Veronica Roth's YA novel, "Divergent." I thought it was just another Hunger Games ripoff, which it sort of is, but I'm enjoying it so far. I've had trouble finishing adult novels lately and tried a lot of short stories, but this book makes me feel like I'm getting back into the reading swing of things. =)
It's Halloween season. I'm reading one of the greatest spooky novels of all time, Dracula! And thank the devil. I was reading Bag of Bones by Stephen King. I normally like his work, but holy cow... he took forever before anything happened. I had to put it down and read someone else lest I think I've lost my love of reading. Happily, with Dracula, I found that I haven't.
Finishing up reading Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner. It's fantastic, one of the better books I'll read this year. It's a very uncompromising novel, and not really a fun read, but still, those interested in good literature owe it to themselves to check this novel out.
Arsene Lupin Omnibus by Maurice Leblanc Only 40 pages in But its pretty enjoyable so far......I'll go into more detail when I get further in
Just finished Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent. I liked it, I always feel like I shouldn't like Conrad, but I always do. I don't know why.
Now reading The Asburn Papers by Henry James. I'm always a bit funny with Henry James, I'm never sure what I feel about him, but I've heard this one is good, so here's me hoping for the best! Edit: finished it in a day, what a damn good story! I loved it.
Ancient Egypt: Everyday Life in the Land of the Nile by Bob Brier Trading with the Enemy by Philip Leich Doctor Sleep by Stephen King The Walking Dead: Descent by Robert Kirkman (or is it Jay Bonansinga?)
I'm digging Baudelaire's The Voyage. I'm not reading it, as in ongoing, but analyzing it, in my feeble fashion, has been a treat.
Started Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson today. Its 1100 some-odd pages and has a lot of talk about cryptograms and math and stuff.
Mansfeild Park by Jane Austen, Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, and a whole load of writings on New Historicist theory. ESH!
The best of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, in my opinion: From Russia, With Love. It's a well-paced, solid, Cold War conspiracy tale that rings true to the time it was written.
Well, this is great curl-up-with-a-good-book weather, so I've just downloaded Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon to my Kindle. It's a book I've never read but always meant to. Having just finished Rosemary Sutcliffe's Sword at Sunset, I'm interested to see how another author deals with the same topic. And for a little light relief, I'm also re-reading Terry Pratchett's Jingo. Seems topical for some reason....
I'm finishing up Neil Patrick Harris' Choose Your Own Autobiography. I am a sucker for a deal from amazon, so when they offered me the book at over 75% off, I bought it, even though I would not have otherwise. I like NPH, so I figured he might have something interesting to say in an autobiography. So, I decided to give it a read. It's done in the style of those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books that were popular when I was a kid. I have to say, though, that I really don't like this particular gimmick, especially with respect to an autobiography. It seems like a lot of extra work (for both author and reader). In some ways, yes, it keeps it light but "light" isn't necessarily what I want from a biography. It's interesting enough, I guess. Okay if you just need some entertainment on a plane ride or something. But I don't feel like I've gained any real insight into him.
I've been exclusively reading Raymond Chandler's books since I've read The Big Sleep a few months back and I finally started his last one, Playback. I'm scared to finish it, I know I'm going to be left with an unfilled void forever.
I read Gurtrude Stein's book Tender Buttons in an hour, this morning. Honestly, it's rather like The Wake - it could be very wonderfully clever and cerebral, but honestly it's just rather dull. Life is too short, and there is nothing really beautiful in it that makes me give a damn. I'm enjoying her autobiography a lot, but this collection of prose poems is just something I have read. Edit: Finished her autobiography. It might have been very clever, but I just don't care.
Finished Mansfield Park and it was ok, now half way through Good Morning Midnight by Jean Rhys. So far, it's interesting. Edit: Finished Good Morning Midnight, it was ok too. I don't have a lot to say for either of these novels to be honest, though I think I am under appreciating them.
- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (not really sure why, it's boring). - Old Time magazines. - Obligatory history textbooks for exam revision.
Jokes about John Galt's insanely long speech that takes up the same number of pages as a short story.
My god he does bang on, doesn't he. I have to admit I'm feeling much more charitable toward Rand these days. She did live a pretty terrible early life, which does make me sympathize with her a bit. But that speech, dear god that speech, it doesn't make sense why anyone would make a speech so long! Someone recorded it all on YouTube and it goes on for 3 hours! It's like the lecture from hell. And we are supposed to expect everyone on the planet didn't need a bathroom break, everyone didn't tune out and do something else, everyone didn't get bored and start checking watches? Even her fans admit some don't even bother to read it all the way through, and this was pitched, in the world of the novel, to the man on the street? Nonsense. What is weird is earlier in the novel the character Francisco D'Anconia gives a speech at a party, it's called the 'Money' speech, and honestly it does a much better job of not just pitching Objectivism as a perspective, but also is frankly a much better speech. To be honest, the 'Money' speech isn't even half bad. There, @minstrel, now you can't say I don't have something positive to say about Atlas Shrugged.
