I'm 60 pages into The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett. So far, so good!

I finished The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (a busy work week kept interrupting my reading pleasures, so annoying!) but I did find the story, once I found time to finish it, quite remarkable and one I would re-read in the future.

I have now started Little Bee by Chris Cleave.... not far enough along in the book to comment.

I think I will read Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult and Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre this week

I may be saying this for a few weeks yet; I'm near the beginning of War and Peace

and for something different I'm enjoying Team of Rivals

Finally finished off with I Did a Bad Thing. Started with Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Spark.

reposting in the right week...

Plain Truth and Team of Rivals both good reads...

I am still with Yes My Darling Daughter, as I have been distracted by life and the phone.... and the explosions my neighbors are enjoying ( bah humbug )

can I just remind y'all that
http://www.bookcloseouts.com/default.asp...

is having a sale .. $1.99 books.. lots of them. I barely made it to the 3rd without breaking my vow to not buy any books this month. How to pass up a sale like that??? no, really~

Reposting also. It would be helpful when a new one starts for the person to put a link at the bottom of the old one.

I finished Persona Non Grata by Ruth Downie. I enjoyed it very much. I then read The Angry Clam by Erik Quisling. Very amusing.

I am now reading Precious Dragon by Liz Williams. It is 3rd in the Detective Inspector Chen series. It is set in a future where cities are franchised, this one is Singapore Three, and the POV, Chen is the liaison between the police in Singapore Three and Hell (Chinese version). Heaven also often intervenes in events.

I have been waiting about 2 years for this book to be published. It had a date and kept getting pushed back. It was finally released at the end of June.

Message edited by its author, Jul 4, 2009, 8:24am.

> #1 - teelgee -

The Magician's Assistant. One of my favorite books by Anne Patchett. I have thought about this book many, many times since I first read it. So imaginative. Enjoy your reading of it. I will add it to my collections under the "unfinished reads/re-read" category.

> #2 - lkernagh - Little Bee is an accomplished book that succeeds beyond what I had expected. Since no one had revealed to me ahead of time the plot of the book, the underlying stories told therein revealed themselves page by page, voice by voice.

My comment would have to be, treasure the characters, they are so very worth being treasured.

I have started reading two books. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell and Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell, which is being read for my RL Book Club.

BTW, I received my copy of The Hummingbird's Daughter: A Novel by Luis Alberto Urrea yesterday. Woo hoo.

Looking forward to re-reading parts and then plunging into the remainder of it.

Cheers - WH

Message edited by its author, Jul 4, 2009, 8:55am.

I finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao last night. The writing was fun and fresh while the story was painful, the repercussions of violence through generations and the desperate search to regain home and love.

I will also finish The Hummingbird's Daughter today. Another superb book.

And next.......The decision will be made soon

I'm reading nothing. Just finished one book (Venetian Betrayal) and won't start a new one as I am leaving on holiday on Tuesday. I am not taking a book with me, as I am counting on buying quite a few while there :D

I'm reading (Summer camp secrets)

I am reading Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout and Black Out by Lisa Unger.

>7 FicusFan -- will do. Apologies for not thinking of that!

I started The Robber Bride last night in order to join the Atwoodians group read. I was up and down with both of the kids though, so I probably only read about 10 pages but already I am intrigued.

kiwaflowa - Plain Truth is, imho, one of the better Picoult's. Enjoy!

I finished both library books - the one I took out on Thursday - by this morning. This last one was a simple, cute little thing called Chocolate Mouse trap, a murder mystery with a chocolate flavor.

Now I plan on finishing Confederates in the Attic and then go on to that pile I recently put on my table but got away from because I went to the library - well, one of those books was something I had had on hold so I had tog et it and read it or have to wait in line again!

The Hummingbird's Daughter is everywhere! Which has to be a great thing! I have my copy too and will try to shoehorn it in at the end of next month,hopefully!!
>MsGemini- I plan on starting Olive Kitteridge very soon. Hope you are enjoying it.
I finished The Shadow of the Wind and I have to join the vast army of LT admirers! It's a big, old-fashioned Gothic mystery, with a passion for books, at it's very core, sounds somewhat like this place, huh?
I'm starting Crazy For the Storm: A Memoir of Survival by Norman Ollestad.

Still reading Lake of Sorrows. I need to get in more reading this week. I've been busy this last week and didn't get in as much reading as I wanted. Taking a long weekend this next week so that will help. :)

Message edited by its author, Jul 4, 2009, 11:17am.

I'm still on Can't Buy My Love, but I'm also working on Little Women and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We'll see how long it takes me to finish all three!

I picked up Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers at a secondhand store for two bucks. I'm happy to have something to read and for my money to go to charity. It did totally thwart my reading schedule, though. Happens ;-)

Next up will likely be Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks.

halfway through ATOM by steve aylett. and finished 5 books from the discworld series by terry pratchett

I've been on a Neal Stephenson binge for the past month or so. I started with The Diamond Age audiobook, followed by Anathem and then I backtracked to his "breakout hit" Snow Crash. Then I got The Diamond Age in paperback, and listened to it again while reading along with some parts of it. Right now I'm reading (not listening to) Cryptonomicon. It's over 1100 pages, and I'm on page 295, so I don't think I'll be done this week!

Message edited by its author, Jul 4, 2009, 12:52pm.

Exterminator! by William S. Burroughs

Page 25/160. Amazing imagery.

Message edited by its author, Jul 4, 2009, 1:25pm.

I've just finished Debs at War by Anne de Courcy, which was really interesting and surprisingly funny. I'm starting Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh.

I'm still working on A Song for Arbonne. I like it, but it's slow-going.

#21 How's Crytonomicon so far? I picked it up on a whim and it's my first Neal Stephenson book, so I'm hoping it's good and doesn't feel as long as it looks :)

I'm working on Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks, the third of the Night Angel Trilogy. If I remember right, I'm about 245 out of 6 hundred-something.

I am reading The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry and Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. Enjoying each. Olive won the Pulitzer and Scripture was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Oh, who can tell me how to get the titles to highlight in blue like the other postings?

#26 troygirl - to have the touchstones work for a book title use the square brackets on your keyboard located to the right of the key for the letter 'P'. I really enjoyed The Secret Scripture ... glad to hear you are enjoying it as well!

I just bought The Angels Game by Carlos Ruiez Zafón yesterday. I loved Shadow of the Wind, I can't wait to start this one!

Thanks for the reminder, #6! =o)

I just got a new computer and I've been a bit lazy about reading. Actually, I've only read about 1/2 of Fruits Basket volume 1 and that's about it. I'm also trying to read The Looking Glass Wars and Home Repair, but just not able to pay attention to what I'm reading.

I wrote down the title of Snow Crash when it came out, but never got around to reading it. Also would like to read Criptinomicon. After discovering, contrary to expectation, that I loved Neuromancer and its sequals, I'm more open to try Snow Crash and Criptinomicon. Thing is... there's just so much to read! And I have my own writing, and there really never seems to be enough time. But I've been thinking about Criptinomicon lately...

koolmom, a new computer will do that to you~

I started The Birthing House a bit ago.

Here is the thing... I enjoy a good "spooky" or "haunting" sort of book now and then. I get truly annoyed when some of the characters behave in a ridiculous way. For instance.. The guy sees a picture that resembles someone he knows. The picture is very old... very old. So in his horror he burns the photo album.

Seriously?

Who would do that? would you do that? I would never do that. I would think.. huh~ weird.. and then tuck the album away and try to sort it out. I honestly hate dramatic over reaction. grrrrrrr!

eta

blasted t-stones

Message edited by its author, Jul 4, 2009, 5:34pm.

I'm still reading Liner Notes. It's a great summer read about a road trip.

I got a new computer a few days ago too (and my first iPod) - switching from Windows to Mac and I've been on it all day since. I feel terrible but it's like having a new toy.

Finished the last few pages of "Justice Denied" by J.A. Jance this morning, then started "Careless In Red" the latest from Elizabeth George.

>31, mckait, LOL -- I agree with you!

I finished The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman, finished reading Treasure Island aloud, and I'm nearly done with Collapse by Jared Diamond.

I finished reading The Thirteen Orphans by Jane Lindskold in two seating and it was a delight. I reserved the sequel but i think it will take a while before it falls into my hands.

I kind of torn about my next book - i don't whether i should read The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson or The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski LOL! Hope i decide soon

Message edited by its author, Jul 4, 2009, 10:19pm.

8: womansheart & co - I have The hummingbirds Daughter out from the library at the moment specifically because it was mentioned so favorably here on LT. I read The Outlander too a few weeks ago for the same reason and loved it - Thanks LTers!!!

6: mckait & 14: jhedlund - Yeah I haven't been too interested in her latest release but there were two Jodi Picoult's I always wanted to read: The Pact and Plain Truth, so I've read them both in the past week. I enjoyed The Pact more but both were good.

I finished Saturday: A Novel, and I absolutely loved it. I will be reading more by McEwan.

I'm working on The Lost City of Z, which was a LT recommendation from Mark and others. I can't put it down. Truly excellent book.

This week I am going to be reading Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, and I have Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay waiting as well.

Half way through The Angel's Game. What more can one say about Zafron ? :0)

#36 demonata - read The Gargoyle and drop Edgar Sawtelle in the shredder... just my humble opinion. ;)

The best thing about this site are the great book recommendations.
I take them quite seriously, and I am rarely disappointed. And, when a book is touted by just about every LTer, then I can quite comfortably pull down the shades, curl up in my comforter, and get happily engrossed in a good book.

Such was not the case with The Angel's Game. I shudder as I write these words for fear of outright expulsion from LibraryThing. How, why, and what went wrong, I ask myself. The book has readers and critics alike loving it, and then I come along poo-pooing it all to heck! What is wrong with me?

Honestly, I could just never get into the novel, I found the plot unbelievable, the characters wooden and the book, overall, long and boring. May I confess, here, that I truly love big books.

The writing seemed grossly mismanaged at times, with lines like 'Night falls on the city and the streets carry the scent of gunpowder like the breath of a curse.' That doesn't make sense to me.
Or, ...my father was the kindest man in the world and everyone would realize this if only, just for once, life saw fit to deal him a good hand of cards.' How many times has that phrase come up in books?

The hero, David Martin, really has to grow up, with his wishy washy view of the world, his infatuation with every girl that comes along. Get real, not every girl has long limbs and an angelic look. Even his visit to a house of ill-repute was strange. Had it been me, I'd have hightailed it out of there as soon as I caught a glimpse of the weirdo hooker.

I am admitting that I finally gave up at page 225, so perhaps should not be so judgemental. But please.. as an ex-newspaperman, I cannot imagine a writer with David's juvenile skill, and his constant whining about writing a book, lasting even a day in a newspaper office. Even Lou Grant would have thrown him out on his tush, telling him to go write his book and quit pretending you're a journalist!

So far in the book I have yet to really find out what any single character looks like, all I see are ages 16-17-26 and older people, but there is little description, and no substance, not even for the main lead. Silly me, perhaps I'm a little too dense to see the plot forming, and the various discussions between David and Corelli concerning faith or religion or philosopy or theology are just passing over my head.

I think this proves the point that what books appeal to some might not appeal to others. It's what makes the world go round after all. But I have the feeling that I'm in big doo-doo with this missive.

I was not that impressed with Zafon's Shadow of the Wind, but I made it to the end. However, not this time.

Sling your arrows this way, I will suffer them greatly and move on, should that be your wish...

Message edited by its author, Jul 4, 2009, 11:29pm.

42: morfam: No arrows from me! I started to read Shadow of the Wind earlier this year and stopped one third of the way through. I'm not sure if it's because if other things that were happening at the time that stopped me from reading or the book. At any rate I'm reading again but have no desire to finish the book despite all the great things I keep hearing here.

morfam -- don't despair. There's room here for all opinions!

#42-44 - no book is for everyone...which is not news to most here. A book doesn't just need to be well done, it also needs to fit us in some way.

I think Ruiz Zafón is largely about atmosphere and tone. If it works, if his tone engages you, then the books are fun. He creates what I think it a playful atmosphere and everything builds on that. Actually, he doesn't need to accomplish anything really profound for his books to work. But, if his tone falls flat for you, then it's a bad match. You will end trying to read his book without experiencing the best part. It doesn't make Ruiz Zafón a bad writer, it just makes him the wrong writer for you.

