Ignorance by Milan Kundera. Marverlous, marvelous book. One of my favorites of his novels.
On the table next to my bed are also a collection of poems by Coleridge (“That sunny dome! those caves of ice!”)
and
Failed States by Noam Chomsky, which has done nothing for me. I’m going to exchange it for something else.
Duel, which is about the first 80 days of WWII, as Hitler vs. Churchill. Little dry, but a different perspective than most histories of the era.
Hollywood, Interrupted - a gossip book about how dreadful celebrities are.
Mask Market, the latest from Andrew Vachss. I am wondering if I am not getting burned out on the Burke series.
Why Me?, a follow-up autobiography from Sammy Davis, Jr. I read Yes I Can many years back, when he was still married to May Britt. My gosh, what a self-centered ass hole he seems to have been.
And I just got a bunch of old, old hand-to-hand combat/jujitsu instructional manuals on CD. And I read myself to sleep at night with my copies of The Development of Muscular Bulk and Power and The Development of Physical Strength, by Anthony Ditillo.
Regards,
Shodan
By Brother’s Blues by Pearl Cleage. The book is not only set in my hometown, but in the actual neighborhood I grew up in. It’s alright, except that Cleage’s attempts at magical realism falls a little short. Also, the description of the setting is not really accurate. She would have done better creating a new neighborhood from wholecloth rather than using an existing one. But it was still a blast to read.
That should be Baby Brother’s Blues.
I guess this counts: I just ordered the new next-generation eInk Sony Reader . It doesn’t ship until November.
I wanted to wait until I was finished to reply, but it’s been a busy weekend so I’m only halfway through it.
I am enjoying it. I don’t know what the author’s conclusions are going to be, so it’s reading like a murder mystery. The depiction of the Elizabethan intelligence network is fascinating. There are quite a lot of “characters” to keep up with, but so far I’m following it okay. I’ve read biographies of the Tudor and Stewart royals, so I’m familiar with most of the famous people mentioned, but that’s about the extent of my knowlege of this period.
Currently, I am alternating between Perry Rhodan (english translations) and the Destroyer series. I read one book from one series and then one from the other, uh, yeah, that’d be alternating :rolleyes: I download them and put them on my Palm. I figure I’ve got well over 750 books on it now. In between times I’m working on a book called ‘Life is a series of Presentations’ by Tony Jeary and one called ‘The Culture Code’ by Clotaire Rapaille, a pretty interesting read. Both books I read a bit then digest before coming back to them.
When I get home I’ll have “Letters to a Christian Nation” by Sam Harris, and “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins, bought together at Amazon. I just wish I didn’t read so damn slow.
And during all this I’m only up to episode #416 in MST3K. Is there any cure for this sleep business because it’s really cutting into more important things?
Update, wot? I turned in my books at the library and got:
Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, H.P. Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Once and Future King and The Sword in the Stone, Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Jane Yolen, Louis de Bernieres’s Birds Without Wings, Mimus by Lilli Thal, Wideacre by Philippa Gregory, and The First Vial by Linnea Heinrichs.
Is that the Destroyer series originally created by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir?
That’s the one.
I used to love those! OK, it would never be mistaken for great lit, but they were fun. I stopped reading them after Murphy stopped writing. They lost his zing. But they were fun for many years.
Kythereia, I’d be interested to hear what you think about Wideacre. I have kept almost every single book I’ve ever bought, but that’s one of the few I’ve despised enough to get rid of. Looking at the Amazon reviews, it seems that people either love or hate this book.
I really wanted to like Gregory - she’s prolific and she writes the kind of historical fiction that I should enjoy. I tried a couple of her other books, and I just can’t read her.
It’s a dandy. Michael Connelly is in fine form here. This is a gritty, cynical legal thriller, with a not-very-likeable protagonist/narrator, and it moves along at a nice brisk pace. I think I like Connelly’s cop books better, but if he writes more legal stuff, I’ll definitely be interested.
pinkfreud, thanks. My replacement Amazon gift certificate came in the mail (I accidentally tossed the first one) so I ordered the Connelly book. Also ordered the Kristen Lavandstratter (sp) books, and one other title I’ve forgotten.
I’m about halfway through Martha Peake by Patrick McGrath. The OP asks us to say why we choose a book. I grabbed this one because it’s been in the TBR for years and I was tired of looking at it.
Then I wonder why I should bother to read it, because the DJ blurb and the book’s first few pages seem to give away the whole story. Martha’s tormented drunken father does something terrible to her, she emigrates from England to the Colonies and dies young, after doing something heroic to help the American Revolution.
Well, it’s damn good. McGrath writes like a dream. He’s fleshing things out nicely and telling a great story.
Finished it, and… well, I’m still a fan of Philippa Gregory. But the patience is starting to wearing thin.
Beatrice turns me off. I can’t sympathize with her as a heroine, and I can’t appreciate her as a well-crafted villain. All of the other characters (with the exception of Celia) seem one-note and equally tiresome. I’ve been outraged by books and I’ve been enthralled, but this is one of the few where I just gave up because it didn’t feel like it was worth the effort.
First The Virgin’s Lover and Virgin Earth, and now this. I really did like The Other Boleyn Girl (in spite of the ludicrous way Gregory portrays Anne Boleyn sometimes) and The Constant Princess, but there are other just as good portraits out there (Robin Maxwell’s The Queen’s Bastard, for example).
I’m starting on Heinlein now, after reading the Lovecraft stories. This should be fun. 
Recently read:
Hit by a farm : how I learned to stop worrying and love the barn by Catherine Friend. Good title, huh? The book was a decent light read but nothing special.
Remember me : a lively tour of the new American way of death by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen. Morbidly interesting, but Mary Roach’s Stiff was better.
Currently reading:
Packaging girlhood : rescuing our daughters from marketers’ schemes by Sharon Lamb. Enjoying this one, though the author’s just preaching to the choir. I’m hoping that by the time it’s over, I’ll have more new constructive ideas about daughter-raising.
In the To-Be-Read Pile, I’m catching up on my kiddie lit as usual:
The wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
The children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston
Charmed life by Diana Wynne Jones
A wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Plus:
Service and style : how the American department store fashioned the middle class by Jan Whitaker
McLibel : burger culture on trial by John Vidal. (I’m nearly always reading something about the evils of food or food production, it seems.)
Jeans : a cultural history of an American icon by James Sullivan
Last laughs : funny tombstone quotes and famous last words by Kathleen E. Miller
Waiting for me at the library:
The beasts of Clawstone Castle by Eva Ibbotson
Chuck Klosterman IV : a decade of curious people and dangerous ideas by Chuck Klosterman
Rumspringa : to be or not to be Amish by Tom Shachtman
Prisoner of Trebekistan : a decade in Jeopardy! by Bob Harris
Quite possibly my most favorite book of my well-read childhood.
If you haven’t read Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma yet, add it to the to-be-read pile.
I read it not too long ago, and it really was a good one. Thanks!
Thanks, Quasi. We have regular monthly book threads now; here’s the current one: Whatcha Readin' December 2011 Edition - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
I’ll suggest a mod close this zombie thread.
Thanks, Elendil’s Heir. Quasimodem, I hope you’ll join the active discussion.