Who else is addicted to books, and what are you reading?

[jpgray]

I find myself buying/borrowing books at a rate which would never allow me to read them all. I even look at new editions of a book I own and feverishly desire them. I even like the smell. :)

Here's what's on my list:

Dennis Tedlock -- Popul Vuh
William Prescott -- Conquest of Mexico and Peru
Bernal Diaz del Castillo -- Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de Nueva Espana
Rudolph Kippenhahn -- 100 Billion Suns
Edward Osbourne Williams -- The Ants
Winston Churchill -- Memoirs of the Second World War

[BritishHuman]

1. reminds me of this cartoon...

http://www.gamespy.com/comics/dorktower/archive.asp?nextform=viewcomic&id=791

[jpgray]

4. That's it, all right. (nt)

.

[flamingyouth]

2. I'm a big bookworm

My house is like the crazy woman's branch of the public library. You're reading some pretty interesting (and heavy!) stuff! Well, I'm almost embarrassed to tell you what I'm reading, but since I'm on vacation, it's OK ;-)

Death Train to Boston - Dianne Day (early 20th cent. mystery with a woman as the main character, set in San Francisco)
The October Horse - Colleen McCullough
Sacred Geography - Edward Fox

[MrSoundAndVision]

3. I love books...

even bad books sometime, like: The Matarese Circle, by Robert Ludlum (also author of the Bourne Indentity, also a bad book), it's a spy mystery kinda novel from the late seventies, very terrible writer.

Just finished Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse, started out strong and ended up kind of silly (he doesn't like being 'old' and 'resonsible' and socially 'vile.' Understandable, but silly.

[paradisiac]

5. I used to be an addict

but since I got the internet I don't read as many books as I used to; I used to always be reading 4 or 5 at a time. I'm only reading one now: "The Code Book" by Simon Singh. It's a history of cryptography.

[The Lone Liberal]

69. Read that a couple summers ago.

Very good book. A couple others dealing with some of the same topics: Station X and the Code breakers.


I am just today starting a very old book, written in 1939, Only Yesterday, very good book dealing with the period 1929 to 1939.

[ChoralScholar]

6. I'm just the opposite.

If I ever developed a serious habit of reading, I read so fast that buying books would break me. Right now I am reading

The Psychoeducational Development of Gifted Learners by Donald Sellin

Pretty pathetic, huh?

[jpgray]

7. I would have been bankrupt long ago if not for the libraries here. (nt)

[Piperay]

8. I LOVE to read...

mostly I read trash. I especially like true crime right now I am reading 'Black Dahlia Avenger' about the black Dahlia murder that happened in LA in the 1940s and was never solved.

[The Raven]

9. i generally despise reading books...

but right now I'm reading Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe.

[jpgray]

10. The string theory guy? How is it so far? (nt)

.

[The Raven]

33. great book! (yes, the string theory guy)

I thought it'd be way above my head, but he does great work putting it in "everyday" terms and examples. He actually thinks there may be 11 dimentions!

[southerngirlwriter]

11. Just finished reading the 2002 Pulitzer-winning novel...

Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides. EXTREMELY interesting story about an intersexed person's coming of age. Won't say too much more, to avoid spoilers. Truly fascinating book.

[BritishHuman]

12. If you like SF, Baen has a library online

With a whole bunch of their authors. It's a bold project to do with copyright issues and worth supporting.

http://www.baen.com/library/

[Kellanved]

30. thanks

I'll look into it.

[i have issues]

36. That is the coolest thing I've seen today..

I'll definately be going there! thanks... I'm reading "The girl in the picture" About Kim Phuc, the little girl running down the road naked in that famous photo from Viet nam.

[NightTrain]

13. David Corn's "The Lies of George W. Bush"

And it's pissing me off something fierce! Corn has dug up a lot of shit on the Bush Junta that I had either completely forgotten or had never heard about.

Can our poor excuse for a president go even 24 hours without lying? Sure doesn't seem like it!

[RandomKoolzip]

39. Yeah, I'm in the middle of that too....

I've hit the September 11th Chapter and had to get away from it, it was pissing me off so much. If you can read this book and not want to see Bush in handcuffs for his crimes, then you are a republican or you are a criminal yourself (is that redundant?)

[devilgrrl]

14. The Da Vinci Code

I'm almost half way through, it's formulaic and written like a movie but the historical references are interesting to learn about, there are worse books. A few people have told me that it's a lot like Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum." Anyone read that one?

