Kevin's Watch

So I got 10 more weeks to read 22 books if I am to meet my goal of reading sixty books this year. Time to break out the short novels!

I just finished The Stranger by Albert Camus. I enjoyed it, it reminded me of Catcher in the Rye... because I found some great meaning in it, but it's completely different from what the annoying kids who have read it see in it

Let's see... the goal is to read short novels or finish what I've started, so I'll be readying some D H Lawrence short fiction, some Dostoevesky short fiction, Cain by Jose Saramago (is it strange that I'm considering works by Nobel Laureates to be quick reads?), the Crying of Lot 49... and some others that I do not remember at the moment.

Orlion wrote:I just finished The Stranger by Albert Camus. I enjoyed it, it reminded me of Catcher in the Rye... because I found some great meaning in it, but it's completely different from what the annoying kids who have read it see in it

You mean like me, huh

Just finished Against All Things Ending this morning and finally got to crack The Last Dark!!

Blood Sisters by Sarah Gristwood. Good book. About the 7 women involved in the "cousins war" (Wars of the Roses). Heard her speak about Anne Neville (wife of Richard III) at the Lincoln Book Festival a few weeks ago.

After I finish this I'm going to start the "Man who" series.

Read Pamela Stephenson's Billy this weekend, a biography of Billy Connolly by his wife.

Not bad, although I didn't find her a great writer.

--A

Good book. Do you have that edition? (That cover's the fully illustrated Subterranean Press special ed, no?)

Rereading the copy of Gates Of Fire that some guy gave to me...

--A

Right now I'm "reading" this on audiobook:

A History of Horror
by Wheeler Winston Dixon

It's essentially a history of horror films from the beginnings of film itself.

A new book on Edward III called, er, Edward III, by W. Marc Ormrod. Trying to get more background to the life of a possible ancestor who fought in the French wars in the 1360s.

I just began reading a book called The Lies of Locke Lamora at about 50 pages in I'm quite impressed with how it's turning out. No doubt this will be a fun novel to read.

Wildling wrote:Right now I'm "reading" this on audiobook:

A History of Horror
by Wheeler Winston Dixon

It's essentially a history of horror films from the beginnings of film itself.

I finished this. Quite disappointing really. It quickly turned into little more than a list of movies in a given time span. I could imagine the paper version of this book to be in point form.


So now I'm listening to the Callahan Chronicals by Spider Robinson.

I'm Murrin wrote:Good book. Do you have that edition? (That cover's the fully illustrated Subterranean Press special ed, no?)

no I have the common printing.

Julie has decided that we will be getting all the Stephen King and Joe Hill in hard cover.

I always preferred the soft cover, not liking dust jackets.

Agreed, I only get hardcover if I'm too impatient to wait, and I usually regret it. On the plus side, they don't fall apart as easily.

I'm reading Thomas Harris' Hannibal Rising.

--A

Got a couple of more fact-based books as Xmas presents:

• - The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  
  - Bad Science by Ben Goldacre

I haven't finished either yet but I'm finding both interesting in their different ways. The Black Swan expounds an interesting idea about how we respond to unpredictable events by rationalising them in hindsight. The effect is to minimise our awareness of how important these unpredictable events are historically.

Bad Science is not the kind of book that that I would usually read. It's basically the scientific shooting of ducks in the alternative medicine barrel. It's a book to entertain the converted and usually it would have me foaming at the mouth. However, since it was a gift from someone I respect I have been gritting my teeth and reading a chapter here and there. It has caused me to check a few things I assumed I knew (I did! ) and the author has had the rare insight to actually ask a pertinant question about the importance of the placebo effect (rather than simply using it to bludgeon alternative medicine). Almost refreshing enough to make the slog worthwhile!

u.

Red Dragon. Guess it will be all the Lecter books next.

--A

Finished Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal.

--A

Got some books delivered on Saturday, so since then I've read Sharpe's Escape]/i] and Sharpe's Gold by Cornwell, and The League of Night and Fog by David Morrell.

Busy on Sharpe's Trafalgar now.

--A

Reading something called The Third Secret by Steve Berry. Not very far yet, but seems to be a Davinci Codeish sort of thing.

--A

Been reading a lot of poetry lately... Langston Hughes, Billly Collins, Allen Ginsberg, John Keats, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Miguel Rodriguez....decided to take a break and am now reading Goethe's Faust. Finished Part One at the beginning of this week and am now reading Part Two... I find it to be delightfully garish.