I like to ask this question from time to time:
What are you reading at the moment?
I’m reading The Golden Compass. Yes, for the first time. It’s one of my big gap books.
What about you?
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Art: Reading loud by Per Eskilson
The Goldfinch. Why not? I may be the only literate American left who hasn’t. Started last night and love it so far. The writing is so good I think I’ll read every chapter twice through. But of course you already knew that.
Bananaworld: Quantum Mechanics for Primates. Jeff Bub has a cool way to elucidating that quantum jive.
I just finished reading, “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter” by Kim Edwards. This the sort of novel I love best… It was published in 2005, and I don’t know how I managed to miss it.
I just finished Ernest Cline’s ‘Armada’, which is excellent.
I’m reading:-
‘The Continent’ by Keira Drake.
‘The Adoption Machine’ by Paul Jude Redmond.
‘The Explorer’ by Katherine Rundell.
‘Avalon’ by Rusty Coates.
‘Insurgent’ by Veronica Roth.
‘Boy Erased’ by Garrard Conley.
And they’re just the ones that come to hand easily! Plus various online stuff, of course. And rereading my own WIP for the umpteenth time. All par for the course for me. I’m often reading more.
I nearly always finish any book I start reading, though I may put even a very interesting book aside for weeks, months, or years! Then I sometimes have to reread.
I’ve yet to read ‘The Golden Compass’ though I enjoyed the movie.
I love The His Dark Materials Trilogy so super much! I hope you love it, as well. I’m reading The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik by David Arnold as well as Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick. Good stuff.
Fiction: Just finished The Immortalists and The Woman in the Window, and am now reading The Alice Network. Non-fiction: Mind to Matter by Dawson Church.
I’m enjoying The Haiku Anthology 3rd edition (curated by Cor Van Den Heuvel).
Ooh spooky, I just started reading The Golden Compass last night and it’s been sitting in the pile by my bed for about two years. I’m only up to page 12 so far though.
The night before that I finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which is not my usual kind of thing but I enjoyed reading it.
I’m reading Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. It’s brilliant, captivating, mesmerizing. The prologue (“Anticipation”) left me bug-eyed and slack- jawed. It’s pure poetry, and easily the best, most effective prologue I’ve ever read. I’m about 3/4 through, and the slow-build beat is hitting a crescendo. Can’t tell whether I’ll be sobbing or rejoicing at the end.
If someone hasn’t read it but plans to, it’s a good idea to read it straight through with as few breaks as possible (I don’t mean read fast; I mean in one session, like over a weekend). The timeline is broken up between backstory and present, and with many different characters that interact later on but not at first, it’s necessary (for me, anyway) to pay close attention and not lose my focus.
Besides blog posts I follow, my query and Queryshark (WP finished and with beta reader)? I’ve a list too:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (how have I missed this? A smooth read despite huge paragraphs)
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (I feel I may be in the minority, but I’m disappointed after Mistborn)
The End of the World, an anthology with the likes of GRR Martin, Neil Gaiman etc
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig
I’ve just downloaded:
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Strangers to Superfans by David Gaughran
Writing a Breakout Novel by Donald Mass
Creating Character Arcs by KM Weiland
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin
I generally finish a novel in weeks or months too. I can’t go back after years. I did that once with Jane Eyre and it was too much of a gap for me.
I’m reading Dead Sleep by Greg Isles. I’ve read other books written by him but this is the first with a female protagonist that I’ve come across.
I just finished King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green. As I read it, I thought it sounded a lot like Lord of the Rings. It turns out, Green and Tolkien were writing buddies who peer edited each other’s work, along with C.S. Lewis. Even the ending seemed very Tolkien. It makes me feel like Peter Jackson should do his take on King Arthur.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. I just finished Artemis by Andy Weir. Before that, I read Dawn by Octavia Butler.
Don’t laugh and leave any snide comments at the door, but I’m currently reading “When Life Gives You Lululemons” by Lauren Weisberger. Hey, I’ve already read the other two books and loved the movie, so what the hell. It’s lite and inconsequential.
I’m currently reading “Meanwhile there are Letters. The correspondence of Eudora Welty and Ross Macdonald.
Last week I finished reading Noir by Christopher Moore, which was a fun read, a mystery/comedy set in Francisco (The City) the summer of 1947. Since I’m from The City, and am a Featured Story writer for the Facebook website San Francisco Remembered.com that has 63,000 members, I love reading stories about San Francisco. My memoir, 402 Avalon about growing up in The City during the 1950s, is selling well the Golden State of CA. I’m currently reading Season of the Witch by David Talbot, an exhilaration story that conveys the ’60s counterculture, involving political, religious and cultural evolution in San Francisco.
The Order of Time — a fascinating book and bang on the m-g s-f novel I’m working on, in which a girl from the future visits the present in search of the inventory of the anti-gravity unit that powers time travel. This, after watching the 2018 A Wrinkle in Time and wondering how such a wonderful book could be so mucked up on screen.
‘The Great Alone’ by Kristen Hannah.
The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses) by Terri-Lynne DeFino.
I’ve not long ago finished reading A Street Cat Named Bob and it’s sequel The World According to Bob. I’d go as far as to say that these were the best books I’ve ever read. They’re true stories that I found riveting, beautiful, profound- even life-changing. Everyone who’s read them, or watched the movie based on the first book, becomes captivated by the story of James Bowen and Bob – who James has claimed changed his life from an addicted, abandoned, homeless man to a successful author who feels – for the first time – loved and trusted by a cat who lived on the streets as well. After he rescued Bob, the amazing ginger cat who travels on buses and across James shoulders, then Bob rescued him. Now, we see can see the real James: a man with many talents and qualities who spends his time either writing, busking or working to raise money for the people and animals without a home or a hope for a better life.
Is this story sounds too good to be true, there are videos across YouTube, often taken by others who didn’t know James personally, which show his transformation from a down-trodden young man who’d sit on the chilly British pavement throughout winter accompanied only by his guitar and a hope that someone would stop to listen. Later on, Bob joins him on the streets, sitting in James’ guitar case and surrounded by a group of admirers. In James’ own words, he finally became visible to people – thanks to Bob who to this day never leaves his side.
I’d seen but not read the Street Cat Bob books Wendy read, but I didn’t know there was a movie. Both books and movie are now on my shopping list.
I just finished reading The Night Diary, an MG novel by Veera Hiranandani about a twelve year old making the dangerous journey with her family from her home in what is suddenly Pakistan to her new place in post-Partition India.
I’m reading a critical take on Laura Ingalls Winder called “Prairie Fire”.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Only about 10% in, but interesting so far.