Message edited by its author, Jul 5, 2009, 12:09am.

I'm starting Crown Duel and Court Duel by Sherwood Smith.

Bolano - Nocturno de Chile

> dchaikin- Great explanation on Zafon! I think many authors & books fall into this category. "Edgar Sawtelle" is a good example. I was disappointed, along with many here, ( I saw your comment up above) but a lot of readers loved it.
>morfam- That's why this is such a special place, opinion & respect, room for plenty. I wonder if you have to just go with your gut on choosing a book that has received mixed reviews, it usually works for me!

I agree with #41 about Edgar + shredder

I started reading Jeremy Clarkson's Born to be Riled collection of his sunday times columns last night. So far i'm finding it pretty funny although since these columns are from 1996-98ish i don't get a lot of the topical jokes or mentions of the various cars since i was only 6 at the time they were written. But i will carry on with it nevertheless and perhaps next time find one of his more recent books so that i will actually get the jokes (i will never be able to wrap my head around all of the car mumbo-jumbo).

I'm on Turn Coat, my last book of the Harry Dresden series that is currently out. Now I'll have to wait along with everyone else for the next book in the series to come out. Hopefully it won't take too long!

I've started reading two new books. The Garden Party has already drawn me in with a cast of clearly drawn characters. I'm also finding Outliers very interesting. I can't say that I'm surprised by its premise that time, culture, and luck have as much or more to do with success that inherent qualities or ambition of the person. It's nice to have all of the evidence.

>45 - dchaikin -

Thanks for your comments re: Carlos Ruiz Zafon's writing.

That tone and atmosphere comment accurately describes my experience with trying to read and "get into" his book The Shadow of the Wind.

Thumbs down for Edgar Sawtelle as well, and possibly for a similar reason. The atmosphere and tone bothered me instead of engaging me in this book as well.

WH

Captivated by The Sparrow. Wanna read the day away.

WH

I'm halfway through John Adams by David McCullough but haven't opened it for about 3 weeks now.

I've started The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy by Maya Slater, my May ER book, but it isn't holding my attention as I would like it to.

I took some birthday money and bought The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and am at page 425. It is one of the best books I've read this year so far.

And, with some more money from my birthday, I pre-ordered the second book in his trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire. I should receive it at the end of July.

Message edited by its author, Jul 5, 2009, 8:39am.

WH- The Sparrow sounds very interesting. I have to wishlist that one!
Karen- I've heard so many good things about The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo. I need to break down and pick up a copy, for heaven's sake!
Anyone interested in reading or re-reading The Pillars of the Earth? We are having a group read, starting on the 15th. I thought I was the only one who had not tackled this book but it looks like I'm not alone. We would love to have you! The link: http://www.librarything.com/topic/67664

Reading The Night Journal for a RL group read. I lived in Santa Fe for a little while, and am familiar with the area it is about, so there is that. I also am a sucker for novels that go back and forth in time.

The Sparrow uses that device, and with the time travel, it was hard to keep track. I did fall into that book, and in love with Sandoz. It is a hard book for me to recommend to many people, though. It stayed with me, and affected me deeply for a long time.

I'm starting with Tea-bag by Henning Mankel (touch-stone not there). I've never read something by him, but have seen some of the episode of the Wallander series on TV. This book, btw, is not crime story.

Finished:
Thunderer. Mixed feelings. Beautifully written, and somehow fast-paced, even though there's not much of a plot.
Moab is my washpot. Great.

Now starting Dragonsdawn.

Also still reading Doubt: a history. First three chapters finished (ancient Greek, Jewish, Eastern traditions). Very dense, but still extremely interesting so far.

am in the final stretch of Mistress of the Art of Death and, except for the lapse into Romance it's a real Corker..now to write a review that doesn't suck!

next up? who knows.

I just finished When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant and have started Rose Tremain's The Road Home.

A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt. Can't believe I've not discovered this author till now. I feel like I've been living under a rock!

Message edited by its author, Jul 5, 2009, 9:46am.

My first nonfiction book of the week will be Paris From the Ground Up by James H.S. McGregor, and I'll postpone reading Seven Ages of Paris until next week. My first novel of the week will probably be Knowledge of Hell by Antonio Lobo Antunes or The Bone People by Keri Hulme, or possibly Behindlings by Nicola Barker.

Message edited by its author, Jul 5, 2009, 9:56am.

You simply cannot go wrong with The Sparrow, imo. Wonderful book!

I am starting The Rapture, an ARC ~ firt two pages sounded good....

Half way through Haters by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez. So far cute, easy YA novel.

Just started working my way through The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats after having finished Animal Rights and Pornography by J. Eric Miller.

45 - great way to put it - not all books are for all people - I've read some other people can read over and over and I dropped it after 50 pages, etc, etc, etc

but there are always books that everyone can read - meaning there is something for everyone out there if you just look

re: The Shadow of the Wind -- I read it a few years ago, and while I enjoyed it, I can't say that I loved it. For that reason, I'll probably read The Angel's Game, but I am content to wait for a paperback and/or used copy to come my way at some point in the future.

>57, rockinrhombus, I read The Night Journal last year. I thought it was a great idea, but wish the execution had been better. I didn't like the characters much. I'm curious to know what you think of it.

I finally finished Collapse by Jared Diamond last night. I thought it was a terrific book, but I found the overall message so disturbing I had trouble sleeping. This morning I picked up The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro -- a book I've been meaning to read for a long, long time. So far it's as wonderful as I hoped it would be.

Finished Lake of Sorrows by Erin Hart. It was a good read, there was a lot going on in the last 100 pages. I kept thinking, surely its going to end? LOL. Not sure why that was. Enjoyable nonetheless.

Thinking about reading Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs or What Angels Fear, I guess I'll decide later today after work.

#66 I adore Yeats~ I have that book! :)

#54 et al. The Sparrow is on my top 10 favorites of all time list, maybe #1. Like rockinrhombus, I fell in love with Sandoz (and Jimmy and Ann and pretty much all of them, including the priest from Chicago who went to Rome to defend Sandoz). And yes, it is a hard book to recommend to everyone because of the subject matter.

Hmm, got the feeling I'm gonna have to read it again real soon.

I finished A fortunate age yesterday and liked it a lot--it's a contemporary version of The Group by Mary McCarthy. I might have to re-read the latter, in fact.

I'm currently working on A Plague of Secrets by John Lescroart. He's probably my favorite in the legal thriller genre. I discovered him about 13 years ago when I was in an airport and looking for a good travel read. Now I eagerly look forward to returning to the characters.

I'm not sure what's next. All this talk about The Sparrow has me thinking that I might have to revisit that one, too!

I'm currently in the middle of Daughter of Fortune and Which Brings Me to You.

I'll probably start Yellow Dog and Gilgamesh some time this week.

59> I loved Dragonsdawn, for what that's worth.

I finished Saturday (loved) and Crime Beat (no love) this weekend.

I'm started The Lost City of Z which is great so far, and I'm starting The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tonight.

I'm still reading A Mad Desire to Dance, the latest novel by Elie Wiesel. The first section was slow going, as it was a rather hallucinatory first-person description of the protagonist's impressions of his own experiences of depression and fears of his own madness. It was good, but so abstract as to need careful consideration for the meanings to become clear. The latter sections are a little more lucid, and so my pace has picked up some. It is one of those books that begins in a quite puzzling manner but slowly evolves into a compelling portrait.

I'm still working my way through American Psycho and Mad Ship. It feels like I've been reading these forever.

I'm over half way through American Psycho now. I still haven't made my mind up about this book. And I know the worst is yet to come.

City of Glass, the third in the YA fantasy series by Cassandra Clare, and Marcelo in the Real World, a YA title by Francisco Stork.

I finished Little Bee by Chris Cleave this morning - I found it to be quite riveting and I already miss the characters.

Next up is Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg. This is the first book by Berg for me so I would be curious to hear what others think of the book, in comparison to her other novels.

Well, the shop's open! We've had a good weekend but bloody hell, I'm knackered. I haven't had time to wash up, fill out council tax forms... in fact, I felt a bit guilty taking time out to eat tea tonight! Dear me.

Anyway, I've just finished Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers. It looked quirky - a little pink hardback written entirely in fridge notes - but nothing prepared me for how moving it was. It had me sobbing into my breakfast this morning! Highly recommended.

Now I'm concentrating on Pompeii: The Living City, which I've heard great things about. My last library book before I switch to borrowing from the shop! :-D

Congratulations! I wish you many happy, successful years!

Yeah, congrats! Be sure to keep us posted on how it goes! And share some pics of your shop too.

Oh, and thanks for the recce for Life on the Refrigerator Door. Sounds really good.

Congragts on the shop!!!

I just started A death in the Family again. Made it further than I did last time and I'm actually enjoying it now. :)

Ellie, Congratulations ! Best of Luck with your store.

congratulations ellie!!!!

I wish you many years of success!

How interesting to find that there were others who had difficulty with The Angel's Game. I guess it really does go to show the astounding diversity in reading choices that this group demonstrates.

What I have come to love lately is the number of foreign writers that appear so frequently on various sites. There seems to be an ever increasing need to discover these authors, through publishing houses, and I applaud them for their efforts. One would have to think they are bringing the best and brightest, and that can only be of benefit to us readers.

I had no problem putting down The Angel's Game and picking up Night Train To Lisbon by Pascal Mercier. This novel deals with a teacher in his mid-fifties, who decides on a fresh direction for his life and moves to Portugal in order to search for some other reasons for his being. I'm early into the book but very much enjoying it.

Like everyone else on this site, I too feel a scrunch coming on when I gaze upon the pile of books threatening to engulf me one strange nightmare ridden sleep...

Message edited by its author, Jul 5, 2009, 7:23pm.

Reading Walden after finishing the excellent March by Geraldine Brooks. Sadly, it is a struggle and a slog for me. Thoreau seems a naive and selfish little boy underneath all the pretentious and ecstatic prose. Maybe I'm missing something.

_87: morfam
interesting when I read your first comments on Angel's Game and Shadow of the Wind I thought that Night Train To Lisbon is for me in the same genre because the city (beautiful) Barcelona and (my beloved and even more beautiful hometown) Lisbon set the atmosphere and for me are almost characters in all the novels which is a concept that for me worked brilliantly.

Still reading Invisible Ring great as was expected.

I'm taking a break from non-fiction (till my new book shipment arrives hehe)
Reading some Canadian fiction (Mordecai Richler's An incomparable Atuk).

p.s. can someone tell me how you create a link to the book?

thx:)

Viviane

I almost agree with you.

Certainly the plot genre in the books is similar, and I too love the locations that are mentioned, although I have a great deal of trouble with pronounciation of many of the locales.

Atmosphere isn't everything, however. The story line in The Angel's Game did not work for me, but, obviously is having a positive effect on me with Night Train To Lisbon.

Lisbon would have been one city that I would have loved to visit in my younger years living in the UK. Now I live in Canada, and the chances appear ever remote. I will just have to put up with snowcapped mountains and gorgeous sun-drenched beaches with a temperature in the 30's (celsius). Woe is me, think I'll retire to the patio and drown myself in martini juice...

I just posted a review for the ARC The Rapture. I really was not holding out much hope for this one, but it was a great read. I couldn't put it down.

I just finished reading The Commoner, which was my selection for this month's book group - and I am not sure how the others will like it. I have to start reading the next 2 books: All Souls and Shantaram but I think I might add a little light reading in the mix.

#90 simora

To create the link you enclose the title of the book with the square brackets (next to the "p" on the keyboard). If you want to create an author link, use double square brackets (but the author links can be touchy). Enjoy

>88: When I tried to read Walden I kept thinking, "Get a job!" and I was younger and much more tolerant than I am now. I am glad I am not the only one who lost patience!

finished Exterminator! and My Stroke of Insight! in the last few days.

Seems like this week will include The God Delusion, Emotional Design either the beginning of Musicophilia or Chapter House: Dune

Almost through with The Mysteries of Udolpho. Way too much fainting and tears for me, but there are some good gothic elements here and there.

Also reading How Shall We Then Live (Francis A. Schaeffer) which raises some fascinating points about history, for instance -- why did the English revolution in law and the American independence succeed, where the French revolution immediately descended into a bloodbath?

Message edited by its author, Jul 6, 2009, 12:22am.

