What are you reading now?

[John_fi_Skye]

Re-reading Cal by Bernard McLaverty, because I'm helping a friend's daughter with her studies.

[klr]

Today two good friends served us a delicious lunch, very nice red wine, OK coffee and nom apple pie, but above all: they dumped ALL of their Mercedes Lackey pocket editions (over 20 of them) in a bag and asked us to please take them away (they are moving within about a month and the less they have to haul, the better).

Escaping reality will be infinitely easier for 20-30 days at least.

This will never happen in the future, what with them new-fangled e-readers.

[John_fi_Skye]

Now re-reading Ronnie Jack's "The Italian Influence on Scottish Literature" - partly just for fun, because it's interesting, and because I found Ronnie a really good teacher when I was at uni; and partly because I'm marrying an American (I use the term advisedly - I know it's a fiction emanating from my diseased brain) couple soon, and one of them is of Italian origin, and so I'm looking for some suitable readings. I think I'll pick a poem by Drummond of Hawthornden. Don't tell them - they want the ceremony to contain surprises.

[charlou]

Franz Kafka, The Complete Short Stories again ... not too light, still whimsically distracting.

My friend blew away a few bruised little clouds, allowing the uninterrupted surface of the stars to emerge.

[hadespussercats]

I'm slowly, slowly making may way through Borges' Collected Fiction.

I'm really enjoying it-- but I don't have as much time/focus for reading as I did a few months back, so it's taking a while.

[hadespussercats]

duplicate

[hadespussercats]

Given the stress of the situation, I wanted comfort food, intellectually. So I asked her to loan me her copy of Goodwin and Jamieson's "Manic-Depressive Illness" which is a massive tome, a survey of the scientific literature and studies done on manic depression.

We picked up a copy of that a couple years ago. I haven't been able to read more than a few pages here and there, chosen at random. The book depressed the hell out of me. A few months ago I told J to stash it on one of our least-accessible shelves.

I think this all says much more about me than the book, though.

[hadespussercats]

Speaking of Australia, though, have you ever read The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin? Fab too, and very much the other human side of the coin.

Funny-- I was at the pharmacy today with my baby in the carrier. He started to fuss. I said, "I know-- you're unhappy I stopped walking."

The woman in front of me in line at the register turned around at that point and told me about that book-- ideas about the rhythm of walking embedded in our genes.

[laklak]

The Malazan Empire series by Steven Erickson. After finishing what's written of the Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones) I needed a good fantasy series that was already fucking FINISHED. It's not bad, though a bit of a slog in the first book, very complex plots and lots and lots of characters. I'm in the second (of ten!) books and am enjoying the read.

[apophenia]

Given the stress of the situation, I wanted comfort food, intellectually. So I asked her to loan me her copy of Goodwin and Jamieson's "Manic-Depressive Illness" which is a massive tome, a survey of the scientific literature and studies done on manic depression.

We picked up a copy of that a couple years ago. I haven't been able to read more than a few pages here and there, chosen at random. The book depressed the hell out of me. A few months ago I told J to stash it on one of our least-accessible shelves.

I think this all says much more about me than the book, though.

That's okay. Unless it's been updated, which I doubt, it's woefully out of date. It was pretty long in the tooth when I read it, and that was ages ago.

[SPMaximus]

A Storm of Swords

its amazing...

[John_fi_Skye]

Speaking of Australia, though, have you ever read The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin? Fab too, and very much the other human side of the coin.

Funny-- I was at the pharmacy today with my baby in the carrier. He started to fuss. I said, "I know-- you're unhappy I stopped walking."

The woman in front of me in line at the register turned around at that point and told me about that book-- ideas about the rhythm of walking embedded in our genes.

[Coito ergo sum]

I just finished "God, No!" by Penn Jillette. Parts were pretty good, but I found it too vulgar throughout and too many unnecessary sexual references. But, he made some very good points in several sections.

I'm about 100 pages or so into Hitchens' latest publication "Arguably," which I am finding quite enjoyable to read. Lots of different short articles on various topics.

[Schneibster]

Aristoi, Walter Jon Williams.

[nellikin]

http://www.amazon.de/Robert-Koch-Forsch ... B0055055FK

Cool biography - truly amazing mind and dedicated to science