Now what are you reading?

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The other thread was getting too long and I can't be arsed with all that scrolling.

I'm currently reading The Verificationist by Donald Antrim, as recommended by someone on ILB. I can't remember who or I would thank you personally. It's most enjoyable.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 11:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm reading Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson (sp?). The first chapter is wonderful.

― Kelly Spoer (onefingertoomany), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 11:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm reading Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran at the moment. Next will probably be Cassanova in Love or The Book of Salt or Gentlemen of Space. Or maybe not.

Kelly - I love Snow Crash - some of the best belly laughs I've had in years.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 12:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Grr. Stephenson. I hates him, I tells ya. Hmm, must remember not to be knee-jerk person who always says "I hate that person" whenever someone they do not like is mentioned.

In other words, change my entire personality.

I am also reading The Floating Brothel by Sian Rees, which is a fairly light and snappy popular history book about the transportation of women prisoners during the eighteenth century. It's written in the 'and here are some more public records I read from the library' style. It would be more interesting if I had never read any other books about the eighteenth century, but I am finding out lots of great stuff about the thickness of people. Who's going to be stupid enough to steal an enormous silver soup server with the family's crest on it and then pawn it round the corner? Housemaids, that's who.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 12:44 (twenty-two years ago)

if on a winter's night a traveller by Italo Calvino

― Honesty, Tuesday, 16 March 2004 19:01 (twenty-two years ago)

roland barthes' "mythologies", "camera lucida", and "a lover's discourse". crash course in romance.

― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 19:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Reading 'The Names' by Don DeLillo. Also, 'Against the Grain' by Richard Manning.

― bookdwarf (bookdwarf), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 19:26 (twenty-two years ago)

For some odd reason, the creative needleworks gods have dropped the anvil of enthusiasm on my head for knitting (after too many years of forgetting I knew how), and I've picked up "Stitch'n Bitch" (by Deb Stoller) along with my knitting supplies...

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 21:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Just now I am reading a chaper from "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin to my children.

This won the Newberry. Raskin is my favorite YA author. But I always give this book to anyone who asks for a good book but confesses they have never actually read one.

― Clellie, Tuesday, 16 March 2004 22:09 (twenty-two years ago)

'The Long March' by Styron and then it's on to 'Birdsong' by Sebastian Faulks.

― writingstatic (writingstatic), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 22:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually I am still trying to read Everything is Illuminated, but I think I am going to give it up. Life is too short. Why is it I feel that if I am not reading something obscure (as opposed to best sellers, for instance) or French or Russian, y'all will laugh at me? Does Everything is Illuminated count as Russian? I just finished Amy Tan's The Opposite of Fate. I have come to realize that it is OK to simply read for the fun of it (so I also read Sue Grafton!) ...I can hear you all laugning...

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 23:09 (twenty-two years ago)

PS Did I mention that I LOVE this site???

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 23:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Assassin, I sincerely hope that no-one on this board is going to give you a hard time for reading popular fiction. We love books. We do not love being wankers.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 23:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Just finished Middlesex (and really, really liked it), and now I'm reading El club Dumas (The Dumas Club? I don't know how it translates), by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

― marisa (marisa), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 00:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Fountain at the Center of the World, Joe Sacco's Palestine, Barry Silesky's new bio of John Gardner, Love Saves the Day (a new "scholarly" book on disco), James Alison's Raising Abel: The Recovery of Eschatological Imagination (theology), and Nicholas Nickelby. Plus all the Sandman comics I can find in the library. Seriously eyeing: a bio of I.F. Stone, some new translations of Dostoevsky, a book on outsider artist Henry Darger, American Humor (a study just rereleased by NYRB Press) ...

― Phil Christman, Wednesday, 17 March 2004 00:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything (dunno that I'm actually going to get through this "short" book before it goes back to the library, but I'm enjoying it very much)
Richard Heinberg, The Party's Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies
Peter Biskind, Down and Dirty Pictures

Picking up from the library tomorrow:

Alex Shakar, The Savage Girl
Stan Goff, Full Spectrum Disorder : The Military in the New American Century

I don't like to read fiction that much; I might not finish The Savage Girl at all. I had barely started in on William Gaddis's The Recognitions when I gave it back; life's too short for that stuff.

