1. Currently reading: Life A User's Manual by George Perec. It must be one of the greatest books I've ever read.

2. Also currently reading The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell and I really think it's worth all the praise it's been given. It makes me feel uneasy inside, yet I find myself unable to put it down, to tear myself away. I think someone compared it to watching a car crash (and even if it hasn't been compared to watching a car crash, it's only logical that someone will make this comparison), but it's not like watching a car crash at all. It's more like seeing a nightmare that you enjoy...

3. In a recent MeFi thread, someone pointed out to me that I know jack shit about sci-fi. And he was right. Yesterday, I was browsing through fantasy and sci-fi books at a bookstore when I discovered Michael Moorcock's The Dancers at the End of Time. I read the first few pages of the book and was instantly taken in by it. It seems to be exactly the kind of sci-fi book I've been looking for but never knew it existed.

The Dancers at the End of Time is fantastic.

Currently reading Rollback by Robert Sawyer. Pretty awful SF novel. Written like this, lots of clumsy attempts at RELATIONSHIP STUFF but about as involving as a blackboard diagram. Was hoping for an imaginative skiffy finish, but looks unlikely now.

Also just started stoic self-help book A Guide to the Good Life, but haven't got very far.

I'm still reading Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth. It's a very dense book, and like its subject matter, best enjoyed a little bit at a time.

1. Current reading: The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997, by Piers Brendon. It's a great overview, and Brendon has an interesting writing style. It's letting me know how much I don't know about certain aspects of world history.

2. I am still on the fence on the matter of investing the time in The Kindly Ones, especially considering some of the bad reviews it's gotten. I only read a few long, difficult contemporary novels a year, and I just received a copy of Roberto Bolano's 2666 (after just having finished the new Julie Rose translation of Les Miserables, which took me two months to read). And new books by Thomas Pynchon and William T. Vollmann are out this summer.

I'm reading the Keys to the Kingdom series, recommended, I think by taz a while back. I love YA books.

Currently rereading for the umpteenth time Salem's Lot by Stephen King. It's still one of my favorites by him.

I'm woefully unread (is that a word?) when it comes to science fiction. I've been wanting to read The Forever War by Haldeman but haven't been able to find it at the local library or used book store, I'll have to put it on reserve at the library I guess.

I should be reading books about the history of social welfare and progressivism in the South, but who really wants to do that?

I love book threads. I always get ideas.

I'm reading I Smile Back by Amy Koppelman. It is especially irritating and depressing, in a bad way. I do not recommend. It's about a self-destructive suburban mom and wife that is drug-addicted and spoiled. The story itself is not the problem, the writing is annoying and I have no empathy with the character. For some reason I keep reading.

I recently finished Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. Now this is a beautifully written book. Some say the plot isn't particularly gripping but it held me to the end. I loved it.

I just started Life of Pi. I've been wanting to read this for years and so far I'm enjoying it.

I'm also reading a parenting book (because I always seem to have a parenting book on my nightstand), Childhood Unbound: Saving Our Kids' Best Selves--Confident Parenting in a World of Change by Ron Taffel.

Marxchivist--there's an omnibus edition of Joe Haldeman's trilogy in print in the UK, that sells for less than US$12. The Book Depository has free shipping to the US via Royal Mail--I've always been happy with their service. Here's the link, if you're interested.

(That said, I just threw the book on my stack of unread volumes when I received it, so I don't yet know if the two sequels to The Forever War are worth reading.)

Oy. Salem's Lot gave me nightmares for years after I first read it (I was 11). I used to lie in bed and imagine I could hear Danny Glick (think that's his name) tap, tap tapping on the window.

Currently reading Death With Interruptions by Jose Saramago. So far, so good. Full of sly wit.

Next up: Hater by David Moody.

I'm two-thirds of the way through Bolaño's 2666, which is surprisingly gripping for such a hefty wedge of literature.

For some light relief I'm also pecking at Anna Gavalda's Hunting & Gathering.

I'm currently reading the Big Book of Amber and I like it; I'm not sure how I missed it years ago. Just finished Use of Weapons, another one I missed and that was amazing and fantastic but then I pretty much think Iain M. Banks is the best thing that ever happened to SF. I'm going to be done with Amber by the weekend though and I need something new to read; guess I'll have to pay my library fines and go a-browsing again.

Reading DFW and marveling at his virtuosity.

I'm reading a great history by Lonnie Johnson of Central Europe called Central Europe. Unlike most histories of Europe, focused mainly on Western Europe as the driver of European and world history, Johnson makes a case for Central Europe's centrality, and does so in an astonishingly readable and lucid manner. It ain't just history, it's historical analysis. One of the best histories written in the last fifty years.

Also reading Joan Didion's Salvador, part of a big Didion collection, We Tell Ourselves Stories In Order To Live, that my mom gave me for Christmas. About as good a writer as you can find, writing about El Salvador in 1982. What more could one ask?

I just bit-torrented F.W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, which is a silent movie and not a book, but since you have to read the intertitles, it's a little book-like. Anyway, I've seen it before so I know how good it is and how much you lit'ry types would like it.

