I’m going back and forth between The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo. I thought the first would be harder to read, but it’s quite accessible, and I thought the second would be better, because I liked Empire Falls so much. But it’s okay.
I just finished* Red Odyssey*, which is this really fascinating account by a Russian/Tartar writer guy about his road trip around Central Asia in 1990, just as the whole USSR was falling apart. You never hear about all those countries, and at the time it was hard to get any news at all, so he went traveling around. I learned a heck of a lot.
I’ve also read a bunch of YA dystopian stuff–The Maze, Incarceron, Unwind etc. and am currently reading Farthing (which is not YA). It’s pretty good so far–it starts off as a typical 1950’s English country house murder, and gradually reveals that this is a Britain that made peace with Hitler in 1941, the implications of which are only just starting to come out.
What book are you reading now? What book were you reading before and what will you be reading next? Out of those three, which one have you anticipated the most?
Jurassic Park
Catcher in the Rye
Lost World
Most anticipated: Lost World
I just started Everything is Illuminated today. I’ve heard incredible things about it (haven’t seen the movie) but it’s taking me a little bit to get into. The author seems to muddle with the language in the same manner as Burgess did with A Clockwork Orange, though so far not nearly to the same extent. Still, it’s got my interest enough to make the effort.
Next on the list is Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.
Have you read Straight Man? I enjoyed that one more than Empire Falls or Bridge of Sighs.
I’m currently reading The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate Our Culture. Great book so far.
I was referring to the rumor that Stieg Larsson’s girlfriend supposedly has a 3/4 complete manuscript of a 4th book that he left at his death. Maybe they could get Nora Ephron to complete it, she did a helluva job on the parody in the link above. 
Yes, a .22 caliber is considered a “toy” these days, but she felt her brains through the hole in her skull.
Nope, but I will put that one on my library list for next- thanks!
Just read the graphic novel Kick-Ass. IMHO it’s not nearly as good as the movie, which was written and filmed at roughly the same time as the comics, I’ve read. Have also been reading John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany, which hasn’t exactly swept me off my feet, but I’m still plugging away at it (now about 130 pages in).
Oh, so many good ideas here!
I’ve finished reading about Chicago police and will start Last Train from Hiroshima tonight.
I didn’t realize it had become controversial until, having forgotten the author’s name, I looked him up and saw that the book has gained in popularity since the publisher called into question the reliability of the author’s research.
Just finished Green River Running Red by Ann Rule and Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Both were good in different ways. Green River is a case I’m familiar with living in Portland, Or and I have a sister who lived in Seattle in the early 90’s with Gary Ridgeway still loose. Three Cups of Tea was recomended by my sister for the inspirational story of building schools in the poorest parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan by Greg Mortenson and the reasons why.
I just finished Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. If it wasn’t for the fact that I want to read every book in our book club I’d never have finished that steaming pile of shit. The book has a massive fan base so I can’t fault the guy who picked it, but I cannot believe a junior high school 1st year ESL student with dyslexia could not have written a better book. For 340 pages I was abused with paragraph long run-on sentences, indiscriminate senseless thesaurus pillaging, cheap sentimentality and continually rehashed cardboard imagery.
If you buy this book, beat yourself unconscious with it instead, it’ll hurt less.
Hello bookmoney. Welcome to the boards!
I finished
Repairman Jack.
I’m in the middle of Pick a Number
I haven’t decided what I will read next - I have about 20 in the queue. I usually pick one at random once I finish.
I’m glad you joined the thread - I usually start the next month’s thread on the last day of this month - at least I do when my approaching senility doesn’t make me forget…
Last read: Stylized: A Slightly Obsessive History of Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style by Mark Garvey, closely followed by my first rereading of The Elements of Style in about 40 years. Currently writing a review/essay on the books and related thoughts.
Currently reading: Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class by Jefferson Cowie. Labor history plus some reflection of how that was reflected in pop culture. Offshoot of the summer’s obsession with Saturday Night Fever. Interesting but a little dry. Dude doesn’t write as well as he thinks he does, and the copy editor wasn’t very alert, which is always very distracting for me.
Up next: Star of the Seas by Joseph O’Connor. Recommended by jjimm in a different thread for those who liked English Passengers and Cloud Atlas, which are two books on my Top Ten Novels Ever list.
Oh! I think I just had an insight.
I notice that many people here put book titles in italics instead of what I learned was the correct way to do it - underlining the title.
I’ve wondered why otherwise literate people would make this “mistake.”
It just occurred to me that people who were taught keyboarding use italics because otherwise it would appear to be a link.
Did I get that right?
That is why I do it. Way back when I first published my resume online, I had underlined the name of a book that I had contributed to and I got many complaints that people thought it was link. Now when I think to do anything, it is usually italics.
I guarantee that Twickster, and editor by profession, knows what she is doing.
People used to use underlining on typewriters because there was no way to do italics, which is the “proper” way (according to most of the standard style guides – Chicago, AP, etc.). With the advent of word processors, italics, bold, and underlining all became equally easy, so most people have switched to the preferred style.
Hyperlinks actually have nothing to do with it.
Re-reading Celebrity by Thomas Thompson. I first read it in the early 80’s and don’t remember anything about it except that on the day I finished it, I had taken the kids to the pool at Lincoln Park in Seattle. I couldn’t put the book down. The kids were ready to go home, but I knew if we left, I’d be making supper etc. and wouldn’t be able to get back to the book until bedtime. So we stayed. They were quite pruney.
The book lives up to the memory. I’d put it in the same category as Shogun, Aztec, The Thorn Birds – calling them “potboilers” is too negative, but I don’t know what to call these kinds of books. Well-written but not particularly “literary”, with compelling stories and larger-than-life characters.
Next up are some library books – Songs for the Missing by Stewart O’Nan (I may have already read this, can’t remember), The Help, and A Dark Matter, the latest from Peter Straub.
Thanks Khadaji and twickster. Mention her name and shazam! There she is.
I learned with Turabian but I see the Chicago is mentioned in conjunction with it so perhaps there’s little difference between them. I wasn’t able to find an earlier edition with a quick search so I will take your word for it that links have nothing to do with it.
Unless I learn otherwise, in which case I’ll be so tickled that I was validated that I’ll probably have to crow it from the rooftops.
My book club read Three Cups of Tea several years ago and we all really liked it. There’s a YA version out there now, too, about which I’ve heard good things.
AuntiePam, Gary Jennings’s Aztec is probably my favorite historical novel ever. Love that book (and otherwise don’t have all that much interest in the Aztecs).