Books- read, reading, will read

[arienette]

After finishing Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys in Lima, I read the first 2 1/2 books of The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide.

I picked up a copy of The Madonna Complex by Norman Bogner for $2 at a bus station, and was bored nearly to tears by the beginning of it. I'll read a bit more before giving up, but the outcome does not look good.

Today, Jammies took me to a used book store. I found 3 books I've been anxious to read again: Stephen King's The Eyes of the Dragon, Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, and Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Since Jammies, who does not normally like Dean Koontz, recommended his Fear Nothing, I picked that up as well. Think they'll be enough to keep me busy on a 30 hour bus ride?

The Eyes of the Dragon is one of the only King books I enjoyed. Loved, actually. I hope you like it.

 

[SeaCat]

Just finished:

Davinci Code, Angels and Demons and Deception Point by D. Brown.

Recently read:

The Jesus Papers; Baignet
Bloodline of the Holy Grail ; Gardner
Smoke and Spice; Jamison and Jamison (It's a cookbook for BBQ)
Tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles of WWII; Winchester
For us the Living; Heinlein

What I'll read next? Damned if I know but the Lady with the Alabaster Jar has been mentioned to me several times.

Cat

 

[BigFatMeat]

The last book I read was "My Friend Leonard" by James Frey. This was in the midst of that whole controversy with him and Oprah and all that. It was a pretty good book, fake or not.

I just DL'd "Middlemarch" from Project Gutenberg so I guess I'll be reading that next.

 

[lrisheyes]

Reading Turning Angel by Greg Iles

Recently read The Dark Half by Stephen King I've read many of his books, but this one, I found myself wanting to just get through it, not really liking it, but needing to find out how it ended!

After that, I really needed a feel good book and picked up a David Baldacci I'd had sitting around awhile. Wish You Well. so unlike his other novels and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Others stacked by my bedside:

1st To Die James Patterson
Up Country Nelson DeMille
Gerald's Game Stephen King
Lie Down With Lions Ken Follett
Code To Zero Ken Follett

Waiting patiently for the latest novels from Nelson DeMille, Ridley Pearson, Lee Child and John Sandford to come out

 

[sophia jane]

I just finished a book called Whatever Makes you Happy by Lisa Grunwald. I'm not sure how I even heard of this book, from Amazon maybe? or from someone here? Anyway, it was an interesting book, partly because of the inclusion of so many different ideas on what defines and creates happiness, and partly for everything it had to say on motherhood. I liked the author well enough that I've already checked another of hers out from the library.
Next up: either The House of Mirth, Second Honeymoon, or On Writing. Can't decide my mood yet.

 

[Alessia Brio]

Others stacked by my bedside:

Lie Down With Lions Ken Follett

Read this eons ago ... and the only thing I can remember about it is the mutual masturbation scene. (Wonder why that is? )

 

[Guest]

Some of you might very much like Pomosexuals: Challenging Assumptions about Gender and Sexuality, edited by Carol Queen and Lawrence Schimel. Non fiction collection of essays, but really, REALLY interesting. I've loaned my copy out any number of times. It really pokes into how we think about sexuality and gender, to a level most of us never really get into. I was surprised with myself to run up against assumptions I didn't even know I was making.

 

[lrisheyes]

Read this eons ago ... and the only thing I can remember about it is the mutual masturbation scene. (Wonder why that is? )

hmmmmmmmm, might have to pick that one up next!

 

[Aurora Black]

Recently finished King's On Writing and the romance novel I mentioned, and now I'm on Writing the Breakout Novel, by Donald Maass.

 

[sophia jane]

Finished Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope. It's weird because I enjoy her books...sorta. I mean, some of it is interesting but I get pulled continually out of her story by her language choices. Plus she has a horrible adverb problem. People often speak "worriedly" or "a shade too cheerfully" etc. In fact, there is hardly a dialogue without a few of these and it gets a little old.

Anyway, next up is House of Mirth.

 

[Aurora Black]

Finished Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope. It's weird because I enjoy her books...sorta. I mean, some of it is interesting but I get pulled continually out of her story by her language choices. Plus she has a horrible adverb problem. People often speak "worriedly" or "a shade too cheerfully" etc. In fact, there is hardly a dialogue without a few of these and it gets a little old.

I picked up her Girl From the South a couple of years back. It's amazing that I managed to finish that one, and that I didn't burn it immediately afterwards.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Recently finished King's On Writing and the romance novel I mentioned, and now I'm on Writing the Breakout Novel, by Donald Maass.

so what's the secret to writing the breakout novel, according to Maass?

 

[sophia jane]

I picked up her Girl From the South a couple of years back. It's amazing that I managed to finish that one, and that I didn't burn it immediately afterwards.

