Yesterday, I read an article about Bill Clinton in which he said he owned about 5,000 books. I was immediately wracked with envy. In my continuing quest to find more books that I have to read, what are you reading, and would you recommend it?
I’m currently reading At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past by A. Roger Ekirch. I just started it, so I don’t have much to say yet. It’s a history of nighttime in pre-industrial Western societies. Lots of quotations and footnotes, but not too dry and scholarly. I’m looking forward to spending more time with it. Since I just started my current book, I’ll mention the last couple that I read too.
Robert K. Massie’s Dreadnought, is an absolutely fascinating account of the naval arms race between England and Germany that culminates with the start of WWI. I didn’t know much about this period, or about WWI, so this book was both immensely interesting and educational. Massie’s book covers a staggering amount of material (it starts with Trafalger), but is consistently engaging. It’s filled with mini biographies of everyone from Queen Victoria to Admiral von Tirpitz to Jacky Fischer, who came out of retirement to lead the British Navy in WWI. This book is a rather daunting undertaking, but very rewarding. I purchased, but haven’t started, the follow-up, Castles of Steel. I’m looking forward to it.
I also enjoyed Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect That Shaped the American Frontier by Jeffrey A. Lockwood. Lockwood explores a very intriguing mystery: what happened to the Rocky Mountain Locust? If you’ve ever read On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder, you’ve read a first-hand account of a locust plague, an account that Lockwood references. After years of swarming across much of the West, the locust disappeared mysteriously disappeared. Lockwood discovers what happened, and the book is informative without being overly scientific.
I’ve found that I don’t much enjoy fiction these days. I started Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men in the fall, but haven’t finished it yet. I have a whole pile of fiction, new and old, to read, but … I guess the times seem a little too serious for it. Has this happened to anyone else?
that you mention it I have a huge stack of fiction too that is untouched. When I have read it has been nonfiction and also new meditation books because my old meditations just weren’t cutting it anymore in finding my center and peacefulness!
Me too, I can’t remember the last time I selected a fictional book to read. I’m usually working on about three at a time and they begin to pile up when a new one arrives. However there must be about six waiting for me to get through the latest Harry Potter, on loan. It’s always worth it when you force yourself to just have some fun. Most of my reading now is done online, though I continue to accumulate books.
Waiting in line are Jared Diamond’s “Guns Germs and Steel,” Elisabet Sahtouris’ “EarthDance – Living Systems in Evolution” These are both wonderful books that I can jump back into anytime.
Wish you hadn’t reminded me to look at my stacks, it’s getting embarrassing. Maybe we could start a Bootrib book exchange.
I have Diamond’s book, as well as his newest, “Collapse”. Haven’t gotten to either one yet. The review in The New Yorker haunts me — it mentions that people in Greenland, desperate for food, killed and ate the year’s calves, thereby sealing their fate. They wouldn’t eat fish, so they died.
Don’t feel bad. Last December, I bought a new book shelf — one of those big ones with 5 or 6 shelves. I filled it up this year. Most of my books are in the basement, sealed in plastic boxes, and every time I finish one, I add it to the finished box. My dream is to either finish part of the basement or to someday have a three bedroom house so I can have a library of my own! Plus, if I see all of the books that I already have, I buy them more slowly. I hoard books the way my Great Depression-surviving father hoards food!
Currently reading Thomas Mann’s ‘Buddenbrooks”, Lowe-Porter translation.
Though my mental acuity & ability to focus are somewhat lacking lately, I find the story compelling & easy to negotiate.
I love this novel. It is one of the probably innumerable that I would take with me if abandoned to fend for myself. Books and a comfy armchair. The Lord can provide the rest.
new novel Direct Actions. It just came in the mail from B&N today. I’m so excited:-)
Is that where he’s been? I haven’t seen his name in a couple of weeks, and I’ve missed his comments!
I am currently re-reading a number of poetry books by Charles Bukowski and reading for the first time, the works of Ezra Pound and Pablo Neruda.
Absolutely love Bukowski’s work, always have. Yes, I’d call him eloquent.
Quite a range you’re experiencing there, wtp! 😉
Indeed it is, and I must admit, the Pound works really escape me. I don’t know what it is about his works, but they just don’t click for me.
But, I keep trying…
I’m about a third of the way through Eleanor Roosevelt, a 2 volume bio by Blanche Wiesen Cook. Recently, I took a break to start Resistance by Barry Lopez, on loan from a friend and To Light A Candle, a Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory fantasy. Progress is slow, as the only time I’ve had to read for fun lately is just before bed and I lose conciousness rather quickly at that hour 😉
That’s when I usually read too! I’ve also started taking my lunch to work (and taking a lunch break), so that I have a little more time to read.
I used to always have a book with me when I was in grad school, but I’ve kind of gotten out of the habit.
