Just popping by here, but just thought I’d mention a good book I’m reading right now: Harpo Speaks! by Harpo Marx - very fun, interesting, and it kinda resonates in it’s own way for anyone who has ever grown up poor. The only problem is - I can’t picture the guy saying this stuff - I can picture Harpo doing these things, and living his life, but I just can’t picture him talking… strange…
I have the Groucho letters on order from Amazon, so that should be fun too.
I’m a bit more than halfway through The Sun Sword, book 6 of Michelle West’s Sun Sword series.
I’m currently reading The Collected Jorkens, Vol. 2–“club stories” by Lord Dunsany. They’re minor works compared to his better-known fantasy stories, but they’re entertaining and they’re good for reading a handful of 'em before going to bed.
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - excellent
Also started a book called Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics by Frederic Spotts - scary but fascinating and very easy to read. About how Hitler used the arts and culture to control and seduce the populace and it also questions/ tries to understand his motives in creating an aryan super-state. Pretty chilling stuff - hard to wrap your head around it.
I second this!
This is such a charming, fascinating book. The phrase, “Throw/tossed a gookie” has entered my vocabulary.
Just finsihed The Alchemist. I loved it. Think I might read it again despite my almost never re-reading books. I’d highly reccomend this book.
I’ve started Boyhood by Coetzee now. I don’t like it nearly as much as I enjoyed some of his other books (Disgrace and Waiting for the Barbarians). It’s still good, though.
Oops. Forgot to mention the author of The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho.
The Dark Tower, looots of the Dark Tower.
After that, Hamilton’s Reality Dysjunction.
Just finished both Going Postal by Terry Pratchett, and Hat Full of Sky, also by Pratchett.
Both were great, and I highly recommend them…after reading both The Wee Free Men and Hat Full of Sky (both are aimed at Young Adult readers, they are both set in Discworld…Granny Weatherwax appears in both, in fact), I just have to say, every Pratchett book I read amazes me more. I thought his humor (based on the adult Discworld books) wouldn’t really relate well to a younger audience, but my fiance’s kids are loving these books, and they really are very, very well written.
Some of the best Young Adult fiction I’ve read in a while. (I read most of the books I buy for my fiance’s kids, mainly because I tend to read anything I can get my hands on…we need to move into a bigger apartment because I’m completely out of room to put up another bookshelf, and my fourth one is completely overflowing. 
)
I also just finished Going Postal - I can’t say I liked it as much as previous Pratchett books; it felt too much like a retelling of The Truth.
I’m currently reading Watch Your Mouth by Daniel Handler, The Buccaneers of America by Alexander O. Exquemelin, and Where Have All The Bullets Gone? by Spike Milligan. I’ve also got the complete archy and mehitabel by Don Marquis and The Points Of My Compass by E.B. White on my nightstand, for bedtime reading.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee.
Next, I’ll probably go to Les Miserables if I’m feeling smart, or Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix if otherwise.
The Ringmaster’s Daughter by Jostein Gaarder. Good so far…
All the President’s Children, by I completely forget who. It came out last year.
A very interesting read about the lives of many of the First Children.
I used to want to be reincarnated as Cary Grant, but now I think I want to come back as John Van Buren, son of 8th President Martin Van Buren. While not as handsome as Grant, he was blindingly brilliant by all accounts and served in a variety of posts. He blazed a trail around the world womanizing, gambling, and doing all sorts of things that scandalized proper society. Too bad that he looked like a toad.
After seeing it recommended numerous times, here on the SDMB and elsewhere, I started on Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel last night.
And I’m slowly but surely working my way through Dickens’s 900+ page Bleak House.
I have several anthologies of short stories, essays, etc. on my shelves that I’m somewhere in the middle of, that I dip into every now and again.
And then there are the hundreds of other books all clamoring for my attention, shouting “Read me next! Read me next!” In honor of Halloween, I want to read something scary this month, so I’ve got one or two Stephen Kings lined up.
I finished a book last night, and I just can’t decide what is next. I just bought a children’s book called Holly Claus. It isn’t yet time for the season and I’m not a child, but the opening chaptor appealed to me and I’m a huge fan of Christmas (I also bought all my Toys for Tots toys over the weekend.) From the amazon synopsis:
I also bought a trilogy by R.A. Salvatore, but I can’t recall the name.
I have The Moor (Mary Russell Novels)
And Darkly Dreaming Dexter in the queue. The latter seems interesting. I haven’t decided. We’ll see tonight, unless I watch MNF.
I have read some of Coelho, and that one sorta rings a bell, but I just can’t remember if I have read it or not.
I’m currently reading an old Paul Theroux story, Jungle Lovers. It’s alright. I just finished Jonathan Lethem’s latest, The Fortress of Solitude, which I thought was excellent. It’s the story of Dylan and Mingus, two boys (one white, one black) growing up in Brooklyn in the 70s, and follows them into adulthood. There’s a lot of music, comic books, and superheroes in it, and Lethem’s got a really great narrative voice, although I don’t think the writing is as strong as his Motherless Brooklyn, which I thought was incredible.
In the queue I’ve got T.C. Boyle’s The Inner Circle, about Dr. Kinsey; the second volume of Peter O’Toole’s memoirs, Loitering With Intent: The Apprentice; and Philip Roth’s Operation Shylock. I have the feeling the Roth will be the first to get shuffled to the back of the pack.
I just finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - a new 800 page book. Author’s name is Susanna Clarke. I read it in two days; it was wonderful - a Dickens like tale of magicians in Napoleonic era England. Here’s a link to a page with reviews from Powells
http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=8-1582344167-0
I was thinking of starting a discussion thread on this book but then thought maybe it’s too new and nobody else has read it yet…
Right now I’m reading The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom.
Next I have Famous Jerks of the Bible by Margaret Brouillette and Adam, Eve, and the Serpent by Elanie Pagels. I’m also supposed to borrow Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan from Meatros.
Currently re-reading Last Call by Tim Powers. Obviously I like it, since I’m re-reading it.
I also started Shogun by Clavell (?) recently. So far, pretty good, as expected. Next up is The Godmakers by Frank Herbert. I’m trying to read everything he wrote before I die.
I can’t wait for Christmas! I get books and gift certificates every year (my family knows I’m a bookworm) and I stock up for months and months!!