What Are You Reading Right Now?

[chelluversu]

Originally Posted by daniellaaarisen

And you NEED to read The English Patient. Every paragraph or so, you have to stop reading, look up and take a deep breath before starting again because a sentence will totally FLOOR YOU. I mean, the book is pure poetry.

"We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves. I wish for all this to be marked on my body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography- to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. We are not owned or monogamous in our taste or experience. All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps."

Favorite. Passage. Ever.

I plan on grabbing it the first time i see it at borders and hopefully i will have some money by then (december through now has been kinda rough on my mother and I).

I have books I'm reading for school:
Ethan Frome (reading now)
The Jungle (havent started yet)
Narrative of Frederick Douglass (just finished)

On My Own:
Black Girl Lost
The Surrogate by Nick Sharman (creepy book)
Michigan Chillers/American Chillers (i use to read these books as a kid..they were pretty good then)
The Shadow Children Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix (really good books and not just for kids)

My mother is selling some of her books for extra money (she's not touching mine) so i decided to read some of mine and a few of hers over again..

[StreetAngel95]

just finished Great Expectations by Dickens, started The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Willaims, and planning on reading Reelin' In the Years: A Steely Dan Biography

[carrie721]

Originally Posted by Ghost_Tracker

Anyway I've just started in on an autobiography of Jonathan Swift, who wrote Gulliver's Travels. Written by someone named Victoria Glendinning. It's AMAZING! She's a REALLY good writer, which I hadn't expected at ALL - she's very clever and she "gets it," she knows what this guy was really like and she understands why; and she understands why he was SO angry, and how that entered into his stories. Excellent researcher, as well. I'd highly recommend it for anybody who's into Gulliver's Travels.

autobiographies are usually written by the person they're about ...

re: nabokov i used to love him and his invitation to a beheading is still one of my top 5 favorite books, but i've lost my taste for being mindf*cked by authors.

spent the last week rereading some of david sedaris's books. i don't think he'll ever write anything as good as me talk pretty one day, but there are still parts of dress your family & when you are engulfed in flames that left me in stitches.

before that, i read the female brain by louann brizendine. one of the stupidest books i've ever read.

[Ghost_Tracker]

Originally Posted by carrie721

autobiographies are usually written by the person they're about ...

.

I mispoke, of course; I meant "biography."

[CreepingDeath]

The Count of Monte Cristo
Madame Bovary
The Last Olympian- I'm a sucker for anything mythology, even if it's a kid's book.

[Musicman408]

Originally Posted by Ghost_Tracker

I mispoke, of course; I meant "biography."

Speaking of Biography, I have a really good one on Kennedy that I NEED to read soon!

[Ghost_Tracker]

Originally Posted by Musicman408

Speaking of Biography, I have a really good one on Kennedy that I NEED to read soon!

I've been reading Ted Kennedy's autobiography lately - it was a Christmas present - and enjoying it like crazy, it's awesome.

ALTHOUGH - - - To be honest, I'm taking certain things in it with a grain of salt. For example, his description of the events at Chappaquidik, of course - how predictible is that!?

But also he claims that NONE of them were "pressured" by their parents to enter "public service," and there was NO plot for Joe Kennedy Junior to become President, as the eldest son; and no pressure afterwards for any of the surviving brothers to become President. I have trouble believing that - or at least, it makes me wonder if there were conversations he wasn't privy to or things that he didn't quite understand.

It also seems that he conveniently left out exactly how their father made all these unbelievable amounts of wealth, and who Joe Sr. allegedly "socialized with" during his younger days.

But I give him credit for essentially taking responsibilty for his behavior *after* Chappaquidik - he basically say, "Hey look, I'm sorry, I f'd up royally." In a long life of public service, from someone who was literally "in the trenches" for so many decades and tried for SO long to make up for it, I personally can accept that. One f-up in a long life? I'd say that's "reasonable."

And overall, it's a VERY interesting read!

[RavenOfRhiannon]

In the past month, I finished 'Wonder Boys' by Michael Chabon. That man can WRITE. I just love him soooo much.
I also read 'The Man Who Loved Books Too Much' which is a non-fiction work about the antiquerian boook trade, and a man who had successfully stolen thousands of dollars worth of books from these dealers. The story itself is great, and I found that I could identify with much of the premise. However, the author tries to inject herself into the drama without much success. I give it a B.

[gldstwmn]

I just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo. I just started The Girl Who Played with Fire.

[ButterCookie]

Enduring Love - for my English Lit class. Ugh, I do NAT like it.

Making Tracks, the rise of Blondie - This one's incredible, I'm on my 3rd read. It's written by Debbie Harry so it's even more special.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -

Rumours and Lies the FM story -

[jaycee]

I'm reading "The Ancestor's Tale" by Richard Dawkins. It basically (well, it has 600+ pages...) traces back from where we are now through all the speciation points (a mere 40 along our chain, comparable to any other individual chain, although of course all chains considered there are an extremely large number of speciation points). It's a rather heavy but nonetheless enjoyable read!
I'm also reading bits and pieces of "The Complete World According To Clarkson" by Jeremy Clarkson. 'tis most entertaining, despite my disagreement with him on many points. (A notable point of agreement we share however is our opinions on music - most of the best music came from between 60s-80s, with some other great music in 90s-00s if you know where to look, e.g. Dido.)

[Richard B]

Blue Boy by Jean Giono

[hippilil86]

The Omnivore's Dilemma.
Next up;
Ray of the Star

[Zombie]

Just finished a quick re-read of Dennis Lehane's "Shutter Island," since the movie is out soon and I wanted to be able to compare book to film with book fresh in my mind.

Currently reading "The Piano Teacher" by Janice Y K Lee - quite lovely so far.

Up next, either "The Sunne in Splendour" by Sharon Kay Penman or "The Weight of Silence" by Heather Gudenkauf.

Finally gave up trying to wade through Richard Price's "Freedomland," because...ugh. BORING. First book in a long time that I just couldn't be bothered to finish. Wiki'd the ending instead.

[skcin]

Originally Posted by carrie721

spent the last week rereading some of david sedaris's books. i don't think he'll ever write anything as good as me talk pretty one day, but there are still parts of dress your family & when you are engulfed in flames that left me in stitches.

before that, i read the female brain by louann brizendine. one of the stupidest books i've ever read.

I'm reading ...flames right now. Funny stuff. First book of his I've read; have me talk... being delivered soon.

Originally Posted by Musicman408

Speaking of Biography, I have a really good one on Kennedy that I NEED to read soon!

How do you know it's good if you haven't read it yet?

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

I just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo. I just started The Girl Who Played with Fire.

I was going to read those & then I heard the author died. Now I'm not sure I want to - what if I really like them & am eager for more?