I read The Rector's Wife first and liked it enough to read another of hers, which was Girl from the South. I hadn't read anything else of hers since but I had forgotten why till I read Second Honeymoon. I wish I had remembered. It really is a very annoying way to do dialogue, isn't it?

 

[Aurora Black]

so what's the secret to writing the breakout novel, according to Maass?

I haven't gotten to that yet. I've been working so much on my WIPs the last few nights that I haven't been able to stay awake past the Introduction.

 

[Aurora Black]

It really is a very annoying way to do dialogue, isn't it?

Reading it was like having my teeth pulled out without novacaine.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Started in on Madame Bovary[/quote]. Still trying to work out who will actually be the title character.

Shanglan

 

[sophia jane]

Started in on Madame Bovary

. Still trying to work out who will actually be the title character.

Shanglan[/QUOTE]

Oooh. I have Madame Bovary in my to read pile. I'll read it next and then I can harass you for your thoughts!

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Ever read Eric Flint's 1632? Read that before and plan to read it again. Very great sci-fi novel.

 

[Aurora Black]

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was pretty good, too. I enjoyed it even more than Blade Runner, the movie version. *ducks for cover*

 

[Aurora Black]

Maass is a real hard ass (unintentional rhyme). He says that the eBook revolution will never happen, but of course he'd say that! He's one of the top literary agents out there; he's not going to say anything the least bit supportive of something that may put him out of business.

 

[Victor_Pollack]

"Time Enough At Last"

For those of you who don't remember or never saw the original Twilight Zones in B&W, Time Enough At Last was a story about a meek bank teller (Berges Meredith) who loves to read but whose wife and manager think reading is a waste of time and won't let him read a book, magazine, newspaper, etc. Everyday he sneaks down into the vault to read something, anything he has been able to hide from them. One day there's a huge explosion and when he goes outside he finds that the world is in shambles. So, he joyfully goes to the library and arranges piles of books that he's going to read this month, and next month, on for years. Unfortunately, he stumbles, drops his glasses, and steps on them breaking the lenses into pieces that fall out of the frames. Without his glasses he can't read a thing.

Recently Read
Baudelaire, Charles, Le Fleurs Du Mal
Beck, Mariana ed., The Ecstatic Moment: The Best Of Libido
Berman, Paul, Terror And Liberalism
Brown, Dan, The Da Vinci Code
Camus, Albert, The Stranger
The Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror & The Complete Works Of The Comte de Lautréamont
Crichton, Michael, Prey
Emmanuel, Pierre, Baudelaire: The Paradox Of Redemptive Satanism
Genet, Jean, Funeral Rites
Hawking, Steven, A Brief History of Time
Huffington, Arianna, Pigs At The Trough
Koontz, Dean, Tick Tock
Klein, Shelley, Classic Erotic Tales
Lovecraft, H. P. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
Sarte, Jean-Paul, Baudelaire

Reading
Barbach, Lonnie ed., Pleasures: Women Write Erotica
Brzezinski, Zbigniew, The Choice: Global Domination Or Global Leadership
Camus, Albert, The Rebel I've been reading this for months! It's a reference in Terror And Liberalism, which then led to Baudelaire, Sarte, Genet, and others.
Friedman, William, Inadmissible Evidence
Kotlikoff, Laurence, The Coming Generational Storm
Phillips, Kevin, American Theocracy

Next to Read
Baer, Robert, Sleeping With The Devil
Brown, Sherrod, Myths Of Free Trade
Friedman, Thomas, The World Is Flat
Zakaria, Fareed, The Future Of Freedom

No, I don't sit at home all day reading--I'm actually a slow reader--but I'm retired so I do have more time than most.

 

[sophia jane]

Just finished Stephen King's On Writing, which was an amazing book I had started both House of Mirth and Madame Bovary but couldn't get into either of them, so I've set them aside. I'm working on Rococo by Adriana Trigiani. I've read all her books (some I liked, some I didn't). The jury is still out on this one.
My pile to be read is about ten high at the moment, so I have lots to look forward to.

 

[Aurora Black]

Still reading Maass's (Whew! "S" nightmare) book. I've been reading his advice on character development, and what he has to say about conflict (Man vs. Man, Man vs. God, Man vs. Himself) is quite interesting.

 

[Munachi]

i should start "los rios profundos" by josé maría arguedas soon. i started "yawar fiesta" by him before, and gave up, but i have a german translation of "los rios profundos", and i am told it is easier...

 

[vampiredust]

Finished The Secret Of Life Bees By Sue Monk Kidd and The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur by Victor Pelevin. Currently reading Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey. Will start on Ulysses by James Joyce after that.