Reading Is Sexy: Books Part III

[Zoobaby14]

Perfect find at a second hand bookstore today lockie leonard by Tim Winton

My english teacher read it to the class when I was in year 8 couldn't resist buying it to read again.

 

[corianderstem]

Just Kids by Patti Smith

I LOVED THIS BOOK!

Loved it.

Loved it!

I've always admired Patti Smith more than I liked her music, aside from a few songs. This book, a memoir/autobiography through the late 60s and early 70s, mostly focused on her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, made me really, really, really admire her.

Great writing, and the kind of book that makes me want to move to New York and become an artist. Bob Dylan's book made me feel the same way.

 

[powerhour24]

Library trip tomorrow! Not that I really have time to be reading, but I'm dying to get into some new books.

 

[powerhour24]

Picked up Graham Greene's Brighton Rock, Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, some Steinbeck novellas (not the fucking Pearl), Josh Bazell's Beat the Reaper, and the rest of Scott Pilgrim.

 

[JCOSTER]

Reading: The Gift of an Ordinary Day; great book for those who have teenage sons!!!

 

[Bonogirl777]

At the moment, I'm finishing up Watership Down by Richard Adams for Honors English.

 

[powerhour24]

I finished Beat The Reaper in the past day, really entertaining debut novel with an extremely strange ending... you could call it a deus ex machina if it weren't so odd.

 

[martha]

I finally finished the 528 pages of Doctor Thorne. I still have three more books in the Barsetshire series; the last two are 700+ and 800+ pages each. I think before I get back to Barsetshire, I'll stop off in Arizona or somewhere else out West. To get myself excited for Flagstaff, I'm going to read parts of the Lonely Planet Grand Canyon guide I checked out of the library.

 

[No spoken words]

A few months ago I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and while the writing was not anything to brag about, I did really enjoy the story/mystery.

I then, of course, bought the sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire and was really disappointed. Not much of a story, way too much usage of phrases like "he gave her a searching look". A pet peeve of mine is also being too descriptive time and time again, so, every time someone eats an apple, I do not need to know about it, but in this book apparently I did. I also started to find the talents of the heroine a little too far-fetched. Lastly, the ending was ridiculous. Very disappointing.

Besides those books, I've recently read Shutter Island (before seeing the film) which I enjoyed, Ghost (Will soon see the film based on this book, called The Ghost Writer), which was breezy reading but fun, Acacia, which is book one of a relatively new fantasy series and I definitely liked it, re-read Ghostwritten by David Mitchell (a favorite of mine, wish he was a tad more prolific), amongst other titles.....

Am currently reading Black Hills by another favorite author, Dan Simmons. After that, Peter Straub's new book.

 

[corianderstem]

NSW, is Dan Simmons the author who wrote Drood? Have you read that?

 

[No spoken words]

NSW, is Dan Simmons the author who wrote Drood? Have you read that?

I did and, for me, it was his worst book ever.

 

[corianderstem]

I hadn't heard/read any reviews of it, just saw the book and thought it looked intriguing. Thanks!

 

[beegee]

Best of the Web 2009, an anthology featuring the best submissions to online literary magazines like Failbetter, Brevity, etc.

It's amazing how many unknown, talented writers there are.

 

[powerhour24]

A few months ago I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and while the writing was not anything to brag about, I did really enjoy the story/mystery.

I then, of course, bought the sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire and was really disappointed. Not much of a story, way too much usage of phrases like "he gave her a searching look". A pet peeve of mine is also being too descriptive time and time again, so, every time someone eats an apple, I do not need to know about it, but in this book apparently I did. I also started to find the talents of the heroine a little too far-fetched. Lastly, the ending was ridiculous. Very disappointing.

Am currently reading Black Hills by another favorite author, Dan Simmons. After that, Peter Straub's new book.

Agreed on the ending of Girl Who Played With Fire, I haven't taken the plunge on the Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest yet, because I'll be sad to see the last of that series, but what I've heard is that the first 2 are nothing in comparison to that one.

Also, let me know what you think of Straub's new book, I thought the concept sounded intriguing but I haven't been hearing a lot of good things about.

 

[powerhour24]

Also, I ended up at another library today, I'm only halfway through my hall from last week, working on Brighton Rock at the moment and a book called Everything Matters! by Ron Currie Jr., another case of a concept being more interesting than it's executions, but it has flashes of really interesting writing and I'll be paying attention to his work in the future, but he needs more character development.