[bif]

72. I read Foucault's Pendulum

I though it was a waste of time. It started out pretty good and then just unravelled. A long slog to get to a dissapointing ending.

[LibertyorDeath]

15. Totally addicted !

Right now i'm reading Elliott Leyton's Hunting Humans.

A very interesting analysis of why people kill.

[scarlet_owl]

16. I just finished reading "The American Way of Death, Revisited"

by Jessica Mitford. It is a look inside the funeral business and their crooked ways.

[Kellanved]

17. I am

My list:
Neal Stephenson: Quicksilver
Heinrich Mann : Henry IV
Günther Grass im Krebsgang
John Brunner: Stand on Zanzibar
Wladimir Kaminer: Russendisko (Russian Disco - Tales of Everyday Lunacy on the Streets of Berlin. )
...
(Heinrich and Thomas Mann; followed by Russian Authors )

[jpgray]

23. You polyglots make me so jealous. :-) (nt)

.

[Kellanved]

24. I'm not exactly a Polyglot

Only my English is good enough to enjoy books written in that language (other than German). Neither my French nor my Latin are close to that level (and I only know a few words Russian) - I read those books in translation

:hi:

[jpgray]

25. I feel better now. I can only read effectively in Spanish and English

As you can tell from my typo=-filled posts, I can scarcely type in any language.

:)

[northzax]

76. how's quicksilver?

I enjoyed Cryptonominon, and am intrigued.

[VelmaD]

18. Mmm...love books...

I will read the same book over and over and over. And I never NEVER throw one out. :-)

Right now I'm re-reading several books.
"The Greatest Sedition is Silence" by Will Pitt
"Return of the King" by Tolkien
a book of short stories by Poe
"Little Birds" by Anais Nin
the last Outland collection by Berkeley Breathed
"Women in the renaissance" by Margaret King

All those are sitting next to my bed right now in a little stack.

[jpgray]

29. LOL! I too have the book-stack going on right now. (nt)

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

19. Like most book freaks I have several going at once

Faster Than the Speed of Light... very interesting look at quanta

What Went Wrong... Bernard Lewis, I think... The West and Islam

4th editon The Complete Walker... Colin Fletcher's last book most likely

Photoshop 7 Bible

and too many other small books and magazines to count

[peacefreak]

20. Also did the DaVinci Code last week

Breathtaker--Alice Blanchard
Lady & the Unicorn--Tracy Chevalier(advance copy)
Bushwhacked--Molly Ivins
Sister's Keeper--Jodi Picoult(advance copy)

[bloom]

21. I have about 50 pages left of War and Peace...

Time to go finish it off....

[bicentennial_baby]

22. Iliad and The Best and The Brightest

and Parasite Rex

[Sufi Marmot]

26. Another bibliophile here....

I'm currently reading "Cosmopolis" by Don Delillo and a large collection of Hemmingway's short stories. Just finished "The English Patient", to which I had a mixed response.

-SM, who already has his XMAS break reading all picked out...

[joeybee12]

27. I am going through Shakespearse' works right now

I do that every few years.

Call me crazy.

[jpgray]

28. Crazy!

:)

The last Shakespeare I read was Titus Andronicus--I think a year and a half ago. Just desserts, right?

[joeybee12]

31. Yup!

Saw a version of that--bloody, bloody, bloody!

Of course, that's how he wrote it.

[0rganism]

57. You think that's bloody, you should see the Warhol version!

j/k

[Swede]

32. Mr. X by Peter Straub and

The last instalment of the Otherworld trilogy by Tad Williams.

[Zorro]

34. I'm (re)reading the Bernal Diaz Chronicles myself

this is an extraordinary and detailed story of a living witness to the conquest of Mexico by Cortes.

Although Cortes remains a controversial figure from today's perspective, he and his band are a remarkably heroic group in my eyes. Imagine what it must have been like, to be a part of a band of several hundred conquistadores surrounded by hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers, whose religious rituals consist of cutting the beating hearts out of living victims...the very thought of it now gives me the shivers.

Notwithstanding the events that followed over the next four centuries, the courage of this tough bunch of Spaniards is unparalleled. It truly is one of the most remarkable and fascinating stories of actual history one will ever read.