Just finished My Life at Grey Gardens by Lois Wright.
Very odd read. I'll post a review.

Have read 3 stories in Ship Fever by Adrea Barrett. They're great so far.

Message edited by its author, Jul 6, 2009, 6:35am.

Started The Goose Girl yesterday and i will finish it today even if i am reading around the other chores i have to do while i'm lazing about at home all day. I really love Hale's books and will have to try and get hold of a copy of each at some point when i have sufficient funds.

Almost finished with Confederates in the Attic and Star Wars Outcast, then I'll finally get to The Pearl and Heir of Sea and Fire - that is unless the library calls and says another book I have on hold has come in and I have three out there due to me.

I am finishing up Armstrong's The Bible: A Biography and then I want to finish reading The Smoke by Tony Broadbent. Both seem to be well-researched.

I'm about half-way through Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas.

Morfam #'s 87 and 91: I really enjoyed Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier. I'll be interested to hear what you think when you're done.

I'm working on The Pirate Queen and Letters to Father.

Still reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - just over half way through !!

Have also started Gunpowder: A history of the explosive that changed the world by Jack Kelly. I started this mainly because JS and Mr N is physically too huge to carry around and I have a pathological need to always be accompanied by a book.

On the weekend I hit the bookstores to checkout the e-books. They look amazing! If I could download JS and Mr N into a handy bag-sized, light-weight gadget how happy I'd be.

Finished Handle with Care over the weekend. Agree with other reviewers that if you've read My Sister's Keeper you've read this book, but I was in the mood for some sap in my life and it fit the bill. Good poolside reading.

Reading Stradivari's Genius: The Story of Five Violins, One Cello and Three Centuries of Enduring Perfection in preparation for my trip to Italy. I'm a violin player (in that I own a violin and played through high school). I'm looking forward to going to Cremona the hometown of quite a few prominent violin makers, so reading up for the trip.

On audio, I've got Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates going. She is awesome!! With lines like, "Let's go Owen, before Mama punches a pilgrim." (when pilgrim accused 9 year old of witchcraft at the faux colonial experience at Plymouth for telling pilgrim about Hopi Indian culture) what's not to love about Sarah Vowell. I think I need to read more books by her (and soon).

This week finishing up The Snoring Bird by Bernd Heinrich, a naturalist/botanist's memoir. It's been my late night read for a couple of weeks and is truly wonderful.

Also reading Tidemarks: Some records of a journey to the beaches of the Moluccas and the forest of Malaya in 1923, by H.M.Tomlinson, published in 1928 and probably out of print since then.

Message edited by its author, Jul 6, 2009, 11:58am.

I have to agree about The Birthing House. Something just seemed meh about the whole book. I was disappointed they did not do more with the photo album and I certainly would not have burned it! If you want a really good scary book, especially if you have kids, try The Bone Factory by Nate Kenyon. I am still thinking about it a month later! Also, it is short so can be a quick read at this busy time of the year.

I just finished Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. What a delightful book. I don't know what's up next, Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay for sure, and the library just called to tell me some books I ordered are in, so I'll probably start one of them as well.

DeltaQueen - I read Garden Spells last week and loved it too. I'm trying to make some progress now on The Robber Bride, but it's hard between work and the kids in my hair constantly!

I'm just starting Book 3 in Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen and at 900 pages I am really enjoying this book. 400 more to go.

#98 I absolutely loved Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett. My favorite was the title story.

I'm in the middle of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Great book so far. It actually freaked me out last night, making me stay up for a bit longer so I could check the corners of my room ;)

I'm in the middle of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Great book so far. It actually freaked me out last night, making me stay up for a bit longer so I could check the corners of my room ;)

#110 - jhedlund - I think I chose Garden Spells to read because of what you had written about it last week. So thanks for the suggestion!

The debate about Shadow of the Wind and Angel's Game is interesting to me. I read Shadow and loved it. For me it was all about Barcelona. The writing makes the city a character in the book. Also thought that the secondary characters were a real strength to the story. I have not read Angel's Game but plan to do so very soon.

I read Night Train to Lisbon and liked it. I liked the philosophical writing found in the book. It, along with Small Death in Lisbon and Company of Strangers made me want to visit Portugal. A friend of mine who is a reader didn't like it and in fact wanted to quit. She only finished it because of the peer pressure. Her book group was reading it. Unlike me, she didn't get much out of the book and thought it very heavy on the big question of "What is the meaning of life?" I thought it was a book that made me think. Which I enjoyed.

It is very true that not all readers will like all books. Books are as individual as people. They speak to us differently.

I did not like Pillars of the Earth. I thought it was trite and the writing very uninteresting with a contrived plot and predictable people, but millions of people read it and loved it, including some of my very good friends. I don't think that makes it a bad book or me a bad person for not liking it.

Daughter of Fortune is an excellent book. I liked that one and its sequel Portrait in Sepia. I gave "Daughter" to a friend who does not read much. It was in recorded format and she loved it so much that she went to the library to get "Portrait" but came back with Inez of my Soul instead. All of the libraries recorded copies of "Portrait" were checked out. Here is a person who got turned on to an author and I hope to books in general. The world of books is truly wonderful one to enter.

I am reading Trail of Crumbs this week. The reviews of this book aren't that good but it is by an Alabama author and right now my book discussion group is reading books about our state. Plus we needed a biography or memoir. This book will fill both categories for us. I am on page 50 and so far it isn't bad. Maybe the reviewers are wrong? I think I want to try some of the recipes given in the book.

I forgot to mention that I don't consider Angel's Game a prequel to Shadow of the Wind. My book discussion group read Shadow as one of it's selections several years ago. At that time we found that the author had stated that he intended to write a quartet of books about Barcelona in which the city would be examined in various eras of the twentieth century. This would make the city the unifying strand in the books. Not the characters.

My question about Angel's Game is what about the music? The author is a movie sound track composer and he wrote music that accompanied Shadow of the Wind. You can hear it in the recorded version, so I wondered if he had done the same for Angel's Game?

116: benitastrnad

Yes he did write a soundtrack, but I think only the spanish edition has it, I bought mine in Barcelona as I can read in castellano. Its a wonderful soundtrack that made me think of Barcelona, its dark corners and grand buildings.

By the way, we discussed translations, how about reading in the original language?

*p.s. I know the original is in catalan, but go with it...

Peony in Love by Lisa See - I have fallen in love with this author!

Finished Outliers. I found the book a very readable collection of extremely interesting facts proving that background (generations back), social class, time of birth, help from others, and luck are crucial to success. Hard work and innate talent matter but no more than all these other factors. It's what I've always believed but it was great to have evidence to back it up. The proofs were hardly rigorous but I took it to be a sociology book for the lay person, like many science books leave out the details for the lay audience.

Finished Storm Front by Jim Butcher. Reviewed on my "75-Books Challenge" thread (http://www.librarything.com/topic/66381/) and on the book's page.

Short version: Perfectly pleasant.

Message edited by its author, Jul 6, 2009, 5:35pm.

I don't normally post more than once in a week about what I'm reading...what's the point?

When I can I go moor walking, last year a couple of friends and I set off on an overnight wild camp. The first eight hours or so was an uphill slog, freezing winds, driving rain, sodden boggy tussocks twisting ankles at every turn. Dense mist. Huddled under a granite outcrop to avoid the lightning.

Oh, did I want to turn back. I'd like to say I persevered because I was pig headed, reality was I was the worse map reader.

War and Peace has been that first 8 hours, how many times has that great tome nearly ended up through my window, 245 pages and for the first time I've noticed a break in the clouds.

Back to that camp, the next morning I awoke, looking out of my bivi, to miles of unremitting uninhabited beauty. Will the analogy continue or will I need a new window!!

Morfam... I appreciate your opinion and hope that sometime in the future you will come to appreciate the talent Zafon seemingly has. I like to read or hear others opinions and views of books, it helps me prepare for the worst, or to not get my hopes up. =o) I would like to know what a good is you would recommend?? =o)

...good BOOK you would recommend. =o)

yay, ellie!.....businesswoman and bibliophile all-in-one....you go girl!

finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne over the weekend :)

Started Sweeping Up Glass by Carolyn Wall my ARC from May

Congratulations ellie on opening the shop. I hope it goes well for you.

121 BookMarkMe, I liked the analogy, how far are you in to W&P? I've just started the second part, and I'm actually finding it an easier read than I thought. I would encourage you to keep going. Even if you hate it surely finishing it gives you bragging rights.

I'm also reading Fred Hollows.

It's taking me longer than I expected to get through Dostoevsky's The Double. I'm not sure if it's the style, the translation, or what exactly. It's not bad, but I find myself re-reading whole passages quite a bit.

I've been ripping through The Eyre Affair and am about halfway through. I think it's supposed to be a comedy, but I'm finding it downright depressing. I hope it picks up soon.

I've also got Rant on audiobook. I'd say it's about average so far for Palahniuk works. It has his usual flaws (poor pacing and characterization) but it's kind of fun to see the usual Palahniuk style adapted to all those different voices. (It works better in this book than it did in Haunted.)

I finished Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg this evening...... Okay, I actually "skim read" the last 65 pages because I was finding the book 'meh' but not bad enough to abandon. To appease my frustration regarding the plot and character development of Home Safe I have resorted to City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin.

#115 benitastrnad ~ I'm right there with you on Pillars of the Earth, so we can duck the rotten tomatoes together. :) For a really good novel about the building of a cathedral in the 12th century, try Pargeter's The Heaven Tree.

About Isabel Allende, I "discovered" her through LTers' rave reviews of The House of the Spirits and so far have read all the ones that you mentioned and one or two more. Spirits and Ines of my Soul are my two favorites, although the other two you mentioned are also favorites. What a brilliant writer! Your friend has excellent taste and extremely good luck in friends.

I put Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World down for now so I can finish Gherbod Fleming's Clan Novel: Assamite.

#129 storeetllr

wow! i'd forgotten all about the heaven tree and my intention to read the rest of the trilogy. it's a wonderful book. i listened to it quite a few years ago and remember i loved it and wanted to follow the story and never did. i'm indebted to you for reminding me.

huzzah! one more book for my teetering tower of TBRs.

Message edited by its author, Jul 7, 2009, 1:20am.

finally finished in the woods by Tana French. one of those books that gets into my head like malcolm lowry's under the volcano.

can now press on with watership down by richard adams, rebecca by daphne du maurier, a perfect spy by john le carre, salman rushdie's the enchantress of florence, which is driving me up the wall, and in dribs and drabs as occasion permits, barchester towers and tale of two cities.

the latter two will take a back seat as they're NLS books and i can have them almost in perpetuity whilst the others are audio books from the library and they snatch them away after a few weeks.

Message edited by its author, Jul 7, 2009, 1:21am.

Finished Regenesis by C. J. Cherryh and started The Dragons of Ordinary Farm by Tad Williams and Deborah Beale.

I finished The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and loved it! I am so glad I have finally read this book.

Morfam - I was kind of bored with Shadow of the Wind and reading a book about books is generally "heaven" for me.

Womansheart - I am always thrilled when someone says they are reading The Sparrow for the first time. It is one of my favorite books. When I finally listened to my friend and made myself read it - I, too, was captivated.

Ellie - Congratulations! What better vocation could there possibly be?

I'm reading Burned Alive by Souad and I think it's not my cup of tea.
I'm also reading Kafka on the shore by Haruki Murakami. Lots of recommendations from friends.

Ikernagh - I haven't read Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg but I did read Open House and really loved it.

I have started Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi - so far, very good. It was an Orange Prize winner which I am reading to celebrate Orange July on the Girlybooks group. (By the way, the Girlybooks group isn't quite what the name makes one think - it's not a bunch of women discussing chicklit (not that there's anything wrong with that). It's a group where books written by women (and mostly thought-provoking books) are discussed.)

Finished Star Wars Outcast last night. Now I can get back to the three I started with last week, one of which Confederates in the Attic I should have finished later today. Hopefully, I can start and finish the other two books before others intervene - but there are three on hold at the library that are getting close to being mine for two weeks (or less since I read them and take them right back).

I'm currently reading A Dog's Life, and so far it seems like a cute and fun little read.

I'm about 60% of the way through Dracula. First 100 pages= Fantastic, Second 100 pages= Drudgery, Third 100 pages= Promising. Hope the last 150 pages pays off!