Today I picked up Catch 22, Leif Enger's Peace Like a River, Ellroy's White Jazz, Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies (one of my favorite authors ever), Chaon's Await Your Reply, and WHOOOOOOO Don Delillo's Point Omega, one of the best living authors with a new book? I couldn't justify spending $20 on a 100 page novella but I love his work so I'll be keen to pick it up used (if it lives up to my expectations ).

 

[No spoken words]

Agreed on the ending of Girl Who Played With Fire, I haven't taken the plunge on the Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest yet, because I'll be sad to see the last of that series, but what I've heard is that the first 2 are nothing in comparison to that one.

Also, let me know what you think of Straub's new book, I thought the concept sounded intriguing but I haven't been hearing a lot of good things about.

Doesn't the last of the trilogy come out in May here in the States? I hope it's an improvement over the 2nd.

I've heard bad things about the Straub book, too, but I've been reading the man's work for over 20 years now so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Saracene]

I've read Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Great book, quite different from the film (that I've seen ages ago) in its perspective and choice of the narrator. I liked that this edition had character sketches included on some of the pages; I've always found it a bit disappointing that book illustrations always seem to be limited to children books only.

 

[Pearl]

Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant

Excellent! It may have had a cliched ending, but all the twists and turns to the story made it a one gripping read! This is the third book I've read by Dunant and I think its much better than the other two, The Birth of Venus and In The Company of the Courtesan. This one simply never got boring.

Now, onto A Mercy by Toni Morrison.

 

[corianderstem]

Veronica by Mary Gaitskill

I've heard a lot about Mary Gaitskill, but this is the first book of hers I've read. Not sure how much I liked this one in particular - the main character is very distant and hard to read (although I think that was partially the point), and I didn't care for the way the plot time-jumped back and forth, but I did like her writing.

Main character is a former model, living an unhappy life and remembering her friend Veronica, who died of AIDS in the 80s. Lots of flashbacks and general 80s seediness.

 

[corianderstem]

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell

Years ago, I read Maggie O'Farrell's debut novel (After You'd Gone) loved, loved, LOVED it. Finally got arond to reading another of hers, and .... not nearly as good. Alas.

 

[martha]

I finished Grand Canyon Stories: Then & Now this morning. The writing in the first part, the Then stories, was a little pedestrian, but the writing in the second part was much better.

Now onto Hell or High Water: James White's Disputed Passage through Grand Canyon. White's granddaughter, Eilean Adams, wrote the book, so I'm not expecting an unbiased opinion.

 

[Saracene]

I've just finished Girl Who Played With Fire. I thought that it was both worse and better than the first book - on the plus side there was more stuff about Salander who is IMO the best thing about the series, on the negative side the story felt a bit shapeless and it got progressively sillier and more improbable as it got closer to the ending. Still, it was pretty enjoyable and I look forward to reading the final book.

 

[VintagePunk]

This made me laugh:

The Sound of My Fury Toward Overrated Authors Who Confuse Me ? Pearls Before Swine

 

[corianderstem]

One of them had a family trying to move their dead mom all over town

Ha! As I Lay Dying was one of the most challenging books I'd read. I picked it for a 10th grade project because I knew no one else in the lit class would choose that one.

My mother is a fish.

 

[powerhour24]

Await Your Reply, interesting intersecting novel but I was expecting a drama instead of mindbender, although I enjoyed it, I figured out its conceit early, but the end still enlightens some.

 

[Saracene]

Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson. I've always been fascinated by languages and words and this was a light and very entertaining look at the history and quirks of the English language. It's not an in-depth study or anything, but there was so much interesting trivia I kept running out of my room to tell my Mum, guess what...

 

[martha]

I heart Bill Bryson.

 

[onebloodonelife]

Recently finished Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth for a second time. I honestly don't know how I made it through 20 years of my life without having read his incredible works.

Currently making it through:
Malcolm X Speaks
Post-Prison Writings and Speeches by Eldridge Cleaver
Various writings from A Gramsci Reader on education, Marxism, and language
The Hip Hop Generation by Bakari Kitwana (attempting to finish this before he comes to speak at a hip-hop pedagogy conference here next month)

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

I gave up on What Maisie Knew. Only got to pg. 81, then skipped to the last two chapters. All I have to say, is that none of us in the class liked it, and that it was just plain annoying.

 

[OrARoundabout]

Is Catching Fire worth reading?