Caligari Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Right now, I've got Dracula and Lolita in progress. I've greatly enjoyed Dracula, so far. It's loaded up with a ton of obscure Eastern European history and a bunch of junk about Victorian gender roles, but it's genuinely creepy in spots. Dracula is definitely more interesting in the book than any of his film portrayals, too. I just finished Joyce's Dubliners the other day, and enjoyed that. Joyce is one of the few "canon" authors I like reading (I generally appreciate anything by the modernists). Lolita is, of course, brilliant, though I hear Nabokov has done better. Again, it's a novel where the film didn't do it any justice. Love the warped and obsessive narration by Humbert within -- hard to trust anything he says. 10 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Goonie Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I have about a dozen books that I am reading. Currently though, I am actively reading The Rule of Four. I go through phases where I want to read all on one subject, get bored and work on another. Hence the dozen or so books. They range from the way the mind works, to the civil war, to scientists, to cryptography, to Uncle Remus, to classical literature. I just finished about another dozen books from my American Lit since 1865 class. Unfortunately, I had to read them so quickly, about one every weekend, that I didn’t get to enjoy them as much as if I read them on my own time. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nonentities Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Right now, I'm reading everything I can get my hands on about the Great Revolt of 1381, and the 14th century in general, for a novel I'm going to write. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hexpiral Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I always keep alternating. Currently Hamlet, some book on bioethics, Roberto Arlt's El Amor Brujo. Possibly some other things I'm forgetting. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shotinthedark Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 The In-Between World of Vikram Lall (MG Vassanji) and kind of a case study thing on forensic archaeology. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pokey Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I am reading the Davinci code & soon i will be reading Dantes inferno aswell 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Shivers Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I have almost no time for reading anymore. Work takes up about 60 hours a week between overtime shifts and paperwork I bring home, then I have friends bugging me, AVEN to read, and so on... to say nothing of sleep!! Last thing I read was.... a comic book... I admit it. Before that was a book on astronomy (Planets and stars.... not zodiacs!!) 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nonentities Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Don't be ashamed of reading comic books, Spock. There's nothing shameful about it. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Caligari Posted May 19, 2005 Author Share Posted May 19, 2005 Yeah Spock, I don't blame you, given that schedule. The fact you even had time for a comic book is impressive, which like Chess said, you shouldn't be ashamed about. Interesting to see all of the non-fiction love, here. I probably should read more of it, since I tend to get reader's block if I overload on fiction. Certainly would diversify things a bit.. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Evil Cashew Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Currently a book for school that may turn out to be interesting. Its called "Courtesans ans Fishcakes" and its about Leisure and pleasure in the ancient Athens ~Cashew Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Vicious Trollop Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I'm currently reading The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein. One of my professors in the Netherlands was very taken with Stein, and always said "Too much scholarship on Woolf! Not enough Stein!" I'm guilty of that exact thing, so I thought I'd finally balance the two out. And Stein is fabulous. The book is so funny to an outsider; I wish I had been a member of their set, to understand all the in-jokes, to really hear it in the voice of Gertrude-as-Alice. I love that she takes her friend's persona to repeatedly call herself a genius. And she is. Absolutely a genius. I've rarely enjoyed reading a book more. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cate Perfect Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Watching the English by Kate Fox. It's about the hidden rules of English behaviour--fascinating. I'm reading it for the second time as part of my little bookclub. Also reading Pinkertons Sister by Peter Rushforth, which is bizarre and literary and excellent. One of my favourite books ever, I think. Cate Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Adrian Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Fast Food Nation. I don't usually like sociology books, but this one has captured my attention, it's especially hard-hitting as most of the examples and stories come from my home state. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
McBuh Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Philosophy in the flesh, which critiques popular philisophical concepts and theses from the standpoint of cognitive science, that the mind and body are not separable, and that reason is not abstract, but derives from sensorimotor experience and its relation to subjectivity, via metaphor. Last book I read was Essential Spider-Man, Volume 1 which I'm altering by taping comic strip speech bubbles over the originals to create a new story. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
VivreEstEsperer Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I'm just about finished with One L, which is the story of someone's first year at law school, it makes very interesting reading. I really enjoy reading memoirs and stories of people's personal experiences. Next I'm reading A Shining Affliction, which is something to do with psychotherapy in some way...not sure exactly what. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nonentities Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I love that book, Vivre. I'm hoping it's an exaggeration. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
