(no subject)

[wasabi_poptart]

In the past ten years, you could probably count the total number of books I managed to read on the fingers of one hand, but lately it seems I've finally gotten over any residual trauma of grad school (I had to read a book a night for two and half years--NO LIE) and resumed reading again for pleasure, just like I did before it became my job.

So far this year I've read:

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
Fool
The Professor and the Madman
The Graveyard Book

Four books doesn't seem like a lot (one of them being a kid's book, even), but it's an average of one a month.

I also got about halfway through Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk, but I think maybe it will mean more to me after I've been and I will know first-hand what he's talking about.

Next up: A Short History of Everything by Bill Bryson, which was recommended by my neurologist ... I figure a brain doctor, of all people, would know a good book when he read it.

Comments

[kazoogrrl.livejournal.com]

Bryson's A Walk in the Woods was awesome too, I was alternately laughing my ass off and seriously sad during it. Right now I'm reading The Geography of Bliss and really enjoying it.

[wasabi-poptart.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember reading The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way many moons ago ... I think that's where I learned how the names of different kinds of meat are derived from the French words of the animals they come from.

[sarahmarvelous.livejournal.com]

That's nothing to sneeze at, considering how thick the first book is! Did you like the Professor & the Madman? I used to shelve the language & grammar section at Borders and was always intrigued by it, but never picked it up.

[wasabi-poptart.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it quite a bit, especially the parts where they explained how the dictionary was compiled. You can have it, if you'd like!

[sarahmarvelous.livejournal.com]

Sure!

[lapinetrose.livejournal.com]

Any hearty recommendations? I need a few good books.

[wasabi-poptart.livejournal.com]

If you haven't read any Angela Carter, you really need to fix that.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=angela+carter

[lapinetrose.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I've read lots by her. But did you particularly like any of the books you recently read? I've been having trouble getting sucked in lately.

[wasabi-poptart.livejournal.com]

I really liked JS & Mr. N, but it took me a while to get into. I had like four false starts, and it was only after seeing the town of York that was able to plow through the first few chapters.

I don't recommend Fool at all, as reading it was like being stranded at the Renaissance Festival after your designated driver drank too much mead, but since you seem to like the Ren Fest you might enjoy it.

The Graveyard Book was pretty typical Neil Gaiman, except this time he's writing about a little boy raised by ghosts as opposed to a little girl with mommy issues. He claims to have based it on The Jungle Book (Kipling's source, not the Disney movie), which I still need to read.

[pot-t-mouth.livejournal.com]

Especially a sexy brain doctor!
I like Bill Bryson. Don't listen to him on tape though, he sounds disturbingly like Malkovitch.

[sgda.livejournal.com]

LOVED A Short History of Nearly Everything. It makes you feel so smart.

[hannahchan.livejournal.com]

Did you like The Professor and the Madman? I read "The Meaning of Everything," so it seems sort of weird to read his other one on essentially the same subject. Still, I've heard it's good.