World War Z and World Changing
I am finally getting around to finishing reading Harry Potter series and am in the middle of Deathly Hallows. I stopped reading them at Goblet of Fire and hadn’t intended to finishing them off but its hard to ignore Harry Potter as a cultural phenomena even if I dislike it.
I’m also working my way through Harlan Ellison’s infamous anthology Dangerous Visions. None of it is remotely “dangerous” any more and some of the introductions and afterwords are depressing (Ellison goes on at length at how he’s seen heavy drug use ruin people under the guise of creativity but Phillip K. Dick doesn’t have that problem 
).
Up next is a serendipitous find. The anthology Science Fiction by Gaslight was recommended to me on this board but when ordering from Amazon I somehow accidentally ordered Beyond the Gaslight: Science in Popular Fiction 1895-1905 (the only thing I can figure is none of them have pictures on Amazon and my brain focused on “gaslight”). Well as it turns out this contains many of the same stories as Science Fiction by Gaslight with the addition of essays on the state of the science used in the story at that point.
How are you finding it? Personally I thought the DH was a pretty lame way to end the series, the book barely made any sense to me.
Bearing in mind that I already had problems with the series it does nothing to improve my opinion. All of the structural flaws are just brought into focus by the abandonment of the standard arc.
Joining in, if I may? I just finished re-reading ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ - loved it again. I want to finish ‘This is your Brain on Music’, and then it’s time to tackle ‘Don Quixote’…
You certainly may join in! Which translation of Don Quixote are you going to read?
I’ve been seriously considering giving that one a go. It’ll be my Annual Classic. 
It’s the John Rutherford translation that Penguin published in 2000. It’s been making that ‘Read me, you slack bastard!’ noise in the night for a while now… Is anyone else haunted by their library?
Welcome to the SDMB, Le Ministre de l’au-delà. You might be interested in joining the SDMB Goodreads Group. That way you can be kibitzed by your list of virtual books as well as haunted by your real ones.
I’m reading something not worth mentioning, but when I’m done I have a stack of shiny new books from Daedalus waiting.
I just finished re-reading **Wake of the Perdido Star ** by Gene Hackman (yes; that Gene Hackman) and Daniel Lenihan. It’s a good adventure yarn about skullduggery, betrayal, murder, shipwrecks and rather reluctant pirates.
I just finshed both The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, by Kim Edwards, and Lost and Found, by Carolyn Parkhusrt.
Next up is The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. I’ve read the first page a couple of times, but never have time to just sit and read.
Dante’s Paradiso (what? I read Inferno and Purgatorio for class, I figure I better finish up the trilogy…), and trudging my way through Middlemarch.
On the shelf I’ve got A Hatred for Tulips and St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised By Wolves, Big Fish (which I just polished off–is it okay to say I liked the movie better?) and The Perfect Royal Mistress. Bunch of others coming up soon.
Many thanks for that link. I’m sensing that it’s going to take a lot more than just an hour a week to catch up to all of the interesting discussions and fascinating people here at the SDMB. Just an intuition…
Very pleased to meet all of you.
I read them for fun, although I found Paradiso to be the least interesting of the three. I’ve read two different translations of Inferno and I’m amazed at how different the experience was between them.
Recently finished off:
Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, Stephen Greenblatt. Which is, as I’m sure will come as a great surprise, about the life of Shakespeare, and more specifically, about all the things we don’t know about the life of Shakespeare.
Eifelheim, Michael Flynn. Aliens show up in the Middle Ages.
Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure, Donald and Petie Kladstrup. Mostly anecdotal stories about French wine makers during the Occupation.
I wrote longer reviews in my livejournal.
Currently:
Was Heathcliff a Murderer? by John Sutherland, essays about 19th century fiction. It’s fairly entertaining so far, although a little dryer than I was expecting.
Coming up:
The Diary of an American Au Pair, by Majorie Leet Ford. Although I am confused because when this book came out, I thought it was called Do Try to Speak as We Do so I am worried I have somehow bought the wrong book.
Dinosaurs in the Attic: an Excursion Into the American Museum of Natural History, by Douglas Preston, a history of the museum type book.
I just joined! Thanks for the link.
(Like I need something else to cut into my reading time… 
)
I’m tickled pink (or grasshopper green) that you liked Eifelheim, and I totally agree with your review.
I’ve put aside The Bonehunters for now – it’s just too heavy (weight, not content) to read in bed. So bedtime book is The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies. I really like his writing, even though I don’t always relate to his subjects and settings.
Just read gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson and Watchman by Robert Crais. Really enjoyed both of them but I had a couple of problems with gods, none with Watchman really because I somehow suspend all disbelief when reading about Joe Pike.
Also still working on Count of Monte Cristo, reading it aloud with my son. We’re slogging away; I stopped for awhile because I got very annoyed with Edmond, just as if he were a real person, and wanted to sit him down and say, “Dude, you’ve gone too far.”
Also working my way through Best American Short Stories 2007, edited by Stephen King. And I’m not real impressed with the selection this year. Maybe I’m just jaded.
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon
McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales
How to Read the Bible by James Kugel
Recently Finished
Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh
Up next:
Either Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon or Oryx and Crake by Margret Atwood
I am looking for a non-fiction book to read after Kugel’s so I am open to any suggestions.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard.
The Bridge Across Forever by Richard Bach.
This morning I finished *Musicophilia *by Oliver Sacks, brilliant and right on the edge of what I could understand late at night before sleep. Excellent stuff. And my kid had a brief bout of dystonia (requiring a rush to the doctor and a complete cure when distracted by a baby hedgehog) just when I read that chapter - she’s such a *helpful *child.