[Digger]

35. I'm a library freak

My reading addiction is too strong to allow me to buy books; not to mention trying to find room to store them.

I just finished Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley", and "Memory Babe" by Gerald Nicosia.

[politicat]

37. I mainline books.... paper, audio, visor, you name it.

If I could get an optical implant that would scroll text, I'd be so there.

This week's list, courtesy of Powells, Fictionwise, Audible.com and the Lafayette Public Library:
Paper:
- Bruce Sterling: Distraction (Political SF after the end of the information age economy)
- Andree Aelion Brooks: The Woman Who Defied Kings: The Life and Times of Dona Gracia Nasi (Bio of a Spanish, Jewish leader during the Renaissance)
- Sarah Smith: Chasing Shakespeares (a bizarre, quirky novel about the "authorship" question)
- Various: Women's Voices of the American West
- Wally Lamb and the Women of York Correctional Institute: Couldn't Keep It To Myself (Short works by women in the corrections system - this is the book you give to Neo-cons who say prison is just a summer camp....)

Audio:
- Al Franken, Lies and the Lying Liars (improves greatly with his delivery, BTW.)
- Frank McCourt: 'Tis

e-books on Visor:
Kim Stanley Robinson: The Years of Rice and Salt
Lora Roberts: Murder in a Nice Neighborhood (neat little mystery)
Mark Kurlansky: The Basque History of the World (anthropology)
Mary Dockray Miller: Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon England
Collected: Historical Anthropology and Neurology papers

Admittedly, I'm researching a couple of papers and a book, but this is not all that different from a normal week.

[Nlighten1]

38. "A People's History" by Howard Zinn

Love it especially the last chapter.

[RandomKoolzip]

40. God, what a great book!

A real life changer for so many people I know....The parts about Columbus alone are worth the price of the book.

[Emillereid]

41. At any given time I'm generally working on about 10 books --

One that I just finished reading and highly recommend is

Sex, LIes and Menopause by TS Wiley -- she recommends real bio-identical hormone replacement in amounts and in a cyclic rhythm that mimic how hormones actually work in our bodies. I've already started the regimen. It's an important book for younger women to read too in that she explains why having babies early and breast-feeding them protects women against breast cancer. I think it may be the most thoroughly footnoted books I've ever seen.

I'm also still reading The Schwarzbein Principle II - The Transition by Diane Schwarzbein

Al Franken's the Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them

Palast's The Best Democracy Money can buy

Zinn's A People's History of America

and several other books on health issues.

[TrogL]

42. Boswell's book on Christianity and homosexuality

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0226067114/102-1372681-2572102?v=glance

Actually I'm re-reading it in preparation for a "white paper" to send to my bishop.

I'm also reading Anne Rice's newest

[DisgustipatedinCA]

43. Yes. Pynchon: Gravity's Rainbow

[Interrobang]

44. Yup yup yup, addict here...

I've just chewed my way through _The Mammoth Hunters_ and _The Plains of Passage_ by Jean M. Auel (for the third time, I think), which I sort of consider to be the thick, crunchy, kettle-cooked potato chips of books -- "junk food" enough not to require serious thought, but thick and juicy enough to last for a while. (I'm kind of depressed.) Before that I re-read a couple of the older, better "Star Trek Harlequins of the Month." I don't know what I'm going to read next. I'm not sure if I have fines outstanding at the local library or not (I hate going there since they moved it to an annex attached to a shopping mall and covered it with vending machines and corporate logos), but I have a list of about 100 books I'd like to read.

[corarose]

45. Book Lovers Check out this Website

http://www.bookcloseouts.com

They have a coupon for $5.00 bucks off

http://www.bookcloseouts.com/bc/catalogs.asp?rid=coupon

[Catfish]

46. I'm on a British Mystery binge

Just finished Ruth Rendell's lastest Wexford, "Babes in the Woods" and I'm reading Reginald Hill's latest Dalziel/Pascoe, "Death's Jest-Book". I'm not sure how I became so fond of these British police procedurals. Then I have Hillary's, Krugman's and Franken's to read. I seem to read some fiction then switch to non-fiction. I use ebay for many book purchases. Sometimes I splurge online at Barnes and Noble when I feel prosperous.

