Chaos Reading discussion
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What are you reading right now?
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Ruby wrote: "I completed my goal of 52 books for the year with a bit of a cheat: The Very Hungry Zombie: A ParodySo now I'm desperately trying to finish off This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’..."
I completed my 125 book goal; most of that was comic books and graphic novels and YA and children's books, but i don't consider it cheating! A book is a book'
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Anyone else find themselves making choices based on where they are in their yearly goals?
Whitney wrote: "I've avoided setting numerical goals for my reading, as I'm afraid it might have the effect of making me reach for a quicker read instead of something like '2666'. Maybe I should set a page goal in..."Yeah, I think I have. I've been considering setting a lower number of books as my goal next year, but actively choosing some longer books to compensate. There are a few doorstops I'd really like to get through!
Whitney wrote: "I've avoided setting numerical goals for my reading, as I'm afraid it might have the effect of making me reach for a quicker read instead of something like '2666'. Maybe I should set a page goal in..."Yep. I deeply regretted setting such a large goal for myself because it meant, after the slogs that were
The Well of Ascension and Elantris and re-reading A Game of Thrones, I stuck to lighter, faster fare. I think Harbor wound up being the longest book I could bring myself to read as I approached the end of my goal.
I'm reading Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom.The cover alone is wonderful! And there are dozens more awesome photos of animal friends, many of the most amazingly different species.
It's well written, too.
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I've steered clear of doorstops lately, but not because of the book challenge. Just because it's such a huge time commitment, and I have so many good books to get to...
Finished When the Killing's Done Classic Boyle, suited my tastes.Started The Origin of the Brunists; an intriguing curiosity so far.
Reading Coraline with my daughter, so that's got me into Neverwhere, and I'm looking for time to read at least Palimpsest as part of the extravaganza and maybe Existence to sooth the sci fi part of my brain! That should be it for a while :)
Finished both All-Star Superman, Vol. 1 and All-Star Superman, Vol. 2, and began re-reading another childhood favorite, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
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I just bought a copy of Existence too, but I think it'll be a while before I get to it. Let me know how it goes.
Feeling nostalgic...started reading I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution.In the introduction, the authors call Simon Le Bon "the Marlon Brando of music videos." I think I'm going to like this one.
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In the introduction, the authors call Simon Le Bon "the Marlon Brando of music videos." I thi..."
Ooooh! That's awesome. And it references "Diamond Dave" in the synopsis. OMNOMNOM.
Finished Reading: 
by Darren Shan..Loved the book and the series...
Now reading:
by Stephen King..loving it
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I've also got Floating Worlds and Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders on the go too.
SO profoundly, depressingly accurate.
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:O
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My partner's comment on Infinite Jest? I tried reading that book SO many times. Never could. It's so tedious, and so pointlessly tedious, and that is the point..... FUCK that book. Fuck it in the goat arse.
Wow. That's some pretty serious vitriol!
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Nononononononoooo... you have to read it! It's a really funny page-turner with (for me at least) some awesome "thank bejeezus someone else thinks that too!" moments. Roobs I think you'd love it.TBRd all those books to a hipster lit shelf... why fight it.
.Finished Locke and Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft. Still nostalgiacally enjoying Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
Leo wrote: "Boom!"
Okey, I'm not a hipster lolx
Love the flowchart. Is here just the one or a whole series of them somewhere? I'm all over GR all day and have never seen it before!
Ruby wrote: "Allen wrote: "Reading Coraline with my daughter, so that's got me into Neverwhere, and I'm looking for time to read at least Palimpsest as part of the extravaganza and maybe Existence to sooth the ..."Well, it's not at the library yet, so I may have to wait on a gift card for the e-reader :)
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I KNOW! I think that's the one where he uses "interstitial" a lot too. But bathypelagicraft was the one that really pissed me off....!
Riona - The flow chart is on the blog, but I had to google to find it too.
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'Plod' is never a good word, especially when describing a book. I am currently plodding through River of Smoke on audio. Lots of exposition, little plot.
I'm about halfway through Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. I'm not sure what I think. It's somehow both fascinating and boring at the same time.
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Yeah, I've got that one on my bookshelf at home. Keep putting it off though..
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I still have Palimpsest to read for the extravaganza, but it's ready on my Kindle. I can't seem to find my hardcopy of The Day of the Triffids, but I have a few more boxes to rummage through.
I've only got 30 pages left of This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It but I've left it at home. Amrandomly tinkering with Wool Omnibus again, and have started Floating Worlds for my rolling challenge.
It's all a little random!
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Something I thought was really cool in this was the concept of Dunbar's Number (not a spoiler really since it is an actual theory, rather then something the writer made up). The way it's used in the book is pretty interesting..
I'm new 'round these parts! Also, I'm about to finish The Blood Countess by Andrei Codrescu. Shorly thereafter, I'll be digging into my new favourite writer: Wrath James White.
