Official Interference Summer Reading Thread

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

pax

ONE love, blood, life
Joined
Nov 5, 2001
Messages
11,412
Location
Ewen's new American home
Since summer has started (for most of us, if not for the calendar), I thought we should have a thread to post books we are reading for the season. I always read more stuff for myself during the summer, since school keeps me pretty busy with stuff I *have* to read.

You can post any book you read, whether you read it for business or pleasure, provided it is an entire book and you have read it for the first time.

I'll start:

The Modern Library Writer's Workshop, Stephen Koch (another writing guide as I desperately try to finish the first draft of my novel)
 
I get paid to read books. :yes:

Just finished "The Fan-Maker's Inquisition: A Novel of the Marquis de Sade" by Rikki Ducornet.

Halfway through "The Gangster We Are All Looking For" by l? thi diem th?y.
 
I'm reading The Clinton Wars by Sydney Blumenthal. And also just finished reading Dubliners for the book club. When I next have some money to purchase a new book I want to read one of Bill Bryson's books - maybe his new one, or else A Walk in the Woods. I really enjoy travel books. :)
 
i keep meaning to start fareed zakaria's the future of freedom. i also want to read the lovely bones by alice sebold. and i've had the red tent by anita diamant on my bookshelf for over a year. everyone i know who has read it LOVES it.

i really need to get with the program. :der:
 
i would but as summer has not started here yet and at this rate won't til mid october. but i am reading LOTR. i'm on the third book right now. it's getting so good.
 
joyfulgirl said:
I get paid to read books. :yes:


I get paid to read and edit manuscripts and make them into books. :D

But at home, I am currently reading Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. It's awesome.
 
HeartlandGirl said:


I get paid to read and edit manuscripts and make them into books. :D

But at home, I am currently reading Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. It's awesome.


Yay, HG! I used to work in publishing, but now I work for a foundation that gives literary grants and awards, among other things.

Autobiography of a Yogi is indeed awesome!
 
Sophie's Chocie, by William Stryton.

Not exactly light reading 9Holocaust book), but just something I've been meaning to read for quite a while now.
 
joyfulgirl said:

Yay, HG! I used to work in publishing, but now I work for a foundation that gives literary grants and awards, among other things.

Autobiography of a Yogi is indeed awesome!

What a cool job you have! :up: Maybe a book I edit will win one of your awards! :wink:

I'm only halfway through A of a Y. I'm trying to savor it. :D
 
I'm about 50 pages into Beloved by Toni Morrison, and I read Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) as soon as I got out of school. I'm trying to only read "good" books this summer.
 
Screaming Flower said:
i also want to read the lovely bones by alice sebold.

flower, i read this. it was excellent. and i don't even like this type of book.
i couldn't put it down, it was so haunting.

i sat by the pool today reading the rum diary by hunter s. thompson.

also, i recommend white oleander by janet fitch, and cruddy by lynda barry.
 
bonosgirl84 said:
flower, i read this. it was excellent. and i don't even like this type of book.
i couldn't put it down, it was so haunting.

i really have to read it soon. that's what my friend said too.
 
For quick but not shallow reads this summer, try:

Microserfs, Douglas Coupland
the Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt (the movie was good too)
For the Time Being, Annie Dillard
The Hundred Secret Senses, Amy Tan
 
Beloved is a wonderful book.

I bought The Lovely Bones for my mother for Christmas. She and my sister both enjoyed it.

If anyone is looking for something good and classic, you can't go wrong with F. Scott Fitzgerald. He's my favorite author. There is an especially good volume of his complete short stories.
 
i plan on finally finishing my copies of white oleander and fast food nation. i'd like to finish them before i go on vacation, so i can bring different books down with me for beach reading.

if i can read more books, i'll probably f. scott fitzgerald's this side of paradise or the beautiful and the damned. those are a lot better than the great gatsby, which is a good book, but these are better.
 
HeartlandGirl said:
If anyone is looking for something good and classic, you can't go wrong with F. Scott Fitzgerald. He's my favorite author. There is an especially good volume of his complete short stories.
haha i just noticed this! great minds think alike! :up:

i always think of reading his books in the summertime. i don't know if i just associate them with summer, or if i think they fit the mood. but whatever, i usually read one of his novels every summer.
 
I'm reading 'Black Hawk Down' right now.

Dont know what I'll read next. A Tom Clancy book or Sherlock Holmes book are looking somewhat likely. I have a huge list of things I want to read though. It will probably be what ever whim I go off on once I finish 'Black Hawk Down'
 
bonosgirl84 said:
with white oleander, you must read the book before you see the film.
hehe, i've already seen the film several times. i've got it on dvd. i got it the day it came out. :laugh:

but i think the book is better in some ways than the movie, it's a lot more graphic, meaning it doesn't skip over entire chapters the way the movie does. the book/movie angela's ashes does that too. the movie starts up at like chapter 4 or something. the book starts before the author's even born, but in the movie he's already 8 or so.
 
KhanadaRhodes said:

haha i just noticed this! great minds think alike! :up:

i always think of reading his books in the summertime. i don't know if i just associate them with summer, or if i think they fit the mood. but whatever, i usually read one of his novels every summer.

Indeed! :laugh:

I've read Tender Is the Night, Gatsby, The Beautiful and Damned, and the Complete Short Stories, but I have yet to read This Side of Paradise for some reason. Have you read it? Perhaps I should add it to my summer reading list. :hmm:
 
I just saw a book in the book store yesterday that I really want to read. I've forgotten it's title ( :ohmy: I'm stupid :p ) but it was a book about the lives of Chinese women in the last few years. The author was a radio show host and she used to ask women to phone into her show and talk about their lives, and now she's written a book about some of the women's experiences.

I always have too many books on my list, lol. :)
 
:up: :up: Beloved :up: :up:

I really enjoyed Sula as well.

I'm reading a travel novel right now: Into the Heart of Borneo by the naturalist Redmond O'Hanlon. Funny and informative. For summer reading I'd suggest any travel novel, hell, any book at all by Bill Bryson. Quick, humorous and insightful stuff.

Books I've started but put on the backburner:

Conrad's Heart of Darkness - Maybe I'll attack it again this summer.

and

Memoirs of a Geisha - There was a lot of hype surrounding this book when it came out but, frankly, I've found it kind of slow going. I don't know when I'll pick it up again.



A novel that has impacted me greatly is Ellison's Invisible Man, although I don't know that I'd call it summer reading...lol.
 
Back
Top Bottom