Readerville Veterans discussion
What are you reading?
But how did you know it was Karen T? (Just trying to figure this thing out.)
I just guessed. Also, I think I remember her talking about MJ Rose's TV show. I'd change my display to read Karen W if I knew how.Karen W
Nancy wrote: "Do we have two Karens now? How can we tell you apart? Is the new Karen our former fearless leader?"We do ( have 2 Karens). FFL Karen is pictureless.
Lauren wrote: "Karen T is here? Where?"Scroll down to message 139, Lauren.
What day next week is MJs show on? This is very exciting.
I guess I'm the spoiler here on the MJ theme. But, then, I don't watch much TV so I'm safe.
Yes, what day, time and network for MJ's show. I really want to catch the first show.
According to her website, it starts Tuesday Feb. 9 on Fox. 9 Eastern.
It's on Fox Cordel, and it starts next week Tuesday. They are running it twice next week (Tuesday and Thursday) but I don't know if that's two different episodes or if they are playing the same one twice [re-looking it appears there are two different episodes). I think it'll normally follow Bones on Thursday though . . . but on Tuesday it follows American Idol.
I'm glad it is at 9, since I come home from Tai Chi about that time on Tuesday. On Thursday, I get home right about now! Thanks Karen and Miriam.
That's a perfect time for me, too. I won't miss it.
Still reading "Henrietta Lacks" and loving it. My reading has gotten so slow lately-I think it's age.But today I got this week's New Yorker, which featured BOTH The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks AND The Privileges. So even tho' I'm slow, I'm timely.
I also broke down and ordered Best European Fiction 2010. It was inevitable.
My mind is itching about the new Martin Amis, The Pregnant Widow which sounds really good and the Patti Smith memoir, Just Kids. They are probably also inevitable.
I'm was reading everything and nothing, but I seemed to have settled on Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home since I'm almost done. I don't love it, but I might feel differently when I'm done. I do appreciate the enormous affection she has for her mother, and she did make me laugh out loud a couple of times . . .I'd forgotten how books from the library dictate my reading plans, particularly if they're popular. I used to be an avid library user, so I know I can readjust. I'm just faced with far too many books I've purchased over the past year or two combined with books that have an expiration date. An interesting balancing act. As a result, I'll probably be reading Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: Stories next because it too has a gazillion holds, and it's read now or wait for another 6 months.
Oh, the same with me, Miriam. I have something on hold at the library now, which I have to pick up by Saturday and I won't be able to renew, so there you go. In the meantime, I've just gotten three new books in the mail, which will have to be put off. And like Nancy, my reading speed seems to have declined.Hope to finish An Experiment in Love today. I just love it.
I making myself go through my own(ed) books this year. I was going to try cutting back on library acquisitions, but that failed quickly. As it is I'm alternating between one off my new-to-me bookcase and one of the top of my library stack. I know I've got to weed out more books that I don't really want to keep, so I'm trying to be more ruthless. If I don't love it or think someone else in the house will, it's outie. It seems to be much easier to take a pass on a library book that I can get again sometime, than to conclude that one off my shelves isn't great. Sorry, And Another Thing....
I am trying to read something from the home shelves every two or three books as a way to start divesting. I started with a book by Kaye Gibbons which I am not loving but liking fine. On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon.
Whenever I try to be disciplined about which books I read, it's an utter failure. It's as if a book has to choose ME, otherwise the reading experience is less pleasurable. I have many times had the experience of preordering a book by a favorite author, counting the days until it arrived, enjoying the whole sensory experience of having the book, letting it sit on the shelf unread for a year or more, and then, finally, one day, eventually, I read it and love it.
But you all know about that sort of thing.
Oh, my, yes. But I'm out of bookshelf space, and out of walls against which to place hypothetical new bookshelves. It's time to weed.
I am currently trying to pick up my reading pace again - I was down to one book per week or so last summer.Currently I am reading Susan Jacoby's Age of American Unreason, which is good, but somewhat ranting at times.
After that, I have a few light reads to choose from.
>It's as if a book has to choose METhat's so right, so on the mark. And it's me. I've a notion for the right kind of books but I've found they tend to find me as well. Who knows how that works, I don't but it probably had quite a lot to do with who I know and what they read.
Meanwhile, I've been dithering around here at goodreads for several weeks starring this and starring that -- three stars, four stars, five stars. It wasn't until I started trying to quantify the quality of gazzillions of books that I started to learn, just now, the sort of judicious quantification that makes some sense in terms of -- hey, is that a good book? or not?
I'm getting the hang of it -- at least as far as the goodreads star system goes which, after all, isn't particularly useful.
I wonder, in fact, just how many here can concantenate the star system -- it's only the last of which that growls and so many bad books deserve more than that growl.
It's not very useful, and I tend to go back and change my star count on various whims. But sometimes it's an interesting way to think about what I've just read. Well... sort of interesting. I'm one of those "it's there, so I'm gonna use it" types.
I ying and yang and sometimes don't rate at all, but it doesn't mean zero stars if I don't. Half stars would be good.
I almost always star, but like Lisa I do change my initial ratings, often a couple of weeks later. But I try to give stars according to the 'l didn't like it,' 'it was o.k.,' 'I liked it,' 'It was really good,' 'It was awesome rating." So, my stars are directly related to how I felt when I finished reading the book and I'm not judging them by all the great literature or even all the books I've just read. BTW, I read Nancy's post to my husband and he laughed and said "you're obviously hanging out with the right people"
I have too much of Protestant (? cause I'm most definitely not a Virgo, although they make the best friends) need to 'stick to the plan' in me to always read what calls me next, which is too bad because I might read more if I did that. So I'm sticking with Ghosts even though I really want to be reading Augustus: A Novel. (Ghosts is interesting though I won't regret reading it in the end, so some stick-to-it-ness isn't a bad thing).