[grannylib]

47. Addicted to books, can't get enough...I love...

Anne McCaffery
Mercedes Lackey
Marilyn French (have literally worn out about 4 copies of "The Women's Room"
Patricia Cornwell
Anything by Molly Ivins or Noam Chomsky

[bikebloke]

48. I saw the light early on.

My appettite was too ravenous for my space and budget. I use the public library religiously. But when I finish a book, I scribble in a notebook. Twenty-eight years so far. It's interesting to read back on impressions of earlier reads and tastes.

At the moment I'm reading Studs Terkel's Hope Dies Last.

[Kamika]

49. Relaunch of deep space nine

Theyre incredible books

[snorkie]

50. Definitely addicted....

I too usually have a sizeable stack of books going at once, its part of the reason I have so few posts!! :hi:

Right now I am reading:
History of Byzantine State and Society
The Game- Ken Dryden
'Wild Bill' A bio of William O Douglas
Running with the Buffaloes

I love reading, but I rarely read fiction anymore, I think I am getting progressively less creative as I age

[scarlet_owl]

51. Me again. Now I'm reading "Dude, Where's My Country?"

and a book about bats. I love bats! I'm also reading "The Betrayal of America" by Vincent Bugliosi.

[onebigbadwulf]

52. It's hard for me to really read books

They don't go fast enough for me.

[TheZoo]

53. I am So addicted

I have a 1/2 hour lunch at work, I've read everything I can borrow from the library down the street. When I'm on lunch, people always ask me what I'm reading, like I'm a freak or something.

I tend to go with more scientific books, mainly on math. Lately I started reading a lot of literature lately. I'm reading the Paris Review's (George Plimpton) book on playwrights. The book right before was a collection of Poe.

[The Zanti Regent]

54. Burroughs' "Cut-Up" Trilogy

Lately I've been reading and re-reading The Soft Machine, The Ticket that Exploded and Nova Express...

[Digger]

77. Burroughs is great

I've read "Naked Lunch" and "Junky" and parts of his other work that you mentioned, in "Evergreen Review".

Also like Ginsberg and Kerouac and any of the other "beat" writers. I've read many of their biograpies, as well. :toast:

[Booberdawg]

55. Right now reading The Clinton Wars by Sidney Blumenthal n/t

[whirlygigspin]

56. The Disenchantment of the World

-A political history of Religion-

by Marcel Gauchet

New French Thought/Princeton University Press

I know, I know, I'm a nerd.

Following on Weber, oy vey!

[jonnyblitz]

65. i enjoyed that book even though I don't share the author's

establishment "third way" DLC-esque politics! Many complained of its length but I didnt mind. I really liked it.

[VOX]

58. Currently engrossed in Caroline Alexander's "The Bounty"...

I find her historical documentation first-rate, and her and narrative acumen is on a par with the best of novelists.

I recently moved, and was viscerally reminded of how many books I have. I'm still sore from lugging *numerous* boxes of tomes, which are now stacked to the ceiling in the den.

I suppose all the overboard book-acquisition is a mild sickness, but it's a beautiful one.

:toast:

[RebelOne]

59. I'm addicted to Stephen King and Dean Koontz

Just started Koontz' newest "The Face."

[YellowRubberDuckie]

60. Anything by Patricia Cornwell...

Or anything that is a murder mystery/suspense thriller. And Harry Potter books on CD. My tastes are simple.
Duckie

[grannylib]

70. Patricia Cornwell is wonderful...have you read any John Sandford?

his "Prey" series is awesome

[TOhioLiberal]

61. My list...

Currently on my to-read list:
1. Thieves In High Places by Jim Hightower. I have an interesting reaction to this book. The man can write with great wit, but the things going on...Laughing at the humor while just being shocked speechless by BushCo's antics is disconcerting, to say the least.

2. Al Franken's 'Lies' book.

3. The Clinton Wars.

4. Practically anything Trek related ;-)

Later,
Trekkerlass

[onebigbadwulf]

62. Anyone dare to post this in...

a freeper forum and see what responses you get?


"I dun like nun books!"

"Whuts a reading fer?"

"I ain't in no school no mer!"

[bif]

63. I'm reading "Bushwacked" by Molly Ivans

And "The Meaning of Everything" about the creation of the OED.And I just started "The Rings of Saturn" by W.G. Sebald. I'm usually reading several novels at any given time.

[qb]

64. Addicted to audio books

I've exhausted the collection at the library near home. Now I'm working on the library near work. I'm listening to everything by Carl Hiaasen and Donald Westlake, mysteries, science and political non-fiction.

