what are you reading this month?

i'm probably half way through italo calvino's "invisible cities", which is a nice piece for thinking through the ideas of cities, the memories, desires and signs.

only a few chapters into tad williams second volume of "otherland". got the third one sitting as well, but probably need to balance them since they are such slabs.

You're reading Otherland? Like, in a row? Wow... that's a lot of reading! I think there are some great ideas in the book, and a lot of it is very imaginative. But damn, what this series badly needed was an editor.

Anyway, i'm reading Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. I know it is primarely targetted for a younger audience, but it's still better (and more discworldian) then The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.

I also have Halting State by Charles Stross, i got it mainly because it has a recommendation from the Man on the front cover.

"Wintersmith" is pretty good too.

Reading Erskine Childer's "Riddle of the Sands".

no, i'll probably not read them all in a row. i read book 1, then followed it with the things it reminded me of - egan's permutation city, besher's rim, and noon's vurt. but i'm trying to read them reasonably close together for continuity's sake.

i really want to read halting state, but i have another three novels by him waiting to be read, and i have kind of made the decision to wait for the smaller paperback, because i just don't like the over-sized ones.

Murakami's Wild Sheep Chase, nearly finished travelling to London, no doubt will finish on the way to Amsterdam. Am worried that the three books I brought will not suffice for two weeks.

did you take "dance, dance, dance" as well? i need to read the two of those together again in the right order. though i am halfway through the audio "sheep chase", but with various changes i've not got rond to finishing it.

Sink the Bismarck (1959)by C. S. Forester

A pre-owned find in a bookstore. Out of print for a long time. Most people didn't realize the author of the 'Hornblower' series also wrote more contemporary 'sea stories'.

quote:

Originally posted by martin:
Reading Erskine Childer's "Riddle of the Sands".

I really enjoyed reading that. The copyright is 1900? The fact the author had no idea the Great War was coming was particularly interesting.

I found the writing and the social background to be fascinating. The treatment of women in the story was peculiar.

I moved on to Eric Ambler's fiction after that. He wrote thrillers just ahead of WWII, again not knowing the war was near. A Coffin for Dimitrios is probably his best known work.

quote:

Originally posted by theminx:
Murakami's Wild Sheep Chase, nearly finished travelling to London, no doubt will finish on the way to Amsterdam. Am worried that the three books I brought will not suffice for two weeks.

Thats part of the fun of a holiday.. finding new books when you run out Though, i took WAY too many on last holiday and had to ditch them before the last part due to weight restrictions!

Still working on "A Portrait of the Author as a Young Man" by Joyce. I am liking it much more this time through. My attention must have been somewhat diverted the last time because I am picking out a lot more details than I remember from the last read. With every sentence Joyce writes, I always feel like there's an alternate meaning I am not savvy or classically educated enough to pick up on. This time I feel like I am getting the gist of most of these instances. There's still a bevy of curveballs, but I suspect there always will be. I guess this is one of the things I enjoy about reading Joyce: I'll never understand entirely what it was he was trying to do. I'll be reading him for the rest of my life and most likely will not have a full comprehension of the work.

I have read that particular book twice my ownself,
And have found that reading Joyce is a good indicator of the chaos in my life, I am a bit thick as reader when things are a bit out of hand. Reading Joyce, I like to have a bit of quiet and mulling time.
A shot of Blantons,neat. Settle into my chair.

I am glad I'm not the only one. I was beginning to think I was thick.

Boog, I am savoring that real quick like for the complement that it is. I recently read Herman Wouks' Winds Of War, and while that was readable as hell, the assumed background knowledge of Germany or Japans history in warfare going back several hundred years was defiantly a weak area for me. I had to go interlibrary loan on that one.
Joyce requires of me a more well ordered mind than I possess, I love his turn of phase and that innocent way I am hauled into alternate view of things. Joyce assumes a better read reader than I am also, but I love it, and it surely is rereadable stuff

lol...that was intended as complimentary.
Even the best have trouble with Joyce.

Roberto Bolaños' Amulet. After his big, epic Savage Detectives this thin volume seems a bit light but still interesting.
Got Palahniuk's Rant as a gift some time ago and stopped after a few chapters. Can't seem to get into it.

Compulsory Reading

P.S. If you are confused that the sex of the narrator appears to change, look at the URL of the site.

quote:

Originally posted by theminx:
Murakami's Wild Sheep Chase, nearly finished travelling to London, no doubt will finish on the way to Amsterdam. Am worried that the three books I brought will not suffice for two weeks.

You should use the time to explore the world outside your train windows.

Meanwhile I'm reading DMZ and Spook Country for the fourth time, so I am not making the most of my own explorations either.

quote:

Originally posted by Black Jacque:

quote:

Originally posted by martin:
Reading Erskine Childer's "Riddle of the Sands".

I really enjoyed reading that. The copyright is 1900? The fact the author had no idea the Great War was coming was particularly interesting.

I found the writing and the social background to be fascinating. The treatment of women in the story was peculiar.

I moved on to Eric Ambler's fiction after that. He wrote thrillers just ahead of WWII, again not knowing the war was near. A Coffin for Dimitrios is probably his best known work.

I just started it (no spoilers!) after finishing Diamond Age.

Faulkner and Shakespeare. As I Lay Dying and A Midsummer Night's Dream. 6th and 2nd readings.

Ideas pop into my head unconnected to either, but in their voice, sort of.

Mostly crap ideas, but a few interesting ones too, sometimes.

As I Lay Dying is so removed from the present and so distopian (the way more than half the country used to live) that it's easy to think you're reading something from the near future (the way more than half the country is fixing to live).