
I just finished
Lord, Save Us From Your Followers by
Dan Merchant and am still working on An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear and rereading all of the Harry Potter books.
I started
The Golden Rope last night. After the first few pages, I was about to give up because I didn't really like it. I kept going and have got sucked into the story. I'll see how things go tonight.
Happy Easter!
I started
Ready Or Not by
Meg Cabot. I'm on like the 14th page. It's great so far!
I'm reading
The Hobbit in reading class.
I'm reading
The Incredible Journey for a book report, I'm finding it slow and boring.
I'm reading the
Promises, Promises in the Beacon Street Girls series. I haven't picked it up in a while. I might just start reading it over the summer again.
#55: Oh, I *love* Cloud Atlas. I'll be watching your 50 Book Challenge thread for your thoughts when you've finished it!
I'm past the halfway mark in
War and Peace; just finished
Life Class by
Pat Barker, another novel about war (WWI). I picked up
At Mrs Lippincote's by Elizabeth Taylor thinking to avoid another story of war. But it apparently takes place during WWII, though I don't know yet how much the war plays a role. Not much, I hope!
I continue to be in a frivolous mood. Just finished
Powder and Patch by Georgette Heyer and just started
Penhallow by the same author. Still, still slogging through
Snow Crash. Must have it read by April but am dawdling. Sigh.
Message edited by its author, Mar 24, 2008, 3:30am.
I'm 250 pages into
Battle cry of freedom, and 150 pages into
Family Matters. Am loving both - and am surprised at how easy a read Family matters is so far. I read in 20 minute bursts while I'm feeding my baby, so I think Battlecry of Freedom is going to take another few weeks.
I'm spending too much time reading LT reviews and bookmooching!! but it's too much fun. My copy of in defense of food took 10 minutes to go tonight. (Sorry if I'm being OT).
#33 Trinah - I mooched Atonement today and am adding it to my TBR pile.
After finishing
The Translator, I need a shift. I am in the mood for some contemporary women's fiction, so I think I will try
Belong to Me. Some of my co-workers really liked Marisa de los Santos's
Love Walked In, so I think I will try this new one by her.
Large Type Killer by
Richard Williams, and as a `side order`, I`m keeping my copy of
In These Times, a selection of newspaper articles by Bernard Levin handy for dipping into.
Just finished
The Pillars of the Earth and loved it! Am now reading
The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and I'm not quite sure what I think about it.
Message edited by its author, Mar 24, 2008, 11:40am.
I'm nearly done with
Memoirs of Cleopatra and moving onto
The Sacred History of Britain that I got in hardback from Half Price books for $5. I feel that I'm having trouble concentrating on the end of the Memoirs of Cleopatra, though, because I'm so excited to start the next new book. Does anyone else have that problem?
#66
RedBowlingBallRuth I'm with ya on
The Road. It's kind of dull in spots, depressing in others, nerve-wracking in still others, and I can't figure out what all the fuss is yet... But I kinda like it... especially after
Atonement.
Last week I finished
Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor, which was ok.
The Looking Glass Wars was better…but I will be reading the last book in the trilogy anyway! I also read
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss which I thought was very interesting. I am now about halfway through People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (touchstones are not working for this one) and loving every page!
I'm currently reading
Reflections in the Nile by Suzanne Frank, and I'm really enjoying it. A time travel book going back to ancient Egypt, so far so good!
jlcardwell #67--I always have that problem if its a particularly long book and I have another waiting in the wings. I get excited about the new book and want to quickly finish what I am currently reading. That is happening w/ me right now. I am reading
Snow by Orhan Pamuk and its slow going and I so want to put it aside and read something new. But its for a book club so I must persevere.
#41
For
Name of the Rose you might want to check out
Key to the Name of the Rose by
Adele J. Haft.
Be warned: Eco said he refused his publisher's requests to cut the density of the fist 100-125 pages down because he said if the reader couldn't make the climb up the hill he didn't deserve to go inside the monastery, or something like that.
I am still reading
Pillars of the Earth. I abandoned it for a month and just picked it up again. I have about 350 pages left.
#63 amandameale: I thought
The Age of Innocence was superb. I'd seen the movie with Daniel Day-Lewis, Wynona Rider, and Michele Pfeiffer years ago, and thought it was excellent, but the book is better.
