July 2009: What are you reading?

Well, I opened Book Lust for about 2 minutes and added a handful of books to my TBR. So I think I'm going to put it back on the shelf!

I've started Wolf Moon by John Holt that is in my urban fantasy catagory. This is one that has been in my tbr pile for around two years so it will be a nice one to check off.

I'm still working my way through the Patricia Highsmith biography Beautiful Shadow which I'm finding interesting but slow going. Also on the go is children's classic At the back of the North Wind.

I am just starting the new Janet Evanovich book, Finger Lickin Fifteen.

I'm also continuing on with Why We Read What We Read by Lisa Adams, which is a "journey through bestselling books." I might put this aside because I'm picking up the John Callaway book, The Thing of It Is at the library. Callaway died last week and he is in my thoughts.

I am almost finished reading The Killing Doll.

I've started The Humphrey Bogart Murder Case.

After finishing Part One of the Campbell book, Oriental Mythology, I put it aside to read a couple of other books and it's time to get back to it. I also got a couple of novels from the library today and I'm thinking of starting Melting Stones by Tamora Pierce later tonight.

I'm reading The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning for my Catholicism/Theology category. After that, it's on to The Great Snape Debate in preparation for the HP 6 movie! Woot!

I just started Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji. It could go in either my International or First Novels category.

Just finished All's Well that Ends Well - thumbs down - and I'm about to start The Name of the Rose.

I have been completed distracted by the other wonderful books I must read and have not been concentrating on my 999 challenge. I have ordered The Scarlett Letter and Emma at the library and hope to get them soon and be back on track soon.

I've started Fake: Forgery, Lies, & eBay by Kenneth Walton from my True Crimes category. I sense he's holding back the entire story, but he is a compelling writer.

>11 dianestm: - I'm in the same boat! I have quite a bit that's coming due at the library and an ER book that I need to get read too! So I think I'm going to try to figure out a decent every-other-book is 999 challenge scenario this month. (Of the 10 books I read last month, only 3 were from my 999 challenge lists!)

Been away from the challenge with my last few books so that I could finish the Jack Parlabane series by Christopher Brookmyre but last night saw me embark on Child-44 by Tom Rob Smith.

I am in the middle of The Age of Innocence and just finished a not so great book by Barbara Taylor Bradford, The Heir.

I finished The Name of the Rose and Cyrano de Bergerac, which was the last in my play category. I'm still reading Because He First Loved Us and I need to start another book soon. Maybe The Castle of Otranto if I can find it.

I finished Beautiful Shadow:a life of Patricia Highsmith and once I finish the last few pages of Ragtime I'll probably start The Master and Margaritawhich I'm looking forward to reading.

Well, I haven't started The Castle of Otranto, but I did start Under Western Eyes and I'm not enjoying it very much. Too much interior monologue going and not enough actual ACTION. I'm tired of hearing about every single stray thought that crosses Razumov's mind. Get on with the story.

It's interesting that I do not remember reading this at all and have no idea whatsoever about what happens next. I know I read this for college, and I remember that I finished the whole book. But apparently I retained NOTHING from the book.

I've read the first story in The Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko which is in my continuations category. I'll finish that category (my first to be comlpeted) by reading The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson next as it just arrived in the post this morning.

Getting into Scarecrow by Michael Connelly. I didn't list specific books for my 999 challenge so I can fit any book I read into one of them!!! Should have made a category for LT threads, sometimes I spend more time reading these than my books!!!

Re-reading The Bell by Iris Murdoch.

Ah, here I go again, not reading a challenge book. I am reading The Singing Sands. Upcoming challenge books that I should be getting to shortly include : Wuthering Heights The Invisible Man and Atonement.

Yeah, I just finished Alive and Dead - E X Ferrars, which was just for fun. I am halfway through Under Western Eyes now, and it's more interesting than it was at first. It must, because I've been absorbed in it most of the day!

The 10th Kingdom, which is much different than I thought it would be. Not bad, just different.

I'm reading David Copperfield for my recommendations category, The Kingdom on the Waves for Awards/Honors, and On the Art of Reading for the 999 x 2 category of nonfiction. These might take me awhile....

I am amazed at all the substantial books being tackled in July! It's summer and I can't read anything that doesn't look like it could have raised gold lettering and very short chapters, heavy on the dialogue. So pretty much the opposite of my regular reading. My goal is to read a single book from my original 999 lists this month. One.

>23 Jenson_AKA_DL:. Let us know your final opinion of The 10th Kingdom. My husband and I both loved the video when we saw it a while back.

Finished a fast couple of books, The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage and The Perfect Poison by Amanda Quick.

