I have been spending a ton of time reading this fall and winter. We used to have a book thread, and I couldn't find it. So let's start a new one!
I just finished a very quick and excelled read called "The Jane Austen Book Club" by Karen Joy Fowler. I definately recommend it. I enjoyed it and have never even read any Jane Austen.
Another quick read was "Party Monster" by James St. James, better than the movie and entertaining if nothing else. A scary time to be around though, I can't imagine doing as many drugs as those kids did. And I was a partier. Ugh!
I completed all of Orson Scott Card's "Ender" books and loved each of them. I don't usually enjoy Sci-Fi but it was amazing, and seemed more a social commentary than anything. I enjoyed it greatly.
I have just started Henry David Thoreau's "Walden" which I have always wanted to read. What I've read so far, I am enjoying and his theme seems more pertinent today than it did when it was written.
I just finished "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien. It was really good but also heavy.
I am currently reading "Rabbit Proof Fence", which is interesting so far.
I also have an Orson Scott Card book next - "Enchantment". I haven't read any of his stuff yet. The boy picked it up while stuck at the airport. He enjoyed it and thought I would. When he was done he gave it to me.
I'm reading Killing the Buddha, A Heretic's Bible, by Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet. REALLY enjoying it!
And Noam Chomsky's, Hegemony or Survival. (nothing much in there I hadn't already surmised, but I do like to read his stuff)
I'm a Sci-fi/fantasy reader for the most part, aside from cookbooks. I love to read cookbooks! Right now I'm perusing one about tofu cookery around the world, next in line is a book on Turkish culture and cuisine. Looks interesting.
For fun I'm re-reading for the umpteenth time Anne McCaffery's dragonrider series, and I just finished Terry Pratchett's Going Postal. His fiction is more comedy than Sci-fi; seriously laugh-out-loud stuff. I think in line after that is a re-read of the Harry Potter series.
I'm blessed/cursed with a short memory, so I can usually read a book again a year later and have it be fresh all over again. Except, for some reason, Tolkein. I re-read that most years anyway, but I always remember it.
Everyone has been talking about Orson Scott Card on this thread, so I'll have to check the library for him!
Right now I am on a Henry James kick, so I am reading The American. I just finished Washington Square, and if I am not sick of it I am going to read The Bostonians next. I tend to read authors in clumps for some reason.
I also just finished Take the Canolli by Sara Vowell. It was a good bus/doctors office/waiting at a coffee shop type book because it is all short essays.
Love Orson Scott Card books, especially the Ender stuff.
Solar - definately check out ender's game. I also have the entire Alvin Maker series, but Ender is much better in my opinon. I haven't checked out Enchantment yet, I thought it was a colaboration piece with someone else for some reason. But once I find an author I love I stick with 'em and if you like sci-fi I think you'll enjoy it. I don't even like sci-fi really (well, it's growing on my, i'm just too embarassed to admit it *L*) and it is like my favorite book.
I am happy to see other people just re-read the same stuff. Really, I have like a handfull of favorite books that I just re-read over and over, and it makes me happy to do so. I read Juliet Marrillier's Sevenwaters trilogy every year and love it. Another one I recommend if you like fantasy at all.
After Walden (which i'm disappointed to say i'm having a hard time reading) comes Emma by Jane Austen. I'm trying to catch up on classics. I want to feel a little more well read, so I'm branching out in genres. Any suggetions?
I always read classic lit just because I never read enough of it in school & I really enjoy it. I picked up cold mountain & vanity fair from Borders for 8 dollars (Holiday sale) and they're nice copies, too. So I don't get tired, I usually read a 'me' book & a classic. I think too much of anything fries your brain & its just not as good (books, movies, food). Notice how the 12th oreo just isn't nearly as good as the first 2. )
One of my favorite "classics" is "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens.
Kellibee- I like your idea of rotating a classic with a "me" book.
Right now I am rading Glamourama by Brett Easton Ellis. I also read American Psycho by the same author and really enjoyed it.
I will have to pick up the latest Terry Pratchett novel - I love his Discworld books but can read them on the bus as they make me laugh out loud and then everyone on the bus looks at you like you are a whacko!
Mauv - I've found that while riding the bus.. people thinking you're a whacko can actually be to your advantage.
I ride the bus every day. I actually had a drunk pass out into my hair last week. I almost burst into flames. *shudder* but it's usually not that bad.
And speaking of laughing out loud, when we went to watch American Psycho my hubby and I were the only ones in the theater laughing. I guess we were the only ones that got it.
I like that idea too, reading a me book and then a classic. I have the Jungle waiting for me too, which is my classic and "Living to tell the tale" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - my me book. My favourite author ever, I can't wait to read his auto bio.
Well, I am not as intellectual or literary as you learned ladies, however i enjoy reading when I have the time. I am currently reading my third James Patterson novel, Pop Goes the Weasel. I love his style of writing, (leisure reading) I am also reading Just Enough Light for the Next Step I'm On by Stormie Omartian, (spiritual reading)
and for my poetic side, Moon Loves Its Light by a local author Marilyn Lerch. Fantastic!
Lizziness- DH and I were laughing at some parts of the movie when no one else was. We figured either we were the only ones that got it or we both have a warped sense of humour
I burst out laughing when Christian Bale was running down the hall wearing only his running shoes and a chainsaw -
Mmm... Christian Bale. And that's all I have to say about that. I should read the book. And I think we are the right ones, it's supposed to be funny.
I have been enjoying a woman's spiritualist writer Sarah Ban Breathnach, she does a series called "simple abundance" and I have two of her books. They are nice, and not specific to a religion which some can appreciate.
I was so excited to read 100 years of solitude by Marquez but I could only get thru half of it and that was a struggle. The story was beautiful, but I was lost in the writing style, it seemed so dry to me, but that may just be lost in the translation. Also, to have everyone in the book be named the same 2 or 3 names killed me. I didn't know who was doing what. Although I understand the whole family names thing. I'm italian and the name angela (& its many forms) is used in every female's name in my family.
100 years of Solitude is a hard read. I was lucky to have a book that contained a family tree in the front of it. I had to read it for a class on magical realism and we discussed all the "magical" things that occurred that everyone treated as everyday things.
Anyway, I just finished The Fat Girl's Guide to Life by Wendy Shanker. It was awesome!!! She writes in this "tell it like it is" style that I can relate to. She is very blunt and sarcastic about life and love and the weight-loss industry...I highly recommend the book.
Reading for the new year
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