I'm finishing up Love You Hate You Miss You by Elizabeth Scott, and then I plan to read A Child Called "It", The Lost Boy, and A Man Named Dave, all by Dave Pelzer.

-Allison, http://readintothis.blogspot.com/

Miss Eleanor Potten, your new venture has been whammied with all the positive mojo my group of distance healers can muster. Your success is assured.

I reviewed the delightful, warm, and charming A City of Bells by Elizabeth Goudge on my "75-Books Challenge" thread (http://www.librarything.com/topic/66381) and on the book's review page. Short version: Eminently worthwhile reading.

I finished with Confederates in the Attic and enjoyed it immensely.

I finished The Goose Girl last night which was fabulous and I will have to buy Enna Burning and River Secrets before long or I will get all twitchy. I am now completely enamored with Hale's writing and am determined to read all of her books that i can get hold of.
I also started The way of the shadows last night and despite being a tad confusing with various names of people and places that i can't pronounce I am rather enjoying it and happy to continue with it.

Unfortunately, this last weekend prevented me from getting some serious reading done, but I'm trying to make up for lost time! Just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this morning, still reading Can't Buy My Love, although I'm making good progress with it, and I'm about 8 or 9 chapters into Little Women. Not sure yet if I'm going to keep going with reading three books simultaneously, although next up are Skeleton Crew by Stephen King and Airframe by Michael Crichton...they need to be returned to the library in a few weeks!

I just finished Crossfire Trail by Louis L'Amour. I thought a Western would be good for Independence Day, very American feeling I guess, but I write Westerns so maybe I'm biased.
It was first published in 1954 with a purchase price of 75 cents, and I picked up a copy at a used book store a few months ago for $2.00!
I was curious about the book as it was made into a movie in 2001 with Tom Selleck...one of the best Westerns ever filmed in my opinion. The movie follows the book for the first few chapters then it is very different, changing a few characters and roles. The main theme, however, is unchanged. Like most Louis L'Amour books it is very good and worth reading if you can find a copy.

Finished Invisible Ring it was brilliant as expected. Anne Bishop is the star of the genre in my humble opinion.

Next I'm going to read an old favorite Paulo Coelho's new book Winner Stands Alone/ O Vencedor Está Só its always great to read his books, his last ones have been different (in a good way) we never know what may come out, and talk about mixed reviews in all of his books...

Message edited by its author, Jul 7, 2009, 1:49pm.

As a resident of the South I can say with confidence that Confederates in the Attic has some insights into the psychology of the American South that I have found nowhere else. It is also very funny. Having had some experiences with Civil War reenactors I found the author's explanations about what motivates them to be enlightening. All of this I say with tongue in check as in my experience there are some really "interesting" people who are masquerading as Confederates and Yankees. Tony Horowitz's compatriots included!

Rereading the Potter books. It's heaven.

I was in the liberry today picking up my copy of The Lost City of Z when a book literally dived to the floor at my feet. I know a hint when the Universe clonks me with one, so I checked out Fishing the Sloe Black River by Colum McCann. It's a collection of short stories. I sat in the car and read the first one, "Sisters", before I even left my parking space. It's fabulous. Just pitch-perfect. So then I was in the drugstore awaiting my sainted aunt's happy-pills refill and read "Cathal's Lake", the last story in the collection. Simply divine! First line: "It's a sad Sunday when a man has to dig another swan from the soil."

--?!?--

This is shaping up to be an awfully good reading week.

Just finished Kill&Cure by Stephen Davison - very addictive this one. Thirty pages into Dark Fire by CJ Sansom. Read most of the others in this series. Love the Shardlake character!

Thanks to biggdiel I learned that there is indeed a music connection to Angel's Game. Here is the link if you want to check it out.

http://www.randomhouse.com/ddpg/feature/...

I even looked and the soundtrack for Shadow of the Wind is available as well. Here is the link to that music.

http://www.carlosruizzafon.co.uk/shadow-...

The music from Shadow of the Wind was on an English language recorded book. I am not sure who produced or published the recorded version she listened to as I read the book. At the book group discussion she did comment that she thought the music enhanced the experience of listening to the story.

I just finished Liner Notes which has a music connection as well, only I had to create the soundtrack myself. There are hundreds of songs in the book. Much of the pleasure I had from reading it was listening along on my ipod to the songs mentioned throughout the story.

Now I'm rereading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince since I can't wait for the movie to come out!

Question for the group - Has anybody read Cathedral of the Sea or Ruby in Her Navel? Both are novels set in Medieval times. One in Spain and the other in Sicily. Would you recommend them?

Somebody mentioned earlier that they were reading Kafka on the Shore. There is a music connection there as well. All of the Murakami books all have some kind of music connection. In fact Murakami owns a jazz bar in Tokyo. Take a look at his web site. I know that when my book discussion group read Kafka on the Shore we found a list of the all the music that is mentioned in the book. Just the title list makes for fascinating comparisons and contemplation.

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/mura...

Firstly, congratulations to Ellie! I hope the bookstore is a great success, and don't worry - I'll be dragging myself and my husband there at the earliest opportunity!

Finally finished The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It took me over a month! Anyway, to make up for the length of time that took I read The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman yesterday.

I'm now reading Once Upon a Time in England by Helen Walsh which I only started this afternoon but already am hooked. So far so fabulous!

I finished off Turn Coat by Jim Butcher and now join the impatiently waiting ranks of people anticipating the next Dresden.

I picked Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements out of my tbr pile. It seems like it will be an interesting little story.

Finished and loved The Coldest March: Scott's Fatal Antarctic Expedition by Susan Solomon and started Dreams of Polar Fog, both inspired by the Reading Globally Polar Regions theme read.

Richard- Glad you picked up a copy of The Lost City of Z. It's such a good read and Fishing the Sloe Black River sounds very interesting. Let us know how it is!

Having just finished The Last Pope by Luis Miguel Rocha, I think I'll start on Salvation in Death by J.D. Robb. I love her books about Lieutenant Dallas, the butt-kicking cop with a heart of gold.

I'm reading Mean Streets it's a collection four urban fantasy-mystery novellas by Jim Butcher Simon R. Green Thomas E. Sniegoski and Kat Richardson

>150 Richard..once you finish Fishing the Sloe Black River you might want to check out This Side of Brightness which concerns the construction of the first subway tunnels under Manhattan, thence toward Brooklyn...the "sandhogs' who dug the tunnels by hand....and their descendants....an awesome read. one of my very favorites.....

i still have not started anything new...yet. and it's bugging me out. seriously!

Message edited by its author, Jul 7, 2009, 7:46pm.

Now I have read The Pearl and I actually remember having read it years ago, probably in high school and thus ends my Classics category for the challenge.

I will now get to Heir of Sea and Fire and The Inner Reaches of Outer Space

#136 JolieLouise - Thanks, I will give Elizabeth Berg another go with one of her other novels... she does appear to have quite the following based on the holds at my public library for her books!

I have come to realize that the older I get, the more I appreciate the simple things in life. Simple, as in 'duh'! Once I reached for the stars, now I'm happy when I see a rising dawn. I check out the death notices every day to make sure I'm still alive and kicking.

I bring this up, because, after dissin' The Angel's Game, and I really wanted to read this much-heralded book, I looked eagerly forward to reading Night Train To Lisbon. But I cannot finish it either, it's boring, the story has become extremely tough to understand. The book started out with great promise but for me it lost its lustre halfway through, and was becoming a mighty slog. It's not at all what I envisaged.

I have therefore come to the conclusion that I simply was not smart enough to understand either book. I no longer have the patience to reread passages that I found difficult to grasp, and foreign pronounciations are tying my tongue in knots. My IQ is starting to resemble my tummy measurement.

So I plan to go back to the simple books in life, the shoot-em-ups, the adventures on the high seas, war stories and tales of derring-do, with Robin Hood and Captain Blood, perhaps a little Enid Blyton thrown into the mix. I may even start on the Twilight series.

Where, once upon a time I loved reading the classics, I adored historic biographies and was not afraid of Little Women, heroes like Churchill and Robert Scott were a steady diet for me. Now I look forward to the IKEA catalogue in the mail.

So what went wrong? Has it dawned on me at last that I don't have to be a 'serious' reader? Perhaps I can jolly well read for enjoyment. (I can always boast to LTers that I just finished Dostoevsky and Shakespeare, and, anyway, what have they written lately, Dos Passos and Faulkner were too easy), when in fact I'm sneaking a peak at Harold Robbins' latest.

There are miles and miles of books to enjoy, and I have barely started the journey. With coloring book and crayons in hand, I plan to leave the big words to the adults and read whatever for the simple pleasures that are sure to fall my way.

Message edited by its author, Jul 7, 2009, 11:17pm.

>165 -- good for you! A book doesn't need big words to be a great book. I thoroughly enjoyed Captain Blood last year and Treasure Island last month. Please continue to let us know about the simple pleasures you're enjoying.

#135: wind_flower

I really loved Kafka on the Shore. Hope you're enjoying it!

#165 - Sounds good to me, Morfam. I've found that I'm really not a fan of magical realism. I was disappointed to realize this since many of the books that employ that style have sounded so interesting but then I try to read them and just can't get into them. Ah well. There are so many other books out there waiting to blow me away!

Morfam... I could not agree more. I just will not read to impress, or keep up with the so called serious readers. I read what I want... mostly. Sometimes there is a book I would prefer to read "right now" but I read a "have to read and review" first. Still, those are books I have chosen...I don't go for serious, some "popular" I avoid like the plague. So what?

I am a mostly happy, sometimes disappointed reader...but always I read to suit me, not "them" whoever they are :)

Welcome to the world of freedom :)

- Morfam & mckait

I get you. Sometimes I was self conscious about all the fantasy books I read, but after they got me through the hard times by getting me away, I just don't care anymore.

I think this is the place to express that, no read to impress, we are all impressive people here!

(I still liked Night Train to Lisbon tough, but perhaps I'm a little bias ;) )

Morfam, Mckait, et al:

Hooray and well said. I left one of the reading challenge threads a few months ago because I found myself trying to keep up with others. Some were reading 3 or 4 books at a time, 10 or more a week, and I was savoring one at a time for a week or more. I was actually letting myself start to feel inferior. Ditto with the desire to impress others with the seriousness of my choices. So totally not necessary. I read what I read when I want to read it. Just finished a reread of a Harry Potter and have gone on to a book I picked up from Border's 3 for 2 table, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming. I've never seen it mentioned on LT, but it suits my mood right now. Maybe I'll go on to a reread of Anne of Green Gables next. Depends on my mood. Maybe a Robert B. Parker. Who knows? And I'm the only one who should care.

I can really enjoy a book when I can imagine my self one of the characters. whether it be male, female and it doesn't have to be the main character. If I cannot be one of the characters then it doesn't hold my interest. That is why I read mostly fiction.
Next up Someone Knows my Name by Lawrence Hill.

>#127 CarlosMcRey, you say you're finding The Eyre Affair depressing. This is such an interesting reaction to the book I hope you don't mind me asking why? I've loved all of Jasper Ffordes books. A couple of my friends don't like them so much. More information on your thoughts please.

Message edited by its author, Jul 8, 2009, 10:28am.

I'm reading Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie in anticipation of the upcoming Masterpiece Mystery episode.

I felt intimidated a bit by all the "classics" being read here (new and old), so I tried some and I liked some, but the point here is to read books and go with what you feel best with - but once in a while get out of the comfort zone knowing that you can jump back in and who knows you may find a new boundary on that comfort zone

but as I said reading is what is important and the only one you have to "impress" is you!

Finally finished Can't Buy My Love, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. Although I agreed with many of her conclusions, the book is written from a blatant feministic perspective, which doesn't suit my tendency to search for a middle ground. I felt like many of her analyses of specific ads were farfetched, and her statements that women are victims and men are villains contradicted her wishes for ads to portray committed, emotional relationships. Kind of hard to find such a relationship when men are apparently to blame for so many of a woman's problems. Her argument was a little too one-sided for me, and she came across as a bit of an alarmist.

Now on to something a little less dense and culturally sensitive...a good popular fiction thriller! (Still debating between King & Crichton.)

