What are you reading now?

[Tero]

Cell 8. Skipped 30 pages near the end. Don't read this.

[Ronja]

Anna, have you read "84 Charing Cross Road" by Helen Hanff? If you love books, you might grok that one.

The book opens thus:

14 East 95th St.
New York City
October 5, 1949

Marks & Co.
84, Charing Cross Road
London, W.C. 2
England

Gentlemen:
Your ad in the Saturday Review of Literature says that you specialise in out-of-print books. The phrase 'antiquarian book-sellers' scares me somewhat, as I equate 'antique' with expensive. I am a poor writer with an anteriquarian taste in books and all the things I want are impossible to get over here except in very expensive rare editions, or in Barnes & Noble's grimy, marked-up schoolboy copies.
I enclose a list of my most pressing problems. If you have clean secondhand copies of any of the books on the list, for no more than $5.00 each, will you consider this a purchase order and send them to me?

Very truly yours,
Helene Hanff
(Miss) Helene Hanff

And her second letter to Marks & Co. began thus:

...

Gentlemen:
The books arrived safely, the Stevenson is so fine it embarrasses my orange-crate bookshelves, I'm almost afraid to handle such soft vellum and heavy cream-colored pages. Being used to the dead-white paper and stiff cardboardy covers of American books, I never knew a book could be such a joy to the touch. ...

More here, but the book itself is better still:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/84,_Charing_Cross_Road
http://www.84charingcrossroad.co.uk/
http://freespace.virgin.net/angela.garry/Obituary.htm

[anna09]

Looks interesting.

Thanks, Ronja!

[maiforpeace]

We Can Work It Out - Marshall Rosenberg

[Tero]

Written in Stone, Brian Switeck.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

THE MEDITERRANEAN AND
MIDDLE EAST
VOLUME V
The Campaign in Sicily 1943
AND
The Campaign in Italy 3rd September 1943 to 31st March 1944
by
BRIGADIER C. J. C. MOLONY
WITH
CAPTAIN F. C. FLYNN, R.N.
MAJOR-GENERAL H. L. DAVIES,
C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O., M.C.
GROUP CAPTAIN T. P. GLEAVE, C.B.E.

[Animavore]

Just picked up this from the library.



Now this is how history should be told. Dynamically and vibrantly. It begins, in the prologue, with the sacking of Jerusalem by Titus in 70ad. The inhabitants of the walled city surrounded by Roman legions and their mercenaries, starving and desperate turn on one another. Bodies pile up outside the walls left to putrefy and scavenged by dogs and jackals. 500 Jewish rebels crucified on display. It ends with the burning of the Holy of Holies.

It reads like a Hollywood movie but every review I can find heaps praise on this page-turner of a history book. The acknowledgements feature top people in their fields in the history of the Holy City. It's a nice change from most history books which just deal facts and figures. I don't think I've ever read a non-fiction book this dramatic and exciting.

[anna09]

House of Meetings by Martin Amis

[apophenia]

Oh. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I forgot I ordered this. I've got a couple of book clubs to dispense with first, but most awesome.



I hear the book is much better than the movie. So I'll read the book, and then watch the movie to fawn over Bing-bing Li.

[JimC]

I'm re-reading most of the "Harry Bosch" crime novels by Michael Connelly...

[Ronja]

"The History of the Hobbit" by John D. Rateliff, part one: "Mr. Baggins"

[tattuchu]

Wildwood by Colin Melow w/ illustrations by Carson Ellis. Melow is apparently the leader of the pop group The Decemberists, and this is his first effort as a novelist. His wife provides the wonderful illos. The book is roughly 500 pages long and, for a kid's book, is fairly wordy. It's so wordy, in fact, that Melow seems to write beyond his target audience's age. Not only does he use words that even I had to look up to find out what the fuck he was talking about, but he tends to carry on a bit. He spends quite a lot of time describing things, for instance. Which is nice. One must set the scene after all. But the excessive verbosity tends to render the story a bit dry, not to mention kill any dramatic tension. I found myself wishing over and over again that he'd shut the fuck up and just get on with it.
And yet.
And yet, if you have the patience for it, it is a rewarding read. And I like books that make me think, and that make me reach for the dictionary. You do need a bit of patience, though. Finally, at around the three hundred page mark, things are starting to get a bit more lively and interesting...

[tattuchu]

Finished Wildwood. It was a good ending. I cried

[anna09]

Just started this.

[Thumpalumpacus]

The Book of Execution, by Geoffrey Abbott.