Believe me, I totally understand that. I've only really just started reading Blake, so I'm still learning the ropes I guess.
We never stop learning (I hope!). Afterthought: Sorry, I should say that the hyperbole in my original comment wasn't to be taken too seriously. What is sane? What is sense? Have a great evening!
A Dance with Dragons - GRRM. I know, I know *hides* but I didn't want to get into the show and I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. Once I started, it just kind of snowballed until I found myself here at the last published book. (Since then I've seen clips of the show and geeze, that thing is awkward.) I like it better than AFFC so far, but I'm still frustrated at the lack of anyone actually succeeding at anything. I'm kind of looking forward to finishing so I can be released from this series and read other things until he publishes the next one.
Currently I'm reading Bloodlines Book #6 The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead, I love the author and I love both series that she's written for this universe.
I'm reading the Wool Trilogy on my Kobo. Currently reading Shift. I'm enjoying it. A self publishing success story that's more deserving of the success. I'm also about half way through A Clash of Kings in paperback. I might have stopped reading the series after Game of Thrones, but my parents-in-law then brought me the box set for Christmas, so thought I'd better read a bit more. But I'm getting to the point where that big block of books looks like a chore, so might just give up.
I'm listening to, rather than reading, a series of 48 lectures by a professor of archaeology on Mesoamerica, from prehistoric times through the period shortly after European contact. Good stuff.
Reading A Clash of Kings. About time I got around to it, and I plan to read nothing else until I finish this and the next three Game of Thrones books after it.
Don Delillo's White Noise and Clinical Practice of Cognitive Therapy with Children and Adolescents. I think they go hand-in-hand pretty well.
About two-thirds into Vladimir Nabokov's "Pale Fire." Considering how much I hated "Lolita" this is a big improvement, even if it does leave me scratching my head.
I recently picked up a random book from my mother's massive (800+ books) personal library - The physick book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe. Promises to be a light, interesting read.
I have 'White Noise' in my current ongoing pile. Enjoyed the first quarter so far. Also reading 'War and Peace' (an ongoing project) and 'The Well of Ascension' by Brandon Sanderson.
William Wordsworth's The Prelude: a parallel text, The Elder Edda - the Andy Orchard translation, Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle, and The Nature of Things by Lucretius. I'm reading them all at about the same time. Bought them as a 'well done' for having handed in my MA dissertation.
Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich--what a powerful writer--stark, sometimes shocking imagery while at the same time lyrical. Rich characters.
I just finished reading Slammerkin. It was well written but I don't understand the point of the story. (Which then begs the question if a story needs a point?) But moving on, it fell apart in the end which was quite disappointing and I'm not quite sure what the author intended the reader to feel.
I wanted to start a thread for this, but thought better about it as I can't imagine there's much scope for discussion. Anyway, has anyone ever read a book and got the feeling that the author was taking the piss or having a joke as the expense of the reader? I'm reading Jeff Noon's Vurt at the moment, and I'd honestly be stuck for an answer if anyone was to ask me if I was enjoying it. It's sci-fi, future-set cyberpunk affair about a group of friends travelling around Manchester in search of drugs. Said drugs come in the form of feathers... yes, feathers, which are 'taken' by tickling the back of the throat with said feather. There are pop bands made up of humanoid dogs, 'shadow people', robodogs... and in last night's chapter, the bouncer of a nighclub was a 'fat white rabbit'. It's bat-shit crazy and I genuinely suspect the author was simply experimenting - it was his first published novel - and seeing just how far he could go, in terms of what his potential readers would tolerate. As an example, this is an extract. It's the first paragraph of a chapter about half way through. And if you're thinking it doesn't make sense because you haven't read all that's gone before, then think again. 'The djinn is going in! Feel it! Feel it!' .........Two hands, separate, but in time with the big rhythm, working the Siamese desks. .........'Big djinn going in now! For the Collyhurst disciples. They are in the limb!' .........Two hands, two small human hands, working the twin desks, the triple desks, the quadruple decks of the Limbic System house.
I just finished Philippe Grimbert's "Memory" and am frustrated by it. One for the sexism and second for the mixing of reality and fiction. If I hadn't had seen it labeled as fiction, I would have thought it was a memoir and that is not the type of ambiguity that should be interjected into a book that deals with the Holocaust.
I started with the first of the Fever Crumb series and I almost put it down. It's not going to satisfy my YA sci-fi craving. But then I got hooked on the great descriptions and I'm enjoying it. I wish I could write setting like that.
I've just picked up "The Tea Planter's Wife" by Dinah Jefferies. I got it in this sweet deal in WHSmith where it's buy one book, get another for £1! Spent £9 rather than £16 I'm 4 chapters in and really enjoying it, it's a little bit on the "raunchy" side in some places but overall, so far just an ever increasing crescendo of intrigue- really good read! -Del.
