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What are you currently reading?


Caligari

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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.

just finished that one myself. i don't eat fast food and now never will, but that nearly had me converted to vegetarianism. i know i'll at least be watching where i buy my meat from now.

currently reading london fields by martin amis. i'm loving every minute of it and can't for the life of me figure out why...

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Mort - Terry Pratchett

Bitten - 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

Wheee! Am a K. Armstrong Fan. I joined her websiteness. Her other books are great, she spreads out to different races and the books come from different points of views :D

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Rin Daemoko

The Places That Scare You as well as Start Where You Are by Pema Chodron. I am also reading The Quantum and the Lotus by Matthieu Ricard and Trinh Xuan Thuan.

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SuperSinger
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.

I plan to read all his books in the end! I have a checklist that I mark off as I get through one of his novels.

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I'm just finishing Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. Like all of Vonnegut's books, its hilarious and it shows an understanding of the absirdity of American culture that's much greater than that of most contemporary novelists.

Maybe the most interesting aspect of the novel is that he makes himself, as the author, a character in the novel, and gives a great deal of insight into his style and devices in the process.

As usually is the case with Vonnegut, I've only put the book down when I was forced to. I definately highly recommend it.

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nonentities
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.

If it ever gets beyond the research stage, I definitely will. I have the first book plotted out in detail, and it looks like it's going to be a trilogy.

Speaking of historical fiction ... I may have to hunt down this mystery you're reading! Have you read Edward Rutherford at all, Friendly?

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Because I must have some hyperactive attention deficit reading disorder, I usually undertake reading several books at a time...

I am currently reading the Big Test and Throwaway Kids and a book I can't remember the title about (also about education).

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Nugan:

I had a crazy Vonnegut phase a couple of years ago. The ones I remember are Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five. I agree, I love his style -- he usually found a way to insert himself into the novel, and his absurdity is great. I still can't get over him being a prisoner on Tralfamadore, where they stuck him in a zoo exhibit.

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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.

If it ever gets beyond the research stage, I definitely will. I have the first book plotted out in detail, and it looks like it's going to be a trilogy.

Speaking of historical fiction ... I may have to hunt down this mystery you're reading! Have you read Edward Rutherford at all, Friendly?

Trilogy, you say? :twisted: Yeah, the title is Sleep of Death and the author is Philip Gooden. You can probably get a copy used off Amazon.com or Half.com or eBay. I've never read Rutherford, but I'll definitely look for some of his books. Thanks for the tip.

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Hey, Chess. I just realized - I have a copy of Rutherford's London at home. I picked it up at a used book store back in March because it was thick, and I enjoy England-based historical fiction. That's definitely going to get bumped up on my reading list, since you recommend the author.

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nonentities
Trilogy, you say? :twisted: Yeah, the title is Sleep of Death and the author is Philip Gooden. You can probably get a copy used off Amazon.com or Half.com or eBay. I've never read Rutherford, but I'll definitely look for some of his books. Thanks for the tip.

Yeah, the first book will cover the events of 1381, the second will cover Henry IV's usurpation, the third will cover Henry V and Agincourt. But this is the "What are you reading" thread, not the "what are you writing" thread. ;)

I'm going to see if our library has it, if not, I will definitely order it---sounds fascinatingly up my alley!

And oh, you're in luck! London is my favourite out of his books, though I haven't read the new one he just wrote (it's about Ireland) so I guess I can't accurately judge all of them. Definitely bump it up, particularly if you like pan-generational stories.

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Opel the Old

"well of loneliness"

1920s English lesbian novel, very sad and beautifully written

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'last 5 books' gone? OK... 8) Am reading/have read within the past 24 hours/ at the moment:

- a *large* number of short stories for a competition I'm judging

-KNIVES 2004

-'The Time Traveler's Wife' - Audrey Niffenegger

-NZ PC World

and sundry newspapers, sites, magazines, & stuff-

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Cate Perfect
-'The Time Traveler's Wife' - Audrey Niffenegger

What are you thinking of that?

I've also been dipping into Freakonomics it's interesting, but all the numbers get tedious.

