Now that I’ve finished up my research paper for English, I can read something besides Alice in Wonderland. (Yay!)
I’ve started the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. I’m on Second Empire right now, but once I get some cash, I’m picking up the rest of the books at a local used bookstore. I’ll have a weird, mismatched set, but it’s cheap.
I read Phantom of the Opera a few weeks ago and decided to go off and find more gothic literature (POTO is gothic, right? That’s what the introduction said, but you never know…). Someone recommended Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca, so I checked it out of my school library. It’s shaping up to be a bit disappointing. Maybe I just have an averse reaction to romance novels.
Im enjoying it. Its not the greatest book evar But its fun. After I finish Earth Abides Im not going to read an ‘end of the world’ book for a long time. Ive been reading to many of them recently. Just recently I finished Lucifer’s Hammer which I enjoyed a lot, except my copy had a shoddy binding and each page would fall out right after I finished it. :eek: I also just ordered a big pile of books off amazon.com, heres a list:
[ul]
[li]Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley[/li][li]Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick[/li][li]One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey[/li][li] We Were Soldiers Once…and Young : Ia Drang–The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam by Harold G. Moore[/li][/ul]
Im sure everyone has read all of these already (possible exception of We Were Soldiers, but Im only 16 so their new to me)
Currently in Why People Believe Weird Things by Sherman, the guy from Skeptic magazine. Pretty even-handed so far, but even he admits thta skeptics are sometimes more fanatical than the fanatics they debunk.
Just finished Noam Chomsky’s pamphlet Media Control. Wow is that guy on the left. Had heard a lot about him, but first time reading.
Before that was Red Lobster, White Trash, and the Blue Lagoon by Joe Queenan. Wow is that guy pissed at everything. Like other Queenan books, repetitive but there are passages so funny and dead on that it’s worth the effort.
Read Tell No One on a long flight, author escapes me, pretty intriguing thriller with a few plot logic problems but fun nevertheless.
Next up: Jesus and the Tao, to balance out all of the pessimism of Sherman and Chomsky.
I just finished reading Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite for the thousandth time. Now I’m starting in on Dracula. Don’t ask about the fascination with vampires. You don’t wanna know.
OK, Dinsdale - A Confederacy of Dunces, by some Tool(e). I share your befuddlement with this “classic”. I dragged myself through this. It was like climbing my first big mountain (one of only two, I learned) - impossible to stop until finished, but when you do finish, the only thought in your head is - “That totally sucked”.
My list:
Last few: Waiting, Ha Jin - Disappointing, I was unengaged. The Death of Vishnu, Manil Suri - Loved this.
Currently: The Human Factor, Graham Greene - Pedestrian Greene, but still may be the best written espionage novel ever.
Next: Observatory Mansions, Edward Carey - really looking forward to this.
Right now I’m reading Warmly Inscribed by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (pieces on book collecting and dealing) and The Devil’s Apprentice by Edward Marston (a mystery featuring a company of actors in Shakespeare’s time).
Next up, probably Leave it to Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse of Jeeves and Wooster fame. I also picked up The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler, Doyle’s The Lost World and other stories, and The Club of Queer Trades by G. K. Chesterton.
I love those remainder tables, but the last time I went to a bookstore, just to get one book on tape for my mother (80th birthday next week!) it ended up costing me nearly a hundred bucks. :eek:
I read The Summons in 2 days, once I get my hands on a new Grisham I can’t put it down. I thought the plot was more mystery than a thriller, but there were some good excitement elements (i.e. the burning of the house and the weird phone calls).
(little bit of a spoiler… oh well, not that bad).
Right now I’m reading “Shield of Three Lyons” by Pamela Kauffman, I think it’s pretty good, although I’m not used to books set in the middle ages, It took awhile to get used to some of the old English :o . I also read “The Time Machine” again today, I watched the movie over the weekend and hadn’t read that in a couple years, I’m glad the movie didn’t stray too far off… although their creative license was used in that Hollywood way.
:rolleyes:
Rainbow Six, which I believe was mentioned, I read a while ago, which amazingly makes the list of books that have made me feel sick (Sharing that spot with “Black Sunday” by T. Harris, the cat in the kitchen scene).
Scout, what did you think about “Fast Food Nation”? The cultural effect the fast food businesses have on society I found to be mindblowing.
And “Earth Abides” (one of my favorites which I’ve recommended many times here on the boards) was written in the 40’s, I believe, White Lightning.
My project for years has been reading all the classics that I should have had in school but didn’t. I finished off all the F. Scott Fitzgerald I could find last summer: The Beautiful and the Damned and a collection of short stories.
I just finished Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country. Great book, I just love her stuff.
Right now, I’m slowly reading through D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Geez, for a book with a title like that, you’d think it’d be less depressing! But hey, this book was banned and called pornographic when it first came out in 1928, so it’s gotta be worth reading, right?
Well, I’m current working on The Vicar of Wakefield for English class. I’m also reading The Origin of Species , because it seems to me that there shoud be a few living people who have read such an important book, but I don’t know anybody else who actually has. And I’m about half way through Childhood’s End .
Tomorrow I’m going to read
Prasenjit Duara’s Rescuing History from the Nation
Then the day after that
Nicholas Howe Migration and Mythmaking in Anglo-Saxon England which I’ve nearly finished
Valerie Flint’s The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe on friday
and then round it out over the weekend with Catherine Mooney’s Gendered Voices: Medieval Saints and their Interpreters
Happy happy joy joy, Happy happy joy joy, Happy happy joy joy, Happy happy joy joy insane.
oh, and for fun I’m rereading the dialogs in Godel, Esher and Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. No trust me, they are lots of fun to read. In fact if I had friends I might talk them into doing readings of the dialogs with me, I’d get to be Achilles. And Random Calvin & Hobbes too.
Currently reading: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. It’s been recommended several times here, so I’m giving it a shot. A worthwhile read, so far.
Just finished: A Confederacy of Dunces, also courtesy of the good folks at the SDMB. My only complaint about this otherwise fine comedy was the ending; it seemed rather arbitrary and disappointing way of resolving Ignatius’ fate.
But its fun. After I finish Earth Abides Im not going to read an ‘end of the world’ book for a long time. Ive been reading to many of them recently. Just recently I finished Lucifer’s Hammer which I enjoyed a lot, except my copy had a shoddy binding and each page would fall out right after I finished it. :eek: I also just ordered a big pile of books off 
