Reading is Sexy: Books Part II

[daygloeyes2]

I am trying very hard to get into The Bell Jar. Just isn't happening.

 

[ouizy]

atlas shrugged


=


the bible

 

[A_Wanderer]

Objectivists Unite!

/I'm not actually an objectivist, I just like romantic realist paintings.

Right now I'm reading The Fabric of the Cosmos, by Brian Greene (string theorist and author of The Elegant Universe), I've been meaning to get back up to speed with Physics on account of not understanding what my physicist friends are talking about and it seems to be a good launching point, I just got up to Quantum Mechanics and it freaks me out.

 

[anitram]

Outliers.

I loved it. Nothing really new in here or groundbreaking, but I think Gladwell spent a lot of time collecting real-life stories to illustrate his points and so it's a very easy and entertaining read.

 

[vivalapopedge]

Outliers.

I loved it. Nothing really new in here or groundbreaking, but I think Gladwell spent a lot of time collecting real-life stories to illustrate his points and so it's a very easy and entertaining read.

love gladwell, i quote tipping point all the time

and yeah, the reallife stories makes his theories really stick

 

[Pearl]

In the Company of the Courtesan - Sarah Dunant

Very good, very suspenseful with such a twist towards the ending! I highly recommend this, plus one of Dunant's other books, The Birth of Venus. She's so descriptive and really brings her characters and the era she is writing about to life.

 

[Dalton]

atlas shrugged


=

YouTube - proof we came from apes

agreed.

 

[BonoIsMyMuse]

I Started Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour last night. I read the first two sections and am not sucked in yet like I was within the first few chapters of Kitchen Confidential. Then again, it may have been the fact that he completely derailed my attention when he remarked that you never forget the first time you ate caviar off of someone's nipple.

Wait...what?

I finished this last night, and even though it was a little slow to start, I enjoyed it a lot. It's got a more reflective tone than Kitchen Confidential did, and I felt like I learned a lot from it. If you're a fan of No Reservations, you should definitely read this. It's the same basic setup of the show (in fact, his initial travels were for the first season of his Food Network show and for this book), but I feel like I got something from his writing that I didn't get from watching the show.

Next up: Kim Addonizio's latest novel, which annoyed me within the first two paragraphs

 

[Saracene]

Finished Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult. I thought it was by far the weakest book of hers I've read. The plot is overstuffed and rambling, there are some compelling characters and potentially intriguing storylines but they all come to a limp end and I could see the big twist from miles away. Plus she tries to tackle some weighty issues but I thought that the Christ parallels were awkwardly done and IMO she bit off more than she could chew with the whole religious aspect.

 

[BonoIsMyMuse]

I finished Kim Addonizio's My Dreams Out In the Street last night. While it wasn't awful, I think she made some poor choices in the second half of the book, and as a result, the plot got really predictable. She's primarily a poet, so the language was lovely, but there was this coincidence at the end that was completely unbelievable, and she seemed to take the easy way out by leaving the ending so open-ended. I was disappointed.

Then I started Salinger's Franny & Zooey. I read all of "Franny," in fact. What a strange story. I didn't think I liked it at first, but I've been thinking about it all day, so that says something. I'm off this week and have been gobbling up books, so I have a hunch I'll finish this tonight.

Next up: Candyfreak!

 

[Village Idiot]

Just finished Confessions Of An Advertising Man by David Ogilvy. A good and interesting read although in relation to advertising today it may be somewhat out of date.

Also still trawling through Foundation's Fear by Gregory Benford and have also started The Age Of The Warrior by Robert Fisk. The Fisk book is a collection of his articles so is more of a book to dip into when the mood takes one.

 

[powerhour24]

I'm reading Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy, three metafiction detective stories, so far its nice and bizarre.

 

[lazarus]

Then I started Salinger's Franny & Zooey. I read all of "Franny," in fact. What a strange story. I didn't think I liked it at first, but I've been thinking about it all day, so that says something. I'm off this week and have been gobbling up books, so I have a hunch I'll finish this tonight.

I'm reading Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy, three metafiction detective stories, so far its nice and bizarre.

Two of my favorite pieces of literature right there.

BIMM: Zooey is a much deeper story that really builds on what Franny begins. Hope you like the rest of the book.

PH24: The NY Trilogy is fantastic, and I actually have a graphic novel adaptation of City Of Glass as well. Have you read any other Auster? I highly recommend Leviathan, maybe his best. His first six books are all great in their own ways, and I also loved The Book of Illusions.

 

[powerhour24]

I haven't read any other Auster yet, this is my first exposure to him. To be honest I hadn't heard of him until I was looking for some metafiction and came across the trilogy, but I've added some more to my list. I didn't know there was a City of Glass graphic novel though, I'll have to look for that.

 

[corianderstem]

Princess Mia by Meg Cabot
Forever Princess by Meg Cabot

Ah, The Princess Diaries series. I never thought I'd get sucked into a young adult series in my thirties, but there you go. Often funny, often charming, often annoying and frustrating, they were still a joy to read.

