I'm finally reading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. I bought it like five months ago, right after Joel and I got married, but I hadn't had a chance to get to it until now. It's so delicious.
Read this not too long ago - a really fantastic book. I'm soon to start the second in the series! I'm currently reading Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham and Black Boy by Richard Wright! Not too far into Black Boy, but Of Human Bondage is one of THE greatest novels I have ever had the pleasure of reading.
Stick with it, is what I'd say.. I just finished the seventh installment and I must say there are better and far worse titles in that series. I'm not going to put you off and just mention the good ones. The third and fourth are exquisit and the seventh makes a good change of scenery. I'll let you know when I've read the others, still four to go.
Still reading The Pact by Jodi Picoult. But I am also reading Switched by R.L. Stine. When I finish that later today, I will probably move on to a different R.L. Stine book.
Black Boy is a good read too! Re. Maugham: I really like the way Maugham describes his characters. He's very good at using the way they look to tell the reader all he needs to know about them. If you haven't seen it, check out the film with Leslie Howard as Philip Carey and Bette Davis as Mildred; it's really good (and on a shallow note, Howard was definitely easy on the eyes.) Bette is in full b-tch mode, which fits perfectly. Currently reading if on a winter's night a traveler, which I've owned since a teenager but have never managed to get all the way through! I swear I will this time.
Just finished Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey, just started Ngaio Marsh's A Man Lay Dead.
I absolutely LOVED this series! I won't give away details, but if you finish Thrones and enjoy it enough to continue with the others, you won't be sorry. The only disappointment I have, thus far, is waiting for Martin to complete the next book. (*sigh* Hopefully, before I shrivel and die, or become too senile to remember the characters I loved.) Currently reading Horns, by Joe Hill, and just finished Blood Harvest, by S.J. Bolton, who is a relatively new mystery/crime author. I've enjoyed all three of her books: Awakening, Sacrifice, and Blood Harvest.
Thanks for the recommendation! I'll certainly check out that movie (and on a non-shallow note, this is not because Howard was easy on the eyes - I'm a man, how does Bette look? hah!). And yes, Black Boy is fantastic. I'll be finishing it soon.
I guess she's all right. Although out of all the classic leading ladies, I (as a straight woman) find Katherine Hepburn the most attractive. She had brains and her own style. Bette definitely fits the part of Mildred though; Hepburn wouldn't at all. I got turned on to Maugham by reading his character descriptions in a 'how to write'-type book that I owned as a teenager. (It also turned me on to Nabokov through using examples from Pnin, so apparently it did some good.) I taught English comp for the past two years, and used Richard Wright's "The Library Card" as part of my syllabus each semester. It's short, but you might like it too.
I, too, am painfully awaiting the next installment in the series! Actually, if I'm being completely honest, I'm only 100 pages into the second book, but if I had to guess, I'd say that I'll have the first four finished well in advance to him releasing the fifth. And then I'll truly feel the pain with the rest of his fans as we wait for the sixth and seventh. Goodness, I hope we see this series to completion! Aconite, Nabakov is on my to-read list! That's a list that grows far, far quicker than my eyes can move across a page. Hmph. I'll check out Wright's "The Library Card" Thanks!
Nabokov is well worth it. Any fantasy reader avidly awaiting the next G.R.R. Martin installment (as I am) should check out Steven Erikson's Malazan books, starting with Gardens of the Moon.
I'd always been intrigued by Erikson's series but have never picked Gardens of the Moon up. I just might after I finish God of Clocks by Alan Campbell, which is after I finish Mieville's Scar Night, after I finish Abercrombie's First Law trilogy...
Oh, I'm also sort-of-reading Postmodernism for Beginners. I say "sort-of-reading" because I just pick it up from time to time and read a page at random. It seems appropriate somehow.
I really like Raymond Carver's short stories. I've only read his 'Elephant and other stories' collection but I'm planning on reading some more of his short stories.
I love the depth to them. On first glance they are basically stories about meaningless little encounters between people, but then you look a little harder and each of them has a deeper meaning embedded inside.
