MetaChat - What are we reading these days?

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09 November 2010

What are we reading these days? →[More:]I've worked through a number of things- Columbine, which was fascinating. I was in high school when that happened, it totally defined our high school years. Not a great calming pre-bedtime read, thoguh; it kept me awake a few nights, in the best way. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat and Running the Books were great, too. Now I'm reading Living Large, which is fluffy but fun, and will soon crack open The Accidental Billionaires.

post by: ThePinkSuperhero at: 14:12 | 36 comments

Internet mostly.

posted by The Whelk 09 November | 14:18

Bill Bryson's new book.

posted by JanetLand 09 November | 14:20

Finished "Infinite Jest" and um, maybe I'll read it again some year. I really enjoyed "The Solitude of Prime Numbers".

Hey how do you link to Amazon without it being you signed in? Or did you link and I just don't see you because I'm me?

posted by rainbaby 09 November | 14:31

I'm almost done with Her Fearful Symmetry, and I can't say as I'll be keeping it in my permanent collection. I really enjoyed the Time Traveler's Wife, and this just seems awfully pale. I'm not super into the characters -- they're all kind of spoiled -- and although I could suspend disbelief for one of the major plot twists/devices, I'm REALLY not a fan of the way it's moving toward a climax. What a bummer; I was so excited to get it.

Luckily, it was only through BookMooch. I have piles of BookMooch books evvvverywhere. I think we need a new shelf. Next up (aside from the cheap, cheesy romances that I finish in a day or so): probably another Deborah Crombie mystery. I think this one's up next.

Still (STILL!) poking away at A Girl Named Zippy every few nights with the boy.

Others that are staring me in the face: The Professor and the Madman, The Blind Assassin, The Far Pavilions, My Name Is Asher Lev. And I'm on the verge of just buying a copy of Never Let Me Go outright instead of waiting forever for the mooch.

posted by Madamina 09 November | 14:35

I'm reading "Unaccompanied Women" by Jane Juska, the follow-up to "A Round-Heeled Woman".

I bought "Unaccompanied Women" a few weeks ago from a book cart, and re-read "A Round-Heeled Woman" before starting it, as it's a few years since I last read it.

posted by Senyar 09 November | 14:37

Just started reading Boneshaker. I'm not a big steampunk fan but I like it so far. It seems to take me about six months to get through fiction these days. Mostly I read stuff like "Python: Essential Reference" and "Using MySql".

posted by octothorpe 09 November | 14:43

I'm in the middle of a pretty interesting bio of Sam Cooke. I've always enjoyed non-fiction, but man, all I've been reading lately is musician biographies!

posted by richat 09 November | 14:47

Oh, I hope everyone is reading John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse, because that's what MeTa book club is discussing here December 6.

Meanwhile, I'm in the midst of Grisham's The Confession, which isn't bad, still listening to Shelby Foote's The Civil War, though now in the midst of the final volume, and finished Wolf Hall about a week ago -- that one is sloooow though still of interest for people who find the Henry VIII era as interesting as I do.

posted by bearwife 09 November | 14:48

I started the new Cynthia Ozick novel, which is apparently inspired by a Henry James novel, but think I'm going to put it down and read the new Kate Morton novel instead--she does novels about uncovering the mysteries of the past very well.

posted by leesh 09 November | 14:48

Also, Madamina, My Name is Asher Lev is one of my favorite books and definitely Potok's best. (Even better than The Chosen, which is pretty darn good.)

posted by bearwife 09 November | 14:49

I've only read Davita's Harp, which was a long time ago, but I enjoyed it. I have The Gift of Asher Lev waiting in the wings.

posted by Madamina 09 November | 14:52

Neil Young's Greendale.

posted by amro 09 November | 15:22

I'm reading Michal Ajvaz's The Golden Age: it's pretty good so far. I just finished & am trying to digest Lorraine Daston & Peter Galison's Objectivity: a heavy-duty, thought-provoking study of aspects of the history of science.

posted by misteraitch 09 November | 15:24

Just finished Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates, which I enjoyed. Next up is Freedom, which I just have to read because everyone else has read it. I don't even really like Franzen that much.

posted by gaspode 09 November | 15:28

Neal Stephenson, currently. Reading Zodiac now, Diamond Age next. After that, who knows? Probably not more NS, tho.

posted by Eideteker 09 November | 16:03

Madamina, the end of Her Fearful Symmetry is maybe even worst than you're imagining. That book made me angry with how awful its last third was. Don't read her new graphic novel either--it's just as stupid. But definitely check out the Potok and Ishiguro. If I didn't like those books so much, I'd send you my copies. :)

posted by leesh 09 November | 16:20

I agree with everyone who was disappointed in Her Fearful Symmetry. Man. Thumbs DOWN.

Madamina - the Professor and the Madman is quite good; I really enjoyed it.