I read the final two close together, since in my old ways of waiting for each paperback version to be released, I'd forget what happened in the last book. The series ended well, so yay.

But I'm sorry, movie version starring Anne Hathaway. Princess Mia in the books is blonde. And as much as I love Julie Andrews and her playing Mia's grandmother in the movies, the book version of Clarice is far more hilarious.

Ah, quick, fun reads. Such a nice escape in this crummy ol' world.

 

[powerhour24]

I can sympathize with taking issue with adaptations, but I love Julie Andrews, we need more of her in this world.

 

[corianderstem]

I so enjoyed her memoir last year - I hope she writes a second one, as this one stopped with her taking the role of Mary Poppins!

And don't get me wrong - I was thrilled to see her in the two PD movies ... it's just that she was a very different character than the books.

 

[powerhour24]

Gotcha, just expressing my love haha. She's like the world's grandma.

 

[Saracene]

Charlotte Gray - Sebastian Faulks

I've got mixed feelings about the book. It starts off as a love story between a British airman who gets shot over France during WWII and a Scottish girl who gets involved with the French Resistance while trying to find her lover. It then veers off into the much more interesting, and often very poignant, stories of the local French characters. I think they were what kept me reading because I didn't really care about the central romance and the mystery of Charlotte's childhood trauma comes to a rather anticlimatic resolution. Plus I couldn't really get into the writer's style which I found rather dry and passionless.

 

[Zoobaby14]

Princess Mia by Meg Cabot
Forever Princess by Meg Cabot

Ah, The Princess Diaries series. I never thought I'd get sucked into a young adult series in my thirties, but there you go. Often funny, often charming, often annoying and frustrating, they were still a joy to read.

I read the final two close together, since in my old ways of waiting for each paperback version to be released, I'd forget what happened in the last book. The series ended well, so yay.

But I'm sorry, movie version starring Anne Hathaway. Princess Mia in the books is blonde. And as much as I love Julie Andrews and her playing Mia's grandmother in the movies, the book version of Clarice is far more hilarious.

Ah, quick, fun reads. Such a nice escape in this crummy ol' world.

I remember reading these a few years back, and it has to be one of the most charming stories.
I've passed the books to my little sister who loves the series.


At the moment I'm reading Frances Hodgson Burnetts stories, I had found my old VHS's of the Secret Garden and A little Princess and decided to read the books.

 

[beegee]

I heard about this today.

It's just so incredibly sad.

Sylvia Plath's son commits suicide: report

 

[corianderstem]

I saw that yesterday. Awful.

 

[powerhour24]

I read Martin McDonagh's Galway trilogy of plays (published as 'The Beauty Queen of Leenane and other plays'), and it was quite entertaining and satirical, but his work for the screenplay for In Bruges went far beyond that in adding a heart and more weighty themes to his offcolor characters, and his debut effort as filmmaker was quite impressive too.

Now I'm reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, in some sections its quite interesting, and the mixed media works pretty well even when it catches you off guard, sometimes I feel like Foer's trying too much and I don't usually appreciate precocious characters let alone narrators, but I am enjoying it. For me Delillo's Falling Man is the most impactful September 11th themed novel, its a powerful slice of small human drama weighted against such immense events, I have a thing for that kind of writing versus trying to impress people with plot point after plot point.

 

[BonoIsMyMuse]

Franny & Zooey was amazing. I need to get a copy of it, because I know it's going to be a book I go back to a lot. Now I'm about 40 pages into Steve Almond's Candyfreak. I'm enjoying it, but it's making me crave chocolate like crazy

 

[powerhour24]

Now I'm taking on Stewart O'Nan's The Night Country, I love his character drama, and the concept of a human drama ghost story is certainly compelling and atmospheric.

 

[A_Wanderer]

The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby; it gives an interesting perspective of the "culture war" and broader issues of anti-intellectualism which are by no means restricted to the United States.

 

[Carek1230]

If anyone here has read the Outlander series of books by Diana Gabaldon, I am so excited about an email I got from amazon that the next book is due out 9/22/09- they are taking pre sale orders-called "An Echo in the Bone". Apparently there's rumor about a movie coming out about the series too. May Jamie Fraser and Claire live on in books and the movies!!

 

[corianderstem]

I read the first book in the series and really liked it. I bought the second book .... and it's still sitting on my shelf, like 4 years later.

I'll get around to reading it someday.

 

[Carek1230]

I've read all 5 of the books. The first 2 were really good but I admit as much as I loved the whole story line and characters, and I love the author's style, the last 2 books bored me. I forced myself to read them. I hope the next one after all these years waiting for it is worth the wait!

 

[lazarus]

Franny & Zooey was amazing. I need to get a copy of it, because I know it's going to be a book I go back to a lot.

Glad you liked it. I've read it numerous times, it never fails to please. It's just one of those books you're going to treasure your whole life.