>73
Re:
The Name of the Rose - Thank you, that's all I needed to hear. As long as there's a story coming eventually, I'll keep slogging through the dense parts.
#77 fyrefly98: The story is excellent--it's the first, I believe, of the genre of medieval murder mysteries and it's still one of the best.
Still working my way through The Two-Handed Engine by
Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore. These science fiction short stories are very good, but there are a lot of them in this collection. :)
I've just finished The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther for my Book Club and I can't say that I really enjoyed it. Anyone heard of it?
Message edited by its author, Mar 24, 2008, 10:16pm.
Message edited by its author, Mar 24, 2008, 10:20pm.
This time next week I'll be in Bayeux, so I'm reading
The Needle in the Blood by
Sarah Bower about the Bayeux Tapestry. It's all written in the present tense, which is a teeny bit odd (it's been a long time since I've read anything written that way), so it's taken about 70 pages to get into the flow of things.
I finished
The Mapmaker's Opera, which I did not like. It's plot and it's structure were choppy. The only redeeming feature was the historical information about Mexico. I just started Life & Times of Michael K, by J. M. Coetzee
I just started Peony in Love because I have a ticket to see (no pun intended) Lisa See in mid-April. I'm so excited! I *loved* Snow Flower and the Secret Fan*, another of her very popular books.
Message edited by its author, Mar 25, 2008, 8:30am.
I finished
The Sparrow and now I'm racing through
Floor Sample Julia Cameron's (author of
The Artist's Way) autobiography. What an interesting life she's had. I didn't know she was married to Martin Scorsese, or that she was a recovered alcoholic and drug addict. Knowing that now I can see how she applies a lot of the same principles of AA to unblocking yourself in her books about creativity.
Finished
Across the Mystic Shore by Suroopa Mukherjee (India) which I enjoyed. Also finished
Of Dreams and Assassins by Malika Mokeddem (Algeria) which was also quite good. Now reading
Love in the Kingdom of Oil by Nawal El-Saadawi (Egypt) which, I think, is a satire but we'll see. . .
Finished research on tuberculosis in American culture, women in antebellum New England, and now am working on Abigail May Alcott (wife of Bronson, mother of Louisa May). So, reading much beyond my pleasure reading.
Just started
The Last Colony by
John Scalzi the third book in his "old Man Wars" Trilogy. So far it's seems like it's going to be as good as the other two.l
Message edited by its author, Mar 25, 2008, 12:25pm.
Just started
Sense and Sensibility as part of my quest to actually read Jane Austen instead of just moving the book back and forth when I dust and thinking, "Oh, I should read that."
>1 Uh, Greyhead, I just realized you have George Washington's birthday as March 22, it's actually February 22nd.
Oops : mea culpa - he's been excised. Finger problems - failed to connect to brain when searching. Will try harder in the future.
Or perhaps it really is February still . . . ???
Ok, so finished
The Road yesterday and have come to the conclusion that I really enjoyed it. But after such an depressing and dark book I needed something lighter to read this time, so I picked up About a Boy by
Nick Hornby for my next read.
Started two new books yesterday. The first is
March by Geraldine Brooks, which is really surprising me. I've let it languish on Mt. TBR for years because I didn't think I was going to like it. That's obviously totally erroneous because I'm enjoying it so much that I have to force myself to keep an eye on which station the train is approaching. This is the kind of book that gets me in trouble! I also started
Ender's Game, another book which I'm liking more than I thought I would. I'm not generally a sci-fi fan and this book was recommended to me many times over the years. Finally, a fellow bookcrosser literally handed it to me and said "You have to read this." I'm finding it lots of fun.
Message edited by its author, Mar 25, 2008, 3:13pm.
GreyHead, I know some people in eastern US and Canada who would be suicidal due to weather if it was still February.
I'm in the middle of
Manic: A Memoir by Terri Cheney. Before that, I finished reading
Garnethill by Denise Mina which is the first in a Scottish crime-fiction trilogy.
I'm reading War & Peace, PS I Love You, and Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews.
I decided to take on a little bit of everything to start off the month.
Hey blondierocket, welcome to LT!
You might like to know that there's an
LT group reading
War and Peace that you might like to join as you read through - it's meant to be a bit of a free for all time-wise (which is good, given how slowly I'm reading W&P at the moment!)
