What are you reading?

I'm not sure, but I hope it ends well, haha.

Hunting Monsters by SL Huang

Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite

Finished Robert Bloch's Psycho today and loved every moment of it. Gonna start John Grisham's Sycamore Row later on.

About to start Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

Somewhat belatedly for the year, I've just started my annual "Read one great classic novel" for 2014: Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo. I have an old Modern Library hardback edition, ~1200 pages, in pretty fine print, and my eyes ain't none too good no more. Pray for me.

caw

blacbird said:

. . . , ~1200 pages, in pretty fine print, and my eyes ain't none too good no more. Pray for me.

caw

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Two words:

Magnifying glass.

--Ken

Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers.

Christianizing the Roman Empire, by Ramsay MacMullen.

Exhaustively scholarly, and as revealing as his Voting about God in Early Church Councils.

--Ken

ResearchGuy said:

Christianizing the Roman Empire, by Ramsay MacMullen.

Exhaustively scholarly, and as revealing as his Voting about God in Early Church Councils.

--Ken

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Interesting, Ken, will have to check this out. Have you read Rodney Stark's The Rise of Christianity?

I just passed the halfway point in 1Q84 (Haruki Murakami).

Just started two: Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman, and Euclid's Window, Leonard Mlodinow.

vagough said:

Interesting, Ken, will have to check this out. Have you read Rodney Stark's The Rise of Christianity?

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No. Sounds worthwhile, based on summary. However, unlike Stark, MacMullen is deep into primary sources. The two might make complementary reading.

--Ken

Just started reading Storm Front by John Sandford. Was at first put off by a quote from Stephen King that said he writes great unapologetic guy fiction but because it had to do with one of my favorite subjects, archaeology, I picked it up anyway. I'm glad I did. He's hilarious. Humor that's well needed right about now as my life is pretty stressful. I'm only a quarter of the way through but already a few exchanges have me chuckling. One of them is this one.

To set it up Awad is an Arab man and Yael is a pretty Israeli woman.
"Israel is different," Yael said, looking away.
"This is true," Awad said. To Yael: "I am told that young, attractive Mossad women are sometimes used to seduce their Arab targets."
"I wouldn't know," Yael said. "But I wouldn't get your hopes up."
"I would gladly volunteer for this interrogation," Awad said.

Attempting Normal by Marc Marion

Tonight, that's a good question. I need something new. Fortunately I have been, for decades, an obsessive book collector, and have my bedroom walls floor-to-ceiling lined with bookshelves. There are probably two thousand books there, many of which I haven't read. So, I now go upstairs, close my eyes and grab the first one I touch. If I haven't read it, I'll give it a go.

If I hate it, I'll try again.

caw

So, come on bird - don't keep us all hanging here. What did you choose?

I'm reading Hilary Mantel's short story collection: The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher.

Enjoying it, so far. Really loved two of them.

Just finished The Collector by John Fowles. I liked the first half quite a bit. The second half was a bit repetitive. The end was great, imo. I like to be satisfied with the end and am often not. This one proved a success!

Now reading The Wasp Factory. It's short, so I should get through it quickly. It's a trip. So far a pretty good one. Hopefully it will satisfy in the end too.

Started two books this weekend...

Nemesis by Jo Nesbo (one of the Harry Hole series...love these)

The Balkan Wars by Andre Gerolymatos, found it in my Grandfather's study and it's relevant to my WIP, so I will put on my nerd glasses and try to learn something here!

Reading Voyager by Diana Gabaldon.

Zoo, by James Patterson

Exile's Honor by Mercedes Lackey. I have mixed feeling about it, I'm enjoying it while reading, but the second I put it down I can't help but feel how trite it is.

Churchill and Empire: A Portrait of an Imperialist, by Lawrence James (Pegasus Books, 2014). It could benefit from a few maps. If you read it, have a world atlas at hand unless you have a comprehensive memory of world geography. Quite interesting, covering a lot of familiar history from the specific perspective implied in the title.

--Ken

Life of Pi, by Yann Martel.

Oh man, I hope the book is better than the movie. That movie was like someone threw a theme park ride in line with a book on Buddhism written by a college freshman who just read the Wikipedia entry. It was like Ang Lee looked at his Hulk movie and said, "but what if there was a tiger and no Hulk and it was crappier?"

Anybody read Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl? I finished it a couple of weeks ago and I'm still looking for someone who will talk about it with me.