Morfam -one of the delights of reading is to transport oneself into another world, to be thrilled, enthralled, scared sometimes, and joyous. The books that allow us to experience these sensations are the ones that speak to us intimately. This is why I love LT - although I don't enjoy reading certain books, I know there are others here who do, and I get to see a side of books that I wouldn't ordinarily enjoy through the eyes of ones who do. And that's enough for me. There are too many books out there that I'd rather spend what little time I have reading the ones that will hold me in its grasp and at the very end, leave me feeling that I have just spent a delightful time with a dear friend.

I'm in the midst of one such book that holds me enthralled - Salvation in Death by J.D. Robb. It's a difficult book for me to put down because I just need to keep turning the pages, but I decided to take a little break for a while to check email and of course LT but I will be back to it again shortly.

It makes me very unhappy to hear that anyone would feel intimidated or inferior because of reading what makes you happy. Please do not let that happen.
Some people are fast readers, some not. Some prefer serious reading, some do not. I myself like a nice mix of serious or nonfiction, bio, history type things.. and light fun reads. It just depends on my mood of the moment, and what I am interested in at that time.

171: jbleil

Why not come to the 75 challenge... list the books you have read..
and call your thread 75 challenge or less for jbleil?

We are a friendly bunch there... please consider it. No one is judging you, or if there is someone doing that, it is so very much THEM and not you!
I have a thread there... come and visit and see what you think..

Unfortunately, I too have felt inferior because of my reading preferences, mainly from my fellow English majors at school, including one of my good friends who is an English Lit major and who probably wouldn't touch a work of popular fiction with a ten foot quill pen. I distinctly remember an argument I had with him in which I argued that the Harry Potter series would go down in history as classic children's literature (or even adult literature if you take the last three or four books in the series), and he claimed that although the Harry Potter books were enjoyable, they didn't demonstrate the broad, universal themes that would make them true classics. I was extremely irritated by this, not only because I felt his statement was completely wrong, but because he took such a narrow-minded view of what made some books better than others.

I try to expand my literary horizons, but my favorite books almost always lie in the genre of popular horror/thriller fiction. Stephen King will probably never be a literature class staple, yet I enjoy his novels more than any others because his stories are so entertaining and are written for the sheer pleasure of storytelling. Of course, many of my pretentious classmates do not understand this and cannot figure out why I will take Michael Crichton over James Joyce. I suppose in the eyes of my peers, this makes me a sub-par English student. I have never changed my taste in books to suit the opinions of others, but it is an unfortunate situation when I feel ashamed for having read more Stephen King than Shakespeare.

I used to think that because I have an advanced degree and am a university prof that I shouldn't enjoy Stephen King or Janet Evanovich (or frankly, anything that appears on a book rack in Target or the supermarket). I would actually wonder what my colleagues would think. And then at some point I realized (duh!) that I read for myself, that I always have, and that what I read at any given moment simply depends on what I need at that time. I have no problem alternating now between Sue Grafton and F. Scott Fitzgerald or Candace Bushnell and Willa Cather. I can happily spend weeks devouring "chick lit" and Jasper Fforde (what a revelation to realize that reading a book for a good laugh was as good a reason as any to read!) and Neil Gaiman. I totally agree with mckait: if someone is judging another's reading habits, it's a sign that the judge has a problem, not the reader!

Message edited by its author, Jul 8, 2009, 7:21pm.

Well said everybody. I am reading Maire, pronounced Moi-Ra. It takes place in fifth century Ireland where Christianity is just starting to take root. It involves warriors and Druids. I found this book on the shelf at Wal-Mart and find it involving enough to want to turn the pages. That is enough of a litmus test for me. I'll learn a little something and be enterrtained along the way.

I just finished Dan Brown's Deception Point which was a delicious jump up and down and throw the book thriller. Much has been said about Angels and Demons and of course the old tired saw, The Da Vinci Code, but this book was perfect in every way and I would not have changed anything. I got THAT book from Sam's Club. Two good reads from two box stores and I'm delighted with each.

Still Alice - very sad but very well done. Starting Love Walked In and Tipping Point.

All the messages above are why I like LT and this group in particular. We are a group of people who love to read and who love to talk about it. Who cares whether you are reading high-brow classics or a modern romance or thriller? I personally like some classics but I also like the first Twilight and will continue with that series. I don't think it's what you do or don't read that gives you value as a person, it's how you treat others, especially those who differ from you.

Okay, off the soapbox & back to work.

#173, QuestingA. Well, for starters, the world it's set in is basically a dystopia. England has been fighting a pointless colonial war for the better part of two centuries, and the citizenry is so apathetic that they barely seem to bother protesting. England reached total cultural stagnation around 1895, but nobody notices because they're too busy obsessing over Milton and Shakespeare. It's like some creepy reactionary wet dream, all played for maximum whimsy. (Except for those moments where the Crimean War flashbacks are needed to give Thursday Next depth.) Admittedly, it's possible to get a lot of laughs out of ostensibly nightmare scenarios. (After all, Douglas Adams manages to make the destruction of the Earth funny.) Fforde doesn't really seem to have the chops to pull it off. There's just so little irony or style to his writing.

Perhaps I just had too high of hopes for the book. It just seems like a book that is so literature obsessed should have something to say besides, "Thank goodness modernism never happened."

Since you've read the sequels would you mind doing some spoilering for me? Do we ever learn what the deal was with Acheron Hades? I was hoping that it would turn out he was an escaped literary character himself, maybe the villain of some work of pulp fiction. (Or even the villain of a book named The Eyre Affair. Now that would have been daring!)

I have discovered the perfect antidote, guaranteed to take away the rumbly in my tumbly...

A cup of LibraryThing in the morning, repeat at night, and sweet dreams for all. Gosh, you guys know how to make a guy feel great. The response to my classical reading inhibitions was surprising, and so useful and informative. That's what makes this site so great and keeps me coming back.

I must confess, to those who perhaps have not realised, that I very often write with tongue lodged firmly in cheek. I can never hope to attain Richard's
elevated status, nobody can be that good, but in my quiet little humorous offerings, I like to think that I can raise a little cain every now and then.

And I readily admit that right now I'm definitely after the sympathy vote, and you won't believe how low I can go in order to bring out the hankies.

But, you people truly are an inspiration, I don't read every letter to the editor, but I sure as heck will read every thing here...

my attitude:

Read what you want to...to hell with everybody else. life is too short and there are way too many great, undiscovered books out there...and curiosity reigns supreme.

as usual, i am late getting into this discussion....

I second "and curiosity reigns supreme."

178:mckait

You are so right. You can see my thread at Club Read 2009: jbleil's 2009 just-enough reading.

I'm reading The Rising by Brian Keene, a story about demon-possessed zombies, on my Kindle. So far it's pretty fun. In hard copy, I'm reading Innovative Redesign and Reorganization of Library Technical Services--less fun, but more interesting.

>171 CO-girl, you said: he claimed that although the Harry Potter books were enjoyable, they didn't demonstrate the broad, universal themes that would make them true classics.
...?!?...what in the name of common sense is the boy reading? Huck Finn? How, EXACTLY, is that more universal than Harry Potter?

I was extremely irritated by this, and rightly so not only because I felt his statement was completely wrong, but because he took such a narrow-minded view of what made some books better than others. He might not be wrong. The judgments of history often make no sense in the context of a particular time. Lincoln, f/ex, wasn't revered until the 20th century. Most of the 19th century thought US Grant was The Man Who Won the Civil War and he was revered accordingly. (His memoir, BTW, would repay an English Lit major's study, much as Caesar's does.)

But to be so priggishly, foolishly dismissive of something popular on the grounds that its themes aren't universal enough...! What a maroon, as Bugs Bunny would have said. What in the sacred name of Danielle Steel does the man think MAKES A BOOK POPULAR?!? Abstruse geometrical prose about a single day in a second-rank second-rate European backwater that uses metaphors based in a vile, oppressive "spiritual" protection racket's theives' cant? (That's Ulysses, to the overbred.)

He's an idiot, and his PhD (if granted) isn't worth the match to burn it.

Hmmmf.

>185 morfam, you said: I can never hope to attain Richard's elevated status, nobody can be that good

One is pleased to have demonstrated one's innate and incontrovertible magnitude and breadth of erudition.

Morfam, Absolutely! I've been much more content since I gave in to my inner child a few years ago and admitted that I like children's and YA novels. I still love my Dickens and Austen, and I enjoy mysteries as long as they're cozy, not hard boiled. But, mostly I read SF and Fantasy, and it seems like a lot of the books in these genres (this genre?) are labeled YA. That's fine with me. BTW I've rediscovered E Nesbit. What charming stories! And, some employ what is now called Magical Realism. The Enchanted Castle has been a favorite since I first read it at about aged ten.

Cindy, your observation that you can enjoy a book when you can imagine yourself one of the characters is most illuminating. You're right, of course; but the comment struck me especially in my guise as a writer. I'll keep your specification in mind. Thanks for mentioning it.

Colorado Girl, I majored in English and got my M.A. in English with a concentration in Medieval literature. And, you know what? My alltime favorite book is, and has been for more years than I can comfortably remember, The Lord of the Rings. That is followed closely but in no particular order by The Silmarillion, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, Bleak House and, my newest favorite and comfort reading, the Twilight saga. If I'm shallow, so be it. I'm happy reading what I like (see above) and have long ago given up caring what anyone thinks about it. I've been known to reread Moby Dick, and I've been known to read Star Trek novels, and enjoy both. While I have my doubts that Harry Potter is on the same level with, say, The Chronicles of Narnia, I certainly enjoyed it and would not hesitate to give a child I knew both Harry and Narnia.

#189 richardderus - He's the kind of person who read the 7th Harry Potter book and then explained why JK Rowling would have been better off if she had altered x, y, and z. (I can't remember his exact claims, although I do remember telling him that I noticed that SHE was the one making the billions of dollars off of the most popular books in the world, and not him. Once he starts writing a bestselling series, then we can talk about how the books should have been written.) I simply enjoy a book if it's a well told story. He enjoys a book if it makes some kind of grand statement about society or politics. I recognize that everyone has different tastes, although it does become a bit tiresome when I feel like I have to explain why I prefer King over Dickens, or Koontz over Austen. I should count myself lucky that our college offers two separate pathways in the English department - he's studying English Literature while I chose Creative Writing...I felt like that would be more conducive to my love of story-telling than studying the philosophy of Wordsworth.

It's unfortunate than any of us should have to justify our reading preferences to ANYONE. I read because I've been reading from the time I could talk and I couldn't imagine a better way to enjoy myself. It's time for others to give this low-brow literature a chance!

>192 CO-girl, I simply enjoy a book if it's a well told story. He enjoys a book if it makes some kind of grand statement about society or politics. And you're both right! Foryourselves. If this is the kind of goofball getting a lit. degree, I fear for the literacy of the Republic.

What I think...for what it's worth...is that the more breadth of exposure one has to all sorts and kinds of writing, from all sorts and kinds of creators, the better thinking one can do about storytelling and craftsmanship in a given work and the more informed an opinion one can form of same.

Then comes the hard bit...offering the opinion to others in such a way as to advocate one's position while leaving room for others to disagree.

I read The Hobbit as an impressionable 11-year-old, and was enthralled! (I began planning my eleventy-first birthday party then and there. So far I'm sure that I want NOT to have it in a hospital. All else is still mutable.) Then, the year after, I picked up The Fellowship of the Ring because the boy I had a huge crush on was reading it and I wanted to be able to talk to him about something that wasn't school gossip or baseball.

BOOOOOORRRIIIIIINNNNNNGGG

I finished the %(#*!&%_^)(*^ thing. I talked about it with Cutie Blue-eyes. I hid my dismayed sense of complete and utter betrayal at having the charming, warm and lovely tale of The Hobbit curdle into this pretentious, self-important, mis-syncretic myth-mash. (Those weren't the words I used in 1971.) And I grew up scarred by the cruelty of writers who think who they are. (An old Italian lady said that when she wanted to accuse someone of being too big for their britches, and I love it.)

But that doesn't mean I don't, as an adult, recognize the importance of the achievement Tolkien made. That book (really only one, though published in volumes) is hugely important in forming the collective unconscious of our times. It *invented* a modern publishing category. It legitimized complexity in a field that, supposedly, didn't want it (SF/fantasy). None of which matters a good goddam to me...I loathe the books. I tremble with barely repressed rage when I am forced by politeness to remain silent as others praise the stupid things to the skies.