[terrya]

66. Started reading Dawn Powell

I've only known of her reputation. I'm interested in reading her books.

Just also finished "Winner of the National Book Award" by Jincy Willnet. Wonderful, dark comedy.

[bif]

71. I picked up about 5 of her books

I've heard she's great and I tracked them down at an excellent used book store. They're among the few hundred books in a holding pattern next to my bed. So many books, so little time.

[Padraig18]

67. I am reading:

"The Grass Crown", by Collen McCullough. On deck are:

"Lincoln", by Gore Vidal and "A Lincoln Reader", by John Angle, retired Illinois' State Historian.

:)

[felonious thunk]

68. Trying to read Ulysses

I think I'm reasonably smart, but that book is just difficult. I read 20 pages last night, and I couldn't tell you one thing that happened.

[tjdee]

74. That book CRIES out for Cliffs Notes, LOL--look here.

God, I wanted to wring Joyce's neck reading that. Made me hate stream of consciousness writing, it did.

That said, I found that these notes helped me understand at least where the plot was going, so that I could focus on other things. Usually I read a book before going to notes, but in this case I made an exception. Saved me from taking the book and banging it against my head over and over, LOL, really gave me a good appreciation of the book.
http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/ulysses/

From Joyce, I prefer Dubliners actually.

[felonious thunk]

75. Thanks!

I'll definitely give this a read before I get much further. I generally like stream of consciousness writing, but I think that Joyce's streams are sometimes like flooded tributaries that have overflowed their banks destroying everything in its path!

I loved A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

[LWolf]

73. Me.

I am a lifelong recalcitrant bibliophile. I never have enough shelves for my books. And I hoard them like Midas. If I don't like them I pass them on. But if I loved them, I read them over and over and over, and keep them on the shelves forever. Or in boxes, stored, when room on the shelves gives out. I regularly have shelves of books come crashing down because I've overloaded them and I couldn't afford to buy better quality shelves. And there's no more room in the house for more shelves. I own close to 5,000 books. I live in a little 800 square foot cottage.

What am I reading now? A stack of about 30 books for 10-12 year olds I bought for my classroom. I always read them before I make them available to the kids. Some are ok, nothing great, but will probably be popular with kids. Some are great. One I'm upset with, and have set aside.

Here's the last several I've read:

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. Deserved the 2000 Newberry.

Pictures of Hollis Woods Patricial Reilly Giff

My Side of the Mountain Jean Craighead George; I only read this 1,000 times as a kid. I'm reading it aloud to my classroom right now.

Hatchet Gary Paulsen; another old favorite; one of my boys has an old autographed copy from years ago when this book first came out and I met Paulsen. I'm reading it with my 6 6th graders.

Among the Betrayed by Margaret Peterson Haddix--this is the one waving red flags at me. It's decently written, I just don't like the premise. A futuristic look at solving population growth and food shortages by restricting the number of births. Instead of a real exploration of a real problem, it sets up an orwellian gov't program to exterminate all 3rd children. Portrays population control as evil.

if there would be no light a volume of poems written and illustrated by sahara sunday spain, when she was 9 years old. Great stuff, but I can't put the book in my classroom because some of her drawings include nudes. A sample poem:

Trust

You can't trust anybody to take
care of your heart,
unless you know them by heart.

You have to feel confident with
people you know by heart,
or you can assume
they won't turn out to be good in
the end.

You can't assume that people are
taking care of your heart,
if you don't feel confident.

Also: The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper.

The last 5 adult books, not counting professional reading:

The Story of the Stone by Barry Hughart
Tea With Black Dragon by R.A. MacAvoy
Prayer For America by Dennis Kucinich
The Clinton Wars by Blumenthal; got about halfway through it. Always Coming Home by Ursula LeGuin
And bits and pieces of others...Stupid White Men, some poetry, The Adams/Jefferson letters,a couple of gardening books.

Waiting in a stack: a zora neale hurston collection, Kingsolver's poisonwood bible, palast's "best democracy..." when I get done with 20 or so more kids books.

[Zomby Woof]

78. A Necessary Evil

A Necessary Evil - A History of American Distrust Of Government, by Garry Wills.

[dobak]

79. History of the Democrats and FDR Biography

Party of the People: A History of the Democrats


Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom


1100+ pages of joy!