Cate

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Bit overblown in places and I'm finding it really difficult to understand how mutant genes could actually affect physicalities (sorry, equating 'clock' genes with abilities for dematerialisation just doesnt work for me*) - but she spun a good yarn and, on the level of being a *very* different love story, it worked. I paticularly liked the fact that Clare was a fibre artist-

*if it's *science* fiction the science better be good-

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I don't have time to read much :evil: ... the end of semester is approaching. I'm going sloooowly through L'Etranger (The Outsider) by Camus, because I've never read it in French before.

I'm just waiting for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at the moment. :D

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Vicious Trollop
"well of loneliness"

1920s English lesbian novel, very sad and beautifully written

One of perhaps a dozen books I began and did not finish last semester -- er, I read the first page on the trip back from buying it. I'm interested because Woolf publicly defended and privately mocked it. My feeling going in is that it might be more important than it is good, but I'm really looking forward to reading it.

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Cate Perfect

I quite liked The Well of Loneliness Lauren, so you might as well.

And I have to know--what did Woolf say about it privately? Dish!

Cate

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Vicious Trollop

I really will have to consult the source and return with specifics, for I remember finding her comments terribly amusing long before I knew anything else about the book. As I recall, she found it melodramatic and trashy.

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Cate Perfect
As I recall, she found it melodramatic and trashy.

Yeah. Like Victorian Jacueline Susann. :D

Cate

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Opel the Old
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.

i read that as well, gave me a lot of insight about the fast food nation

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Cate Perfect

At this very second: Before the Frost. I'm just trying to get through the stack of books I've started. I love all of them but have been having trouble finishing anything lately.

Cate

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Kevin Wood

The Secret Life of Bees

By Sue Monk Kidd, an American authoress of some repute.

Quite quirky and eccentric. I'm sure she's English really..but we'll keep it as secret as my being half American.

K

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Well i'm reading the intellectual by Steve Fuller <- - - - he's sure one hell of a jazzy lecturer!!! only he gave this talk at the annual sociology debate, it was at 5:30, i arrived there literally two minutes late TWO minutes, that's 120 seconds late and the hall was packed out, i mean seriously packed, can't move, canned sardines style, ohhh wait there were five seats at the back "reserved" grrrr i was gutted!!!! but well i have the book.... they can't take that away from me mwhah!!!

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Vicious Trollop
Yeah. Like Victorian Jacueline Susann. :D

:lol: How did I miss that before? That's great.

I'm terrible about reading several books at once. I'm still reading Gertude Stein, but now I'm also halfway through Philip Roth's The Human Stain and I've started Garrison Keillor's Me. Add to that, last semester I started The Bell Jar, Woolf's Night and Day and Orlando, Sense & Sensibility -- and there must be others -- and still consider them active reads.

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Cate Perfect

Lauren, you're where I am--in the middle of several books and can't seem to get motivated to finish them even though I'm enjoying all of them.

Cate

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This weekend I read Vector Prime, Dark Tide I: Onslaught, and Dark Tide II: Ruin. They're the first three books to "The New Jedi Order" series of Star Wars books. I love it. I'm currently working on the 4th in the series (Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial, but I'm not sure how much I like this author (as each bit of the series is written by a different author, while building on the ones before it, which has proven to be interesting). The guy who wrote Vector Prime, R.A. Salvatore, has been the best to far.

I really love geeking like this, and plan to continue. Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Rereading "Mutants" - Armand LeRoi (for review purposes - but this is also a pleasure- this is a work I can wholeheartedly recommend to *everyone* interested in the 'whys' of human variance):

'The Wee Free Men' - a family member has just sent it back & I feel like some warm & hairy Pratchett;

local magazines, and two book catalogues (o get thee beyond me book catalogues! Arrgh! Nooooo...)

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The Secret Life of Bees

By Sue Monk Kidd, an American authoress of some repute.

Quite quirky and eccentric. I'm sure she's English really..but we'll keep it as secret as my being half American.

K

Oo, oo I want that!

Depending on my time and place, I'm currently rotating among:

Grandfather Stories, Samuel Hopkins Adams, growing up in Rochester, NY in the 1870s. Morning cup of coffee take a break from gardening reading.

Peace Kills, P.J. O'Rourke. Commute time reading. Yes, he's a poltical loon, but he's a funny political loon.

The Ancestor's Tale, Richard Dawkins. Evening intellectual exercise.

Krazy Kat, George Harriman. Bedtime reading. I think I'm somewhere in 1927.

Lots of student essays, whenever as long as I have a red pen handy.

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