Books 2nd Edition, Foreword by m0r1arty Options

[Serafina_Pekkala]

I shall now be reading The Shining again. I like a lot of King (yes he is formulaic and sometimes cheesy but he is a good writer, people) and haven't read this one in a long ole time. Decades even. Yikes.

[maian]

I've now moved on to A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain.

Finished this late last night and it was a terrific tale and a very witty satire on both the Arthurian legend and the beliefs of Twain's own time. I particularly liked the last couple of chapters since it quite quickly became the best action movie never made and I was surprised by how sad I found the ending to be.

I've now turned my attention to Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.

[Outatime]

I got Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom for Christmas and I read it in two sittings. It's about the author going back and spending time with his old college professor who is dying of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease). His college professor was a sociologist and the book is made up of discussions between him and the author about lots of different subjects and how Morrie's perspective changes on them as his illness takes over. It's not depressing but not a light read either.

[Kimmerv2]

Recently finished:

A Cook's Tour - Anthony Bourdain
Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain
My Life in Paris - Julia Child

(hmmmm . . . am seeing a trend)

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People - Toby Young

And am now working on - The Bullfighter Checks Her MakeUp by Susan Orlean

[maian]

I had an hour to kill in Borders today so I read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Seeing as it is one of the most often referenced, adapted and parodied stories ever written, it was quite interesting to read the actual text itself and see where all the subsequent versions of the tale started from. What I didn't realise though was that it is actually a mystery story, and I couldn't help but wish that I had read it when I was much younger, before I knew the twist.

Though I'm not sure how young I would have to have been since, as far back as I can remember, I've always known the twist and can't remember a specific moment when I found it out.

[sweetbutinsane]

Hmm... Does anyone have a new copy of His Dark Materials, the one with Iorek (at least I presume it's Iorek, though it could just be a random polar bear) on the cover? Because I started The Amber Spyglass last night and found that there's a rather large misprint. They've printed chapters 1, 2, 3, then a page of 4 before printing 2, 3, 4 and onwards again.

This post has been edited by sweetbutinsane: Dec 28 2007, 07:09 PM

[maian]

I've now turned my attention to Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.

After a few days of staying up much too late reading it I finished this late last night. I don't really have the adequate faculties to describe such a dazzling, beguiling piece of fantasy that completely blew me away. Nearly every page had some new idea that surprised me and the book managed to avoid pretty much all of the cliches of post-Tolkien fantasy. It's a wonderful feat of imagination and I can't wait to dive into New Crobuzon again.

But I'll have to since, following all the discussion of Blade Runner recently, I've finally cracked open my copy of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.

This post has been edited by maian: Dec 31 2007, 02:02 PM

[Svein]

Just put the voucher I got to good use...

Monarchy by David Starkey
The Python Years by Michael Palin
Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

[Kimmerv2]

Just put the voucher I got to good use...

Monarchy by David Starkey
The Python Years by Michael Palin
Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid was a great read, I think you'll really enjoy it. . . I love Bill Bryson

This post has been edited by Kimmerv2: Dec 31 2007, 05:00 PM

[Svein]

Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid was a great read, I think you'll really enjoy it. . . I love Bill Bryson

That was my company this morning on a deserted bus and then train... I love Mr. Bryson... Notes on a Small Country is one of the funniest reads ever.

[Kimmerv2]

That was my company this morning on a deserted bus and then train...  I love Mr. Bryson...  Notes on a Small Country is one of the funniest reads ever.

Hey that was the first of his books that I ever picked up! Love it . . I own most of his books, with the exception of the African Diary, his two books on the English language and his short History of Nearly Everything.

I was ticked off I had just missed seeing him in NY when he was doing a book signing of The Thunderbolt Kid when it was released in Hardcover . .

Hope he pens another one soon . .I'd love to have him stay in NYC awhile and see what he comes up with there!

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/flat/home.php

[widowspider]

I'm currently reading my way through The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland, and enjoying it very much so far.

[maian]

I'm currently reading my way through The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland, and enjoying it very much so far.

I bought that the other day in a Buy 1 Get 1 Half Price sale at Borders. It'll probably be ages before I get to it but I look forward to the time when I will actually read it.

[maian]

Finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? the other day and it was good. Not as good as some of the other PKD books I've read and it's not as good as Blade Runner but it touches on a lot of the issues explored in that film and in Dick's other work and was entertaining to boot.

I've gone back to reading Jane Eyre now and I'm getting close to the end. I don't know why I stopped reading in the first place, it's really fantastic.

[widowspider]

I've gone back to reading Jane Eyre now and I'm getting close to the end. I don't know why I stopped reading in the first place, it's really fantastic.

Jane Eyre is a fantastic novel, one of my favourites. I got to write an essay on it at university using Freud's theories of sexuality as a tool for interpretation. Very interesting and plenty to talk about.

I finished 'The Gum Thief', which was a great intro to Coupland for me - I liked the structure of the novel and the tender way that the characters' relationships develop, without ever being too saccharine or cliched. I'm now reading 'The Tenderness of Wolves' by Stef Penney and it's really engrossing. I spent 3 hours reading about two thirds of it last night instead of getting to sleep early. A great frontier novel set in the north Canadian wilderness in the 1880s.