Spouse and my current read-aloud is The Lost Painting, the nonfiction account of the search for Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ by Jonathan Harr who also wrote A Civil Action. Spouse is (as I type) on a mission to get Neal Stephenson’s third volume of the Baroque Trilogy — The System of the World — for me at the library. Incredible cycle!
Brought home half a dozen purchases from the Miami Book Fair International that I have to get started on. I can’t decide whether to begin with Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell or Wicked. Others purchases include Shantaram, The Intelligencer, Granite and Rainbow (a controversial bio of Virginia Woolf), and The Bride of Science (bio of Ada Lovelace, Byron’s daughter).
Anyone read these or have them and want to read them too? Why not let’s start a book discussion group down the street from the Cafe and Lounge?
I don’t know how many books I own. One wall in this room is floor-to-ceiling built-in bookshelf. Completely over-full. Living room has floor-to ceiling book case, completely full. One bedroom has wall-mounted bookcase, completely full. There are one or two other places I keep books, including the nightstands, which are buried under several volumes.
What’s that 200-250 books?
It’s not nearly enough! 🙂
I’d be interested in The Lost Painting — I’ve seen it and it looks pretty interesting. Don’t have it yet, but that’s never a problem.
My husband keeps looking at Stephenson’s books but hasn’t tried them. He’s not a big fiction reader (though he’s enjoying Master and Commander these days). Normally he’s reading some scary geek book that I probably should read for work but never will.
I’m reading Jonathan Strange etc., and wanting to like it a lot better than I do. I keep nodding off.
Thought Collapse was terrific, though.
in my “get around to one of these days” stack, along with Christopher Paolini’s Eragon and Eldest — based on your comments, maybe I’ll tackle the Paolini books first…
I used to only read fiction, then Dean came along and I got into politics and now I read history and politics. I am reading Off Center by Hacker and Pierson now, but having a hard time because I get so depressed over what the right has done to us. I understand that I will eventually get to the good part, what we do about it.
I like some political non-fiction, like Barbara Ehrenreich and Al Franken, but mostly I read Science Fiction. Right now I am reading Gardner Dozois’ fabulous The Year’s Best Science Fiction (22nd Annual Collection). It is a massive collection of short story fiction from the past year. I have many hundreds of novels. For a little while I did have a 3-bedroom house and had my library. It was packed with books, but I still had more in boxes. I love my books, except when I have to move them. 50 boxes of books is really, really hard on the back!
I’m between books (fiction) and I have a large stack of books that I’ve bought or people have given/lent me. I’ve sorted through it and here’s the list of finalists:
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (I’m leaning toward this one because I actually picked it up myself at the bookstore. I love Margaret Atwood).
The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason (I’ve been avoiding this one because I wasn’t wild about the Da Vinci Code and I’ve been told there is a similarity.)
The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad (I’ve been kind of avoiding this one because in the past year I read The Kite Runner and Reading Lolita in Tehran and I’m thinking I should branch out from oppressive societies).
Remember Me by Trezza Azzopardi (I know nothing about this but my sister lent it to me. She also lent me two books by Robert Littell, that I’ve never read yet but I’m not putting them in the finalists).
Saturday by Ian McEwan.
Anybody read any of these? Any thoughts?
You can’t go wrong with Ian McEwan….
I tried to read The Bookseller of Kabul but didn’t like it. I found the author annoying, but that’s just me.
I’ve never heard of Remember Me. I’ll have to go look it up.
I read Atonement. I thought his writing was beautiful — some sentences I enjoyed so much I had to re-read them. And the way he structured the story was fascinating. That is enough for me to read another of his works. But I was ultimately unsatisfied by the ending. The only other novel of his I’ve read was Black Dogs (I think that was the name) and I remember I felt the same. Beautiful writer; unsatisfying story. (I actually don’t even remember the plot of that one.) So I know I want to read this one — I’m just not counting on liking the plot.
Why did you find the author of Bookseller annoying?
The Pause by Lonnie Barbach, M.D. — it was a recommendation by SallyCat one morning over in the Froggy Bottom Cafe, when I was describing some odd “female issues” symptoms. It appears that what I’m dealing with is nothing worse than my body’s reproductive system starting the power-down.
The book includes quotes from women who have been (or are going) through “the Pause”; here’s one of my favorites about sex after “the Pause”:
“I’ve experienced a change in the physical experience. It takes me longer to reach orgasm and the orgasm is less intense. Now I’m just waiting for my memory to fade so I don’t notice.”
It’s a great book; not only does it talk about the symptoms, it talks about both traditional medical methods and non-traditional methods of dealing with the symptoms. I’d recommend it to any woman of any age; it’s good to be armed with the knowledge before going in to talk to your health care provider…