A short post for a short Wednesday.
Actually it’s not a short Wednesday but still. I reserve the right to write this blog nonsensically. TOMATOES.
Anyway, just curious what people are reading at the moment. So you tell me — what book are you reading right now?
Me? When I’m not reading for work (rare these days) I’m reading DECEMBER 6TH by Martin Cruz Smith.
Zuni!
NEVERWHERE by Neil Gaiman
I’m making a run at House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.
I thought I was past my gimmick book phase, but what the heck. I want to see if it lives up to the hype.
Ha! I just finished STARDUST by Neil Gaiman!
Before that, ANTHEM OF A RELUCTANT PROPHET by Joanne Proulx which was excellent.
Today I’m reading this gripping epic about misbehaving kids doing stupid things, which you’ve never heard of because it hasn’t been published yet.
And when I send out my queries on Friday I want to read that book about that kid with the scar on his forehead…
THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING, by Joan Didion.
The latest in my “reading the books everyone else read 2 years ago” kick. Hey, how ’bout that 6th Harry Potter book? Pretty crazy!
Provolone.
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
I’m reading Every Dead Thing by John Connolly at the minute, and have been for weeks ’cause I can’t get the time to finish it.
My ‘to read’ pile got bigger after finding a great little second hand book shop during a recent weekend away, so The Painted Bird, The Word According to Garp and a James Ellroy whose title escapes me have joined the queue already headed up by Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box.
And I’ve also got an unpublished work by Sex Scenes at Starbucks to read, which I’m really looking forward to. 🙂
Just bought The Naming Of The Dead by Ian Rankin — can’t wait to start, but tomorrow’s my last day of classes at Cambridge, so I can’t start until Friday.
My annual reading of Beowulf. Haven’t read it since December, so I figure it’s about time.
Geek Love. So far, among the best books I’ve read to date, and I’ve read a LOT of books. I’m sad that the author didn’t make a million bajillion dollars, because she deserves it.
HALLOWED BONES by Carolyn Haines
Recent past reads, Harry Potter, of course. Also, Nefertiti by Michelle Moran.
THE LADY RODE BUCKING HORSES by Dee Marvine. Next up–THE EXECUTION CHANNEL by Ken MacLeod.
Plus I’ll be reading some text materials by Ellyn Arwood to prepare for the latest reading class I’ll be teaching this fall.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I’m always a step behind because I live on the other side of the Werold.
Happy Birthday or Whatever by Annie Choi, and The Plot Against America by Philip Roth.
Thumbs up to both.
Trying to finish Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Absolutely one of my favorite books ever, but I wonder how on earth it got published. It violates nearly every rule that agents claim a writer must abide. It has pages and pages of of telling, its got tons of backstory (including full pages of minuscule footnotes), it is full of nothing much happening, it fits firmly into no genre, its word count is in the bazillions…and it’s completely wonderful.
I’ll be sad when I’m done with it 🙁
Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg, because I’ll get to meet her at Archon this weekend…
The Lying Tongue by Andrew Wilson.
Hadn’t heard of the author or the book. I work at a library and just browse the “new” shelf until I see something that interests me.
The latest THURSDAY NEXT by Jasper Fforde. I read it in the gym on the exercise bike and laugh outloud.
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik. So far it’s a very nicely done alternate history fantasy. Not usually what I read (I’m not really a Napoleonic-wars-but-with-dragons type), but I heard it was good.
Woken Furies by RK Morgan and The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution by David O. Stewart.
Let’s see.
Non-Fiction: UNDERSTANDING COMICS by Scott McCloud. Very, very good.
Fiction: GLASSHOUSE by Charles Stross. Just started, so stay tuned.
And blogs. Lots and lots and lots of blogs . . .
THE WOODS, by Harlan Coben
THE MAKING OF A POEM, by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland.
I love it. It opens with a pair of wonderful essays on Strand’ and Boland’s early experiences with poetry; then each chapter takes a poetic form and explains its structure, discusses its place in history and provides a number of examples. Great!
SOON I WILL BE INVINCIBLE by Austin Grossman
REPOSSESSED by A.M. Jenkins
WHO IS SHAYLA HACKER by Evan Kilgore
To Kill a Mockingbird. And, I admit, this is my first time. I’ll go hide in a closet now. (With a flashlight and reading glasses.)
Talyn by Holly Lisle
In the last few days:
The Splendor that was Egypt, Margaret A. Murray.
Animals for Show and Pleasure in Ancient Rome, George Jennison.
The Roman Countryside, Stephen L. Dyson.
Rome and the Barbarians, 100 B.C. – A.D. 400, Thomas S. Burns.