Moving on to Longitude by Dava Sobel which has been stuck unread on my shelves forever. (Well, actually Jim read it when we first got it but I never managed to come across it when in the right mood for a science history.) Still reading Oriental Mythology in bits and pieces as well.

hailelib - I really liked The 10th Kingdom, I wasn't sure what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. I'm very curious to see how it translated to screen. I'll have to move it up in my Netflix queue.

Up next for me is a book which is on all three of my Challenges, Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz.

Currently reading two 999 (first challenge) books including David McCullough's The Johnstown Flood and also a mystery by Deborah Crombie, In a Dark House.

Just started A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch. Hoping to get my Iris Murdoch category finished this month.

I finished The Castle of Otranto and I'm almost done with Under Western Eyes. And I just started Murder by Decree just for fun. It's Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper.

I've started The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

I'm really enjoying the YA novel Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork. It is about a boy with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, and his summer of working in the "real world" of his dad's law office. Reminds me a little of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.

Finished A Severed Head which I found very entertaining. About to start An Accidental Man. Both these books are from my Iris Murdoch category.

I've started Vampire Zero by David Wellington

Sadly, I finished Lee Child's new Jack Reacher Gone Tomorrow. Hated to see it end. I love this series. Not a bad book in the bunch. I see they have optioned all of the books for movies. I hope they never make them! I have my own vision of Reacher and I don't want Hollywood to ruin it!

I'm almost finished The Angel's Game and have been neglecting RL as a result. A beautifully written page-turner that is just wonderful.

I'm starting The Prestige by Christopher Priest.
It wasn't in my original 999 list but I've found myself making a lot of substitutions lately!

I just finished Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, which was great. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is next on my list, but I'm going to reread Pride and Prejudice first so it'll be fresher in my mind.

Just finished The Angel's Game and have started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I loved 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' when I read it last year.

I am loving and almost finished with the The Tea Rose and then I will have to start The Winter Rose.

I was going to start on Brave New World this weekend but working nights I felt more like something lighter so picked up Making History by Stephen Fry instead.

41> I forgot about The Tea Rose! That was such a good book.

I have over 40 books checked out from the library. I'm overwhelmed to say the least. I think I'm going to read the skinniest ones first so I can reduce the number faster.

I have the third Stieg Larsson on its way here with German relatives. It will be appreciated, as well as giving me an incentive to get another book in my Books in German category read.

I'm reading an Early Reviewer book that I had forgotten about *hangs head in shame* called The Spanish Bow. It's hard to get into another book after The Angel's Game, which left me slightly breathless.

I'm reading Putting on the Whole Armor of God, Wizards at War, and off-challenge, The Samurai's Wife.

My friends, I hold in my hands Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I'm so excited!

Hee hee, it's the perfect vacation read. Enjoy!

Still reading my Iris Murdoch category for 999Challenge. Just finished The Black Prince which was hard going to start with but the second half was well worth the effort.
Just started The Italian Girl. which is a much shorter novel about Edmund returning to his childhood home for his mother's funeral.

My Kindle book is The Library at Night.

My non-Kindle book is the first Sara Paretsky, Indemnity Only.

Reading the last of my Murdoch category The Sacred and Profane Love Machine.

Finished Mind Over Matter. I'm starting Falling for Science edited by Sherry Turkle.

I just finished Carl Hiaasen's Scat on audio, and I'm currently reading Gone by Michael Grant. I'm not really a scary book reader, and this YA book has me leaving all the lights on and jumping at every noise (my husband thinks I've gone loony). But, it's really good. Just freaking me out a bit.

I am working hard on Don Quixote. Has anyone else read this? I'm reading it for book club, and it would be great to have someone to talk it over with now. I'm almost done with Volume 1.

I am having a week's break from the Challenge to read some of Rebecca West's novels for the Monthly author Reads Group. Enjoying her writing. So far I have read The Return of the Soldier and Harriet Hume - both very good. I am now reading Sunflower which is an autobiographical novel based on her relationsships with H.G.Wells and Lord Beaverbrook.

I have been reading Vampire books. I love them!

I'm still slogging my way through The Spanish Bow. It's not a bad book and I feel like I should love it, since it's set in a very interesting time and place, but, so help me, I can't engage with it at all. I'm not someone who needs to relate to or even like the protagonist, but here there is such a distance put between the reader and the events that I feel disconnected from the story. Blind stubbornness is what's driving me now.

I'm also reading The Collaborator of Bethlehem and am enjoying the story and the exotic setting -- the refugee camps of the West Bank.

I am about halfway through East of Eden and loving it!

I'm now onto one from my fantasy catagory, The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn Flewelling.

The Spanish Bow is still with me like an undone homework assignment, but I've been reading The Private Patient for the past few days.

I got very little reading done at the beach this week. So Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is burning a hole in my book bag and it's due at the library!