― Chris F. (servoret), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 04:16 (twenty-two years ago)

How about Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi? 'Swonderful. Anybody else reading this?

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 04:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I read Reading Lolita in Tehran a month or two ago - now I'm reading Persian Mirrors which is another memoirish-work about Iran, covering basically the same time period. I am thinking that maybe the two should be read in conjunction, as one is the view from a native woman and the other is the view from a foreign woman - their individual interpretations of events don't always agree, which I think is quite interesting.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 05:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Whenever I see this thread title I'm mentally picturing someone's mum, hands on hips, complaining, "now what are you reading"...

― winterland, Wednesday, 17 March 2004 13:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Mark Leyner's The Tetherballs of Bougainville as recommended here. I'm only a few pages in and it is quite amusing. I reckon if I don't laugh out loud at least once during the course of this book, I must have a heart made out of obsidian.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 13:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Assassin, love, I'm reading about KNITTING for gods sakes -- no one had given me a hard time over it :) (I agree with what accentmonkey said...)

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 15:00 (twenty-two years ago)

paul morley 'words and music'.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 15:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Mythologies = romance

= wow!

― the blissfox, Wednesday, 17 March 2004 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Whenever I see this thread title I'm mentally picturing someone's mum, hands on hips, complaining, "now what are you reading"...

Who says it needs to be someone's mum? Hands on hips, disapproving voice, you've got me to a T.

You guys all read so MUCH. I can't read that fast. I'm too busy catching up on the Metal vs. Punk debate on MTV2 and wondering what's going on in EastEnders, and playing Bookworm to really get into my reading properly.

I mean, I love books and all, but I'm unfaithful to them sometimes.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Bought a couple of Sherlock Homes books yeserday. Ploughing through The Sign of the Four at the moment. I like the stories but Holmes is such an arrogant know-all. Dr Watson worships him like a god. Or perhaps I'm missing some gay subtext.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 18 March 2004 10:20 (twenty-two years ago)

In a weird in-between spot. Just finished Prozac Nation (only ten years late!) and am about to start either Hazzard's The Great Fire or Kent Haruf's Plainsong. Not sure which yet.

― m.e.a. (m.e.a.), Thursday, 18 March 2004 14:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't think of it as cheating, accentmonkey, think of it as coming to them as a well-rounded individual with the experiences you bring in reading them!

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Thursday, 18 March 2004 14:33 (twenty-two years ago)

have just kicked off on David Mitchell's newie "Cloud Atlas" first chapter most enjoyable but i love his stuff anyway. It's clever without making a song and dance about it.

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 18 March 2004 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Yesabibliophile, I like to knit and listen to books on tape. (I only knit simple things, so it works out)

I'd gotten Jonathan Lethem's A Fortress of Solitude but just couldn't concentrate on it. It seemed well written though.

Recently finished The De Vinci Code. I should find that thread...

― JuliaA (j_bdules), Thursday, 18 March 2004 20:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Started reading Pasquale's Angel the other day, but couldn't get into it. Now reading Les Miserables (Victor Hugo) and Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman).

― Karen King (Karen King), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:24 (twenty-two years ago)

JuliaA, that's when I listen to books on tape. I had a tendency to drive off the road when listening the car, I'd get so wrapped up in the story... but only simple knitting patterns, otherwise I end up with a potholder with freakish growth nodules as well as looking like I was stoned while knitting it!

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I just started Andrew Miller's Casanova in Love - not brilliant, by any stretch of the imagination, but simple and sweet and some beautiful language. I need to add this to the "Romance Books" thread, I think.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Friday, 19 March 2004 02:33 (twenty-two years ago)

started on Bulgakov's Heart of a dog, another short one, so I'm already past halfway. It's managed to make me feel sick and laugh out loud within ten pages, so that's... something.
Probably another book that should be skipped by those who dislike the idea of humans abusing animals, as the plot in this one brings to mind Dr Mengele.

― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Friday, 19 March 2004 02:44 (twenty-two years ago)

That's one heck of a warning, Øystein - thanks for the head's-up, as I seem to recall someone else telling me that I'd like the book.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Friday, 19 March 2004 02:55 (twenty-two years ago)

writingstatic writes: "'Birdsong' by Sebastian Faulks". This is on my top twenty of all time list. I handsold about 100 copies during my years in retail. I love this book.