As well as being exceedingly slow with W&P, I'm reading
The Pillar of Salt, a "semi"-autobiographical novel by a Tunisian Jew,
Albert Memmi, which I'm enjoying.
Ooh, LizT, I've had The Pillar of Salt saved in my BooksToBuy folder for a while. One of these days...
That's a cute bridal pic on your profile page!
#92 I recently finished Sense and Sensibility . Fair warning , the details make it a bitch to get through ! LOL! But I did enjoy it .
Message edited by its author, Mar 25, 2008, 11:33pm.
>94 and 97
Well I live in WI and it still feels like February here. It looks like we might hit the all time snow fall record this weekend (at least going back into the 1800s). I have lived here all my life and can deal with snow, but I can honestly say I am sick of winter this year. Last Friday we got over a foot of snow and are lookng at another half Thursday. Ugh.
Just finished the excellent and thought-provoking graphic novel Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. I've been on a bit of a graphic-novel binge these last two weeks. Started The Geography of Bliss last night. It must have been tough, having to smoke hashish for a writing assignment!
omph - I LOVED
Fun Home. Bechdel is genius.
70 pages into Ironweed by William Kennedy...bleak, depressing, funny, poetic and atmospheric all at the same time. Probably will read The Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartley next...
In Larry Woiwode's new memoir
A Step From Death he addresses the story of his life to his only son Joseph, in the aftermath of a near-death accident Woiwode has suffered due to his own carelessness. In prose as inspired as anything I've read this year, he backtracks from the accident, and ruminates on the events of his life, and his complex relationships with those he's loved the most: his father, his wife and children, and particularly the late great William Maxwell, his long-time editor at Knopf, who served as his true literary 'father'. I've been such a fan of Woiwode's fiction for so long, that's its hard for me to be real objective about this wonderfully heartfelt book, but I think it's safe to say that it's probably the finest thing Woiwode's ever written, and that's saying a lot.
For a long time I was mostly indifferent to Somerset Maugham, but in the last year I've read 4 of his novels, and right now I'm in the middle of his 1944 classic
The Razor's Edge, which is merely world-class storytelling, and quite impossible not to love.
Message edited by its author, Mar 26, 2008, 6:55am.
>>teelgee: There were so many unexpected layers in
Fun Home, from Proust to Fitzgerald. I loved it. Highly recommended.
Finished up my others and now I'm working on 2 compilation type books.
Ask A Mexican by Gustavo Arellano
and
Whose Panties Are These? More Misadventures from Funny Women on the Road with multiple authors
Message edited by its author, Mar 26, 2008, 10:28am.
I'm still plugging away at
War and Peace. Along the way I've discovered I need to break with my usual rule of only reading one book at a time - W&P is
really long (stating the obvious). So, I'm also reading
The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte for a break between volumes.
This week, I'm still working my way through
Failure is not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond. A fascinating book, if occasionally a bit dry. Kranz's obvious love for his job and for his NASA compatriots makes it all worthwhile.
Aside from that, I suppose I could count The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps: The Best Crime Stories from the Pulps During Their Golden Age--The '20s, '30s & '40s as another book that I'm currently reading, but the Big Book is such a phonebook full of tightly-written, very brief tales that I'm treating it more as a dessert platter.
I finished Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella and started The House at Riverton by Kate Morton.
I enjoyed Remember Me? but like her previous non-Shopaholic books better.
Message edited by its author, Mar 26, 2008, 12:11pm.
This morning I started
Amulet by
Roberto Bolano. Sadly, I could only get a few chapters in on the train before my stop as I am really enjoying it. Looking forward to getting into the real meat n' potatoes portion of the novel.
Message edited by its author, Mar 26, 2008, 1:26pm.
I just finished Atonement - it was a beautiful story, I liked the book better than the movie.
I am now onto SnowFlower and the Secret Fan and The Savage Garden (my book clubs choice for April.
Janet
jlreckert #122 I loved
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan it was my selection last year for my book club. I hope you enjoy as much as I did.
Atonement is in my TBR pile--I seeing mixed reviews on that one. I hope I enjoy it.
