Apropos this thread, where folks are suggesting that the numbers of avid readers of books has declined, I think it’s time for another listing of books Dopers have read recently, enjoyed, and want to recommend.
Some people still like to read books, and I am one fo them!
To get started: I much enjoyed Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel, W.W. Norton, 1999. This books was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, among other honors.
From Amazon’s website:
It is a thoroughly researched and very entertaining read. Much recommended.
Presently, I am re-reading Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Simarillion, The Lord of the Rings and whatever Tolkien-related paraphenalia I can get my hands on, in an attempt address my mounting excitement of anticipation for the last of Peter Jackson’s movies adaptations of LOTR. I’ve been a fan of Tolkien for about 25 years, since I was 8 or so. Frodo lives!
I’m currently reading the Guardians of the Flame by Joel Rosenberg. The first 3/4 books in one big hardcover. Before that, I read Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett. And before that, it was Guards, Guards! and Men At Arms, also by Pratchett. And before that, it was Issola by Stephen Brust.
I’m liking the Rosenberg so far, I’d suggest Pratchett to anyone, and Brust rules.
I’ve been lucky enough to be able to read a lot of books recently, but the one I’ll mention is called Chasing the sea, by Ted Bissell.
The complete title is “Chasing the Sea: being a narrative of a journey through Uzbekistan, including descriptions of life therein, culminating with an arrival at the Aral Sea, the world’s worst man-made ecological catastrophe, in one volume.”
Boy was this a wonderful book. If you only read one book about Uzbekistan, this should be it.
I am currently reading * The Wastelands*, the third installment of King’s Dark Tower series. I’m pretty into it and will definitely spend oodles of time not only finishing the series proper but tracking down all the related short stories and such. I stopped reading King entirely after Insomnia, but I guess I’m back in the fold now.
Slainte I also loved The Blind Assassin. In fact, there isn’t really a Margaret Atwood book I haven’t liked, though Oryx & Crake ended far too abruptly for my tastes.
I just finished slogging my way through that, and I didn’t care for it. I loved The Handmaid’s Tale, and I’d like to try Oryx And Crake, though.
I got a very generous gift card to B&N for my birthday last month. I picked up a nice little stash. I’m halfway through Girl In Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland, and also picked up The DaVinci Code (and and have read about 12 pages; loving it so far), The Virgin Blue, by Tracey Chevalier (she also wrote Girl With A Pearl Earring) and Resistance, and older one by Anita Shreve.
For Christmas, I’ve asked for To The Nines, by Janet Evanovich and two Bill Brysons; the newest one, A Short History of Nearly Everything and In A Sunburned Country.
I just finished a potboiler from about ten years ago called Semitar, mindless, but fun, have started Zen and the Art of Murder. About a month ago I finished the Kings and Queens of England.
My wife and I are reading Menkin and The World of Musical Theater to each other whenever we drive around together.
And oh yes, I recently finished My Life in Three Acts by Helen Hayes.
I am reading the Sten Series, recently re-released after being out of print for way too long (I originally read a friends copies of all 8 books, about 5 years ago, and they were out of print for some time before that).
I am also reading * Guns, Germs and Steel* and it is very interesting, as **knorf ** indicated, but I am afraid I am not very into i t. I tend to read fiction much faster than non-fiction.
I just finished reading the first two books in Laurell K. Hamilton’s series about the fey that began with * A Kiss of Shadows *. I am really enjoying this series and am looking forward to the next one. My boyfriend is reading her Anita Blake series, which I also loved. I think I actually like her new series better though. I do hope she writes more Anita Blake Novels, however. (These two series occur in very similar, but not identical modern worlds- one where vampires exist and have recently “came out of the coffin” and the other where Fey -Sidhe, brownie, leprechauns, etc exist both are very much multi-genre books with very strong female protagonists)
I have * A Brief history of time * on order from Amazon (to reread) and * Black Holes and Baby universes * to read for the first time.
Obviously I’ve been reading a lot lately. My internet connection at home is down due to a computer that is in need of replacing.
I really wanted to like it (The Blind Assassin), too, but just couldn’t. I closed it after about four chapters and said, “I don’t know where you are going and really don’t care!”
Lessee… I just finished Evelyn Waugh’s third novel, Black Mischief, from 1931. I’ve started this one a half dozen times since I was a teenager, but never finished it before. No idea why. It turned out to be pretty damned good; saved from a dated imperialist racist taint by the fact that the white characters are every bit as stupid and venal as the African ones.
Also finished Thomas Bernhard’s novel The Loser, an odd little piece about virtuoso pianists who commit suicide and other acts of dispair upon comparing their musicianship with Glenn Gould’s.
I was in a rare bookshop in Chicago last week, and cam across the publications of Charles H. Kerr Books, who specializes in Socialist and unionist volumes. I bought a book of the selected writings of T-Bone Slim, the featured columnist for the Industrial Workers of the World newspaper during the 1920s and '30s, and a biography of Joe Hill, subtitled “The IWW & the Making of a Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture.” Sounds pretty nifty, eh?
Just finished rereading Phil Farmer’s “Riverworld” novels (ultimately a bit disappointing). Currently reading A Mist of Prophecies, Stephen Saylor’s latest in his Roma sub Rosa historical/mystery novels. After that, possibly The Pickwick Papers, or Rise to Rebellion (novel about the American Revolution). Christ, I acquire books so much faster than I can read them, I’ll die with many unread books. I’ve got the new biography of Ben Franklin, and a book about FDR and Churchill, and all sorts of stuff. Plus, I’m supposed to be getting my own first novel ready.
I love movies, but if I had to choose one or the other, I’d take books in a heartbeat. My idea of an ideal day off is a cold winter day, a comfortable armchair and a good book.
I did too, though I felt he could have made his points is about a third of the space he took.
My vote would be for Cicero by Anthony Everitt - astonishingly good. A biography of a notable man who lived in the first century BC, with a level of detail that would not disgrace a book about someone who lived 200 years ago.
