I don’t recall seeing a bathroom book in this thread. Don’t tell me none of you have a crapper book to keep you occupied during those prolonged visits to the john. Mine happens to be the Guiness world records. The segments are just long enough for my bathroom enjoyment.
As for the OP, I’m reading Caleb Carr’s “The Alienist”, for the 7th time. Every time I get in a rut and can’t find something to read, I go back to that wonderful novel.
American Pharaoh–a biography of Richard J. Daley. It’s funny, you can tell the authors thought Daley was evil incarnate, but they have a tough time making him sound like he is.
They say things like, “People would go to their preicinct captains for favors like fixing a crack in the sidewalk, or garbage pick-up or help get a kid out of a jam withthe cops. Then come election day, the PC would ring your doorbell and ask you how your sidewalk was, or if your kid was keeping out of trouble.”
I WISH things were that corrupt now.
Sure he was a power hungry crook, but the machine worked to get people what they needed in exchange for their vote. And I’m a republican!
Frock, it sounds to me like you need to get “The Bathroom Book”. It’s fabulous. You’ll most likely find about 9 editions in the humor section of your bookstore. It gives 1-2 page synopses of various novels, philosophical concepts, religions, etc. Anything and everything. But the beauty is that they’re all about the length of one “sitting”. I recommend.
I’m re-reading Harry Wong’s The First Day of School. I try to read it every year before school starts, but I’m a little late this year.
I recently began another attempt at reading The Hobbit, and found that I enjoyed it this time. So my current commute reading is a book that contains the other three volumes(so shoot me, I can’t remember the names). But it’s almost time for a change-I just can’t keep up the steady pace on this one much longer. I may switch it to my before bed reading.
I’m reading romance novels before bed lately, particularly the Johanna Lindsey ones that I’ve read before. And at odd times, I’m re-reading Pope Joan, just because. Plus whatever other book I happen to pick up in a spare moment.
The Wild Road by Gabriel King. Super-good book.
Lately I’ve been on a quest for the obscure… Just finished Joe Haldeman’s Mindbridge (1976) and am about two-thirds of the way through Keith Laumer’s Time Trap (1970) - as neither of these are difficult reading, nor lengthy by any stretch of the imagination, I am afraid I will soon be rummaging through my shelves for yet another unread “ancient tome” to occupy my spare moments…
Just finished reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Which makes me glad I stopped eating fast food about 10 years ago.
I do not read much fiction, but I am into Harry Turtledoves alternate histories. I am currently reading American Empire: Blood and Iron. Very entertaining series.
One title: “Earth Abides”. Nothing better, best book I’ve ever read. Couldn’t put it down.
Yeah. If I want to really get into a book and enjoy it, I usually only read one at a time. If I really want to read two or more at once, only one can be a story book, the other(s) must be nonfiction, something informative, because I just can’t keep two sets of plotlines and characters straight.
Anyway, some of my summer reading so far…
Just today I finished The Late Night Muse by Bette Pesetsky, a fiction story about a poet with a neurological disorder, recalling her life. Very cleverly composed and well-written.
I’ve also read, in no paticular order:
The Religion of Ancient Greece by Th. Zielinski. Most of what was mentioned here I already knew, but the language in it is absolutly gorgeous, and written from the point of view of a faithful pagan.
The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan. Fascinating and engagaing. All science books should be this well-written.
The Bell Jar and Ariel by Sylvia Plath. One of my writing professors adores Plath, so I thought I’d see why. I loved both books, although I am slightly disturbed by how much I can identify with things in “The Bell Jar”.
The Bee’s Kiss by Shirley Verel. ::dreamy sigh:: For the past couple monthes I’ve been thinking “well maybe this, or maybe that” about my sexuality, and one thing that kinda turns me off of the queer community is that everything is made to be so damned political. I’m not a political person, not in the least. I just like girls. I don’t wanna march in pride parades or tatoo a rainbow coloured double venus on my tits. I just like girls. What I loved most about “The Bee’s Kiss” was that it made lesbain love something real and beautiful and decidedly NOT political. ::another dreamy sigh::
The Legacy of Luna by Julia Butterfly Hill. I don’t recommend this. If Miss Butterfly comes to give a talk near you, definitly go see her, she is an awesome speaker. But she is not a good writer. I saw her at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair, bought a book and got it signed, then I got home and started reading and thought, oh. Hmph.
Birds of America by Lorrie Moore. I read her “Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?” back in high school, and that was one of the books that really got me interested in good modern fiction; before then I had just read bad mystery novels and the occasional classic, and was convinced that they had stopped making good books about 100 years ago. I’m not even 1/4 of the way through “Birds of America”–just reading the stories one by one every so often–but Moore is again reminding me of the beauty and honesty possible in fiction.
I am also ocasionally doing exercises from Writing as a Healing Art by Laura Cerwinske and The Practice of Poetry ed. by Robin Behn and Chase Twichell.
