I am currently reading "One flew over the cuckoos nest" and thoroughly enjoying it. I don't think I have before read a book in first person, and the fact that the narrator is mentally disabled makes it extremely interesting and insightful. I'm glad that I have not yet seen the movie, and I'm really curious to see how it holds up compared to the book.
Since I'm teaching all of the time, I rarely find time to read "for fun" anymore. I need to keep up on my contemporary fiction reads. It's difficult to find books in English in Panama and they are also usually expensive! I can end up dropping around $50 for two books easily if I purchase them here. Those of you who have free crime fiction e-books online, please let me know how to access them! I'd love to read them! Lately, I've been reading 1984 by George Orwell and Julius Caesar. It's my first year teaching 1984, but my kids and I have really been enjoying it. As for Julius Caesar, it's definitely revived some good quotes that I had forgotten about!
I'm currently attempting to read Dracula but it's really hard to get into. I've been trying to push through it but I can't get past the beginning.
i am currently reading less than zero by bret easton ellis, its a totally different style from anything i have read before, theres no real plot, it is like reading a mans diary about what he has done each day, which in this case involves alot of drugs. the main character seems totally emotionless to everything thats going on around him and is not very likable, i am enjoying it tho, there is something addictive about it. i have got american psycho waiting for when i finish this one, and i also have richard laymons "bite" ready and waiting too
Francine Prose, Reading Like a Writer. A bit of an unusual pick for me; an impulse Amazon purchase. A bit on the dull side. Reading Johnson's Lives of the Poets - simply wonderful - in-between some rather lengthy efforts... Next up, Mann's Doctor Faustus.
I have a few books i'm reading. If i'm on the toilet or in a bath. it's Karl Pilkington's diary ( funny as hell) IF i'm in my room it's Terry Goodkind's Blood of the fold. ( I like it, but it's a big read esp when i have the rest of the site to go with it ) When i'm at my Granddads It's The world according to Jeramey Clarkson Or Porno By irvin welsh ( re reading that again, love that and trainspotting ) P.s i did start lee child's killing floor, but its chapter 6 and i'm not being won over easily. in terms of the action it has promised. ( i might retry that one. )
I'm reading "Rosie: Note to Self" by Claire Connor with G P Taylor (which as far as I can tell means "Clare Connor, who has paid G P Taylor to put his name of the cover so it will sell more copies -- Taylor doesn't acknowledge it on his own website). I am reading it for a book group, so I am persisting, but I think it's the biggest crock of **** I have ever had the misfortune to read, and perfectly exemplifies why I hate all of the writing "rules" given to new writers, because it's almost textbook "writing by numbers", ruined by following all of those rules. In particular, in a desperate attempt to "show and not tell" everything, the book is just an onslaught of events with nothing to join them into a story, so making a cup of coffee gets equal weight with the title character getting married, and any narrative is crushed and washed away in the tsunami of trivia. It would be fair to say that I'm not keen.
About to start 20,000 League Under The Sea. I've always had a thing for classic SF, and Jules Verne and his works are one of the starting points for the whole genre. I wouldn't say they were SF in the strictest modern definition, but they are an interesting read to anyone interested in genre history as a form of 'proto-SF'.
I'm reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Graham-Smith, is a remake of a Jane Austen story just with, guess what, zombies of course, if you like a slow phased Victorian romance with some brain-eaters packed in between lines this is your book, I'm still not quite sure if I like it or not.
I recently read that. I'd be interested to know what you think. (Actually I would count it as SF -- hard SF, at that.)
Cool. I started reading it out of a sense of obligation since he's a local writer and I was in his class when it came out and got a copy signed and stuff, but the book was actually really great and I couldn't put it down. It's always nice when you don't have to BS someone you know about how good their book is.
Reading The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald. It's one of the books on my 'to read' list that I really should have read before now.
I'm trudging through 'A Galaxy Unknown' Book 1 by Thomas DePrima on my kindle. From a reader's point of view: I can't stand the MC, she's annoying and arrogant. From a writing point of view: I really don't like reading 3rd person omniscient. I'm 41% of the way through it.
I've started reading the first of George O'Dowd's two autobiographies: Take It Like A Man. Partly reading it out of interest, partly because his music somewhat inspired the creation of the MC in the novel I intend to start writing this summer. I'm a couple of chapters in and so far I'm enjoying it.
Reading three things: Bossypants by Tina Fey, Dark Tower IV by Stephen King, and Style by Joseph Williams. None encroach with the others, so I'm still sane.
I'm almost done with The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Taleb. It's an interesting one. It's about the study of knowledge and the importance of understanding the idea that we should be less focused on what we know and more concerned with what we don't know.