One of the things I like about the stars is that you can go to a friend's book list and sort it by rating. Voila! Instant book recommendations. (As though I needed any more.)
Oh cool, I hadn't thought of that!One odd byproduct of blogging is that I'm starting to get review books. Which is obviously nothing to complain about, but it does put a certain pressure on to read them in timely fashion, and that influences my reading choices in directions they wouldn't ordinarily go. That can be good, that can be bad. The first book I ever received addressed to "Blogger-Like Fire" I read all eagerly and... it was AWFUL. I still haven't done anything about it, because I'm trying to find something else to put alongside, a news item or another book, to frame it in a slightly useful light.
But now I'm reading another, Hanah's Paradise, which has totally reeled me in from the beginning, so I feel better about the whole thing. But this semi-reviewing gig is a whole new ballgame.
KINDLE for Blackberry was released today and I am thrilled with it!! I bought the new Anne Tyler for $9.99, and got the Complete Works of William Shakespeare and Jean Genet's "Our Lady of the Flowers" for 99 cents each.
I have Kindle for iPhone and like it as well (although I've been reading on Kobo more often - not sure why, think its because they are Canadian . . .)If I could manage to stay up past my kids going to bed I'd be able to read more, but when I am reading I'm really loving Augustus: A Novel. So much so that I'm thinking about ordering the paper copy for my shelf (and so I can foist it on people). Is Stoner as riveting?
I didn't like Stoner as well as many of my reader friends did. I tend not to like novels set in academia, so that could be part of it.
And I was just commenting the other day on BB how much I like novels set in academia. I've had Stoner for awhile but haven't gotten to it.
Karen, have read Francine Prose's "Blue Angel?"
I read that and thought it was ok. I do like Prose though and the way she plunks you down in an awkward situation. I finished the Etgar Keret stories which were very cool and different from things I usually read. I am not a fan of surrealism in literature, but he makes it work. Also, his stories are super short. I read City of Ember becuase my son wanted me to know how much better the book was than the movie and he was right. And now I am reading the superb first novel by the delightful and fantastic,Elizabeth Taylor At Mrs Lippincote's that is so up my alley, it isn't even funny.Not much plot but killer atmosphere and mood. Kat, go buy this book now.
Okie, dokie, I am nothing if not biddable.
I love how Taylor evokes that particular time and setting so well. And all characters major and minor are so fully realized.
Woot! I feel the reading lethargy lifting. I finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: excellent. I gave it 4 stars, but I might change it to 5.
I am also whizzing through Noah's Compass. It's the best of all the things Anne Tyler does best: stunning writing, quirky story, quirkier characters. Highly recommended.
And that's not all!
I have received early birthday gifts from my parents: Still Alice by Lisa Genova, Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose, and--my fave--Tranquility by Attila Bartis.
Happy!
I feel your happiness.I am trying very hard to clear off some of the home shelves which are groaning from the weight, not to mention the piles around my side of the bed. And in my closet. So my goal is that every other book I read needs to come 'from the collection'.
I finished Unaccustomed Earth which was really choice, though I wasn't wild for the interlinked stories at the end. But good god, that woman can write.
Did you read Interpreter of Maladies, Lauren? I loved that. I seldom get books as presents from my husband anymore and I used to get them all the time. Maybe he's tired of the books already on the floor. But we recently came up with a plan for a few more shelves. I guess after that it's the attic.
I keep some in my car. Seriously. Don't tell my husband.
Reading A Gate at the Stairs. Why isn't it better?
I know -- I put it aside and I'm going to try again because I really want to like -- but I just kept drifting. I don't think it helped that they published such a chunk of it in the New Yorker shortly before it came out. It was hard to reread that without wanting to skim and then it was hard to reengage with the rest of the novel.
ebook availability has helped the clutter, but not the finances. My problem is that I not only buy for myself but also the kids and the husband. He's totally dependent on me picking up his next read.I started reading Sleepless Nights for the Book Balloon discussion and its really good.
I'm glad you're liking the Hardwick, Miriam, since I picked it. You may have to head off the discussion Monday. I have not started it but have ambitious plans for the weekend.If I were not allowed to buy any books or check out any from the library, between what I have and what my husband has I would be in good shape for 3-4 years. But still a lot of these books are not on my Goodreads TBR. Now whenever anyone in my friends list posts a book I own I'm putting it on my TBR to give myself a little reality check.
I spent last night picking my way through the Lorrie Moore, trying to figure out how much I wanted to read it. I think it's a mess and must be discarded. Which means the decks are clear for Hardwick!
I am a happy reader. Just finished Noah's Compass on Kindle for Blackberry. The app is new, and free, and I am astonished at how much I enjoy using it. I read so much faster on it.I've been exploring the lovely feature for Kindle books where you can download samples of books. The samples I've seen are substantial--much more that the "Look inside this book" option at Amazon. Yesterday I downloaded a sample of William Boyd's Ordinary Thunderstorms. I started reading it in bed, and got totally sucked in. I finished the sample, then instantly bought and downloaded the whole book without leaving the warmth of my cozy bed. Then I was awake til 3am reading it.
I have stacks of new books to be read--now I'm acquiring invisible ones. Party on!!
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KW