I'm about twenty pages from finishing Shantaram, and trying to figure out what to read next. Let's open the reading drawer...some Steven Johnson book. Hmm.

posted by punchtothehead 09 November | 16:45

Madamina, also seconding leesh on Never Let Me Go. An unforgettable book. The movie is on my want to see list because the book is so good.

posted by bearwife 09 November | 16:57

I put down the new Gibson, about 150 pages in, when I was at a bookstore and bought the next O'Brian because, at this point in my life, I haven't the willpower to say no to those books.

posted by danf 09 November | 17:10

I'm reading Terry Pratchett's "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" to my son; for myself, I'm re-reading Pratchett's "Small Gods."

danf, are you suggesting that the new Gibson should be skipped? It's on my to-read list.

posted by monkeytoes 09 November | 17:48

danf, are you suggesting that the new Gibson should be skipped? It's on my to-read list.

Not at all, although for some reason, the previous one of this series grabbed me a lot more. It's just that I have gotten sucked into the Aubrey-Maturin series, big time.

posted by danf 09 November | 17:55

I found Never Let Me Go to be completely unreadable. I gave up 20 pages in.

posted by Senyar 09 November | 18:47

I've started reading Donald Westlake and John D. MacDonald. Generally I read sci-fi/fantasy, but they were mentioned by a sci-fi author I like, so I tried them. None of the books are like my best friends in sci-fi/fantasy (good buddies I'll re-read on occasion, go out and buy just so I have on hand, etc) but I am enjoying them. Most recent was MacDonald's The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper.

Also I have a book I got through inter-library loan that I'm going to need to read and send back. Man, I hate reading nonfiction; I find it aggravatingly difficult, even when I'm interested in the topic. It doesn't agree with the ADHD at all.

posted by galadriel 09 November | 19:39

I really really really liked My Name Is Asher Lev.

I've been reading obsessively about the 1930s, but it's beginning to make me cranky as well as depressed. I'm currently reading Dancing in the Dark: Cultural History of the Great Depression, but I expected a different balance between cultural/literary criticism and well, Cultural History, so I might not be able to finish it.

The next book in my queue - The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s - looks much much better, but I might need to insert some fiction in between. Or - since fiction has not been satisfying me lately - I might read The Portland Vase: The Extraordinary Odyssey of a Mysterious Roman Treasure next, just to cleanse my 1930s palette.

posted by julen 09 November | 19:54

Danf, so glad you are into the Aubrey-Maturin Patrick O'Brian books, some of the very best ever. Really, really recommend that you listen to at least one or two with Patrick Tull narrating. The books leap even further into life. The voicing of the characters is PERFECT.

posted by bearwife 09 November | 20:03

I was just given Life by Keith Richards and Just Kids by Patti Smith as a birthday present.

posted by Obscure Reference 09 November | 20:09

I was just given Life by Keith Richards

I'd appeal to Mick Jagger, he could get you off with 25 years.

posted by jonmc 09 November | 20:14

Just finished Lindsey Davis' Three Hands in the Fountain. If you haven't read her, she's a mystery writer who is great, light yet informative: her books, featuring informer Marcus Didius Falco and his intrepid wife Helena are set in ancient Rome. They're all good; I wish I'd read them in chronological order but, oh well, I've just been reading them as they show up in my life, which works out fine. Before that I read Dead Beat, one of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books; it's one of the later ones and the first one I'd read and I liked it a lot too.

danf, I love, love, love the Aubrey/Maturin books. I've read all of them (I even own all of them) at least twice, maybe three times and I even went out and got his other books, which are also excellent and read those too.

posted by mygothlaundry 09 November | 20:57

Sadly, I have fallen off the reading wagon . too much stuff going on to make the time for a good uninterupted read

posted by rollick 09 November | 22:12

Just finished Margaret Laurence's The Prophet's Camel Bell(about her time in Somalia during the 50's while her engineer husband was digging wells there) and have started a collection of her letters.

posted by brujita 10 November | 01:22

Last night finished Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences by Cordelia Fine. (More). Interesting book about how the "innate brain differences between the sexes" have been exaggerated and oversold. Worth reading.

Before that, Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks. Latest Culture SF novel, pretty good too.

Also quite recently I posted my annual Books I've Read This Year list, which links to my reviews of everything.

posted by TheophileEscargot 10 November | 01:48

I picked up John Irving's Last Night in Twisted River a month ago for a big trip. I'm most of the way through it and look forward to saying I've completed it, but life gets in the way sometimes, and the final chapters seem to be filled with lots of anti-GWBush/Iraq ranting. The first 80% of the book was great though!

posted by knile 10 November | 06:26

Just starting Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art Since Pollack, which is basically a series of lectures by Kirk Varnedoe, turned into a book and illustrated with most of the artworks he talks about. It sounds dry, but it's really not, and the images are terrific.

posted by BoringPostcards 10 November | 08:29

Since I am traveling, I have been saving up past New Yorkers to read on the trip. They are easy to read and discard when I am done. Mao, the Unknown Story is waiting for me when I get home.

posted by msali 10 November | 10:43

Zero History I am finding myself more and more absorbed as I get into it.

posted by Lynsey 10 November | 15:07

I'm reading Mondo Enduro by Austin Vince. Back in 1995 seven men from the UK rode small-displacement motorcycles around the world: England to Siberia, Anchorage to Santiago, Southern Africa, and back to England. This trip included the first recorded transit of the former Soviet Union post-breakup.

And they did it without cellphones.

posted by workerant 10 November | 19:27

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