But, in my well-informed opinion, the Tolkien Trilogy stinks on ice, though I know and accept that it's a work of major importance in our culture and deserves its place in the canon. Still, don't leave it, me, and a box of matches alone in a room and expect good things to happen....

About 80 pages into The Buried Book by David Damrosch. Narrative of the re-discovery of the Gilgamesh Epic. For the non-expert but interesting. In the same vein as Gods, Graves and Scholars but @ moderate length on a single discovery and and the amplification of the epic back into a living culture, both East and West. Good read but maybe the author is streching for too much.

Decided to sound off, gently, on some books here:

The Sparrow-I liked it and have given it as a present but I think you will find the end borrowed from a plot of Mr. Wells. Still good but I found the sequel Children of God clearly an afterthought propelled by the popularity of Sparrow.

Dracula-Loved it. Hooked in high school. That's saying something.

The Pearl-I had to read it in high school and burst out with spontaneous laughter @ the ending. I don't think that is was Steinbeck was shooting for.

I don't think I would re-read any J.R.R. Tolkein. I hear the boring.

Odd reaction to the Eyre Affair. I thought it was a hoot.

A Perfect Spy-Good. Seemed liked the author's most biographical work that I read.

Watership Down-Loved it and my wife and I read it to each other on a long car trip vacation.

Sophie's World-Read the philosophy and skip the fiction chapters. Good primer.

Richard

Your last few posts just stole the words right out of my mouth.

(Yeh, right!)

I agree with #189, with reservations. I thought #193 rather obtuse, although your points were well thought out. And #190 had to be my absolute favorite, even though I have no idea whether or not you voted yea or nay.

Coloradogirl, boy am I glad I was educated in London, England, at a school aptly named The Cuckoo School for Boys.
Coincidentally, Charlie Chaplin and his brother went there at the turn of the century. There's a fascinating true story about the school and its name, but not for now.

Richard, I love it when you go meshuga!

Hello:
I'm reading Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie. It's good so far.

#197 judyroseemily - Welcome to Library Thing and welcome to this thread!

I wanted to jump in - rather late I know but oh well - to agree with a number of posters, including my 'fellow islander' morfam, how everyone can read what they like without having to fit into or conform to someone else's view of what makes a "good book"! If I want to sit down on a rainy afternoon and read a "cheesy chick lit' ... that okay. And I love how everyone here on LT is willing to express their opinions about books... that is why I joined LT in the first place!

Smiley, I agree about Children of God, but I was still glad I read it. I have read all of Russell's books, and not regretted one, but liked The Sparrow most of all.

Yesterday I read Gift From My Son. I liked it a lot, as it reflected many of my own views.

I’m re-reading The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark, which I read really ages ago. So far I don’t remeber a single line; the only things I remeber about this novel , it is that since I read it the first time , I started reading all the Muriel Spark’s book.

Just started The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. I hope I can get into this story.

Finished A Dog's Life yeasterday, and am now reading Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey.

I've been in a rut for the past week and a half, as none of the books I have are capturing my attention. I bought more books yesterday, and started reading the novella Ghosts by César Aira yesterday.

I just finished reading Postern of Fate by Agatha Christie. I am currently reading about 4 books at once, something I haven't done in a long time. I am reading
Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie (I am on an Agatha kick for some reason)

A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

Outlander by Gil Adamson

Master your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels

And a book on the Exercise Ball, that I can't remember the exact name of right now.

Can I just state that I love the line, "What in the sacred name of Danielle Steel does the man think MAKES A BOOK POPULAR?" I work in a library and let me tell you the books we can't keep on the shelf are certainly popular and fun. Steel, Sparks, Lamour, Grisham,(don't even get me started on Twilight).. never on the shelf no matter how many copies we have.

I have an English degree but a poor history of reading "classics" because I had to take an American lit class in college and took Native American Lit, or Award Winners, or took a contemporary theatre class where we read (and watched) nothing but plays. So I've read Louise Erdrich, but no Bronte. I LOVE Tennessee Williams and can go on and on about how awesome Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is but have only read three Shakespeare plays.

As a librarian, I find knowing what James Patterson is up to is far more useful to me than knowing about any of the classic writers. Since I work for the Talking Book Program we get our books on tape from Library of Congress to get to our blind and physically handicapped readers, and it drives me up the wall when Patterson comes out with a new book because we won't have it for at least 6 months to a year but it doesn't stop people from calling and asking about titles.

I got my Member Giveaway copy of Baking Cakes in Kigali yesterday, but I am compelled to finish The Lost City of Z before I start anything else. My sainted aunt had a minor health crisis last night or I would be done with it already. It's so taut and so compellingly told that I am having eyestrain from reading so hard.

Curse you, Jude, for praising this book to the skies! Further curses rain upon Mark for reviewing it so well that I *had* to get it!

*sulphrous muttering at perfidy of "friends" on LT*

#184 CarlosMcRey Thanks for replying. "Nighmarish scenario" is an interesting take, although I can see why you see it as a dystopia. I kind of did too, but found the rest of it so funny that the disturbing oppressive parts (like the cultural stagnation, the war and those SecOps departments regulating everyone’s activities) didn’t seem so bad. There’s more government oppression in the later books, especially with the cheese smuggling.

I’m happy to do some spoilering.

SPOILER ALERT - although this doesn’t really give much away: Acheron Hades isn’t fully explained. His family, most notably his sister, appear in the other books. Their special skills are also never fully explained. The family appears to have an evil gene. The other books do contain an escaped fictional character, Yorrick Kaine. He’s ultimately turned into a real person by the blue fairy. And although Acheron Hades hasn’t escaped from The Eyre Affair, Thursday Next spends some time in one of the Nursery Crime Division books, the other series Jasper Fforde writes.

Again, thanks for answering my question. It's given me a new take and I spent the afternoon re-thinking the whole series, which has been nice.

I have been remiss in posting.

I have finished Precious Dragon by Liz Williams, and enjoyed it.

I finished Thirty-Three Teeth by Colin Cotterill, it is the 2nd in the Dr. Siri Paiboun series about a 72 year old coroner in communist Laos in the 1970s.

It was very enjoyable, lots of details about Laos and their culture and spiritual side. Although the main character is a coroner the books are very life affirming, and have a good bit of humor.

Love this series. Now starting book 3 in the same series. Still in 1970s communist Laos, with Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill.

Message edited by its author, Jul 9, 2009, 1:17pm.

I am sorely tempted to print out this thread and show my bf the posts about how people shouldn't judge others on their reading preferences because it's *exactly* what i want to shout at him sometimes. I often feel inferior in my choice of books when i see him with all his James Joyce and other high-brow classics and I'm reading my YA fantasy and whatnot. When i was actually reading a classic (Pride and Prejudice) i still felt inferior because he had the audacity to call Jane Austen "boring". Argh!! I shouldn't be made to feel like that for reading what i enjoy gosh darn it!

Back on topic: Alternating between The Way of the Shadows and Born to be Riled as the mood takes me.

I'm currently in Québec for a French program, and as such I'm reading the French edition of Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind. It's excellent so far.

Finished Tea-bag by Henning Mankell yesterday, which I really liked: a good story and humour.

Just started with The housekeeper and the professor by Yoko Ogawa which starts good. Now my only difficulty is to turn off the television and start reading...

I take a little time away to finish Salvation in Death and miss all this explosive exchange on LT ... darn! I felt like a spectator at Wimbeldon, with my head zipping first one way and then the other. :-O *applause, applause* ... i would do the little zippy animation cuties that mckait does so well but i'm a doofus when it comes to that stuff.

I was planning to start on Stealing Athena by Karen Essex since it'll pull me away from the tough futuristic world that J.D. Robb builds for her Lieutenant Eve Dallas series, but I think I'm seeing too many posts for Shadow of the Wind and should that as a sign for me to pull it off my TBR pile, blow the dust off and crack it to the opening chapter.

Cool discussion.

Now then . . . on your mark . . . get set . . . read whatever you want!

The real problem with putting down somebody else's reading habits and telling them how much superior your reading preferences are is that you are making them less likely to try some of your favorites out for size, not more likely. That, plus it's just simply an ignorant and obnoxious thing to do.

I just finished A Mad Desire to Dance, the latest novel by Elie Wiesel. I will be writing about it at greater length shortly on my 50-Book Challenge thread, but I just wanted to say that this book, which started out to be quite challenging indeed, ended up by completely sweeping me into it's world. It's a sometimes hallucinatory investigation of madness and lucidity, the false promise of emotional solitude for the fearful soul and the inter-relation between them all. In addition the book presents something of a metaphorical journey through the many intellectual and emotional qualities of being a religiously and/or culturally committed Jew in the post-Holocaust world.

The book is not wholly about the Holocaust by any means, but, as a way of illustrating the beauty and power of Wiesel's writing, here is a harrowing 1-paragraph description of the experience of Polish Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto and then the camps during WW2:

"I won't tell you what I suffered and lived through there. Human beings became unrecognizable, stripped of everything, beyond everything. For us, the city narrowed to the size of a street, the street to a building, the building to a room, the room to a cattle car; wealth shrank to a bundle of belongings, the bundle to a mess kit, and happiness to one miserable potato. And man, whose destiny is incommensurable, became nothing but a number, and the number became ash."

Message edited by its author, Jul 9, 2009, 3:18pm.

Great posts. Agree that part of the fun is varied reading, and we put up with those who have silly biases, as aggravating as they can be sometimes.

I can remember trying to convince my English professor brother-in-law that graphic novels have worth (to me they combine art and words, sometimes well, sometimes not so well) (and sometimes with no words at all!) He finally bought in when I gave him Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, which he is considering using in class.

I was struck by how much I agreed with Smiley's post on various books in #195, except that I haven't read The Pearl, and I have re-read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings more than once (although there is some boring walking, walking with Frodo and Sam that goes on, and probably other slow material, no question about it). Liked The Sparrow, not the sequel, loved Dracula (great gothic fun), etc.

I just finished a YA title, Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork, about a high functioning teen with something like Asberger's, which I liked a lot, and just started The Mistress of the Art of Death, by Ariana Franklin, which has been widely recommended on LT.

at least your boyfriends read...;)

I finally finished The Yiddish Policemen's Union. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It was well written and sometimes very funny, but it was much darker than I expected. I had trouble tracking some of the minor characters, but I think that's due more to the fact that I was reading it in fits and starts than any lack on the author's part.

>215 well he wouldn't *be* my bf if he didn't read- i wouldn't be able to tolerate someone who didn't like to read for more than five minutes before i beat them to death with the collected works of Jane Austen or some other suitably chunky book ;)

Done with the second book of the fantasy trilogy I am reading - Heir of Sea and Fire.

#215, 217 - My boyfriend doesn't read nearly as much as I do, although he did tell me on our first date that he loves the classics (Dracula, Shakespeare, Crime and Punishment), and I fell for him right then and there! Thankfully, he's a great example of someone who loves classic literature without being snobby; otherwise, I'd have to hit him upside the head with one of Stephen King's lengthier novels. :) Hooray for men who can tolerate (and enjoy!) reading!

To Morfam and everyone else regularly on this thread: Thank you all for your opinions! =o) It's wonderful that these stories we are all either defending, or suggesting can cause such definitions of love for the written word. I love reccommendations and if I ever say anything (which isn't often) that may sound as if I'm "pressuring" anyone into reading anything, I would hope one of you would slap my wrist before I become an even bigger fool than someone forcing someone else to agree with my views and opinions. If I ever suggest a book, it's only because I want to share the joy I got from that particular book, as I'm sure we all desire for eachother. =o)

Books ROCK!

I was just kidding geeeshh...

#27 - Ikernagh Thanks so much for telling me about the touchstones. I'm sorry it took me so long to write back. I'm still navigating my way through this site.

>88 and Walden-- I read Walden for an American Lit class recently, and while I think it's an important text in the American literary canon, I don't necessarily think it's an amazing or entertaining book. And I had similar frustrations with it as a reader!!!

I got really into Independence Day after a relatively slow start and now I can't put it down. I now want to read other recent Pulitzer Prize/NYT books.

213: rocketjk - nice post, I'll have to check out your thread.

Lady V 209

get rid of the bf and get a dog

Then read anything you darned well choose.

Or better, a cat. You don't have to waste precious reading time walking a cat.

#225 - And the dog might even let you read TO him! I used to do that all the time with my cats when I was little!