Genghis Khan, Leo de Hartog.
Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome, Apicius, tran. Joseph Dommers Vehling.
The Last Hawk, Catherin Asaro.
Why yes, I’m on a non-fiction kick.
Just finished KNIGHT OF SHADOWS, one of Roger Zelazny’s Amber books. I’m just starting JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR.NORRELL, by Susanna Clarke, and am in the midst of a Fritz Leiber novel of Lankhmar whose title is refusing to come to mind.
I’ve just started Blaze by “Richard Bachman”
And waiting in the wings is The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz
And then hoping to get back to Stephen Kings Lisey’s Story (which I’ve started and stopped 3 or 4 times)
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama and starting tomorrow Lottery by Patricia Wood.
The Wandering Fire by Guy Gavriel Kay.
A Passage to India (E.M. Forster) and The Lawless Roads (Graham Greene). I’m almost a week behind in updating my on-line reading log.
I’m currently reading Thriller, a collection of short stories written by members of the International Thriller Writers, Inc., and edited by James Patterson. Some of the stories I’ve read have tickled my fancy, and others have not.
The book’s introduction, a page or two that sets up each story, and bios of the authors at the end of the volume were written by Patterson. In many cases, the stories reach back and follow loose threads from previous novels. One in particular resurrected an interesting character from a book I read several years ago.
I have never read a collection of short stories before. Though it is not necessarily something I’d choose to do all the time, it is a nice change of pace and provides an introductory glimpse at authors I’ve not yet read.
Second Glance by Jodi Picoult.
Marilyn & Me by Shanta Everington
I just finished Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” which I loved. I am now reading Uzodinma Iweala’s “Beasts of No Nation” which is amazing.
Just finished THE KITE RUNNER. Loved it! Starting WATER FOR ELEPHANTS.
Reading ‘debuts’ looking for the spark… ‘Good in Bed’ Jennifer Weiner and ‘Chasing Vermier’ Blue Balliet
WINKIE by Clifford Chase. It’s about a teddy bear busted for terrorism by Homeland Security. Epic.
Just finished GOBLIN QUEST, by Jim Hines.
reading some short fiction, the Sept issue of Magazine of Fantasy & SF, and Apex Digest magazine.
probably read some Vonnegut after this.
Atonement, by Ian McEwan, is by my bedside. McEwan is a beautiful writer: reading him is restorative and inspiring.
Chasing Angels, a novella by Sally Zigmond, is in my hand bag. Zigmond used to edit a small literary magazine, and I know her best as a writer of beautiful short stories: her writing’s immaculate, and delicate, and I wish I could write like her.
A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness, by V S Ramachandran, is in my car, and I’m reading it for his insights into synaesthesia–a condition I enjoy, which colours every day of my life.
I’m reading Six Feet Over: Adventures in the Afterlife by Mary Roach. It’s a brilliant collection of various experiments that have been done over the years to try and prove or disprove an afterlife. It’s full of eccentric and clever figures and is thought provoking and witty by turns.
Also rereading The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, one of the best fantasy books I’ve read for a long while.
Lean Mean 13 by Janet Evanovich and an historical romance as a beta reader for my pal and fellow autism Mom Susan Senator. I just finished Running With Scissors to help me understand my friend John Robison a little better. RWS boggled my mindm I couldn’t put it down, although I hated much of what I was reading.
Just finished Chrysalis: Maria Sybilla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis by Kim Todd.
Started This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich.
Besides blogs?
Food in England by Dorothy Hartley – and no, it’s not a cookbook.
I just finished Crescent, by Diana Abu-Jaber and it was wonderful. Now I’m writing a paper about it. When I finish the paper I’m going to read her new memoir, The Language of Baklava.
MOON CALLED by Patricia Briggs. Heavy into fantasy these days.
I’m revisiting an old favorite – From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg.
I’ve also started a veritable paper brick: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It’s slightly intimidating, but good so far.
Wraith (fantasy, Phaedra Weldon)
The Masks of God (Joseph Campbell)
Mobspeak (reference)
Concise Economic History of the World (Cameron)
TWILIGHT by Stephenie Meyer. And loving it!
Soon I’ll move onto LOTTERY by Patricia Wood.
I’m reading an old Paris review Interviews book, 1977 Penguin edition, that includes interviews of Henry Miller and Katherine Anne Porter, Ernest Hemingway, and several others. I found a box of books when we moved recentkly – that I hadn’t seen in a while – hadn’t realized all of my books weren’t unpacked.
It’s a wonderful feeling, like finding an old friend again, complete with underlinings and dog-eared pages.