I have
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan on my TBR pile, and I read
Atonement earlier this week. I thought
Atonement was a bit slow-going and Briony was the only thing about the book that I liked, but it's stuck with me for quite awhile. The only pointer I could give with
Atonement is take your time and enjoy it slowly. That may have been my mistake with it (I read it in two days.)
Right now I'm reading
Eragon and then
Eldest. I don't know what'll be after that. Spring Break without my two older kids have been peaceful and I've got caught up with my reading.
VALIS will probably be next, since it's the book Ben is reading in the tv show LOST. I wonder if there's a LOST reading list... I should check into that...
#124 - washingtonpost.com was doing live online chats of a Lost bookclub a few weeks ago, hosted by Liz Kelly and someone else. I didn't follow them, but I am sure they are in the archives on the site.
#126
Thanks, okie! I'll look into that!
I feel that I shall never finish
The Sleepwalkers. I almost dumped it over the weekend, but I've decided to slog my way through. Apparently, it gets better?
Thanks to the Easter holiday and me being sick for the past couple of days, I've made excellent progress on my reading (what can I say, I'm an optimist ^^). I finished
The World according to Garp in no time. It was interesting enough for me to finish the 600 pages, but it isn't one of my all time favorites. Still, one classic down :)
I'm now reading
Changing planes by Ursula K. Le Guin which is okay so far.
I just finished up Life & Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee. What a painfully lovely book! I am starting
The War at the End of the World, by Mario Vargas Llosa, as I will be travelling to Brazil soon and it has received many positive reviews on LT.
Message edited by its author, Mar 27, 2008, 7:24am.
I am reading
Life Before Man by Margar Atwood,
Son of a Witch and
Song of Solomon by
Toni Morrison.
Life Before Man and Son of a Witch are FABULOUS, though I have yet to finish them.
Song of Solomon is for my English class, and Toni Morrison is definately not a favorite of mine. I must say...So I'm reading it, and it's enjoyable, but I'd rather be reading something else.
I started a YA book called
The Demon in the Teahouse by
Dorothy Hoobler last night. I was a bit disappointed to discover that apparently yet again, I have picked up a book without realizing it is a sequel to another book *sigh* However, the story is interesting and pretty self-contained so I think it will be okay.
I just started Not Quite Dead by
John MacLachlan Gray for my easy read. I'm still reading
The Joy of Physics by Wiggins and A short course in Intellectual Defense by Normand Baillargeon a few chapters at a time.
Touchstones not available.
I finished
Northanger Abbey last night. Got started on the preface to my review book,
Opera and the Morbidity of Music this morning, but I might work on something else until I'm feeling a bit better. (Home sick right now -- mostly it's passed, but I was up since 3:30 this morning.)
I am a multiple book reader, I just cannot force myself to read just one title at a time....perhaps growing up in a monastic environment and being a bit of a scatterbrain in the first place....(no comments or remarks david!!!!) here is a sampling of what I have goin on right now in my literary life and world......
The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil - he is well respected by the likes of Dean Kamen, Bill Gates, Marvin Minsky and Raj Reddy.... and I enjoy his outlook on the predictions of artificial intelligence. His latest book envisions a future in which the information technologies have advanced so far and fast that they enable humanity to transcend it’s biological limitations...a fascinating read......!
A second kurzweil title that I read and re-read constantly is The Age of Spiritual Machines...he is a leading futurist and in this book he links the relentless growth of our future technology to a universe in which A.I. and nanotechnology may combine to bring about unimaginable wealth and longevity not merely to our descendents to those of us living today....a amazing work.....
A well thumbed and underlined favorite on my shelf is The Seven Mysteries of Life - An Exploration of Science and Philosophy by Guy Murtchie...I know it was written back in 1978 but I never tire of going back and revisiting this volume...it is like an old friend in front of the fire, slippers on, glass of tawny port in hand...and musing into the night.... In it he combines science, philosophy and inspiration as the basic elements...the book is so generous in its scope that the poetess May Sarton has been quoted that this is the one book she would want to be stranded on a desert island with....high praise indeed!!!
Another favored friend is The River That Flows Uphill - A Journey from the Big Brain to the Big Bang by William H. Calvin is an enthrlliing, accessible and imaginative vision of evolutionary theory, written while rafting down the colorado river...