Finished "Careless In Red", the latest from Elizabeth George...a very satisfying read, plus it's set in Cornwall.
Next up...time to get re-acquainted with 'Anna Pigeon' in Nevada Barr's "Winter Study".

Having been incredibly distracted by my new toy, I've not got much reading done this week. I did manage to finish Fruits Basket volume 1 yesterday, and I'm already halfway through Fruits Basket volume 2 today. I did do a bit of reading in Home Repair, but I'm about 50 pages in. It's a really good book, though, and I'm enjoying it... just not able to concentrate very well.

#224> Thanks! Here's a shortcut: http://www.librarything.com/topic/54150

Message edited by its author, Jul 9, 2009, 5:53pm.

Richard, my goodness! You *were* scarred!

I love The Lord of the Rings. However, I was literally not allowed to read it till I was in my early twenties. Have always resented this very deeply. But, I wonder now if maybe the stupid, narrowminded grownup who imposed the ban might actually have been right. It is possible, not likely mind you but possible that if I'd been allowed to read The Fellowship of the Ring at age thirteen my reaction might have been similar to yours.

But, my goodness! Remind me not to waxe lyrical on the monumental virtues of The Lord of the Rings around you, since I value my life. *grin*

Crazy4reading, a whole book on the exercise ball? Wow!

BTW I've noticed that men seem to find Austen boring. I don't; but then, I'm not a man. *smirk*

smirk?

Robert

My cat likes to sit on the arm of my chair or the hasic and listen to my talking books with me.

Today I bought The Boxer and the Spy by Robert B Parker on unabridged CD. Sounds interesting. Is this the same Robert B Parker who writes the Spensor novels?

>231 Catreona, wax away...far, far away! ;-P

My dog thinks reading is the oddest imaginable thing. She occasionally fangs a book over into her corner and sniffs it, nudges it, and then uses it for Milk Bone storage.

While I am reading in bed, supine with pillow on capacious belly, book propped at *exactly* the right angle, said dog will lie down next to my head, insert her head between me and the book, and stare at the pages. I have no idea what she derives from this, but it's a habit.

Jerry's review of A Mad Desire to Dance is stellar. I now want to read this book, for another great, great quote:

"In this ambiguous universe, full of pitfalls and boasts, strength lies in the act of creating one's own lucidity and mastering one's own truth. The person who loves, who creates or re-creates if only for a split second, has already won a victory over the absurdity of fate."

Beautiful.

*richardderus et al pet owned readers

my boy cat Kenshin has been known to give his "love bites" to my hand and the book if it comes between him and his appointed time to be petted...

My obese cat, Taffy, likes to use my books to prop herself up, probably because it's easier than standing up to support her own body weight. She's particularly fond of my Harry Potter books and tries to bite my hand and claw the book jackets when I pull them out from underneath her. And one of my other cats likes it when I read in bed, because he takes the opportunity to curl up between my book and my side, although his tail often covers up my pages and makes it very difficult to read.

>212: cameling- Yes, blow the dust off! I'll be curious what side you'll come down on, since the The Shadow of the Wind has it's detractors. I loved it, btw!
Jerry- Nice description of A Mad Desire to Dance! Will have to add it to the list. The only book I've read by him is Night.

I finished both Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood and Runaway by Alice Munro this week and loved them both! I have started The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson which I had picked up a few years ago at a library sale. I recognized the title from a movie and was interested to see it was the same story. Upon reading the introduction, it appears that this story is actually at least semi-autobiographical. I have only just started it but have found it interesting so far.

Finished Interred With Their Bones, which I found extremely enjoyable, and am moving on to Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. I have enjoyed the posts recently and am glad to here that there's room on LT for people of ALL tastes! For myself, I LOVE the Lord of the Rings series, haven't been able to get into Twilight and as much as I wish I enjoyed Jane Austen, I can't get through one of her books. (love the movies though!)

I finished Crazy For the Storm: A Memoir of Survival by Norman Ollestad. Anyone looking for an exciting, intense, page-turner, this is the ticket! I started Fatal Light by Richard Currey. This is an ER book I received, that is actually a 20th anniversary reissue. It is a Vietnam novel and just over 60 pages in, I'm sold. His prose is wonderful, reminiscent of The Things That They Carried.

#242 Fatal Light sounds pretty interesting. I loved The Things They Carried.

I'm just past the halfway point of The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips, also an ER book. I love it.

Richard,

I loved your post on LOTR, particularly because I have the exact opposite views of the books than you (which is what is so great about these discussions)! I read all of the books as an adult, which might explain why I was bored silly with The Hobbit. I was so discouraged after reading it that I had to be forced, practically at gunpoint, to read LOTR by a friend of mine who's read them every three years since she was 14. Finally, I succumbed, and after reading The Fellowship of the Rings it was like the skies cleared of dark clouds, birds began singing, the Red Sea was parted once again (you get the idea). Suffice it to say I loved them and I've re-read them twice since then.

But, as Catreona said, I'm not at all sure I would have felt that way if I'd read them as an adolescent. So at the risk of scarring my children, unless they are absolutely dying to read them in those years, I'll probably encourage them to wait. Sometimes life experience does matter. I felt that way when I read Anna Karenina earlier this year. I thought, "wow I would have hated this book if I'd read it in high school or college." I wouldn't have been able to relate in the slightest (never mind the 18 variations of every Russian name).

I am getting ready to leave for the ALA conference. I hope to pick up lots of ARC's. Of all genre's. I will grab like a mad woman and sort them out when I get home. My choice for reading while enroute is and old one. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All Each book has a story and this one is an old trade paperback I purchased at a used book/coffee shop/brew pub store in Montevallo, Alabama. I have had this one on my TBR pile for a year and since it is small in size and won't take up lots of room in the old carry on tote bag, it's the one for this trip. I'm still reading Trail of Crumbs and I don't think I like this heroine very much, but I will keep reading it because it is for my book discussion group and because I do want to find out if she discovers what motivates her to be the spoiled brat that she is.

I also have Well and the Mine on the TBR pile. This author won the Barnes & Nobel "Discover New Authors" award this last year. I just hope that my book discussion group doesn't find out that this one is by an Alabama author and is set in Alabama or else we will be reading it as well for this year. Alabama is ok but I really want to move on to something else for a little bit.

The reviews have been great for Crazy for the Storm maybe this is one that I should add to the TBR list?

Message edited by its author, Jul 9, 2009, 10:24pm.

I read LOTR when I was back in grade school. My copies had these really funky covers that were colored in really lurid shades of pink and purple! They were so 70's! I liked the books then, but have never had the inclination to re-read them. I thought they were mostly great retellings of old Welsh, Norse, and Germanic myths and legends. Sort of what Neil Gaiman does.

OH! and I can't help but weigh in on the Jasper Fforde Thursday Next debate - I think these books along with the Nursery Crimes series are really fun to read. They are so tongue-in-check. They make me laugh at myself as a reader as well as the often pretentious literary world. (As has been so aptly illustrated by the postings of earlier this week.)

And as a side note - I found that the Secret History of the Pink Carnation series made me laugh at readers as well. (And by laughing I mean that enjoyable gentile humor when you remember things with fondness.) It also made me hark back to my salad days when I read the Regency Romances of Barbara Cartland and Georgette Heyer with such gusto! And, sad to say to all of you who take Richard Sharpe seriously, I put the Richard Sharpe series of Sharpe's Rifles fame in that same category. It's been a while ago, back at the beginning of this week, when somebody on this list said they were reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, now there's another fun Regency read. I hope you enjoy it. What a great fun bunch of books to read and remember with relish!

Message edited by its author, Jul 9, 2009, 10:26pm.

I'm reading Pride & Prejudice
and im so hooked with it.

Message edited by its author, Jul 9, 2009, 10:57pm.

Really enjoying, Someone Knows My Name. May have to put it down,so I can get some housework done tomorrow. Of course the work will always be there :-p

Reading The Blue Last, by Martha Grimes for the 10th(?) time, just so I can re-visit the glove shop.

#246 - those seventies copies of LOTR sound amazing! Better keep them away from Richard and his matches. :-)

I know I've already said quite a bit about The Eyre Affair, so I'll try to keep this brief. I was pretty surprised at how little I enjoyed the book. I was really looking forward to reading it and generally like books that are a little over-the-top, love geeky literary references, the British sense of humour, science fiction, fantasy and metafiction. I'm wondering if my expectations were too high, or if this wasn't the right time. Perhaps I should have Pearled it and come back it some other time, but I tend to be pretty stubborn about finishing books. I may try it again some other day, with more realistic expectations.

I do think some of the praise I'vead of it is overblown. Comparing it to Douglas Adams, for example, strikes me as a little misguided. It's got the sense of inventiveness of Adams, but Fforde doesn't even come close to Adams in terms of style.

I read one book by Martha Grimes The Winds of Change and have run for the hills every time I have seen her name ever since. I am also not a fan of LOTR or Atwood.

I have to decide what to read today. I have The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy by Stewart O'Nan at hand, but I don't think its the one. I want something either light and fun or spoooooky! maybe

>#247 I've been reading Jonathan Strange. A couple of other people were too. I hope they still are! I'd love to know how those people are finding it. I'm at the point where I really want to finish the story but don't want the book it to end. :)

#252 Jasper Fforde's certainly not to everybody's taste. One of my friends thought he was trying to be too clever and that annoyed her. For me, the character names alone made the books worthwhile.

I have just finished Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and have now started Leviathan or, The Whale by Philip Hoare. Am also still making my way through Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino.

I started Gods of Night, a Star Trek novel last night and will read along with that Inner Reaches of Outer Space. Both spacey, but quite different!

Love the conversation about what everyone chooses to read.

I'm doing the 999 challenge to get some books off my huge physical mountain. Mostly I've decided that some of my tbr books are not for me afterall. I've been working on the same Shakespeare play for MONTHS now. When I have time to read, I tend to pick up something else (although I loved watching the dvd with Patrick Stewart!).

I love Tolkien, enjoy Fforde, find Douglas Adams tedious. It's cool that we are all so different!

My main book (I always have about six going for various reasons) is Women of the Klondike by Frances Backhouse for the Arctic/Anrarctic Reading Globally group read. Hard to imagine traversing glaciers at 60 below in ankle length dresses! But I am still sooooooo tempted to sneak off and read a quick mystery, or maybe some Harry Potter before the movie starts next week........

yeah i've gotten to the point where my 50 book challenge is keeping an empty "reading" category because the book i intend to read isn't always the book i read. i still devour my daily page quota (hi, my name is charles and i'm a workaholic that needs to add more work to his life because grad school is over), it's just that it's far too unpredictable to keep a category going.

Xenocide, from the Ender's saga is proving to be really good thus far though. Light on the narrative, but heavy on the thought/character development.. definitely my sort of book.

I started Independence! by Dana Fuller Ross a few days ago and almost through with it. I am truly loving this series. I can't wait to get home tonight to finish it up.

>#255 I read Italian Folktales quite some years ago. I hope you enjoy them. I bought it just before a holiday in Italy. A bunch of us rented a cottage. Our evening ritual was to take turns cooking and setting the table while someone read a tale or two. It was lovely.

i am 10 pages into The Glister by John Burnside...it's tone is ominous/creepy..i wonder if he can sustain this...or end up with just another "weird book"....time will tell

LOTR???? i could never make it more than 1/4 through the first book.....blech!

Finished the first two books in John Updike's Rabbit quartet, Rabbit, Run and Rabbit Redux. Also finished Exiles in the Garden by one of the most underappreciated American writers in the last 30 years, Ward Just. Now reading John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. After that I think I'll finish the last two Rabbit books.

Teresa40 and QuestingA, my personal favorite Italo Calvino book is still The Baron in the Trees, followed closely by The Castle of Crossed Destinies. If these delights haven't crossed y'all's paths yet, I suggest them as additions to Mount TBR.

>253 I knew there was a reason I loved you....

>258 calwakeel, have you read A Fire Upon the Deep yet? It could very well suit you, based on your response to Xenocide. I found both books tough sledding, but admired each for the breadth of imagination the authors showed.

>261 Jude, you're my kinda gal! mckait has competition....

>262 SeanLong, I'm off to look into Ward Just now. I'm a complete sucker for underappreciated authors, like Dawn Powell.