On the topic of library fines, I just found two books I lost from a research library. They'll cut $200 off my fines! Woohoo! (The books are worth about $80 each.)

I would like to look at them one last time before returning them though...

I'm reading Cane River and really enjoying it. I didn't realise it was an "Oprah" book until just now; oh well.

My local library allows your fines to get to either $10 or $20 before cutting off lending privileges.

I'm reading For Her Own Good, by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English. Really good background on the history of the medical profession and of the rise and fall of doctrines in medicine and psychology. I'm also reading Laura Miller's The Magician's Notebook: a skeptic's guide to Narnia (that may or may not be the exact title). I have always wanted to read some really good critical analysis on Narnia, and until this book came along, there was really nothing much available.

Last night I bought a stack of books from Value Village I am dying to dig into. I read one, Jane-Emily, by Patricia Clapp. I had read it as a child, didn't remember it too well, and thought only recently how much I would like to read it again. Then last night I spied it at VV and snatched it off the shelf. I read it again last night (it's only 150 pages). It wasn't that good, sigh. It has an interesting and satisfyingly gothic premise, that of a little girl feeling the presence of a long-dead child at a house she is visiting. But the writing was pot boilerish and it didn't delve into what could have been some really interesting aspects of the characters and their psychology, such as how one is to deal with a truly sociopathic character.

There are more books stacked around my bed that I've started, such as a little book on Louis Comfort Tiffany, but this is already getting too long...

Currently reading Fado Alexandrino by Antonio Lobo Antunes.

The story of four veterans of Portugal's colonial wars in Africa and their return to civilian life during the time of Portugal's democratic revolution. Set in the mid-seventies. Very challenging style. Lots of jump-cuts. The narrative perspective changes from sentence to sentence. Imagine if William Faulkner had been a Vietnam vet and based his novels on that experience.

Loving Ed Brubaker's Crime comics and Dave Zirin's People's History of Sports in the United States.

Two nights ago I stayed up til 1a reading The Hunger Games. It's fantastically gripping.

I also recently (re)read The Beekeeper's Apprentice, which is one of my favorite mysteries and lots of fun. I'd read it first when I was 14 or so and tore through all the other Mary Russell books and then quit, but NOW THERE ARE MORE MARY RUSSELL BOOKS. It's wonderful.

Orange Swan, that isn't by any chance a book where the little girl Emily is evil and dead and sort of lives on in a reflecting ball in the garden? And they talk about pansies having little faces? Because if so, I read it when I was 9 or thereabouts and it scared the shit out of me! I've never forgotten it and sometimes thought about looking for another copy to reread but I couldn't remember the title and never bothered to start googling - is that the book?

I've gone low-brow for awhile and bought a bunch of the DC Showcase Presents series, reprints of comic books from the 50s, 60s and 70s. They are b&w rather than color, and I much prefer them that way.

Conversely, I have also bought a bunch of music books including volume I of Scarlatti - Sixty Sonatas for piano, and Elton John's Greatest Hits that has very accurate transcriptions of what he actually played on the records. I am also working on the piano accompaniment parts for some Bach compositions for viola and piano.

Just read: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. LOVED it.

Reading: Feed by MT Anderson. I ahven't the words to tell you the brilliance of this book. I'm buying copies to give to friends.

Shane - glad to hear you like reading my work! ;) hehehe

I am not the author

I want to order Palimpsest after it was recommended to me by three people (all unrelated!), but I don't know if I can justify new books while on the dole...

Currently reading um, well, barbara walters's autobiography

The Leopard and James Carroll's Practicing Catholic.

Kellydamnit, is this the Gore Vidal memoir? It should be at the library.

Just finished a collection of stories by William Trevor. Currently about halfway through Joseph O'Neill's Netherland. Next up: Lush Life.

Orange Swan, I'm curious what you think about The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia. After rereading the Chronicles as an adult I found them pretty difficult to reconcile with my childhood experience with them as well as finding them a) not as well written as I remembered (especially the early one), b) really condescending at times and c) too preachy. The best critique I'd read so far was Philip Pullman's but he isn't really going into depth in those interviews. But I found he articulated very well a lot of things I was feeling. Anyway reading the descriptions of Miller's book it sounds like she had a pretty similar experience that I did. And yet the descriptions make it sound like its all over the place, which I've also experienced in some of her Salon pieces. I almost get the feeling that there is a real solid essay wrapped up inside the book..

Salem's Lot terrified me as a kid!

I'm on vacation so I am reading vampire fiction -- no, NOT Twilight, but the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris.

I'm thinking of re-reading Gilead by Marilyn Robinson before picking up the other books she wrote about the same people.

I'm also thinking about re-reading County of Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett.

My friend wrote a great book that I read last month -- Local News by Miriam Gershow.

On a bit of a Robertson Davies kick at the moment - finished The Cunning Man last week and now into Murther and Walking Spirits which I think is actually the wrong way round. Oh well.

I love book threads. I always get ideas

What she said.