Next up… I don’t know. I’m really in the mood for something about science or psychology, but nothing in my personal library is really grabbing me, and I don’t know when I’ll get the the public library next. I want to read An American Childhood by Annie Dillard (I LOVED “Pilgram at Tinker Creek”) before I go back to school in September, so maybe I’ll just go right into that.
Lunatic - WOW! Great books. And I have an incredible soft spot for those who enjoy Annie Dillard. I’ve seen her speak, and have looked up a bunch of her interviews. She’s amazing. VERY similar to L’Engle, minus the exactness of science. I would recommend the Crosswick Journal series to you.
I did my college entrance essay on “An American Childhood,” and my very favorite passage ever is from “Pilgram at Tinker Creek” (the ‘Seeing’ chapter, right at the beginning, regarding her hiding pennies. I don’t have my copy with me, but I’ll punch it in tomorrow night, if you’d like).
I’m reading Lords of the Horizon, A History of the Ottoman Empire By Jason Goodwin. Dunno if it’s worth the read yet. I’m into it so far.
Just Finished The Good Nazi, the Life and Lies of Albert Speer by Dan Van Der Dat. I thought it was good, I didn’t know much about Speer and now I have a better picture. He was responsible for industrial output in the third reich. At the end of the war he said he hadn’t known about the atrocities but that he accepted responsibility for his part in allowing it to happen. Turns out, according to Van Der Dat, he lied. Later in life he admitted he lied at the Nuremberg trials. In the 80s, when he and his closest assistant had died, records of his wartime work that the assistant had kept were given to the Federal Archives in Bonn. Turns out he gave the order to destroy thousands of Jewish homes that required the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews from Berlin to concentration camps. He gave all the orders. There may be more things we don’t know about what he did during the war. Whether or not he is guilty of other crimes, he probably escaped hanging by covering up the deportations.
Whew! That was long-winded. Sorry. 
Currently working towards the end of A Deepness in the Sky, by Vernor Vinge. Very entertaining science fiction.
I’ve read all the Newberry winners back to Wrinkle in Time, if I’m not mistaken, and I agree that Holes is the best Newberry winner of the '90s. However, Frindle is the best children’s book of the decade, and it didn’t win jack.
Also, please find and read Louis Sachar’s earlier book, There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom. This is a remarkably sensitive book about a boy with antisocial tendencies trying to cope with the newfound idea of Friendship.
Thanks for reminding me of Jacob Have I Loved. I should go back and reread that one.
And to get back on topic, I’m currently reading Isaac Asimov’s autobiography.
-Myron
I am suprised to find so many other out there who read like I do. I mean like three books at the same time, but then I throw in crochetting and needlepoint in there also.
The Chronicles of Narnia for the kids, the new VC Andrews series the first book Cinnamon (no flamming for this guys, for some reason I can’t stay away from her books and yes I know she’s dead) I am also in the middle of the Wheel of Time series (my husband should be shot for starting me on this series I can’t put them down!)
Has anyone here read Mephisto in Onyx by Harlan Ellison? Short book, but pretty interesting.
Right now, I’m almost done with “The Two Towers”, by J.R.R. Tolkkien. Don’t really know what to say about it, I’ll wait until I’m done with the next book to form an opinion. But for now, I’ll just say that it doesn’t grab hold of me as well as I wanted it to.
I just finished The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys by Chris Furhman. It was one of the best books I’ve ever read and I reccomend it highly. Now I’m reading The Wasp Factory by Iain M. Banks.
~Kittie
Like a couple of others on here, I’m re-reading The Lord of the Rings in preparation for the movie. I remember feeling like the second book (The Two Towers) would never end the first time I read through them, but this time I actually enjoyed it. I just have to get around to finishing it.
I guess I’m also reading Now, Where Were We? by Roy Blount, Jr., but only in the sense that I’m always re-reading and re-re-reading it. The man is bar none the funniest human alive.
Thanks for all the recommendations, everybody.
For the avoidance of doubt, the purchase was made at Mrs DSIW’s request for her friend who she refuses to name. And quite right too.
I’ve got a ton I’ve been picking at (most memorably, Kierkegaard’s Either/Or - jeez, that one’s hard - and Montaigne’s Essays) but I read pretty voraciously too, so let’s see if I can remember a few:
The Devil Never Sleeps - Andrea Codrescui; Essays (very good)
I Rant, Therefore I Am - Dennis Miller (no explanation necessary)
Do Try To Speak As We Do - Marjorie Leet Ford (lite reading; novel about an American au pair in Britain; good, entertaining)
The Two Towers - by you know who. I’ve not read the Ring Trilogy before and I’m enjoying it so far
The Best American Essays of the Century - edited by Joyce Carol Oates. I just picked this one up from my SIL last night and I’m looking forward to getting into it.