VivreEstEsperer Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 You love which book, Chess? One L or Shining Affliction? One L kinda disabused me of any ideas of going to law school lol. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nonentities Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 One L, of course. Funny, it had the opposite effect on me. :lol: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AmoebicMe Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I'm currently finishing up The Last Days of Socrates by Plato, and The Particle Garden, which is all about particle physics (both the known ones and the possible ones). I'm also kinda reading Fashionable Nihilism, which is about how people take analytical philosophy to an extreme, and how it's detrimental to society. Or at least that's what seems to be going on as of chapter 2. It's a slow read. On top of that I'm reading the usual academic stuff (bio, chem), and I finished reading Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which was brilliant (even if I like the play better). 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Live R Perfect Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 'Watching the English' by Kate Fox, and one of the 'Amphigorey' compendiums by Edward Gorey. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
littlelisa Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Fast Food Nation. I don't usually like sociology books, but this one has captured my attention, it's especially hard-hitting as most of the examples and stories come from my home state. This is a good book. It's really well researched and actually very interesting. I just finished re-reading the Silmarillion, and now I want to go get the DaVinci Code. I just saw it yesterday at the bookstore 30% off.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Friendly Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Right now, I'm reading everything I can get my hands on about the Great Revolt of 1381, and the 14th century in general, for a novel I'm going to write. Wow . . . If you need someone not involved in the publishing industry to read it and give you some feedback, pleeeeeease let me know. Historical Fiction is my favorite kind of book ever. I'm currently reading Sleep of Death by Philip Gooden and slowly working my way through City of Dreams by Beverly Swerling. Sleep of Death is a murder mystery that takes place in Elizabethan London, the sleuth is a new addition to the Chamberlain's Men, and the murder itself seems to have been ganked from Hamlet. I just started it last night, and so far it's pretty good. City of Dreams tells the story of a barber-surgeon and his apothecary sister who arrive in Nieuw Amsterdam in 1661, and the doings of their descendants (some of whom go into various medical-type professions) over the next 137 years. I'm about halfway through, and I like it. It reminds me of a cross between one of Michener's epics and Noah Gordon's The Physician. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Beanz Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I started Dracula ages ago but never finished. Lolita I started a while ago, but was distracted by a new book, Like A Charm. It's a short series of stories by various authros, started off and edited by Karin Slaughter. Other books I've started through are: Mort - Terry Pratchett Tommy's Tale - Alan Cumming Bitten - Kelley Armstrong I have dozens of books I need to read. You guys just distract me. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Damien Day Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I'm reading an anthology of SF stories by Hal Clement, a specialist in hard SF. Loki Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Friendly Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Mort - Terry PratchettBitten - Kelley Armstrong I have dozens of books I need to read. You guys just distract me. I haven't read Mort yet, but I have a copy. Pratchett makes me laugh. And Bitten is really good - I read it back in March. I look forward to reading her other books. And I know what you mean about having a long reading list. I have a whole bunch of books that I mean to read but haven't gotten to yet. And I keep buying more books, which is the odd thing. Well, I guess there are worse addictions than reading books. :D Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SuperSinger Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 First off, Are we using this thread now instead of "Last 5 Books" from the Just For Fun forum? Second, I just last night finished "Jennifer Government" by Max Barry. I'm not sure what I'll start reading next... probably this book about Superman that I got about a month or so ago. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bug Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 "There is a river...." bu Thomas Sugrue. It is about Edgar Cayce, the psychic diagnostic - absolutely fascinating. He hypnotised himself and was then able to diagnose people's illnesses and give exact treatments requirements ranging from diet to herbs to osteopathy. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
corky Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Instant Self Hypnosis, by Forbes Robbins Blair Teaches you to hypnotize yourself into gettingr rid of bad habits and making good ones, or helping with any kind of self improvement and goals. This is gonna be fun... *ginuea pigs herself* :D 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mindlife Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 The Trial, by Franz Kafka and Choice Magazine Listening, which is a periodical for the blind. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Frigid Pink Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Everything's Eventual by Stephen King Good book---I mainly wanted it so I could read "Riding the Bullet." I really want to see the movie, but it hasn't been on TV lately. And I LOVE Stephen King, so I may read some more of his stuff this summer. Insomnia is on my list. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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