I've finished Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates by Tom Robbins and, well, I didn't much enjoy it. I will start Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck later today. Has anyone read it?
Every Living Thing by James Herriot and the second book in the Inheritance Cycle, Eldest by Christopher Paolini
A collection of essays on Beowulf, and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. I've never read Scarlet Letter before, despite hearing not but good things. I love the period in which it is set too. I want to like this, so far I've just read the introductory essay which was interesting.
I just finished Tidal by Amanda Hocking not too long ago,I'm reading whiskey beach by Nora Roberts now.
Right now I'm reading my 2013 World Almanac. I like the fact that this book has information on so many different subjects such as history, meteorology, astronomy, and so much more.
Pump Six and other stories by Paulo Bacigalupi and Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland are my current pre-holiday reads. Because I like reading light, uplifting pieces of work that present next to no challenge
I have the Scarlet Letter lying around the house but I've never read it. I think my sister owned it for school or something. Wonder is it any good? Yesterday I got two new books in the post - Elephant Vanishes by Murakami (Short story collection) Ask the Dust by John Fante. (I happened to stumble across the reputation of this book. It's excellent so far)
[MENTION=37781]Mackers[/MENTION] I finished The Scarlet Letter yesterday, it's not too bad. The thing about it is that it is very very old fashioned, to the point that it is now very unfamiliar in terms of style and story structure. If you have an antiquarian bent you might like it more than others will, but I can't promise anything. You have to accept it for what it is, but if you can you'll find it a very good, very emotionally complex, and interesting novel from a historical perspective.
I'm continuing page 2 of "Unfinished Tales" by JRR Tolkien from where I left off 5 weeks ago before operation on my wrist.
Rime di Dante Alighieri, reading this while reading a load of none fiction about Beowulf at the same time. It's the Italian text with an English translation beside each poem (mostly sonnets). This is the first actual English translation of these poems and it's amazing seeing a new side to this writer, and it's helping me with my Italian. Score!
Call of the Wild, read it when I was maybe 7 or 8? Going back to it now to fully appreciate it Also, reading some history books on ancient Rome & the modern Middle East.
Currently on page 800 of The Noble House. It's a continuation of the James Clavell's Hong Kong series, which started with Tai-Pan. The author is best known for his Japan series, especially "Shogun". Tai-Pan was about Scottish and American traders in Hong Kong during the 1840s, and all the intrigues, secrets, and murder that consumed their lives. At 450 pages, it was positively slim compared to the The Noble House, which is slightly over 1200. The sequel takes place in 1963, and features a few hundred characters. (About 50 of which are major ones) It's a truly expansive epic of Hong Kong, which includes everyone from European tycoons, lowly coolies, KGB agents, Triad members, Chinese communist agents, streetfighters, British MPs, kidnappers, horse trainers, drug smugglers, geologists, and anyone and everyone in-between. It's exciting as hell, and a worthwhile read for anyone.
Taking a break from King's Dark Tower epic. Finishing off my second read-through of A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, before moving on to the sequel.
Hemingway On Fishing, a collection of Hemingway's short stories, novel excerpts and correspondence that are about fishing in all its forms. The collection wa=as done (and done quite well) by Jack Hemingway and Nick Lyons, primarily, and includes: >>A handful of short stories (including Big Two-Hearted River and The End of Something) >>Correspondence to various papers and magazines, including Esquire, Vogue and the Toronto Star >>Novel excerpts: Garden of Eden, Sun Also Rises, Islands in the Stream and Old Man and the Sea Anyway, this collection is superb and I highly recommend it.
Well, just finished that collection of essays on Beowulf as part of the Norton Critical Edition of the Heaney translation, and let me say this: If anyone has any interest in Beowulf the poem, buy the Norton Critical Edition. Sure Heaney's translation isn't the best out there, but it's still ok - it does the job well enough, but the essays and extra, ancillary inclusions like extracts from the Icelandic Sagas and the Edda, and the relevant Bible passages; and details and history of the Beowulf manuscript make it pretty much an indispensable book if you have any interest in poetry as an art form. Now, after that rather sober, academic read I've got a travel non-fiction narrative called The Pillars of Hercules by Paul Theroux. This is quickly becoming my dad's favorite book because apparently it captures the essence of a lot of what the places described are really like, outside the tourist season. I've never been to Greece outside of the tourist season, or the Spain. And I've never been to Gibraltar, which is where this book starts. So far I am really enjoying it. Theroux has this nice, personal style that makes his rather pompous attitude at times very bearable, and his way of exploring (which I can only call Socratic) is very interesting in getting another side to these places. One you don't often hear about. I'm not far in to it, but so far I can also highly recommend this. Damn, reading my last few posts on this thread you'd think I loved every book I ever read.
Blasphemy, the last collection from Sherman Alexie on my shelf (and also the longest). He is growing on me the more I read him.
I have just read my first Jack Reacher novel (The Visitor). It was easy to read but full of holes (particularly how the murders were done - see spoiler). Also thought the red herring he planted in there was a little unfair. Was interested in reading a Lee Child book as I saw an interview with him once - he was saying how deliberate his choices were to write a mass appeal thriller novel (had to be America because everyone in the world knows America, not that many know locations in the UK - even London, and his name which he chose so it would be near to the beginning of the shelves in bookshops / libraries and also because there aren't that many authors whose names begin with C. I am currently reading a C.J. Sansom book (called Dark Fire in English, but I am reading it in French). Spoiler Hypnosis is often portrayed as a way people can get others to do things to harm themselves or others, but this is untrue. Hypnotic subjects will not do anything that is going to really harm them (or go against their moral code). Stage hypnotists carefully select people who really want to be hypnotised (and do things on stage). I trained in hypnotherapy so I have some understanding of this (and one of the first things I learnt was how to fool a stage hypnotist so I could screw up their show if I wanted!).
I'm just getting into The Theoretical Minimum, by Leonard Susskind and George Hrabovsky. I need to bone up on my math and physics after not taking any courses in these fields since engineering school thirty years ago, and this seems a good place to start.