I am reading Pagan's Crusade , by Catherine Jinks. I am really enjoying it I am about a quarter of the way through
Finished Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Not as good as I remembered it.Finished Batman: Hush, Vol. 1 and Batman: Hush, Vol. 2. I was disappointed. It ignored past continuity, relied too much Jim Lee's patented-cheesecake art, and ended abruptly with little fanfare.
Currently reading Steppenwolf. In retrospect, this was probably a bad choice, given that I'm chronically depressed and have a history of suicidal ideation.
I'm reading Last Exit To Brooklyn for the group discussion. Once that's done, I'll be on to Palimpsest to continue the extravaganza!I also have Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty in my dressing room/office at work and have been paging through it during spare moments.
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I'm actually thinking of starting a new shelf: "not-for-the-depressed". I've had a couple of reads over the last couple of years that could have gone either way! The Flame Alphabet and Scorch Atlas spring to mind.
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That looks amazing, Riona. You have a dressing room/office at work?! Do you need an assistant?
I am in the middle of Malarky. Found it at Amazon by chance and the strange title plus the simple but eyecatching cover did it for me. It´s a little hard to read for me but I don´t blame the author, just myself since English is not my primary language. The setting is in rural Ireland and the accent is thick to say it nicely. But Schofield can write. Her sentence structures are unique, more along the lines of spoken word. It deals with grief in a darkly humorous way of a recently widowed woman. A back-and-forth between first- and third-person narrative, past and present tense. Quite a gem of a novel so far.
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I support this! And maybe include the opposite, "books to read when you are depressed". Although most people tend to recommend watching / reading light, comedic fare when you're down, I've found that darker things frequently make me feel better, especially the occasional pitch black humor. I think it's a type of affirmation that it's okay to feel that way sometimes. Trying to jolly myself out of a depression tends to just make me more depressed.
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I liked both as well. Thought the movie was very true to the book, and did an excellent job implying what was going on 'off screen'. Most the details filled in from the book fit with the assumptions I made watching the film, and I thought the movie actually did a better job of making the father's level of denial believable.
Finished (is there an extra thread for it?) Malarky in the ´meantime and wrote about it too (be warned: I suck at reviews) http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...´Twas an excellent read, not quite easy because it was a bit hard for me to get through the Irish accent and also it has no beginning-middle-end but the prose is one of the best I have seen lately. Might not be everyone´s cup of tea, since the spoken word prose, unreliable narrators etc. demands often repetition in words, or a slightly similar sentence. For me it worked since it reminded me of a musical theme, just more disconnected.
Now what to read next? Hmm... I will probably opt for The Beautiful Anthology. I am very intrigued in fact, seems an odd collection of stories, essays and poems.
ETA: If anyone is interested in "The Beautiful Anthology" I have just discovered there is a Goodreads giveaway for it until Dec, 15th. but USA only, so it would not have helped me. They give away 15 copies for free ^^
http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...
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Whitney - I know what you mean. I really didn't enjoy Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, and I think my depression/grief at the time was a big part of that.
Ruby wrote: "Malarky sounds awesome. TBR'd it, thanks! And no, there's no seperate thread for things you've just finished. In fact, I tend to post here more when I've just finished one thing and starting anothe..."Thanks for letting me know Ruby! I will keep this in mind when posting. Great to see that you have TBR´d it :)
Just finished Deadwood by Pete Dexter. Loved it!
I save Terry Pratchett books for periods of depression (or travel). The combination of humor and emotional catharsis works for me!
Ruby wrote: "Ian wrote: "FCurrently reading Steppenwolf. In retrospect, this was probably a bad choice, given that I'm chronically depressed and have a history of suicidal ideation. .."I'm actually thinking o..."
Yes, a good idea, Ruby. Put 'A Fine Balance' in the don't read when depressed file. But always read David Sedaris to get happy...
Chaos Reading
Books mentioned in this topic
Egalia's Daughters: A Satire of the Sexes (other topics)Infinite Jest (other topics)
Infinite Jest (other topics)
All the Light We Cannot See (other topics)
The Handmaid’s Tale (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Felix Francis (other topics)Ali Smith (other topics)
Sebastian Junger (other topics)
Annie Proulx (other topics)
Elizabeth Gilbert (other topics)
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So now I'm desperately trying to finish off This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It so that I can get to the three books in our December Group Read Extravaganza that I haven't read yet. On top of that I finally picked up a cheapish ebook version of Floating Worlds and put my hand up for the rolling challenge as well.
Not only do I also have a bunch of great books sitting on my shelf right now, plus a couple on their way in the post, but my book collection from Canberra is being picked up by the removalists tomorrow. It should arrive next week....... squeeeee! It'll be like Christmas, having not seen them for 6 months!