I'm listening to, after having read, "The Noonday Demon". Am still reading "Reading in Bed" and also moving nightly through my entire Ngaio Marsh collection of paperbacks which I haven't read in so long I've forgotten whodunnit.

I put all the Janet Frame books available in our library on hold today. Perhaps I should bag my head as I say this, but I'd never heard of her. Pepek, you're in good company. None of us have read everything.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Friday, 19 March 2004 23:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I've just started on Italo Calvino's Mr Palmoar.

― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Friday, 19 March 2004 23:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Er, Palomar even.

― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Friday, 19 March 2004 23:32 (twenty-two years ago)

IPOW: I will read Persian Mirrors. Thanks!

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Saturday, 20 March 2004 07:08 (twenty-two years ago)

You're welcome, pepektheassassin - I'd be interested in hearing what you think of the juxtaposition.

I'm about to start Mark Leyner's Et Tu, Babe, which has been in my "To Read Next" pile for a while and then I saw on another thread that someone here was reading his The Tetherballs of Bouganville and enjoying it, so I decided to try something else by him.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Saturday, 20 March 2004 08:16 (twenty-two years ago)

The Last Joy - Knut Hamsun

Then it'll be: Penguin Lost by Andrey Kurkov.

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 20 March 2004 11:12 (twenty-two years ago)

A re-read of Life of Pi (Yann Martell). First time around I found the opening 'zoo' section a bit turgid. Second time it flew by. Some amusing comments on religion.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 22 March 2004 09:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm trying to read Peter Carey: "My Life As A Fake". But I just end up carrying it around and never get past the first twenty pages. I finished the eight hundred page Harry Potter in a marathon of reading - 24 hours, including sleep. I find it best to read a decent pulpy book and then get into something literary. Sort of like eating potato chips before dipping into the fois gras.i want to read "Middlesex".

― aimurchie (aimurchie), Monday, 22 March 2004 13:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm reading I Would Have Saved Them If I Could by Leonard Michaels. It's a collection of short stories from the 70's that I picked up at the thrift store the other day. I'm really enjoying it. I'd never heard of Michaels before. Very funny and strange. Sorta Roth/Elkins at times and also sorta experimental/meta at other times. I'll be on the lookout now for other books by him.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 22 March 2004 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm trying to read Peter Carey: "My Life As A Fake". aimurchie, I wouldn't bother. It's my least favourite of all the Peter Carey books I've read, including that one about that bloke whose family were all horrible and who goes off to live in a hippy commune (or something. It wasn't very good either).

I'm currently reading The Poet and the Murderer by Simon Worrall, which is interesting. For example, I didn't know you couldn't date documents that are written in pencil, because the composition of pencil lead hasn't changed in two hundred years.Just finished The Da Vinci Code (see other thread) and Donald Antrim's The Verificationist which I tried really hard to like and almost thought I would like, but then just didn't. It felt like a short story that had been stretched too far.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 22 March 2004 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

cat and mouse by gunther grass
(so far it really reminds me of waterland by graham swift)

the mating season by pg wodehouse

― robin (robin), Monday, 22 March 2004 16:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm reading Drop City by T.C. Boyle and loving the two parallel stories, his obvious affection for his characters, his florid descriptive style which goes as well with the stoned hippies as it does with the drunk Alaskans, and the book's lack of irony (it was that, his irony, that somewhat held me back from completely enjoying a couple of his previous books). Any other Boyle recomendations?
Next I want to read Family Matters by Robinton Mistry

― Donald, Monday, 22 March 2004 16:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I loved Drop City as well. Great book. I think my favorite book by him is World's End. Awesome.

― Moti Bahat, Friday, 26 March 2004 20:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks for the Peter Carey tip, accentmonkey. I returned it to the library immediately. Just picked up "The Corrections" for $6.98 at a used bookstore - hardcover!!

― aimurchie (aimurchie), Saturday, 27 March 2004 03:23 (twenty-one years ago)

The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith. I love this series.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Monday, 29 March 2004 12:14 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Floating Book" & while it's not quite what I expected, it's still a fun read... I can't wait for the racy parts to begin ;)

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Monday, 29 March 2004 14:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 117 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I think he's terrific on the War of Independence, and really pins down a lot of my feelings about Fianna Fail.

