What Are You Reading??

Just started "The Time Traveller's Wife"- quite an interesting read so far!

The Road
Cormac McCarthy.

In terms of what happens it's essentially the same as the movie (if you saw the movie first), but there's a qualitative difference, both more intimate and more epic and a bit less Viggo.  I keep trying to read Cormac McCarthy books, and this is the first I made it through.  McCarthy isn't purposely obscurantist I don't think, just really, really economical and when his references to higher things do come, they're often presented in but a single sentence, whereas some other things, the signs of the physical world for example, are relentlessly repeated.  I'm unsure what this means but he does it effectively.

I award this book the CP Thumbs Up Seal of Non-Rejection.

China Melville's "Un Lun Dun"...and a heap of other novels...I am, for strange reasons, on an Agatha Christie trip...

Loved Blood Meridian.  Every time I read McCarthy's stuff, I start sating things like "I reckon" and "Well, it will or it won't" and other such laconic nuggets, until my friends threaten to glass me.

Just finished The Soong Dynasty, which Pashley left me.  Utterly epic.  Except for Ching Ling, wife of Sun Yat Sen, that family does NOT come off well in this book.  I recommend it highly.

Now digging into Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie.  Bitchin' so far.

I have the new Pratchett book....I have the new Pratchett book...
I also have a copy of the...hmmm...literature produced by Borkya and her husband, which I am going to write a review of...and I mean a proper review...the kind of self-important, lengthy, snooty thing one would find in a 19th Century newspaper...

I have the new Pratchett book....I have the new Pratchett book...
I also have a copy of the...hmmm...literature produced by Borkya and her husband, which I am going to write a review of...and I mean a proper review...the kind of self-important, lengthy, snooty thing one would find in a 19th Century newspaper...

I heard about this tonight! I can't wait....

...I think....

the kind of self-important, lengthy, snooty thing one would find in a 19th Century newspaper

Is it your birthday already?

I'm working my way through Churchill's six-volume "The Second World War". Some of it is rather dry, but it is a unique & fascinating series. The whole thing is seen through his eyes and none of the other leaders wrote such a detailed memoir. Also, it is quite well written; one sees why he got a Nobel for literature.

Suzhou Bookworm has at least some of the volumes in hardcover. I'm buying the trade paperbacks. 70 rmb each in Shanghai, but printed right on the cover are UK prices -- 20 or 25 pounds apiece. Interesting that they are so much cheaper in China.

I had a lot of time to read this summer. Some of the better reads I had were-

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald-no, I'd never read it before. Desrves its reputation as a classic.
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga-brilliant look at modern India told from the point of view of a servant who rises to the position of a prominent business man
Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell-I taught my literature students Outliers last semester, but haven't read any other Gladwell books. This was good stuff, and I told all my students I'm still in contact with to read this as well.
Freakanomincs by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner-Gladwell-esque book that uses theories of economics to track seemingly unrelated social trends
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt-Non-fiction novel that acts as a brilliant "city confidential" of Savanah, Georgia set against the backdrop of a high publicity murder trial
Practical Demon Keeping by Christopher Moore-Light, easy amusing read. Not as funny as Moore's other works, as he originally intended it to be a horror novel
Asian Godfathers by Joe Studwell-A complex and insightful look at how the economies of Southeast Asia have been controlled for the past 150 years by the same 50 families, and how the factors that allow this are responsible for the lack of growth in the region.

I'm currently working on The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter Thompson.

At least being confined to a hospital bed is a good way to get some reading done. Read “Perdido Street Station” by China Mieville, “Paradise Lost”, “Crime and Punishment”, “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” and am halfway through “Against Nature” by Huysmans...the latter being that wicked book Lord Henry Wotton lends to the easily corrupted Dorian Gray...

I'm now reading John Grisham's 'The Broker' courtesy of Ruth  . Really good, I really enjoy reading about life in Italy, but unlike the other Grisham books, would make a pretty boring flim, imo. Good reading though.

Well, I'm a little afraid to mention this for outing myself as a super nerd, but I am re-reading all of the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time books in anticipation of the last one coming out next year. So far I'm on book 6 and there are going to be 15 in all. Each book is between 600-900 pages so it is taking me a little while to get through, but I plan on finishing book 14 right before book 15 comes out.

 

Just finished the very wonderful Lacuna by Margaret Attwood.Usually hate sci-fi but made an exception in her case. And now am reading Two Caravans by somebody Ukranian whose name escapes me.
Quite fun.

I finally picked up a copy of Laird Hunt's, my grad professor, second book, The Impossibly (which is being released in French this month). So far, a bit confusing. He really likes using experimental styles.

Demons - by Dostoyevsky, whether it ever gets finished remains to be seen.