This was inspired by Zumba the Cat’s post to my home library thread.
My “to read” pile (or what I’m presently thinking of dipping into:
The Powerbook - Jeanette Winterson
No Logo - Naomi Klein
Care of the Soul - Thomas Moore
Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul - Jack Canfield et al
(I’m no fan of the Chicken Soup series, but this one looked interesting)
**A Book of Luminous Things - ed. Czeslaw Milosz
Lectures on Shakespeare - W.H Auden
There’s more stuff I’ve bought but haven’t touched - they’re tucked away in other corners on the room, waiting for the right mood to set in.
Two bibliophile threads in one day! I gotta get out of the apartment now…
I don’t have a “to read” pile. I can’t afford to buy them faster than I can read them, and I can read them pretty darned fast. I did actually buy two paperbacks yesterday, but I’m reading one now, and will probably finish it and start the next before the weekend. (I could finish a book that size in just a couple of hours if I could find time…damn, I hate not having reading-time.)
My reading list contains a whole bunch of letters by some guy who only signs with the initials IRS…weird. I’ve been getting more and more of them as the years pass.
The Elegant Universe : Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene
Teach Yourself Lotus Notes and Domino R5 Development in 21 Days by Sams Press
A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle
and right now I’m attempting to finish up Plowing The Dark by Richard Powers, but I’m oft tempted to just throw it back on the pile. I keep going with it because I’ve enjoyed the other books of his I’ve read.
The Elegant Universe is rather a good book. It certainly manages to make you think somewhat differently, especially if you combine it with the issues of Discover in which David Deutsch/Deutch (sp?) is interviewed about his theories on multiple universes.
Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is next. Right after I finish plowing through Battlefield Earth. (Hated the movie so much I was curious about the book. I’m f’ing weird.)
I was gonna have a go at fixin’ those tags, but you’ve made such a hash of ‘em, I’ve no idea where to start. You’ll just have to suffer along lookin’ silly.
A small sampling of my “To Read” pile(s):
[ul]
[li] Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley by Lawrence Sutin (2000)[/li][li] Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon by Stephen R. Wilk (2000)[/li][li] Cannibalism: From Sacrifice to Survival by Hans Askenasy (1994)[/li][li] Atheism : The Case against God by George H. Smith (1991)[/li][li] Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay (1841)[/li][li] The Life of Jesus - by Ernest Renan (1863)[/li][li] The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands (2000)[/li][li] The History by Herodotus (really fuckin’ old)[/li][/ul]
Just last week, I added the following on a trip to a local remainders store:
Dawn Powell, by Tim Page (biography) The Curious Cook, by Harold McGee (cooking and food science) The Myth of the First Three Years, by John Bruer (child development & public policy) Irons in the Fire, John McPhee
as well as a copy of The Thurber Carnival and one other item I’m forgetting right now (all for about $25!).
Already on the pile right now are (among others):
Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, Antonio Damasio Flashman and the Dragon, George MacDonald Fraser Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language, Steven Pinker Mason & Dixon, Thomas Pynchon The Untouchable, John Banville
“Fortune’s Rocks” by Anita Shreve
“Prodigal Summer” by Barbara Kingsolver
“Cold Mountain” by Charles
“Dangerous Fortune” by Ken Follett
“The Runaway Jury” by John Grisham
“We were The Mulvaneys” by Joyce Carol Oates
“Daughter of Fortune” by Isabel Allende
“Open House” by Elizabeth Berg
“Where or When” by Anita Shreve
“Bang of Bones” by Stephen King
What’s in the back of the car that I just got at the thrift store but don’t dare bring in yet:
Hardbacks, 3 for $2.50:
“The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing” by Melissa Wells (read maybe once or twice, good shape)
“Catherdral” by Nelson DeMille (very good shape, maybe read once)
“Mother of Pearl” by Melinda Haynes (never read, I cracked the spine)
Paperbacks, .25¢ each:
“Needful Things” by Stephen King (good shape)
“Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurty (good shape)
Oh, I’ve got a good-sized “to read” pile – only problem is that school starts soon, and since I’ll be doing a Master’s in English I won’t have much time for any of it. (I fear my Foundations of Interpretive Theory syllabus. I fear it a great deal.)
Anyway (and not in any order):
Shakespeare: A Life, Park Honan Children of Dune (and the rest of the Dune series), Frank Herbert The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser ('course, I’ll have to read this at some point or another) Richard II, Nigel Saul (what, wasn’t my BA thesis enough? ;)) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling The King’s Two Bodies, Ernst H. Kantorowicz (that is, the parts I didn’t already read for my thesis)
I just ordered (thank you, bookfinder.com!) the autobiography of Cecil Hepworth, who was the D.W. Griffith of Britain. Should be arriving aaannnnyyy day now . . .
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (British Edition) by R.K. Rowling In Search of the Castaways (AKA THe Children of Captain Grant) by Jules Verne Orion by Fontenrose
** The Moreau Factor** Jack Chalker Genus Homo by L. Sprague de Camp and P. Schuyler Miller – I gotta read this one again. The cover shows a naked man in a cage while a dressed Gorilla zookeeper reads the paper. The cover blurb says that “they woke up after a million years to find a world ruled by Apes”. The plot involves a world run by gorillas, orangutans, chimps, etc., all of which are different specialties and castes. This book came over ten years before Pierre Boulle’s Planet of the Apes. In fact, even the paperback edition I have predates PotA by two years.