I've spent the last two days in Perth (no, not that one, the REAL one) and so needed something undemanding. I read Anne Patchett's Bel Canto, which was enjoyably ripping, and Charles Johnson's Midwest Passage, a hearty sea-faring adventure. However, I'm suspicious of Johnson. He's supposed to be so smart, with his Guggenheim-y carry on, but I'm sure that the book is riddled with anachronisms. For example, I have a gut feeling that American sailors in the 1830s wouldn't have talked about the missing link between man and the apes with such easy acceptance. In fact, a quick reference check claims that The Origin of Species wasn't published until 1859, so it does seem very unlikely. It's a bit annoying.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Although not published until 1859, Darwin 'sat' on the work for ages and the idea was in the open much earlier (albeit without much credibility). So, I guess it is possible, but unlikely.

I quite enjoyed Bel Canto, it's got film written all over it.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 29 April 2004 12:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I suppose the reason why the book annoys me (even though I did quite enjoy it) is that it was completed with the help of the Guggenheim Foundation. It just seems to me that if you're going to stick the name of prominent organisations all over your book in order to help you sell it, you should at least have gone to the trouble of writing the book properly and checking your facts.

But maybe that's just me.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 29 April 2004 12:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Could accentmonkey be the missing link between ... accents and ... monkeys?

― the bellefox, Thursday, 29 April 2004 14:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Have you finished that book yet? She'll be on your case.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 29 April 2004 14:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never been so fake offended in all my life.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 29 April 2004 15:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I promise to finish Andalusia tomorrow, Monkey Girl. I would finish it tonight, but, er, I'm, erm, going bingo.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 29 April 2004 15:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Box Man is a bit too confusing and quite pervy.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 29 April 2004 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

No, I have not finished. I thought that was clear. The Monkey will come to see that I am a slow reader. And at the moment I am going fast - c.30pp a day!

One day, perhaps, I will actually talk to accentmonkey about this book, in person, if there is such a - person.

― the finefox, Thursday, 29 April 2004 15:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I started re-reading labyrinths recently. imagine the way out.

― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 29 April 2004 15:59 (twenty-one years ago)

of course when i asked the question i was thinking "hey he thought that about gravity's rainbow too didn't he"

hm.

― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 29 April 2004 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

1. Yes, I did. The book appalled me, in that respect.

2. I am not sure how much I like Borges, in truth. Are you?

― the bluefox, Thursday, 29 April 2004 17:53 (twenty-one years ago)

1. Please do think about it.

2. No. No I am not.

― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 29 April 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I finished Andalusia on the bus this morning. Patchy to say the least.

I love Borges and I will fight people who don't share my enthusiasm.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 30 April 2004 07:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Borges is too much for me. I tried, folks, I tried. I'm not going to call myself an idiot (I leave that option open to others) but I just didn't get it. I also failed philosophy at a very reputable university. it seems like certain brains are wired for things like Borges. Not mine.
Also, I am reading Elizabeth George - a good mystery, which is a relief from literature.

― aimurchie, Saturday, 1 May 2004 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)

My brain is okay for Borges, but not for Nabokov. I'm gonna try again when I'm 50. He should have written a book entitled, Scrabble Fans Unite! (plus, his sentences make me dizzy. But not in a good way. More in a "was this translated from Russian into French and THEN into English?" kinda way)

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 1 May 2004 09:46 (twenty-one years ago)

We are having fun dissing Sting on the 25 Words thread...but I do respect him for singing "that famous book by Nabokov" back in the eighties. He probably made thousands of young ne'er do wells run to bookstores. Which reminds me that I MUST get back to "Reading Lolita in Tehran".

― aimurchie, Saturday, 1 May 2004 10:57 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Pillow Book" by Maureen Burgess

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Saturday, 1 May 2004 12:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I guess I prefer Nabokov to Borges, for he seems (well, he was) an aesthete as well as a trickster. I'm not certain that Borges was both. But the links between them, in some sense, may be profound.

― the bellefox, Saturday, 1 May 2004 12:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Monkey, I have finished A Star Called Henry at last.

― the finefox, Saturday, 1 May 2004 12:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I have just finished Monkey, the Chinese classic, translated by Arthur Waley.