A new item on the shelf is Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness - Julian Jaynes Bicameral Mind Teory Revisited - edited by Marcel Kuijsten - a tremendous work on one of my very favorite books of all times...in it they integrate the concepts of psychology, anthropology, archaeology, theology, philosophy and the history of science and mordern neroscience with such clarity it is a striking and beathtaking read......
Something picked up from the big box store last year and I am just geeting to the mid-point of the book now (I do not devour my books...instead I savor them over time...) is Cultutal Amnesia - Necessary Memories From History and the Arts by Clive James. It is poetic in its language and encylopedic in its scope, but in essence it is a courageous defense of the human spirit that is both enlightening and despairing at the same time. In it he laments the loss of learning and reason and with his book he hopes to provide an antidote to the political ideologies and cultural decay that has eradicated much of our history and learning.....a tremendous work.....
And finally.......I know.....but I can’t help it....three books...or sets of books I could not live without....are.....
A History of Magic and Experimental Science by Lynn Thorndike ( 9 vol’s.)
The Golden Bough - A Study in Magic and Religion 3rd Ed. Unabridged by Sir James George Frazer (13 vol’s.)
and last but certainly not least....
The Hermtica- The Ancient Greek and Latin Writings Which Contain Religious or Philosophic Teachings Ascribed to Hermes Trismegistius (4 vol’s.) Edited and translated by Walter Scott.
and if I have to be pinned down to something of a fictional nature....then nothing can beat Proust’s Rememberance of Things Past....4 vol’s..pure lierary banquet...never tiresome.....
I know...it all sounds so dry and dusty...but books are never that to me...books are vignettes into my life, my friends and reminders of my journey...where I have come from...where I am at the moment on this quicksilver parth of enlightenment and where I hope to be in the future...So...what do you read...and why? what are some of your favorites.? I do not think that there is anything such as ’junk’ when it comes to reading....if it can make you think, if it can make you question, if it can take you away for a while from your world...for whatever reason....thought...or escapism...it is a valuable tome......
I'm about 100 pages into
The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes. It's creepy, humorous, and extremely well written. The author has command of English that is really concise yet provides a lot of depth, so there is much to savor from page to page. The storyline doesn't unfold in a linear fashion, which is great. What I mean is that Barnes thought out the characters really well, so there can be little assumption by the reader how the plot progresses or intentions of the characters. Another haunting tale of old, mysterious London.
>125
LouisBranning:
Indeed, I was ultimately underwhelmed with Bolano's
Amulet after what I believed was a successful start. If I never see the year "1968" in print again it will be too soon, heh. There was a disconnect between the character/narrator Auxilio and myself that I kept assuming would dissipate as I got further into the novel but that never materialized. Eh well, you win some, you lose some. -:)
It's so much water under the reading bridge now as last night I began
A Fifth of Bruen by
Ken Bruenand am happy report that so far I am finding the stories uniformly FANTASTIC! I've been missing out by not having any Bruen in my library.
Message edited by its author, Mar 28, 2008, 12:07am.
Love in the Kingdom of Oil seems to be a
surrealist satire, if there is such a thing. I'm torn between wanting to set it down and not pick it up again or doing nothing else until I finish it. . . hmmm.
Still sick at home, so just finished
Changing Planes, a short story collection by Ursula K. LeGuin, which I quite enjoyed.
#138 I'm going to reserve
The Somnambulist from the library. It sounds wonderfull!
I just finished Dreamers of the Day (no touchstone) by
Mary Doria Russell, and it was a joy to read! Now I'm back struggling through
Ennui by
Maria Edgeworth, which has its moments but is so foreign to my life experiences that I often have to reread passages to understand. If I need another break from it, I'm going to start
Mary: a novel by
Janis Cooke Newman.
Reading right now:
The New Bedlam, by Bill Flanagan
Nothing to Lose, by Lee Child
Just finished:
The Better Angels, by Charles McCarry (read him! he rocks)
#4 "
Just finishing up The Darkest Evening of the Year, I have less than 100 pages to go. Then I'm picking up Atonement, then The Giver by Lois Lowery, and after that Eragon and Eldest in that order."
I've gotten through almost all the ones I planned to, am on
Eldest right now, and read
The Road as well.
If I could get rid of the kids more often, I might be able to get through 100 books this year. The same two that have been gone this past week will be gone most of the summer... hehehe I think I can do 50 books this year...
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