What book are YOU reading?!?!

I just wanted to see who out there is reading. I LOVE reading. I usually do it right before I go to sleep at night and it is SO relaxing. So I am just curious of what kinda good books are out there... Tell me what book you are reading or have already read that is really good? What's it about?!?!

I am currently between books, but I wanted to chime in that I loved Pillars of the Earth (and the new sequel is even better!).  I also really like the Discworld books.  The Omnivore's Dilema is fantastic, so interesting.  I will have to check out the Botony of Desire.  And to all of you fantasy lovers out there, I just have to plug George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series.  Any historical fiction fans need to read the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett (awesome, awesome, awesome - get the companion, though, or you'll go crazy trying to decifer all of the period slang and foreign languages).  Ok - one more recommendation - Blindness by Jose Saramago, won the Nobel Prize for literature.  It is that good.

I read Saramago's Blindness and it blew me away. It described katrina-esque breakdown of society following a highly contageous virus that left its victims blind. A powerful book. I loved it.

I'm in between books right now, but I just finished Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell.  Good author, but I much preferred his Arthur series and Viking series.

Currently reading: Widow's Walk (blah!)

Recently read and very much liked:

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) recently aired overnight on either CBC or CBMT and it too was excellent.  VCRs are are so good for that. 

I'm reading Moby Dick too. Much better now that I am more "mature" that I was in HS.

Last year's NewYears resolution was to start reading the Modern Library's 100 top contemporary 20th Century fiction novels. I saw Moby Dick in a bookstore and picked it up, thinking it would be on the list. But then I saw it wasn't. Duh! It was written in the 19th century!

But I plunged in anyway.

Just Finished The Heir by Barbara Taylor Bradford--part two of a three-part series of a Dynastic Family beginning in the early 1900's and with the third book will bring us right up-to the present time. Very good and is a fast read.

Original Post by crazynan:

Just Finished The Heir by Barbara Taylor Bradford--part two of a three-part series of a Dynastic Family beginning in the early 1900's and with the third book will bring us right up-to the present time. Very good and is a fast read.

       &nb sp;             To be happy--one must find one's bliss---Gloria Vanderbilt

I'm reading the bible right now. Not as a religious thing (I'm not Christian, so... yeah.) But as an academic thing. The bible is the focus on so much literature, drama, cinema, music, etc, not to mention politics and societal trends and everything else, that I thought it might be useful for me to better understand the world around me.

So far, I'm totally confused.

i'm reading too many books to list right now (grad school) and missing novels very much.  i did read the kite runner over christmas, though - so sad. 

feddiechick, i'm an atheist, but the King James is one of my favourite reference books.  another of my favourite reference books, and one that you might want to pick up, is the Dictionary of the Bible.  if i were less lazy i would go get the publication info for you.  it's great when you read or hear something and say to yourself, "I know that's biblical," but don't know the history.  you just look it up and get the reference and context.  then you pull out your King James and read the verses.

I just finished Maybe Baby by Tenaya Darlington

I just Bought Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi and I'm a 1/3 through

I also bought the Iliad by Homer

I picked up Bankkok 8 by John Burnett yesterday in a second hand bookstore - so i'll start that fairly soon.

just finished CALL ME ELIZABETH, Dawn Annandale - mother, wife forced into prostitution to feed family - read it in one go!

Books I want to read:

MIDDLESEX, KITE RUNNER

such a cool post!!!

Middlesex and The Kite Runner are both such great books- enjoy!

At the moment I am reading - personal interest:

"The Liveship Traders Trilogy" (Fantasy)
"Bad Jazz" (theatre play)
"Monologues for Women" (looking for something interesting to prepare for auditions)

I have a stack of books (I guess their must be 30 or 40 books waiting to be read... I wish I had more time;-))

For my studies/degree:
 English: "Das elisabethanische Zeitalter" and heaps of other stuff about Elisabethan England...
Media: Lots of articles about the the theory and history of the internet

 

 

 

Stephen King -- Duma Key

Richard Dawkins -- the God Delusion

and various and sundry paperbacks scattered throughout the place

I'm juggling a few.

The Garden - Michael Roche

Dharma Punx - Noah Lavigne

Sit Down and Shut Up-Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death and Dogen's Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye - Brad Warner

Finishing the last book of The Tin Drum by Günther Grass.

"Lamb: The Gospel according to Biff, Jesus' childhood friend" obviously total blasphemy.

Glad I"m not the only one who likes trashy vampire novels.

For you fantasy readers I highly recommend Guy Gavriel Kay's stand-alone "Tigana". It's excellent (and stand alone? I thought that was against the fantasy writer's trade union or something)

If I had a book club I would read "Children of Men" and "The Handmaid's Tale" back to back and discuss, with vigor!

Original Post by noelle31:

"Lamb: The Gospel according to Biff, Jesus' childhood friend" obviously total blasphemy.

Glad I"m not the only one who likes trashy vampire novels.

I soooo love Lamb!!!! It's Moores best book!

 

Trashy Vampire Novels- Oh definately!!!

Christopher Moore is amazing! Lamb was a great read, and I wouldn't call it blasphemy. The history of the bible, apographoric and accepted texts both, have many similar, crazy stories. 

Hey meat_pillow

I read Blindness 7+ years ago and I ALWAYS recommend it (hey, in 7 years, I've mentioned it a lot).  You are the first person to ever respond that you have already read it.  Such a shame that great books like that aren't more well known.

Yeah. I didn't even know about saramago until he won the nobel prize. We don't hear so much about foreign authors unless they write in english. But after reading blindness I went on a saramago kick and read two more of his novels.

Also... A few of you have mentioned Middlesex. I thot it was a wonderful read. I first read an exerpt of the novel when it wa printed in "The New Yorker" and I got caught up in her/his story right away. I couldn't quit thinking about it, so I went out and bought the book.

Talk about teenage awkwardness. I think everyone can relate to that part of the story.