After I finished, I picked up Penguin's Sixties Reader and poked around through several selections. To suffer nostalgia for the sixties (I was born in 1954 and can recall the decade) is to suffer a delusion. It was a wretched time, redeemed only by a few hard-won extensions to personal freedom (often at a horrid cost in broken skulls). I can recall thinking many times in 1968, when I was 13 years old, that the world appeared to be mad drunk on anger and violence.

― Aimless (Aimless), Saturday, 1 May 2004 14:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm currently reading 'The Abolition of Britain' by Peter Hitchens. He's a funny, funny guy. Thankfully it's only taken about a day to read it.

― Charles Dexter (Holey), Saturday, 1 May 2004 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Bailed out of "Dhalgren" - I may try it again some other time. Then I polished off Freud's little tract "On Dreams" as an appetizer, and I'm now starting on W.G. Sebald's "Austerlitz".

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Accent Monkey, I finished the biography on Maradonna that I started a week ago. I should have finished it sooner, but had to paint the bathroom. Sorry.

Incidentally, why does paint dry a different colour to the sample in Homebase?

Started reading a book about London's covered over rivers. The kind of book you need to read with an A to Z at hand. Plus, Us vs Them, the World's Greatest Football Derbies. Right up my street.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 09:57 (twenty-one years ago)

started ulysses the other day
enjoying it so far

― robin (robin), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 11:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I just finished Olivia Joules & The Overactive Imagination - load of bollocks. OK, you may wonder what exactly I was expecting. But I enjoyed Bridget Jones and I think it's a shame to swap a frothy, funny schtick for an improbable, insensitive, unfunny plot which doesn't even have any sympathetic characters.

Also still reading The Time Traveler's Wife and it's still great. Read it!

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 11:18 (twenty-one years ago)

We are all reporting back to accentmonkey as though seeking silver stars of approval from her -- yet she is nowhere to be seen!

I have read Atonement since I last saw this thread. That is quick work by my standards.

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 4 May 2004 13:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I liked Atonement but thought Film! That's where it will shine. I even thought of a cast list, but that was a long time ago and the area of the brain has been replaced by German football scores.

Accent Monkey is being bad. Very bad indeed.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I just finished Little Children by Tom Perrotta. It was fast and fun. Another one of those books where I was doing the casting for the movie in my head. He's the guy who wrote Election.

I don't know what I'm gonna read next. Maybe William Maxwell's So Long, See You Tomorrow or Penelope Fitzgerald's The Book Shop. I just picked those two up at the dump. (yes, the dump. They have a lovely shack at the dump where people drop off old clothes, books, etc and it's a great place for free junk.)

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 15:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Yikes! X-post with Mikey. We apparently are both frustrated casting directors.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I was on the bus this morning reading my book about football derbies when the author suddenly started writing about the park in my home town. Turns out he went to school just down the road. Seems he disliked it as much as I did.

I moved to London, he moved to California. Sucker. Oh, wait.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 07:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Escapade by Evelyn Scott. Autobiographical account of a young pregnant womans' elopement to Brazil with her married lover. Almost haiku like descriptions of the country. American author, never heard of her before, but I like books which blur the line between travelogue and diary.

Interested to hear opintions on the book / author.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 6 May 2004 09:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm struggling through Safire's Scandalmonger. It's probably wonderful, but his perfectionism with language and structure is getting annoying 'cause I have to read so carefully that I can't get into the flow of the words and sink into the story.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Saturday, 8 May 2004 07:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I just got "The Kalahari Typing School For Men" from the library...is it ok to start the series in the middle? My library didn't have the earlier ones. Until I recive an ILB approval for the previous, I am enjoying "Stiff - The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers" by Mary Roach - nonfiction about the history of corpses, decomposition, funereal industry, etc. it's very fun, but don't bring it to read at breakfast, and don't try to read the funny passages aloud.