I have, with many tears and lamentations, finished The Lost City of Z. I want to read it again, for the first time. I know that makes no sense, but y'all know what I mean.

>263 Richard

i know...i wanted to read Lost City of Z a second time...but i'd promised it to another Book Junkie...alas!

Dawn Powell's work i have loved for years...but i don't own any...big DUH on that score...Ward Just..i don't know him or his work..hmmmmmm.

vis a vis the dreaded LOTR...i preferred The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake...Dickensian..with a soupcon of the Grotesque...yum yum...

>254
If you like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell pick up the short story collection also - The Ladies of Grace Adieu: and Other Stories - it's in the same world, some stories filling the blanks left from the novel, some just concerning other characters from the novel besides the two title ones.

Has anyone read Mother Tongue by Teri Holbrook? I ask because I started it this week but feel that I'd be better off starting with one of her earlier books in the series. Any thoughts?

Jumping into the Jasper Fforde debate: I'm not a huge fan of the Tuesday Next novels, but I LOVE the Nursery Crimes series (especially The Fourth Bear) I laugh out loud as I read them.

Finally made it through The Yiddish Policemen's Union. I was expecting to be totally enthralled, after all I read about it. Maybe I'll give it another shot.

Just started Everybody was so Young, about Gerald and Sara Murpy, monied friends of Lost Generation artists and writers and interesting people in their own right.

I'm reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for my book club

The Woman Who Can't Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science--A Memoir

good!

Finished The Dragons of Ordinary Farm by Tad Williams and Deborah Beale. A children's book which was a joy to read after all that heavy, dreary adult stuff. Everyone needs a happy ending every once in a while and the resolution to the dragon problem made this old dragon dreamer very happy.

Next up is Rite by Tad Williams.

Finished Someone Knows My Name. It was hard to believe that this was a work of fiction. Decided to read A Pound of Paper by John Baxter for some light reading. Can not stop thinking about Aminata.

#252> To each his own, definitely, so don't take this the wrong way, Carlos, but I have found the Fforde books to be entirely more satisfying than Douglas Adams' books (and I am a big fan of Adams). It's just funny to me (and really cool at the same time) how we are all affected differently by certain books. I would think comedies would be particularly open to this. How, or whether, something strikes your funny bone I would think is even more an individual thing than how other sorts of writing might hit us.

Anyway, I've read all the Fforde except The Fourth Bear, which is on my short TBR list and have to say that, despite some definite tire spinning in The Well of Lost Plots, I've loved them all.

btw, I got to see Fforde read last year at the Booksmith on Haight Street in SF and he was very friendly and engaging. He definitely does not take himself too seriously and I have to applaud his determination not to sell any of his books for movie making.

finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt and The Boy In The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

enjoyed both

Started my May ARC Sweeping Up Glass by Carolyn Wall ~ really, really enjoying it :) I should have read this one first before my library books, that's how much I like it

Message edited by its author, Jul 10, 2009, 3:20pm.

I'm still savoring The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. Also enjoying Childhood and Nature by David Sobel.

it's curlysue's fault

Last night i decided that it was time i started my quick-fire re-read of the Harry Potter series before i go and see the Half-Blood Prince next week (which i will invariably chew to pieces over it's missing bits)
Read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and hopefully will get through Chamber of Secrets tonight if i get off the computer early enough ;)

I've been gone from this group for quite awhile, but I'm back!

Currently I'm reading You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I started The Historian back in May and had a lot of trouble getting into it, but I think I've finally found my groove and am chugging away. I'm only about 75 pages away from finishing YRMoM, which I hope to do this weekend (while relaxing on the beach, yes!)

I'm willing to start reading The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I'm really interested in learning about the History of Britain. We have just learned a little bit about it in a subject at college. I've heard this book is truly amazing and I'm really excited about the idea of the story having been written from the perspective of women. Really nice!

The Tolkien thing: I read all the books, starting with The Hobbit in order, one after another before I saw the movies with my wife. That way the book was in my brain when I watched the movies and not the reverse. To me, he seemed to sacrifice story and character to some higher ideal of creating an English mythology. I much prefer CS Lewis.

On classics/good books and peoples reading choices: Dorothy Parker said the world was saved everytime someone finish a book. Or something like that. I agree. We are always suprised by others' choices in books and friends. Yes, I wish other people's tastes in books ran along my lines but you know what? @ least they are reading something instead of blogging or etc. (ha,ha). In the Writers at Work series by the Paris Review, Kingsley Amis viewed individual books like mountain peaks, did the author conquer the summit or make it only part of the way? Maybe he topped this moutain but not the next one he tried. Again, I agree. I think that is a fair way to look at individual books and even a writer's body of work.

The Tolkien thing: I read all the books, starting with The Hobbit in order, one after another before I saw the movies with my wife. That way the book was in my brain when I watched the movies and not the reverse. To me, he seemed to sacrifice story and character to some higher ideal of creating an English mythology. I much prefer CS Lewis.

On classics/good books and peoples reading choices: Dorothy Parker said the world was saved everytime someone finish a book. Or something like that. I agree. We are always suprised by others' choices in books and friends. Yes, I wish other people's tastes in books ran along my lines but you know what? @ least they are reading something instead of blogging or etc. (ha,ha). Somewhere in the Writers at Work series by the Paris Review, Kingsley Amis viewed individual books like mountain peaks, did the author conquer the summit or make it only part of the way? Maybe he topped this moutain but not the next one he tried. Again, I agree. I think that is a fair way to look at individual books and even a writer's body of work.

Message edited by its author, Jul 10, 2009, 4:07pm.

renataft~ Mists is one of my fav. books I Love Love Love it!!!! Enjoy it :) It's one of a kind

mckait~ my fault? what, did you add a book to your pile? is that grumbling that I hear?

yep.

Secret History.......

Mists is a fave of mine as well...O have read it a dozen times or more...

mckait

Secret History good choice

gives new meaning to the idea that if you do something horrible the least amount of people that know about it the better

well, when you posted, I went to look at reviews here and at Amazon...
I was lost the minute I clicked the Amazon link.. but I read some anyway..

I swear I don't know where I am going to put the next book that comes into this house! eep!

must purge.

#278
Mists is my favorite book of all time. I re read it a thousand times bought everyone I know a copy. As I said before this book shaped some of my world view.I which to I could read them again for the first time.

#277
Relaxing on the beach may be the best place to finish The Historian the last chapters are really frightening!
I too had difficulties in the beginning of the book but it paid off.

I just finished the three stigmata of palmer eldritch by Phillip K. Dick, which was good, but far from his best work. I'm getting ready to start At the mountains of madness by H.P. Lovecraft.

278 - "Mists" is wonderful as are the ones that come after - it made me a Marion Zimmer Bradley fan.

now, the others did not do much for me, koalamom.

I read them, but....

I too, gave several copies away :)

To me there was a truth to Mists that never shone through the others.. spiritual truth vs stories.

I am reading Columbine by Dave Cullen. I guess I don't have to apologize for my reading tastes.

It is very well written and not too technical.

I'm in the middle of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. It's basically as if I took a bunch of random drugs and decided to read a book. It's trippy and kind of conceited, but I like the pace and the concept behind it...
It sure ain't Palahniuk, that's for sure...:(

Oh, I disagree. The winding of the stories in Haunted was much more skilled than simply having a one perspective story told by many sources like Rant. Plus, the story in Haunted was much better than Rant. I disagree about the flaws. It just takes a practiced mind to follow his jumps...

mckait - I find it very interesting that you say that you are not a fan of Atwood (not a criticism at all by the way :)). I have read three books by her and have found each one to be so entirely different in writing style and topic that it doesn't even seem as if they are written by the same author. I am very curious to hear which books by her you have read.

I also love that everyone has such different tastes in reading on here. I have gotten many recommendations from here as have many others I am sure. I often find myself surprised by a book that I never would have imagined I would like and it turns out to be an absolute favorite.

> 263, Richard - A little background on Ward Just - He's the author of 15 novels and numerous short stories. He was also a correspondent for Newsweek and The Washington Post from 1959 to 1969, after which he left journalism to write fiction.

His novel An Unfinished Season was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005. His novel Echo House was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1997. He has twice been a finalist for the O. Henry Award: in 1985 for his short story About Boston, and again in 1986 for his short story The Costa Brava, 1959. His fiction is often concerned with the influence of national politics on Americans' personal lives. Much of it is set in Washington D.C. and foreign countries. Another common theme is the alienation felt by Midwesterners in the East.

According to Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley, Just's three finest novels are A Family Trust, An Unfinished Season and Exiles In The Garden

I've been a big fan of his for years, ever since I read an article about him in The Washington Post back in the early 90s.

The Devil's Punchbowl
by Greg Iles
His new one. So far so great.

Found time after work to finish In gallant Company. Great sailing ship action.
Am now 138 pages into First Blood. So far much more intense and better developed town folk than the blockbuster movie.

Your choice of words - "savoring" The Remains of the Day is an absolutely perfect description. It was just wonderful - one of those books I rue that I can't read it again as if for the first time.

Tonight, I'm waiting for dinner to finish cooking and have decided to begin reading either Columbine or Blindsided by Karin Slaughter as I was fortunate to receive an ARC of her latest book, Undone. touchstone not working? Hmmmm.

PS - Anyway, I decided to read Blindsided first, so I would have a feel for the characters Slaughter writes about, before plunging headlong into the new book.

eta to add a PS

WH

Message edited by its author, Jul 10, 2009, 9:20pm.

I'm slowing making my way through David Copperfield (though very much enjoying it), and reading Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson. After finishing Q's Legacy last week, I decided to try one of Q's books of published lectures, so I'm slowly reading On the Art of Reading as well.

I just finished Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs. Really fun read! You can read my review here:

http://www.librarything.com/profile_revi...

Probably going to start What Angels Fear.

Just to clarify, I read and avidly reread The Hobbit in childhood. As an adult, alas, I find it slightly tedious. Perhaps it is more mannered, or consciously written as a children's book, whereas TLOTR reads very smoothly and comfortably.

I understand C.S. Lewis was influenced by E. Nesbit, but can't recall if Tolkien was. I guess the proof of the pudding is that as a child I loved the children's book, The Hobbit and as an adult love the adult book, The Lord of the Rings.

250: I enjoyed The Blue Last. Have greatly enjoyed those of Martha Grimes' Richard Jury books that I've read.

I had to read a book by italo Calvino for a college class once, long ago. Never have gotten over the experience. ARG!!!

I liked Lady of Avelon and The Forest House all right, but they weren't as good as The Mists of Avelon. Personally, I like The Once and Future King and Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy, though I did very much enjoy seeing the Arthurian world from the feminine perspective. Anne McCaffrey wrote an Arthurian story as well, Black Horses for the King. It's Anne McCaffrey and the world of King Arthur. What more need I say?

Touchstones don't like me. I've only gotten one to work, The Enchanted Castle, upthread. Rats!

New week, new thread, find it here.

I'll add another vote to Mists of Avalon. I have read it over and over, and forced it on my reading friends. It had a profound influence on me. The world she created just absorbs the reader. I felt I became a part of it, entranced. I wonder how it was to write it--did she lose herself in the story as readers do?

This is actually pretty hilarious. Well I've been at the beginning of {Team of Rivals} for the past two years!

Am reading {Home Repair} by Liz Rosenberg and enjoying every minute of it. My husband read it first, and kept laughing out loud so we started stealing it from each other's side of the bed.

This is actually pretty hilarious. Well I've been at the beginning of {Team of Rivals} for the past two years!

Am reading {Home Repair} by Liz Rosenberg and enjoying every minute of it. My husband read it first, and kept laughing out loud so we started stealing it from each other's side of the bed.

>304-5
You'll need to use the square brackets for touchstones, not the curly ones. Same keys, just don't pair 'em with the shift key.

304 blue

I found Team of Rivals to be a pretty easy read.. I bet you will too if you get into it a bit.. and if you enjoy reading history.... if not, donate it! LOL

I am reading the very impressive, A short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It is absolutely fascinating in its scale. Its raw knowledge written in such an easy going prose.

Yoo hoo! This week's thread is here!

LOTR 60's edition
beat that! :O

#310 - funny enough it's in the thread that it did get beaten... to a pulp.

Mountains Beyond Mountains- after being recommended by readers on LT. I enjoy it so far, although I liked An Imperfect Offering much more!