― aimurchie, Saturday, 8 May 2004 22:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I liked "Stiff" very much, so much so that I gave several copies as gifts. I'm a naysayer on the quaint African detective agency series. It's just too twee for me. It's the African version of the Jan Karon Mitford series. Also, I've read a great deal (too much for comfort, really) of Paul Therouox's fiction, so I keep expecting machetes and sex.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Sunday, 9 May 2004 04:13 (twenty-one years ago)

how many ouououous in Paul T.'s name.... ah, just the one then, I see.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Sunday, 9 May 2004 04:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh my. I have been told Not to go near the Mitford series, but I thought I would give the "Kalahari" book a go. I was afraid of this, because the titles remind me of the truly awful "Divine Secrets of The Truly Stupid Literary Phenomenon That Made Me Sick".
Anyhow, "Stiff" is wonderful; tomorrow is Mother's Day, and I would love to share it with my mom (she's 70), but I think she would be offended.
In terms of light reading, do you like Elizabeth George? She's really bad-but-good-but-bad-but...y'know. In terms of mystery, these days I'm all about Henning Mankell.
I like to have mysteries around the house, to take away the pressure of the BIG BOOKS - I want some crackers and cheese between the main courses.

― aimurchie, Sunday, 9 May 2004 05:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I do like Elizabeth George very much. Her characters are all so conflicted they're almost gothic. And I can read her writing and not feel ashamed of myself for reading it and her for birthing it. Not so with the paperback original mysteries which are so often horribly written and edited. I also use mysteries as the palate cleanser in my brain.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Sunday, 9 May 2004 06:40 (twenty-one years ago)

My third library choice is "Fall On Your Knees" by Ann-Marie MacDonald. I grabbed it randomly - I liked the title - now that I am actually examining it I see it's an "Oprah" pick.That is often good, but sometimes bad. Any opinions before I dive in?

― aimurchie, Sunday, 9 May 2004 11:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't get how I ended up reading this many books at once, as I'm usually a one book at a time guy. O well:

Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man
Max Frisch - I'm Not Stiller
Bernard Malamud - The Stories Of... (It's always nice to have a short story collection around when not in the mood to delve back into a novel. Also picked up his "The Assistant" at the library at the same time as this)
Ishmael Reed - Mumbo Jumbo (second try, as the first time around I never got past page ten or so, yet my mind has kept going back to it ever since)

― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Monday, 10 May 2004 10:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm re-reading Cathedral by Raymond Carver for the first time since the 80's when I thought he could do no wrong. "Feathers" is still a showstopper.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 10 May 2004 10:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm quite a fan of the Alexander McCall-Smith books. To be honest, you could start with any of the series as plots just kind of waft by. It's more character based and the descriptions of Botswana are the best bits.

It is a little twee, I agree.

Talking of twee (well incestuous gothic twee), I've just started re-reading Flowers in the Attic. I think I last read it abround the age of sixteen. It's lost its sparkle, bless it.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 10 May 2004 12:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, The Groundwater Diaries by Tim Bradford. The sort of book that makes you want to find out where the author lives, go round his house and kick him in the bollocks.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 10 May 2004 12:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I have just (finally) finished The Time Traveler's Wife, and cried for an hour, then couldn't sleep at all. Which is a recommendation I think.

Have now started The Mercy Boys by John Burnside.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 10 May 2004 12:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I cried for the last three or four chapters of "The Time Traveler's Wife". I would recommend it also.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Monday, 10 May 2004 15:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Arturo Barea, The Forging of a Rebel.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 02:07 (twenty-one years ago)

frank kofsky 'john coltrane and the jazz revolution of the 1960s'.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 17:41 (twenty-one years ago)

keep us updated on what you think of 'the mercy boys', archel. I'm yet to finish either of the burnside novels I have started ('the dumb house' & 'the locust room').

― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 18:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Yay to Archel for crying over The Time Traveler's Wife - it had me sniffling for hours. An excellent read (and I don't normally go for that romantic stuff).

I just finished Safire's Scandalmonger and it might have been good, but it took me so long to read the blasted thing that I was never able to sink into the story and so I feel kind of "blah" about the whole experience.

But now I've picked-up Vernon God Little after my S.O. read the first two chapters out-loud on Saturday night, in an attempt to put me to sleep. It's quite funny, but I find that I can't skim, else I miss so much of the humor and wit.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Thursday, 13 May 2004 05:01 (twenty-one years ago)

this reminds me that i need to finish the verificationist. i put it down sometime last year for no good reason and never got back into it.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 13 May 2004 14:04 (twenty-one years ago)

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